{"id":94892,"date":"2025-12-15T04:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T04:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/94892\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T04:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T04:33:11","slug":"community-gathers-for-menorah-lighting-amid-grief-for-rabbi-slain-in-australia-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/94892\/","title":{"rendered":"Community gathers for menorah lighting amid grief for rabbi slain in Australia attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Chabad of Bakersfield hosted a menorah lighting in southwest Bakersfield on Sunday evening, hours after they announced that one of the victims that was killed in the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia was the brother of the co-director of Chabad of Bakersfield.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media, Chabad of Bakersfield announced that Rabbi Eli Schlanger was killed in the attack that left 14 others dead and several others injured<\/a>. He was preparing for the lighting of a Menorah, celebrating Hanukkah.<\/p>\n

Chabad of Bakersfield said he is survived by his wife and children, including a 2-month-old baby, as well as his parents and siblings.<\/p>\n

The menorah lighting took place at the Marketplace at 5 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2025. The event consisted of music, face paintings, dreidels and a menorah lighting.<\/p>\n

\"Chabad<\/p>\n

Chabad of Bakersfield hosted a menorah lighting in southwest Bakersfield on Sunday evening, hours after they announced that one of the victims that was killed in the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia was the brother of the co-director of Chabad of Bakersfield. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n

Esther Schlanger, co-director of Chabad of Bakersfield, spoke about the tragedy at the lighting, saying she still hadn’t processed the news of her brother-in-law’s death. She also said hate must be checked.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, hate has consequences,” said Esther. “When countries and people and places let hate go unchecked and give it excuses for other names, people die. That’s why my brother-in-law died, because of hate that went unchecked. He didn’t have to die.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 Chabad of Bakersfield hosted a menorah lighting in southwest Bakersfield on Sunday evening, hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-94892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","10":"tag-bakersfield-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}