On Friday 19 December, at sunrise on Bondi, a communal paddle-out to honour the 15 victims took place. Roughly 2,000 people showed up, far more than expected. Among the surfers were pregnant women, children and first responders. The ceremony also included chalk drawings on the promenade of a menorah and bees in honour of 10-year-old Matilda “Bee” Britvan, the youngest victim killed by the gunmen. Photographer Paul Blackmore captures the solemnity of the moment before the paddle-out in his exquisite photograph Light Over Darkness: Paddle Out. In the image, hundreds of people gather on the sand, their faces uniformly sombre, punctuated by surfboards and drenched in the fiery early morning summer light.
Among the many heroes of the Chanukah tragedy who rushed forward to save lives is Texas-based Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff. While assisting his mentor, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was murdered, Lazaroff ran to the aid of critically wounded New South Wales police officer Scott Dyson, using his own shirt to staunch the bleeding. While doing so, he was shot twice. Lazaroff is as diminutive in stature as he is giant in courage and The Height of a Small Table by visual storyteller D-Mo affectionately portrays this duality. The restrained composition and traditional elegance of the rabbi’s attire are juxtaposed by the figure of him standing on the table, one hand in his pocket, projecting both vulnerability and defiance. Lazaroff’s black kippah melts into his dark hair, his tzitzit curl out behind his jacket and, on his outsized Texan belt buckle, is a menorah.
