Toronto Synagogue to Continue Hanukkah celebrations After Deadly Shooting in Australia

TORONTO – The rabbi of a Toronto synagogue says Hanukkah celebrations would continue as planned in the wake of a deadly mass shooting at a Hanukkah party in Australia on Sunday.

Levi Gansburg, the rabbi at Chabad on Bayview, says his synagogue will “choose light over darkness” and move forward with its planned Hannukah celebrations this week despite the devastation abroad.

At least 16 people were killed and at least 38 were wounded at a Hanukkah event on bondi Beach in Australia after two gunmen opened fire on the crowd. Jewish officials have identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, an assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and one of the celebration’s organizers.

One attacker was taken into custody and the other was fatally shot by police. Australian prime Minister Anthony albanese called the shooting an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.

Gansburg says he was in a state of shock and mourning when he first heard the news of the shooting.He said he knew Schlanger as the two studied together in the rabbinical seminary.

“My memories of him is that he was a man of kindness, of warmth, of love,” Gansburg said in an interview.”He was vivacious, (and) just literally dedicated his life to helping others strictly with goodness and kindness.”

That shock was numbed, though, by a spate of antisemitic attacks and vandalism that have rocked the GTA as Oct. 7, 2023. Gansburg says a synagogue down the road from him – the Kehillat Shaarei Torah synagogue – has been vandalized 10 times and his daughter’s school was shot at three times last year.

For Joe Kanofsky, the rabbi at the Kehillat Shaarei Torah, the attacks in Australia are another unneeded reminder of hatred and violence directed toward the Jewish community.

“I and others are horrified and appalled by this kind of violence,” Kanofsky said.

Kanofsky says Hanukkah celebrations at his synagogue will also proceed as planned this week. Security will be on site throughout celebrations.