Sydney, 17 December (H.S.): , Hundreds converged Tuesday on Chabad of Bondi Synagogue for the first funeral of the Bondi Beach terror rampage victims, paying tearful tribute to Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the 41-year-old British-born father of five gunned down while orchestrating the Chanukah by the Sea festival three days prior.

Mourners, many in yarmulkes, overflowed the sanctuary mere blocks from the massacre site, livestreaming Hebrew and English prayers led by brother-in-law Rabbi Mendel Kastel amid heightened police and Jewish security perimeters; New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, federal opposition leader Sussan Ley, and MP Allegra Spender attended, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese absent yet pledging presence if invited.

Dubbed the Bondi Rabbi, Schlanger—chaplain to prisons and hospitals, fresh father to a two-month-old—embodied selfless devotion, his casket's arrival wrenching sobs from kin as Executive Council of Australian Jewry's Alex Ryvchin hailed him the very best of us, full of light.

Sajid and Naveed Akram's ISIS-inspired fusillade with licensed rifles claimed 15 lives—including Holocaust survivors, a 10-year-old girl, and defiant couple Boris and Sofia Gurman—wounding 40 amid 2,000 celebrants, igniting gun law debates and extremism probes tied to the duo's Philippines training. A second rite for Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, 39, father of four and charity stalwart, follows, as Sydney lays flowers at the shore.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar