Family members of Rabbi Eli Schlanger lean over his coffin during his funeral. Hollie ADAMS / POOL /AFP via Getty Images

Hundreds of mourners gathered Wednesday at a synagogue in Sydney for the first of the 15 funerals for those killed in Sunday's terrorist attack on Jewish people gathered to mark the start of Hanukkah on Australia's Bondi Beach.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, the assistant rabbi at the local Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi, who had helped to organize what started out as a joyous event on the famous beach, was the first to be mourned on Wednesday.

The funeral took place just a few blocks from where he and other members of Sydney's tight-knit Jewish community were gunned down.

After sharp criticism over what many saw as lax security for the Sunday event, there was a heavy police presence around the synagogue on Wednesday. Officers were seen checking the identification of those heading toward the funeral.

"He was an angel," Rabbi Moshe Gutnick told CBS News as Schlanger's body was transported. "He was goodness personified. Everything that he did was about doing good for people."

"He was the heart and soul of the synagogue," he added. "We are all going to miss him terribly."

Gutnick's brother-in-law, 62-year-old Reuven Morrison, was also among those killed on Sunday, as he hurled stones at one of the attackers, Morrison's daughter told CBS News earlier this week.

Given how close the community is, Rabbi Gutnick said he would be attending funerals in the coming days, "not once, not twice but many more times."

"It's just one after the other after the other. It's our 7th of October," he added, referring to the Hamas-led terror attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza two years ago.

Some family members and friends were unable to contain their sorrow during the service for Schlanger on Wednesday, speaking through tears to pay homage to the father of five, whose youngest was born just seven weeks before he was killed.

"After what happened, my biggest regret was - apart from the obvious – I could have done more to tell Eli more often how much we love him, how much I love him, how much we appreciate everything that he does and how proud we are of him," said his father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman.

Investigations into the shooting continued, meanwhile.

The suspects were a father and son who lived in the area, Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed Akram, 24.

The elder man, an Indian national who emigrated to Australia in 1998, was killed during the attack.

Naveed Akram, an Australian national born in the country, was wounded and left in a coma, but he woke up on Tuesday in a Sydney hospital and was quickly charged with 59 offenses, including 15 charges of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act.


Rabbi Moshe Gutnick expressed his anguish at having to attend funerals "not once, not twice by many more times." CBS News

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