Australia mourns the victims of the attack on the Jewish celebration under heavy police protection

BarcelonaAustralia began holding its first funerals on Wednesday, under heavy police guard, to bid farewell to the victims of the earthquake.The mass shooting on Sunday at Bondi Beach in eastern Sydney, targeting a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, in which 16 people died.

The first farewell was held in the Bondi neighborhood in memory of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, born in the United Kingdom, at the Chabad Jewish Community Center in Bondi. The ceremony drew a large crowd, including community members, neighbors, and political representatives. As the coffin arrived, family members and attendees broke down in tears, while police officers rendered honors as the casket passed. The service was held under tight security. The attack has shocked Australiawhere a deeply rooted Jewish community lives, the largest Holocaust survivor community outside of Israel.

The funeral was led by Rabbi Levi Wolff, who said Schlanger was "torn from us while doing what he loved most," and emphasized that he had dedicated his life to "spreading love and joy and caring for his people with boundless devotion." Wolff stressed that his loss is "enormous for the entire Jewish people" and "indescribable" for the local community. The funeral of Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, another victim of the attack, is also scheduled to take place later today.

Schlanger's father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, explained that holding the service in a synagogue—a space where funerals are not usually held—was a special honor for "a great leader of the Jewish people." Ulman addressed an audience visibly moved by the memory of the 41-year-old rabbi, who had recently become a father. Schlanger, who had served as rabbi in Bondi for 18 years, was also remembered for his work as a chaplain with New South Wales Correctional Services. "Anything I can say today is an understatement of what you have meant to everyone, to your family, and to me personally," he said.

The service was one of several funerals held on Wednesday to commemorate the victims of Sunday's attack. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns attended Schlanger's funeral, as did the state's opposition leader, Kellie Sloane. Minns, wearing a kippah, greeted several members of the Jewish community outside the building. Wentworth MP Allegra Spender also attended and embraced a member of the security team outside the building. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would have attended "if he had been invited," arguing that these were ceremonies "to say goodbye to the loved ones of the affected families."

Meanwhile, health authorities have reported that 21 of those injured in the attack remain hospitalized, five of them in critical but stable condition, as a result of the terrorist attack that Albanese has linked to the ideology of the Islamic State (ISIS), after it was revealed that the victims and his 24-year-old son, Naveed, had recently traveled to the southern Philippines.