Leah Stein was about to start preparing for a first night of Chanukah party when she heard about the shooting at Bondi Beach.
“I woke up in the morning and my husband said, ‘don’t look at the news’,” Stein said. “I froze, and I just thought ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no’.”
Stein knew people who were injured, fighting for their lives, and killed in the Dec. 14 attack. She watched morning updates unfold through WhatsApp and was horrified as information emerged about her cousins and friends who attended the event just hours earlier.
The terrorist mass shooting occurred at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia during a menorah lighting event. At the event, 15 people were killed, including a 10-year-old girl, and dozens more were wounded.
Although they were horrified by the attack, local people interviewed said they were committed to choosing Jewish resilience, especially during the Chanukah season. Stein still held her Chanukah party that evening.
“Not one person said, ‘I’m going to stay home because of what happened,’” Stein said. “Every single person was like, “I am coming. I’m coming and I’m going to eat that donut, and I’m going to eat that latke.”
The people of Lubavitch of Wisconsin, which is part of the Chabad movement, have ties to the Chabad leadership in Australia that organized the Bondi Beach event.
“Almost everyone in the [Chabad] community has a connection on some level to the Jewish community in Australia,” said Rabbi Cheski Edelman, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in the Wisconsin Jewish community.
Stein, who lives in Fox Point, is a co-director at The Friendship Circle of Wisconsin, a division of Lubavitch of Wisconsin that offers social, recreational, and educational activities for people with disabilities. Her 12-year-old first cousin, Yossi Althaus, was at the menorah lighting celebration with family when he was grazed by a bullet. Thankfully, he and his family are alive.
“[Yossi’s] mother started screaming, and he said, ‘Just keep running. Keep running. I’m fine. Keep running’,” Stein said. “He had blood on him all over. And he’s like, ‘just keep going’.”
The family took cover under a cave-like area and survived the attack.
“I’m so proud of him. I’m so sad that he had to go through that, this poor thing. He’s so young,” Stein said. “I just hope that he’ll take the time to really realize what happened and realize how important he is. He’s here for a reason.”
For Stein, the attack struck right at the heart of Chanukah’s message, centered around light, Jewish resilience and resistance against persecution. She believes that the terrorists knew exactly what they were doing attacking on the first night of Chanukah in Australia.
“They were attacking the very first Chanukah party in the world. They were thinking ‘All the Jews all throughout the world will be afraid’,” Stein said. “But you know what? We are Jews, we’ve been here before. We’re going to be here again. We’ve gone through this. We’ve been through this every time and time again. They tried to scare us, they tried to hurt us, they tried to eradicate us, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
Unfortunately, Stein knew others in the Jewish community who were killed during the attack. She knew Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, of blessed memory, through his wife Adina, who was in seminaryl with Stein as her roommate. Stein said that for the couple, “every single day is just about what we can do to make the world a better place.”
In interviews, Wisconsin Jewish leaders emphasized how closely connected Jewish communities are worldwide, especially through family ties, religious networks, and organizations like Chabad.
“When any terrorist attack against Jews happens, it’s very personal,” Rabbi Cheski Edelman said. Edelman is a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in the Wisconsin Jewish community and directs The Shul Bayside.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger was also murdered during the brutal attack. Schlanger was a Chabad rabbi who lived in Sydney, Australia and was known by many in the Wisconsin Jewish community. Schlanger was walking around, talking, and wrapping tefillin on an event attendee, according to videos online, just moments before two gunmen opened fire on the crowd.
“Rabbi Eli was just a person who was full of life, completely selfless,” said Rabbi Dov Lisker. “Dedicated to his community, dedicated to bringing just beauty, light, warmth, and life to this world. He was a ‘take the shirt off his back and give it to you’ type of person who always had time for people.”
Rabbi Dov and his wife, Mushka, co-direct JMequon, a young adult program affiliated with the Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon. The couple knew Rabbi Schlanger through the wider Chabad network.
Schlanger leaves behind a wife and five children, the youngest of whom is just two months old. His wife, Kate, has a two-month-old baby and was injured during the attack but survived. According to Stein, the baby was hospitalized after the attack but is doing okay.
Rabbi Cheski Edelman’s in-laws were there: Rabbi Sender Kavka and his wife, Chana, were physically near the attack when they were walking toward the event with two of their children. When they heard gunshots coming from the direction of Bondi Beach, they immediately sent their two children home and ran toward the danger to find their son, who was already at the event.
