Book By Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Shliach Slain in Bondi Beach Massacre, Announced By HarperCollins

HarperCollins Publishers announced today the publication of Conversations With My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World, a radically hopeful exploration of faith, identity, morality, and purpose. The book, written by Nikki Goldstein, who recorded conversations with Rabbi Eli Schlanger before he was murdered in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, will be published simultaneously on May 26, 2026, by HarperCollins in the US, Australia and the UK.

In September 2022, when Nikki Goldstein was near death in a Sydney ICU, her daughter spotted Rabbi Eli Schlanger in the hallway and Goldstein’s husband asked him to come pray for her. Standing beside her comatose body, he blew the shofar and prayers for her recovery. One day later, Nikki began recovering from the life-threatening infection. The doctors called it a miracle. As she regained her health, Rabbi Schlanger and Goldstein grew closer. Coming from profoundly different worlds—one grounded in religious tradition, the other in temporal modernity—they discovered they were seeking answers to the same essential questions. Thus began a series of discussions between Schlanger, a devout Chabad rabbi, and Goldstein, a secular Jewish woman, resulting in Conversations With My Rabbi.

On December 14, 2025, Rabbi Eli Schlanger was about to light the menorah at his Bondi Beach ”Chanukah by the Sea” celebration, an event he’d run for eighteen years, when he was tragically murdered in one of the deadliest mass-casualty shooting in Australian history. The rabbi had been in the final stages of finishing Conversations With My Rabbi. 

In January 2025, they began recording their conversations for a book. Weeks before they finished the final chapter, Eli was tragically murdered. “I was devastated, shocked, and grieving. But I knew that Eli’s legacy, his mission to bring light and love to the world, would not die with him,” Nikki Goldstein said. “Eli saved my life those years ago, and it’s my honor and privilege to ensure that his voice, memory, and mission are not silenced by terror and continue to work miracles.”  

Grounded in seven timeless Jewish universal principles, Conversations With My Rabbi invites readers to ponder, and question as they follow Nikki and Eli’s tender, sometimes funny, sometimes fierce, yet always deeply human conversations that speak to all who seek meaning, moral clarity, and hope in their lives. 

As a deeply committed student of the teachings of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, the most influential rabbi in modern history, Rabbi Schlanger was passionate about sharing universal principles of morality, known as the Seven Noahide Laws. Those principles undergird Rabbi Schlanger and Nikki’s exchanges.

The book will include an epilogue from Rabbi Yehoram Ulman. Rabbi Schlanger served as the Assistant Rabbi at Chabad of Bondi for 18 years, working directly under Rabbi Ulman, his father-in-law, who is the director of the center and a senior dayan (judge) on the Sydney Beth Din. They worked together on numerous projects, including publishing books on rabbinic cases and managing “Project Noah,” an outreach program for teaching the Seven Noahide Laws.

The editors and co-author consulted with Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin of Chabad.org in New York and Rabbi Ulman, with whom Rabbi Schlanger explored these topics, on how to complete the project and ensure that in his absence his words are published in the spirit in which they were spoken.  

Conversations With My Rabbi will be published simultaneously on May 26, 2026 by Harper Influence in the US, HarperCollins Australia, and Harper Nonfiction in the UK. Lisa Sharkey, SVP, Publisher of Harper Influence, negotiated World Rights with Rena Rossner of the Deborah Harris Agency.  

Lisa Sharkey said, “I’ve never been so instantly affected by an inspirational story as I have been by this one. Two humans on a spiritual and secular journey that’s continuing beyond the death of one of the authors. But the message lives on through their alternating chapters and the light that will forever illuminate the ancient wisdom translated for a modern audience in the pages of this extraordinary conversation and teaching.” 

Rabbi Eli Schlanger was an emissary and a dedicated student of the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, serving as the Assistant Rabbi at Chabad Bondi, a role he had held for eighteen years. He was also a Chaplain for NSW Corrections and a Chaplain at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, in Sydney. He was also the Rabbi for Community Engagement at Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe for eighteen years. He was educated at the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim and the Lubavitch Yeshiva, Brunoy, France. Rabbi Schlanger oversaw the development and building of the Bondi Chabad and was an active and passionate community rabbi. He was the Founder of Project Noah, an educational initiative that brings the timeless values of the Seven Noahide Laws to young people through engaging, interactive programs. He is survived by his wife, Chaya, and their five children. 

Nikki Goldstein is an internationally recognized bestselling author of sixteen books— including GirlForce, a teen girl self-empowerment series that was converted into a brand of yoga wear, cosmetics, stationery and music sold exclusively by Target—and an award-winning copywriter and journalist. She began her career at Vogue and held senior editorial positions at Elle and Marie Claire. When she’s not working feverishly on her fledgling publishing business Go2Guru, Nikki attends to her two needy dachshunds, Archie and Sunny, and does yoga on her deck in Sydney.