A victim of the mass murder at Bondi Beach had family members in Toronto
Loved ones remember Rabbi Eli Schlanger as positive and vivacious
Following the horrific mass murder at Sydney, Australia’s Bondi Beach last weekend, it has come to light that one of the victims, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, had family in Toronto.
Rabbi Schlanger “was full of life and positivity,” his step-niece Naomi Plax told CTV News. “It was his mission to bring the light of Judaism into the world and he did that up until the moment that he, tragically, was killed.”
Plax said she learned through her family group chat that Rabbi Schlanger had been murdered in the attack, after two gunmen reportedly opened fire on Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding at least 40 who were attending Hanukkah celebrations.
Levi Gansburg, a rabbi in Toronto, told CTV that Rabbi Schlanger was “vivacious” and that they’d known each other since studying at rabbinical seminary together.
Another family member, Estee Schlanger, who is the rabbi’s sister-in-law, told the Associated Press that he was a “very positive and happy person.”
In a statement published yesterday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Canadians stand in sorrow with the people of Australia and Jewish people everywhere following today’s horrific antisemitic terror attack at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney—and we stand together in our determination never to bow to terrorism, violence, hatred, or intimidation.”
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
