At least 12 people have died in a horrific antisemitic attack as over 1,000 people gathered on the famous Bondi Beach to celebrate a Jewish religious holiday – one of the victims was British-born
Two gunmen unleashed a horror terror attack during a celebration on the Jewish festival of Hannukah brutally killing several people.
Police confirmed at least 12 people are dead and 29 others injured following the horror shooting that unfolded on Bondi Beach, on Sunday evening local time. Horror footages showed how people desperately fled as two shooters descended at around 6.45pm and opened fire. The identities of the victims tragically killed in the terror incident are starting to be shared hours after the fatal attack.
Over 1,000 people had been gathered for the celebrations and officials said the gunmen started shooting at “a crowded group of families”.
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Rabbi Eli Schlanger
The 41-year-old London-born rabbi was tragically one of the 11 people killed by the gunmen, his heartbroken family has said. His loved ones said he went to Bondi Beach to spread “to spread happiness and light”.
It is understood that Rabbi Schlanger, a 41-year-old father of five,and his wife Chayala welcomed their youngest child, a baby boy, two months ago.
Speaking to Jewish News, Rabbi Schlanger’s cousin – Rabbi Zalman Lewis – said that the family grew up in Temple Fortune and were members of the Kinloss synagogue in Finchley. Rabbi Lewis remembered his cousin as “vivacious, optimistic and full of energy and life”.
He said: “Eli loved helping people, encouraging people to do mitzvot. He was so bubbly, almost eccentrically so.”
Schlanger’s great-uncle is the late Reverend Leslie Olsberg, who served as rabbi at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, where two people were murdered in a terror attack during Yom Kippur in October.
At the time, Schlanger spoke to Australian Jewish News and was asked if he was worried if something similar would happen in Australia. He replied that he put “full trust in Hashem that nothing will happen”.
Alex Kleytman
A Ukrainian Holocaust survivor was shot in the head during the horrific terror attack. His wife, Larisa Kleytman, emotionally said her husband of five decades, was killed while trying to save her life, The Australian reports.
The distraught wife said she and her husband went to Bondi Beach to celebrate the Jewish holiday as “for us it was always a very, very good celebration, for many, many years”.
Mrs Kleytman sado: “We were standing and suddenly came the ‘boom boom’, and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me.”
The couple have two children and 11 grandchildren, according to the Daily Mail.
