Melbourne grandpa who died charging shooters remembered
Reuven Morrison met the woman who would become his wife at Bondi Beach.
According to their daughter Sheina, two young Jewish refugees had recently fled the Soviet Union and found each other on the edge of a new house wearing identical Levi jeans.
“And it was love at first sight,” says Sheina.
On Sunday, Morrison, 62, returned to Bondi Beach with his wife, Leah, to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah at Chabad in Bondi, which he helped build with fellow Orthodox refugees.
Within minutes, “Dad’s beach”, Sheina said, would become the scene of one of Australia’s worst mass shootings, when two gunmen opened fire on a crowd gathered for the festival of lights.
Melbourne rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, a close friend of the Morrison family, says as the community grieves the massacre, no one who knew the proud grandfather is surprised by what happened next.
When gunshots rang out, Morrison didn’t hesitate. Unarmed, he charged at the attackers, pointing and yelling at them to stop and picking up objects to throw at them. He was shot dead by the attackers a short time later.
“He didn’t need to do that,” Kaltmann says, his voice trembling. “He could have gone down and hid with the others.”
But Kaltmann says Morrison was a “big, generous bear,” the first person to give you a hug or share a laugh, and a warrior for his community. “There was no way he could have gone to bed.”
When Sheina saw the footage of her father attacking the attackers, she immediately recognized him. “This is my father,” he says.
“I have friends on the ground hiding their babies under them, and I have friends who tell me ‘your father saved us’ because he took the shooters away from the scene, he took the shooters away from the scene. If there was any way for him to leave, it would be to fight the terrorist. There’s no other way to take him from us.”
Sheina was at a Hanukkah celebration in Melbourne on Sunday when she heard about the shooting. He says he gets a “big pit of fear” in his stomach when he thinks about his parents’ journey back to Bondi.
Her father did not return her calls, but Leah quickly answered the phone and exclaimed that Reuven was “starting to work.”
“My father was running towards the shooters,” Sheina recalls. “Then my mother said he was on the ground. He was on the ground and they had spread a sheet over him. So I fell to the ground.”
Morrison, who was born in Kiev and escaped “with nothing” at the age of 14, knew the hardships and danger behind the Iron Curtain, Kaltmann says. But he found a home in Australia, first in Sydney and then in Melbourne; It was here that he and Leah raised their only child and “miracle baby,” Sheina.
“I remember him often pulling me into a bear hug and saying, ‘You’re doing a good job, rabbi,'” Kaltmann says. “Maybe we’d have a whiskey. He was that proud grandfather you imagine at the table, in full force.” [grand]children.”
During his career, Morrison built a development empire spanning NSW and Victoria, and at one point owned the Mandarin Shopping Center in Chatswood. Despite his success, he lived a relatively modest life, his family says.
“He was the driving force behind Chabad of Bondi establishing its own community center,” says Kaltmann. [a group known as Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe]. “He wanted a place for them.”
Morrison has made it his life’s work to wrestle with permits and campaign on the local council. “He was always quietly donating to others, whether to charity or to us. He never kept anything to himself,” says Sheina.
“But he didn’t care what anyone thought, either. He had such a strong moral compass. And you should have seen him make a move on the dance floor. He was larger than life.”
Chavi Block, who was sheltered from the gunman with her six-month-old baby on Sunday and knew many of those killed, says Morrison was ba’al Chesed, a very kind-hearted man.
Morrison is now among the few civilian heroes who will be remembered for taking action during the gunfire that ripped through the festival.
Sheina says she is angry that no one has come to protect her, despite long-standing warnings that antisemitism is on the rise in Australia.
Last night one of her kids slept with a bottle of soda and was worried that if Grandpa came back he would want his favorite soda.
“It was their whole world,” says Sheina. “HE [and my mother] He lived just over the road. It didn’t leave a hole; “It’s a crater.”
But he says Bondi is still his beach. It’s where he met the love of his life, founded a community and built a sacred place for his faith, and the lights of Hanukkah will continue to shine across the country and on that seashore this week.
“It’s pitch black now, but we can’t hide. People like my father are the light.”
Start your day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Sherryn Groch is a journalist covering crime for The Age. Email her at s.groch@nine.com.au or contact her securely on Signal @SherrynG.70.Connect with: excitement or email.
