Rabbi who preached joy farewelled in funeral for great leaders and martyrs

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In Lubavitch Jewish lore, synagogues are no place for a funeral. For centuries, the Jews of Eastern Europe have mourned their laymen and women at home or in graveside chapels. The synagogue remained a place of joy for the living. Not the dead.

There are two exceptions: for great leaders and martyrs, where the grief for the dead is so deep that it cannot be quarantined from the lives that must continue.

On Wednesday, Rabbi Eli Schlanger’s synagogue funeral in Bondi was full to overflowing.

Hundreds piled into the Chabad of Bondi – every inch of carpet taken by mourners, standing, sitting and swaying in prayer – the air heavy with anger, sorrow and pride in a man who made it his life’s mission to deliver inspiring sermons to his people.

“What’s the secret ingredient?” Rabbi Eli told his own funeral in a video message recorded just days before he was killed in Sunday’s massacre on Bondi Beach. “Joy.”

Rabbi Eli was an optimist, a father to his flock, and a prison counsellor to criminals and drug addicts. “He was a rabbi without equal,” said Rabbi Ritchie Moss.

The grief of his wife, Chaya Schlanger, and their five children filled the synagogue with wails of such despair that their family and friends collapsed around them. Seasoned rabbis struggled to get through prayers that have been recited for millennia. This was for one of their own.

“We can’t replace anyone like him; he was just a light,” said Rabbi Eli’s friend Margaret Kaganov. “Not only for the Jewish, but for anyone, the young, poor and the rich. He had no difference towards anyone; he wanted to bring light to anyone’s soul.”

His coffin carried with it the burden of the unimaginable: a Bondi without Eli.

“It is unthinkable to talk about you in the past tense,” said Rabbi Eli’s father-in-law, Yehoram Ulman. “Don’t leave things for tomorrow. If you have something to say – say it loudly.”

Sunday was Rabbi Eli’s 18th Hanukkah festival on a beach filled with memories of jam doughnuts and children playing with ducks in a petting zoo.

Now it is filled with memories of massacre for the 15 victims gunned down by Sajid and Naveed Akram on a sunny Sydney afternoon.

“These are animals who tried to destroy us – the hope is we will become afraid – that it is dangerous to be Jews, that we will not go to Bondi again because it is dangerous,” said Ulman. “We can never allow them to succeed.”

The message was delivered in front of NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns, former prime minister Scott Morrison and Nationals leader David Littleproud. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was not present.

The Jewish community always welcomes visitors, mourners insisted. But few could miss the rising fury over perceived inaction on antisemitism directed at the prime minister and his cabinet after Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was booed in Bondi on Monday.

“We are very angry, we are very upset,” said one mourner, who asked only to be referred to as Alex.

About 200 family and friends made the procession from Bondi to Rookwood General Cemetery, cramming the narrow roadways of the Jewish section in search of a parking spot.

Among the close friends and family gathered around the burial mound were half a dozen correctional officers to form an honour guard led by Commander Michael Walters.

As the coffin was lowered into the ground, the sounds of grief and anguish could be heard from the periphery, where there were dozens of police and private security guards watching over proceedings.

Less than an hour after mourners had arrived, Rabbi Eli was buried as a hot, dry wind began to gust across the grounds.

Leon Elski said he felt shattered by the 41-year-old’s death. “I was there, I was covering my daughter,” he said. “We felt helpless.”

“I don’t know if I was the last person to speak to [Eli], but I hugged him three minutes before the shooting.”

Elski said his family was supporting Rabbi Eli’s wife by helping to look after their two-month-old son.

“I haven’t had the time to process Eli, who is a dear friend. To grieve. I’m feeling almost concussed, and honestly angry.”

Tragically, it will not be the last time this week.

“There will be further funerals sadly this afternoon,” said Rabbi Moss.

Inside the synagogue, posters of the fallen marked some of the burials yet to come: Peter Meagher, 61, Alex Kleytman, 87, Marika Pogany, 82, Tibor Weitzen, 78, Reuven Morrison, 62, and Dan Elkayam, 27.

Just after 4pm on Wednesday, mourners began filing into a North Ryde chapel for the funeral of Rabbi Yaakov Levitan.

The 39-year-old served as secretary of the Sydney Beth Din (a rabbinic court) and worked at the BINA Centre of Jewish learning.

The father of four was killed at Bondi on Sunday after handing out tefillin – two small black boxes containing Torah scrolls typically worn by Jewish men on their arms and head during morning prayers.

“A humble person, a generally good person, an unsung hero, taken from us,” Rabbi Michoel Gourarie said as he delivered the eulogy.

“He was such a good husband, an amazing and caring father, and a great friend.”

Gourarie said without minimising the pain, the Jewish community must move forward.

“We must find that strength, despite that we don’t understand what has happened and why it has happened,” he said.

Ten-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim of the massacre, will be farewelled in Woollahra on Thursday.

More Bondi terror coverage

• Moment by moment: How the horrifying Bondi terror attack unfolded
• Bondi shooter held gun licence: The prime minister will propose strengthening Australian gun laws
• Watch: Alleged Bondi gunman tells bystanders to move away, while shooting at Hanukkah crowd
• Who are the alleged Bondi gunmen? Bondi shooters visited Philippines weeks before beach massacre

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