Southland rabbi loses a relative in Sydney attack

Yisroel Goldstein, a synagogue shooting survivor, mourns his niece's husband.

- BY SUHAUNA HUSSAIN

A MAN pays tribute Monday to the victims of an antisemitic attack the day before at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

(IZHAR KHAN Getty Images)

It was late in the night when Yisroel Goldstein received a call from a relative notifying him of the shooting at Bondi Beach.

After that, the rabbi and former director of a suburban San Diego County synagogue was glued to his phone, fielding calls and messages for updates on his brother-in-law, his niece and other family members who participated in and helped to organize the Hanukkah festivities at Sydney's most famous beach each year.

Later, Goldstein learned his niece’s husband, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was leading services at the event, was among the more than 15 people killed.

The shooting attack “was deja vu,” said Goldstein, who was wounded in a 2019 shooting at the Chabad of Poway. “It’s been just absolutely heart-wrenching.”

On that April day six years ago, a man with a semiautomatic rifle entered the synagogue and opened fire, killing a woman and injuring Goldstein and two others in a hate-fueled attack.

About 100 people were inside the synagogue celebrating the last day of Passover.

Goldstein lost his right index finger in the attack.