An extraordinary and deeply moving account has emerged about one of the victims of the Bondi terror attack, revealing the story of a man who rediscovered his Jewish identity just minutes before he was murdered.
Peter Meagher, H’yd, known to friends and family as “Marzo,” was a former New South Wales police detective and a well-known community photographer. Until the events of that day, he was widely regarded as non-Jewish.
According to a report by Collive, during the first night Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach, Chabad bochur Shalom Druin and several fellow bochurim, together with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, H’yd, were offering passersby the opportunity to put on tefillin. As they were preparing to leave for another Hanukkah event, Druin noticed a man holding a camera and asked him whether he was Jewish.
“I’m not Jewish,” the man replied, “but my grandmother was.”
Druin gently followed up, asking whether the grandmother was from his mother’s side or his father’s side. When Meagher answered that she was his mother’s mother, Druin told him, “If that’s the case, you’re Jewish-completely Jewish.” He and the other men then encouraged Meagher to put on tefillin, which he did.
Approximately ten minutes later, the terror attack began. Meagher was murdered Al Kiddush Hashem [while sanctifying G-d's name]. His final act was the fulfillment of a mitzvah-putting on tefillin.
Further details were later shared by Bondi resident Chavi Israel, who survived the attack. She recounted the experience of her friend, Chana Michla Deitz, who was also present at the scene. Deitz lay on the ground with her daughter, close to Meagher, and witnessed his final moments.
Without knowing that he was Jewish, Deitz instinctively began to recite Shema Yisrael on his behalf. She later said she felt an overwhelming and inexplicable urge to do so. In the aftermath, she began praying intensely, pleading that it would not be her or her daughter’s final day. By the grace of Hashem, they survived the massacre.