An American student who had recently spent a year studying at a Brooklyn yeshiva was among the dozens who were hurt when a terrorist strike hit a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.
Leibel Lazaroff, just 20 years old and raised on the Texas A&M campus with his Chabad rabbi father, was shot in the abdomen and leg. According to his 51‑year‑old uncle, Zalman Lazaroff, his condition is “critical but stable.”
“He still has shrapnel in his abdomen and right thigh, and is intubated and will need another surgery [Monday] to clean out the shrapnel. He lost a lot of blood,” the family’s WhatsApp group was told.
Leibel had spent a year in his mother’s hometown of Brooklyn studying in a Crown Heights yeshiva before relocating to Sydney just about two months ago.
The teenager was at the beach on Sunday night when Naveed Akram, 24, and his 50‑year‑old father, Sajid, reportedly stormed a Hanukkah gathering with shotgun and bolt‑action rifle. The gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded some 40, many of them children.
Zalman described Leibel as a “popular, smart and spunky kid” who had embarked on the adventure of a lifetime during the Jewish high holidays in October.
He added, “He’s only been there for two months,” referring to Leibel, a “talented” pianist and one of nine siblings. “He’s an adventurous boy – and Australia was an adventure.”
Leibel’s aunt, Leah Loksen from Crown Heights, said she had told her excited nephew that living in Australia was “a once in a lifetime opportunity.” She recalled, “He was so excited. He was thriving.”
In the words of the uncle, it’s typical for a Chabad‑Lubavitch student of Leibel’s age to travel abroad. “All the students go for a one or two year program – like an exchange student,” said Zalman, who survived 9/11 and volunteers with the local rescue service Hatzalah. “He’s very special – a very capable and sociable young man,” he said of Leibel, who had enjoyed volunteering at Crown Heights events and spreading warmth to those around him.
Zalman continued, “He’s a young man committed to Jewishness.” That conviction drew him to the Chabad “Chanukah by the Sea” event on Bondi Beach, where he helped one of the attack survivors, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, and his father‑in‑law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman.
“She was there organizing and helping to create this very large, annual event,” the uncle said. “He was doing what his DNA is wired for – spreading Judaism.”
The massacre, which left 15 dead and more than 40 injured, has been described by the outraged uncle as “an attack on Jews,” adding, “It’s not an attack on Israel or Zionism.”
“We live in very dangerous times,” Zalman lamented.
Despite the fear, the uncle insists on “making Hanukkah even bigger.” He said, “The New York community is petrified we’re next. People are scared – and they should be.”
He echoed his sister‑in‑law’s message, urging the Jewish community in New York to stay undaunted.
One of Lazaroff’s mother, Maya, thanked everyone for their prayers and added, “please add in music, light and joy this Chanukah in merit of complete recovery of all those injured in Sydney.”
Leibel’s distraught parents also posted thanks to God that he is “alive and post surgery in critical condition.”
“We have to double down and not retreat. We have to light up brighter,” Zalman said of his sister‑in‑law’s message.
The investigation into the Sunday attack, the deadliest mass shooting in Australia in nearly 30 years, continues.
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