Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi in Sydney, Australia, was killed Sunday evening in a terrorist attack during a public Chanukah celebration he was hosting at Bondi Beach Park. He was 41 years old.
A key organizer of Chabad of Bondi’s annual “Chanukah by the Sea” event on the first of the holiday’s eight nights, Schlanger was walking around, talking and performing mitzvot with members of the community, when two gunmen opened fire on the crowd of approximately 2,000 people. At least 15 were killed in the attack, the father of five among them. Dozens more were wounded.
Just a year earlier, speaking to Chabad.org around the time of the 2024 Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach, Schlanger said that in the face of rising antisemitism, Jews don't hide—they increase in spreading light. “Be more Jewish, act more Jewish and appear more Jewish,” he said, this being the philosophy he lived by every day of his 18 years serving the Jewish community of Sydney.
“Eli’s entire identity was that of a shliach. He was connected to the Rebbe [Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory], and he encouraged others to follow the Rebbe’s directives,” said Menachem Spielman, a member of the Sydney Jewish community.
A Rabbi With Many Roles
Born in London to Rabbi Binyomin and Dobra Schlanger, Eli grew up in a home steeped in Chassidic values. He studied at Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Brunoy, France, and received his rabbinic ordination at the central yeshiva located at 770 Eastern Parkway—Chabad World Headquarters—in Crown Heights, N.Y.
“I remember him as passionate, energetic, he was a happy personality,” recalled Rabbi Zalmy Fogelman, a Los Angeles-based rabbi who was Schlanger’s classmate in yeshiva. “He had a love for the Rebbe and he was just so dedicated to every aspect of his shlichus.”
After his marriage to Chayale Ulman, daughter of Rabbi Yehoram and Shternie Ulman, directors of Chabad of Bondi and F.R.E.E. (Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe) in Sydney, Schlanger joined Chabad of Bondi as an assistant rabbi, quickly becoming an irreplaceable leader of the community.
“He was really like a sibling to his in-laws and so respectful of his parents-in-law,” Spielman said.
For 18 years, the Schlangers served the Jewish community, but the rabbi’s influence extended far beyond the walls of a single synagogue. He served as chaplain to NSW Corrective Services and NSW Prisoners of War; he was also chaplain at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, where he ministered to patients and families.
Schlanger embraced his role assisting his father-in-law Rabbi Ulman, an internationally renowned scholar and Halachic arbiter, never bristling at filling the number two role in the community.
“What stuck out to me was how he looked up to his father-in-law,” remembered Eli Leinkram, a former student. “He took the role as an assistant very seriously. It’s very special. He saw it as an honor and privilege to do the work that he did.”
Spielman also highlighted Schlanger’s passion for bringing the broader Jewish community together: when organizing cross-community events, the prominence of institutional logos simply did not matter to Schlanger as much as accomplishing the greater goal. “He wasn’t out there to build his own empire even though he did help build quite an impressive empire.”
Schlanger went out of his way to support Jewish communal activities that were not his own, but actively promoting them. When someone organized a Simchat Beit Hashoeva celebration on Sukkot that overlapped with the one Schlanger had organized, Schlanger not only advertised the “competing” event but showed up himself with guests in tow. “His whole personality was ‘what would the Rebbe want done?’” said Spielman. “Everything was lesheim shamayim [for the sake of Heaven].”
Schlanger led Project Noah, an initiative focused on teaching the seven Noahide Laws; he co-developed a website for Jewish status certification; and created an app for keeping track of independent Jewish community outreach activities. If there was an initiative to make Judaism more accessible in Sydney, he was at its forefront. Schlanger was also prominent in unveiling Chabad of Bondi’s new $30 million center last year.
Those who knew Schlanger describe a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm. “He was so energetic. Always jumping for the next opportunity, campaign or activity,” said Dovid Polterak, who partnered with Rabbi Schlanger on a 2005 RARA (Roving Rabbis) trip in Australia. “When we went on RARA, I was just ‘tagging along for the ride.’ It was his enthusiasm that made everything happen.”
