Air traffic stopped to enable tribute to Bondi victim

Like most Australians, Moishe Gordon watched the horrific footage of the Bondi terror attack in Sydney. When he realised the man filmed fighting the terrorists with a brick, before being critically injured and gunned down, was his friend, Reuven Morrison, the shock was immense.

But it did not feel out of character with the person he knew. “I saw him as man of action,” Gordon says. “He saw a need for the Russian community in Sydney, and he never just said, I’ll let someone else do the hard yakka. He was the one that went to the council. He got the permits. He got the architect. He got a new synagogue for the Russian community in Sydney. So, when he saw his community in Sydney [at Chanukah at the Sea] was threated, why the hell wouldn’t he take direct action? He looked after the spiritual and he looked after the physical. That was in his DNA.”

In the days following Reuven’s murder, Gordon learned that Reuven was to be driven from Sydney to Melbourne for burial, where his wife, daughter and grandchildren live. The journey would take around 15 hours.

“I was so upset for him, that he was stuck in the refrigerator in the coroners for three days. As Jews, we like to bury on the day of the petirah [death]. When I saw that he was stuck in the coroner’s refrigerator, if I could make him comfortable, and save him the 15-hour drive home, I immediately thought: I am going to do it.”

Gordon has been flying planes as a hobby for more than 30 years. For over a decade, he volunteered with Angel Flight, transporting Australians from regional and rural areas to city hospitals. But this was different. He had never transported a body before, and this time, it was his friend.