First funerals for victims of Hanukkah attack to be held at Chabad of Bondi Synagogue

Australia is set to hold the first funerals for victims of the Bondi Beach mass terror shooting, with huge crowds expected to grieve two rabbis slain in the attack.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed opened fire on a Jewish festival at the famed surf beach on Sunday evening, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more, according to authorities.

Among the victims are a 10-year-old girl, two Holocaust survivors, and a married couple shot dead as they tried to thwart the attack.

Father-of-five Eli Schlanger, known as the “Bondi rabbi,” will be the first mourned in a service at Chabad of Bondi Synagogue scheduled for 11 a.m. local time. Mourners cry as they wheel a coffin carrying his remains into the synagogue.

“Anyone who knew him knew that he was the very best of us,” says Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

The Chabad of Bondi Synagogue will then hold a second funeral for 39-year-old rabbi Yaakov Levitan in the afternoon.

Levitan was a father of four renowned for his charitable work, the Chabad movement said.

Large crowds are expected to pack the synagogues to pay their respects.

Rav Yaakov Halevi Levitin has been identified as one of the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting.

A rabbi and community leader cut down in his prime in the name of hatred and antisemitism.

Such a senseless tragedy.

May his memory be a blessing. pic.twitter.com/StdfANZAvF

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 14, 2025