One of the victims of the deadly terror attack at a Chanukah celebration in Sydney has been identified as Alex Kleytman hy”d, a Holocaust survivor and native of Ukraine.  Kleytman and his wife, Larisa, had come to celebrate at the event, as they had for years.

“He came on Bondi Beach to celebrate Hanukkah,” Larisa Kleytman told The Australian. “For us it was always a very, very good celebration, for many, many years.”

“We were standing and suddenly came the ‘boom boom,’ and everybody fell down,” she said. “At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me.”

Authorities say at least 12 people were killed in the attack, including children, after gunmen opened fire on the beachfront gathering. Dozens more were wounded and transported to hospitals across Sydney.

For Alex Kleytman, who survived the Holocaust and later emigrated from Ukraine to rebuild his life in Australia, the circumstances of his death are especially cruel. Having lived through the horrors of Europe’s darkest chapter for Jews, he was killed decades later at a public celebration of Jewish life.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)