An extraordinary and deeply moving story was revealed about one of the Bondi massacre victims—the story of a “hidden Jew” who rediscovered his identity just minutes before being murdered.

Peter Meagher, H’yd—known to friends and family as “Marzo”—was a former New South Wales police detective and well-known community photographer, who until that moment had been widely regarded as non-Jewish.

However, according to a Collive report, Chabad bochur Shalom Druin and other bochurim at the fateful Chanukah event were offering passersby the opportunity to put on tefillin, together with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, H’yd. As they were preparing to leave for another Chanukah event, Shalom noticed a man holding a camera and asked him whether he was Jewish.

“I’m not Jewish,” the man replied, “but my grandmother was.”

Shalom pressed gently: “Was she your mother’s mother or your father’s mother?”

“She was my mother’s mother,” the man answered.

Shalom replied, “If that’s the case, you’re Jewish—100% Jewish.” Shalom and other bochurim convinced Meagher, H’yd, to put on tefillin.

Ten minutes later, the terror attack began, and Meagher was murdered Al Kiddush Hashem. The final act of his life was the kiyum of a mitzvah—putting on tefillin.

But the story does not end there.

Bondi resident Chavi Israel, who survived the massacre, recounted a story about her friend Chana Michla Deitz, who was also present during the attack. She lay on the ground with her daughter, very close to Peter, H’yd, and witnessed his final moments.

Instinctively, without knowing that he was Jewish, Chana began to recite Shema Yisrael on his behalf. She later said she had felt an overwhelming, inexplicable need to do so. Shocked by his death, she then began davening fervently, pleading to Hashem that it wouldn’t be her or her daughter’s last day. B’Chasdei Hashem, they survived the massacre.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)