One of the 15 people killed by a pair of gunmen Sunday in an attack on a Jewish gathering on Australia’s famous Bondi Beach was the rabbi who helped coordinate the event, friends and family have confirmed.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger was lauded on Monday as an “extraordinary human being,” as information began to come out on the victims of what Australian authorities have called an antisemitic terrorist attack. Among those killed was another local rabbi, a 10-year-old girl and a man who survived the Holocaust.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told CBS News he believes a last-minute decision to not attend the event in the Sydney suburb may have saved his life.
“For the last 10 years, the rabbi has invited me to speak and to convey a message. And this year, for the first time, I didn’t attend. I had my oldest daughter’s best friend’s bat mitzvah, so I was somewhere else,” he said.
“The rabbi who invited me, who was a dear dear friend of mine, who I would have been standing next to, was among the slaughtered,” Ryvchin told CBS News, referring to Schlanger.
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He said Schlanger was an “extraordinary human being” whose work across the state of New South Wales included helping the underprivileged and visiting people hospitalized with terminal illnesses.
Schlanger’s brother-in-law, Rabbi Mendel Kastel, was also at the event with his family.
“The last 24 hours is really, really difficult,” Kastel told CBS News on Monday. “You know, losing a brother-in-law, you know, a family member, so I’m directly affected. But at the same time, I’ve got a role in the community supporting others. It’s been really difficult.”
Kastel lauded Schlanger as “an amazing young man, a person who was committed to his work.”
“He was committed to the community. People loved him. Wherever he went he took real interest in people and people took a real interest in him. He would visit people in hospitals, he’d visit people in prisons, he would teach people, he would teach bar mitzvahs. He would inspire other rabbis with his enthusiasm, his positivity,” Kastel said.
Grieving residents living in Bondi, a southern suburb of Sydney, came together Monday to lay flowers and mourn the dead following the attack. For Rabbi Kastel, it’s that community spirit that’s the essence of what Hanukkah symbolizes.
“We want to shine, we want to light those candles together, we wanna put our arms around each other and really build a proper Australian community where people feel valued, people feel loved, and people feel cared for,” he said.
Who were the other victims in the Bondi shooting?
Australian authorities have not confirmed the identities of any victims, but friends, family and media reports started to build a picture of the lost lives, among them a 10-year-old girl, and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor. The young victim has not yet been identified
At least 38 people, including two police officers, were still being treated in hospitals on Monday.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said at least one Israeli citizen was among the dead, but provided no further information.
Saeed KHAN/AFP/Getty 
Another local rabbi, Yaakov Levitan, was also mourned as a victim of the attack in a fundraising campaign endorsed by the Jewish organization Chabad World HQ. The state chapter of the organization in Australia’s New South Wales state confirmed Levitan’s death, with the fundraising page for his family calling him “a profoundly beloved and active member of the Sydney Jewish community.”
“He was a man of quiet devotion, known for his kindness and tireless work in assisting others,” according to the tribute, which called him “the cornerstone of his family: a devoted husband and father” and urged people to “urgently rally around the Levitan family.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said a French national, Dan Elkayam, was among those killed.
Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney that her husband, Alexander Kleytman, was among the dead. The couple were both Holocaust survivors, according to The Australian newspaper.
The rugby club in nearby Sydney suburb Randwick posted an online tribute on Monday to its “loyal club volunteer Peter Meagher,” saying he was “caught up in these horrible Bondi Beach shootings and was sadly one of 15 innocent people, who have lost their lives.
The club said Meagher was working at the event as a freelance photographer, “and for him it was simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”
The President of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini, said Monday that a national of the European country was also among the dead, but he identified her only as Marika.