‘Too close to home’: Memphis rabbi turns grief into light after Bondi Beach shooting
The theme for this year’s Hanukkah celebration at the Memphis Chabad Center was “fire on ice,” with a fire show and a 9-foot ice menorah which was lit by Rabbi Levi Klein. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
When Rabbi Levi Klein woke up on Sunday, Dec. 14, he received terrible news: 15 people had been shot and killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Australia’s Bondi Beach.
The Bondi Beach celebration was planned by the Sydney chapter of Chabad Lubavitch, an international Jewish organization, and Klein leads its Memphis and Tennessee chapters. He knew a rabbi who had been killed and his extended family. He had a friend whose child was injured.
“It was horrifying,” he said. “It’s too close to home. These are regular people, innocent people. … Their only crime was trying to celebrate their holiday, and people are trying to stop that from happening.”
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