Australia mass shooting hits home for many heartbroken Long Island residents
The Jewish community of Sydney, Australia has deep connections to the Tri-State Area.
Some heartbroken Long Islanders spoke to CBS News New York about victims of Sunday's mass shooting they they knew personally.
Remembering Rabbi Eli Schlanger
For Rabbi Motti Grossbaum of Chabad at Stony Brook, grief over the Bondi Beach massacre is deeply personal. His longtime friend and Yeshiva classmate, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was gunned down just weeks after welcoming his fifth child.
"Eli was always with a smile on his face, the epitome of positivity, just an optimist," Grossbaum said. "For him to be taken from us from under the menorah, I feel like it's his calling to us."
Grossbaum said it's tragic irony that the mass shooting happened on the first night of Hanukkah, a holiday commemorating light prevailing over darkness.
"There could be overwhelming darkness in the world, but darkness will never win, will never win. It's adding one light at a time and that is what Eli would share with us today -- march forward, add light," Grossbaum said.
"They are calling this the Oct. 7 of Australia"
Across Long Island, Hanukkah celebrations continue despite heavy hearts and amid heavy police protection.
In Roslyn, a parade was held just hours after Rabbi Yaakov Wilansky's Australian cousins left Bondi Beach just before gunfire erupted. He said they returned the next day for a massive show of resilience.
"If they try to dim our light, we obviously counter and increase our light," Wilansky said.
Yaron Levy, a North Hempstead town board member, said he grew up frequenting Bondi Beach.
"This was just total carnage, ravage. They are calling this the Oct. 7 of Australia," Levy said, adding he knows at least five of the 15 people killed at the event.
"Rueven Morrison. What an incredible man, so generous, so humble. Tibor [Weitzen], I had barbecues at his house. He would host us. Such a lovely community man. [Alex Kleytman] was Holocaust survivor. He survived Auschwitz, only to get gunned down, mowed down by this coward," Levy said.
