London-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger and 10-year-old girl among 15 killed in Bondi Beach terror attack | World News

A London-born rabbi and a 10-year-old girl are among 15 innocent people killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, died when two gunmen – a father and son – targeted a Hanukkah celebration at a park next to the beach on the first day of the Jewish festival of lights on Sunday evening.

One of the attackers, a 50-year-old man, was killed along with 15 innocent people, aged between 10 and 87 years old.

The other gunman, who has been named as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, is in a critical condition, police said.

A 10-year-old girl died in hospital following the attack, while Israel’s foreign ministry has said one of the country’s citizens is also among the dead.

Follow live: 15 people and gunman killed at event celebrating Hanukkah

Mr Schlanger was assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi, a Jewish cultural centre.

HIs cousin Rabbi Dovid Lewis, of the South Manchester Synagogue, told Sky News their great-uncle, the late Reverend Leslie Olsberg, served as a rabbi at the Heaton Park Synagogue in the city, where two people were killed in a terror attack on 2 October.

He said his cousin had “dedicated his life to adding light and to spreading Torah and Judaism” and in the wake of the Manchester attack sent a post on social media saying: “We will respond with light.”

“There’s a feeling of numbness but there’s also a feeling he lived,” he said.

“I’m not going to wallow in pity, I’m going to do something in his memory.”

He said his cousin “lit a light”, adding: “I’m now obliged to pick up that light and become a torch bearer.”

He added: “We have got to say darkness can only be combatted with light. It’s what he did, it’s what I will do, it’s what we ask everyone else to do as well.”

Mr Schlanger was a father of five who, along with his wife Chayala, celebrated the birth of their youngest child, a boy, two months ago, and grew up in Temple Fortune, north London. according to Jewish News.

Another one of his cousins, Brighton-based Rabbi Zalman Lewis, described Mr Schlanger to Sky News as an “incredibly vivacious, energetic, positive guy” who had “dedicated his life to helping people”.

Read more:
What we know so far about Bondi Beach shooting

He said his initial reaction was one of “deep pain and confusion” but he quickly knew he had to respond with a “positive message of hope and light and and positivity”.

“The world is a good place,” he said.

“There is some evil. There is some darkness. But overwhelmingly there is goodness in the world. And overwhelmingly there are good people in the world. And I came home and I said to myself, I need to create a positive energy for myself, for my family, for my community.”