When they arrived, they immediately went to help their friend Schlanger and his wife Chayale, who they knew previously from community ties. The Kavkas run Sydney Friendship Circle and knew Schlanger as the assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi.
Rabbi Kavka stayed with Schlanger’s body the entire time and recited tehillim (prayers) next to him.
Edelman said a shooting is not something anyone expects to experience anywhere, let alone Bondi Beach. He recalls walking, swimming, and hiking on Bondi Beach many times. “To imagine something like this happening there is beyond imagination,” Edelman said. Still, he said Jews cannot lose hope.
“Absolutely, there’s fear, but at the same time, there’s this incredible resilience that we will not be intimidated. We are unapologetic Jews,” Edelman said. “If terrorists think that somehow this is going to keep suppressing Judaism, Jews are going to hide – exactly the opposite. It’s only going to motivate us to do more and spread light.”
Edelman said the Wisconsin Jewish community has shown up in the face of this tragedy, and that they refuse to back down in the face of terrorism.
“Everyone is speaking about it. But I think that the bigger reaction was the turnout at all of the community menorah lighting events in the Milwaukee area and in Wisconsin in general,” Edelman said. “People were affected by it, and the reaction was: we are going to go out. We’re not going to be intimidated. We’re not going to allow terrorists to keep us at home. And we had huge turnouts at all the events here in Milwaukee.”
Mushka said: “The way we fight antisemitism is by being a prouder Jew: by living more Jewishly and not being afraid. Security is tighter, but we light the menorah.”
In addition to Rabbi Schlanger, Mushka also knew Reuven Morrison, a man who has been deemed a Jewish hero who placed himself in the line of fire to save others at the massacre in Sydney. Morrison attended the shul of Mushka’s father in Melbourne, and Mushka and her husband are friends with Morrison’s daughter and son-in-law.
“This isn’t a far-off acquaintance. I’ve known the family since I was a teenager,” Mushka said.
During the attack, Morrison confronted a gunman with a brick and threw it at one of the terrorists, allowing others nearby to escape.
The Wisconsin Jewish community found ways to continue celebrating Chanukah and honor the lives of those lost despite the horror that occurred. Events moved forward, menorahs were lit, and families came together to remember the spirit of the Festival of Lights.
“Judaism is not about fighting antisemitism. Judaism is so much more than fighting antisemitism. Sometimes antisemitism is an enemy that we face. But that’s not what defines what a Jew is. ” Edelman said. “And when we’re able to hold on to that, we’re able to come out loud and proud as Jews. I think that that is our greatest strength, and that’s what we need right now at this moment.”
Rabbi Sholom Ber Munitz, a Jewish educator in Mequon, has a brother-in-law, Chaim Munitz, who was at Bondi Beach with his four young sons when the attack occurred. When the shooting started, he ran with two of the kids, then managed to find the other two as he moved to safety. Thankfully, all of them survived.
A few days later, a public menorah lighting and prayer event was held at Bondi Beach in honor of the victims of the attack, and Munitz’s children helped lead the blessings.
“We’re doing really important work,” Munitz said. “Raising a generation of proud, strong Jews that are not going to cower, that are not going to be afraid, and are going to stand proudly in the face of whatever hate it is.”
Rabbi Dov echoed the sentiment: “You know, you can’t fight hate with hate, you fight it with love. You can’t fight darkness with a stick. You have to fight it with light.”
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We are all connected
Leah Stein is a co-director at The Friendship Circle of Wisconsin in Fox Point. She is the first cousin of 12-year-old Yossi Althaus, grazed by a bullet during the Bondi Beach attack. She also knew Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, OBM, through his wife, Adina, who was Stein’s roommate in seminary school.
Rabbi Dov Lisker and wife Mushka Lisker are with the Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon. They knew Rabbi Eli Schlanger, OBM, through the global Chabad network and through Schlanger’s father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, who is a friend of Mushka’s father. Mushka also knew Reuven Morrison, OBM, and his family.
Rabbi Sholom Ber Munitz is the brother of Chaim Munitz, who was at Bondi Beach with his four sons during the attack. Days later, Sholom’s nephews led prayers at a public menorah lighting on Bondi Beach. Rabbi Sholom is a Jewish educator in Mequon. He was a rabbi at Mequon Jewish Preschool and is the principal at Bader Hill Academy in Milwaukee.
Rabbi Cheski Edelman leads The Shul Bayside and is the brother-in-law of Rabbi Sender Kavka and Chayale Kavka, who were with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, OBM, around the time of the attack.
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