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December 15, 2025
My Murdered Friend Eli
On the first night of Hanukkah, I learned that Eli Schlanger, a rabbi I had known for decades, was gunned down at a Hanukkah celebration he had organized in Sydney, attended by roughly 1,000 people. When Eli and I were 16, we volunteered together at a summer camp for indigent Ukrainian boys in Odesa. The early mornings we spent watching the sun rise over the beach, as he spoke with quiet certainty about his dream of becoming a rabbi and building a Jewish community, are etched in my memory. He was killed doing the work he’d dreamed of.
TL;DR
- Rabbi Eli Schlanger was killed on the first night of Hanukkah.
- He was gunned down at a Hanukkah celebration he had organized in Sydney.
- Approximately 1,000 people attended the event.
- The author knew the rabbi for decades and recalled his childhood dream of becoming a rabbi and building a Jewish community.
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