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Chabad rabbi and Holocaust survivor among Bondi victims
’He dedicated his life to spreading light’ says cousin of slain rebbe who came from London
December 14, 2025 18:51
’He dedicated his life to spreading light’ says cousin of slain rebbe who came from London
December 14, 2025 18:51The Chabad rabbi Rabbi Eli Schlanger killed at the Bondi beach Chanukah party was brought up in Temple Fortune in north west London, part of a large family many of whom have become rabbis.
His great uncle was Rabbi Leslie Olsberg who served for many years at Heaton Park synagogue, scene of a murderous attack at Yom Kippur.
After that attack Rabbi Schlanger wrote a social media post calling on the Australian Premier to stop “fuelling terrorism by legitimising those who spread hate”. He added: “This attack must serve as a wake up call for strength, for clarity and for unity.”
His cousin Rabbi Dovid Lewis told Sky News that Rabbi Schlanger “dedicated his life to spreading light”. He pledged to carry on his work, “darkness can only be combatted with light.” Rabbi Schlanger was the father of five children, one only a few months old.
Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman was named as another victim. His wife Leila – also a Shoah survivor – said she believed that her husband had been shot because he had been protecting her. The couple came from Ukraine and had been married for five decades. Alex Kleytman survived the Holocaust with his mother and younger brother in Siberia.
A Jewish engineer from France, Dan Elkayam, 27, has been confirmed by French officials to be one of the victims murdered in the attack.
He had emigrated to Australia around a year ago.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said: “It is with deep sorrow that we have learned that our compatriot Dan Elkayam was among the victims of the vile terrorist attack that targeted Jewish families gathered at Bondi Beach in Sydney on the first night of Hanukkah.
“We mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the bereaved Australian people. This heinous act is yet another tragic expression of the shocking surge in antisemitic hatred to which we must put a stop.
"France will spare no effort to root out antisemitism wherever it appears and to fight terrorism in all its forms. The lights of Hanukkah must not go out and will not go out.”
An Israeli citizen and a police officer were also among those killed.
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