Among the 15 victims of a mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach targeting an event for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Sunday (Dec 14) were a rabbi who was a father of five, a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl, according to interviews, officials and local media reports.
Some 40 people were taken to hospital, including two police and four children.
Police say the attack was carried out by a father and son, and their victims’ ages ranged from 10 to 87. The 50-year-old alleged gunman was killed by police.
Here’s what we know about those killed.
RABBI ELI SCHLANGER
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, was the assistant rabbi at Chabad Bondi, which put on the event.
Chabad is a global Jewish organisation whose mission is to foster Jewish identity and connection. Schlanger was British-born but had lived in Sydney for the past 18 years, and had recently become a father for the fifth time.
“Nothing was too big for him,” said friend Alex Ryvchin, who is also co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
“He would drive out to regional parts of the state and sit with prisoners in our jails and listen to their stories. He would go to Waterloo and Redfern and to the public housing and sit with the elderly, he would listen to their stories and feed them and make sure they had meals and kosher products. He was the sort of person who illuminated our lives with kindness, his grace and generosity.”
Schlanger’s brother-in-law, Rabbi Mendel Kastel, said the family was “broken”.
“They have fallen apart,” Kastel told Reuters. He said that for the rabbi’s wife, her best friend’s husband was also killed in the shootings.
“They were best friends through school, and both lost their husbands here. The rabbi has a baby only a few months old. It’s very, very difficult, it’s too early to tell how they will be feeling, how it will land, they are in shock.”
Source: CNA
