Nephew of Poway rabbi injured in 2019 synagogue shooting among those killed in Australia attack

The call from Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein’s sister came at 1 a.m. Sunday. There had been a mass shooting during a Hanukkah ceremony on an Australian beach. His nephew, a rabbi who had been at the ceremony, was dead.

“It was deja vu,” he said. Six years ago, Goldstein was at Chabad of Poway on the last day of Passover, when a 19-year-old gunman entered the Poway synagogue during Sabbath service and opened fire. The shooter killed one congregant and wounded three others, including Goldstein and a child.

Just after sunset Sunday evening, Goldstein, who said he is now rabbi emeritus, led several dozen people gathered at Old Poway Park in a ceremony to light a large menorah to mark the first day of Hanukkah. It was a long-planned event, but its significance grew exponentially with the Australian mass shooting.

“She tells me, ‘You must light the menorah in public. You must gather as many people as possible, because that is our response to terrorism. That is our response to hate and to darkness,’” he told the crowd.

At least 15 people, including a child, died in the shooting after two gunmen opened fire on the celebration on Bondi Beach, and at least 38 others were injured, the Associated Press reported. Police fatally shot one of the gunmen. The other was arrested and was being treated at a hospital.

Goldstein said his great-niece and great-nephew were among the injured, but were expected to survive. He also said his nephew — Rabbi Eli Schlanger — was a father of five, including a newborn.

“This is so horrible. It brings me back to surviving the mass shooting,” Goldstein said shortly before the ceremony in Poway.

He held up his hands to show he lost fingers when the gunman took aim at him. “The rest of me survived so I could tell the tale,” Goldstein said. “Every day is a bonus round.”

Goldstein said security had been beefed up for the menorah lighting. There was no way he would see it canceled. “Are you kidding?” he said. “We don’t retreat. We double up. We carry on.”

Several people in the crowd echoed those sentiments. “If we hid, then they win,” said Hal Wilson, a congregant at Chabad of Poway.

Matt Akel attended the ceremony with his wife and daughter. They had already planned to be there, but, Akel said, what happened in Australia “definitely made me want to be here more.”

San Diego police and sheriff’s deputies increased patrols around synagogues and houses of worship Sunday. Both departments said there were no known local threats, but they added the patrols “out of an abundance of caution.”

“We understand the real fear that acts of violence like this spread among our communities. It is a reminder for all of us to remain vigilant,” San Diego police said on the social media platform X.

In the Poway case, investigators later learned the shooter had set fire at an Escondido mosque a month earlier. Seven people had been asleep inside. No one was injured.

Shortly before the attack, the gunman, John T. Earnest, had posted an “open letter” online, referencing deadly mass shootings at Pittsburgh synagogue in October 2018 and at New Zealand mosques in March 2019.

Earnest pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison. He also pleaded guilty to hate crimes and other charges in federal court and was sentenced to life plus 30 years.