Polterak remembers how Rabbi Schlanger “threw himself into everything and he was so excited. Whether it was giving out matzahs or helping someone lay tefillin. He had a joy in life” that was contagious.
“He had a great sense of humor. Even when times were hard, he tried to make things light,” Spielman recalled.
In recent months, Schlanger had become a vocal advocate for protecting Jewish communities against rising antisemitism. Just weeks before his murder, he hosted a memorial for Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Chabad emissaries who were brutally killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, and Rabbi Zvi Kogan, murdered in the UAE in November 2024.
Concerned for the welfare of his beloved Australian Jewish community earlier this year, the rabbi had written directly to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on him to act firmly against terrorism by removing the air of legitimacy around those who spread hate.
‘What He Lived and Breathed’
Spielman recalled a story Schlanger frequently shared from his time as a yeshiva student in France. Chabad yeshiva students spend their Friday afternoons visiting Jewish businesses to share a word of Torah and help people do a mitzvah, over the course of the school year developing a “route.” Schlanger recalled not being too particular about his outward appearance—shirt tucked in, shirt tucked out, it didn’t matter to him. One week, the yeshiva faculty encouraged a neater appearance, and Schlanger took it to heart. Back on his Friday “route,” he was happily surprised to find a father and son who for weeks had avoided interacting with the visiting yeshiva students suddenly change their tune. They would put on tefillinafter all. Why? They were impressed that Schlanger and his friends had finally embraced the French way and looked respectable.
This simple lesson never left him: “He never went anywhere without a hat and jacket, without wearing the uniform of a Chabad rabbi,” Leinkram said. Schlanger took his role as rabbi seriously and had a dignified bearing. “He was respectful and you couldn’t help respecting him back.”
To his students, Rabbi Schlanger was a living example of devotion and love. One former student, speaking to the essence of who Rabbi Schlanger was, said: “If there’s anything I know about Eli Schlanger, it’s that without a doubt, he would want us to commemorate his murder with strengthening of Jewish pride, and of the Rebbe’s initiatives. It sounds cliche, but it is truly what he lived and breathed.”
Schlanger was a man of passion, fully present in whatever he was involved with. For example, in 2007, while still a yeshiva student, he discovered that a great-uncle of his, Nossen Nutte Schlanger, was murdered in the Holocaust. After his son was born in 2012, Schlanger named him Nossen Nutte to continue his relative’s legacy. Last year, in honor of his son’s bar mitzvah, Schlanger traveled with him to the mass grave in Brzostek, Poland, where his great-uncle was buried. He later organized for his son to read from a Torah scroll that the eponymous martyr himself read from.
Another of Schlanger’s great-uncles, Reverend Leslie Olsberg, once led the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, itself attacked during Yom Kippur services in 2024.
Families with young children had gathered in Bondi Beach Park for the annual lighting of the menorah, music, and celebration. Schlanger was on stage, guiding the proceedings when the two gunmen opened fire.
Fifteen people were killed, including Yaakov Levitan, a rabbi who worked at BINA in Sydney, serving as secretary of the Sydney Beth Din and coordinator for Chabad activities in Sydney; Reuven Morrison, a Chassidic businessman who split his time between Melbourne and Sydney; Dan Elkayam, a French Jew who came to Bondi Beach to celebrate with the local Jewish community; and Alex Kleytman, a Ukraine-born Holocaust survivor who was killed while shielding his wife from the gunfire.
The attack was stopped when Ahmed al-Ahmad, a fruit shop owner, tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen. He was shot twice by the second gunman. One attacker was killed; the other was finally taken into custody. Police are investigating improvised explosive devices in a car linked to the attackers.
Schlanger is survived by his wife, Chayale, and their five children, including a 2-month-old whose bris was celebrated just weeks ago. He is also survived by his parents, Rabbi Binyomin and Dobra Schlanger of Israel, and eight siblings.
Schlanger will be laid to rest in Sydney.
May his memory be for a blessing.
Eleven victims of the attack are currently in critical condition. Please add a mitzvah and say a Psalm in the merit of their speedy and complete recoveries.
To support the Schlanger family, click here. A campaign has also been launched to support the victims of the attack. To donate, click here.
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