Terror attack victim Rabbi Yaakov Levitan remembered at funeral as ‘unsung hero’

Rabbi Yaakov Levitan is remembered for his unassuming nature and service to the Sydney Jewish community as he is laid to rest.

Levitan was one of the 15 people killed in the terror attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.

Levitan, 39, was a Chabad emissary and the secretary of the Sydney Beth Din religious court. He worked at the BINA Center, a Jewish educational institution in Sydney.

In remarks delivered at his funeral, Rabbi Michoel Gourarie, BINA’s director, notes that Jewish law “limits excessive eulogies” on Hanukkah. Gourarie says that rule would have suited Levitan.

“He absolutely hated when people made a fuss about him,” Gourarie says. “If someone would be getting up to give him a compliment in public, he would literally run out of the room.”

Gourarie continues, “So I know that he will not only not mind but will actually be happy with our focusing on inspirational messages and perhaps limiting the full expression… of our complete and devastating heartache.”

Gourarie recalls Levitan’s devotion to his family as well as the wider Sydney Jewish community. The Chabad movement said he is survived by his wife and their four children, aged six to 16.

“He took his Judaism and Jewish law… so seriously,” Gourarie says. “He was such a good husband, an amazing and caring father, and a great friend, my friend, your friend and so many people’s friends.”

Gourarie says that much of Levitan’s work was “behind the scenes” and that he “did it so quietly with such humility.”

“We saw a humble person, a genuinely good person, an unsung hero taken from us,” he says.

His funeral follows that of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a Chabad emissary in Sydney who was also killed in the attack and was laid to rest earlier today.