Leibel Lazaroff is the kind of person people describe by saying he would give you the shirt off his back.
Not as a figure of speech. As a fact.
When gunfire erupted during the Chanukah celebration at Bondi Beach, panic spread through the crowd. Families ran for cover. Screams filled the air. In the chaos, a police officer lay wounded, shot and bleeding in the open.
Instead of running for cover, Leibel ran toward him and into the fire.
Without hesitation, Leibel reached the injured officer and did exactly what he had always been known to do. He took the shirt off his own back, tore it apart, and used it to tie a tourniquet in an effort to stop the bleeding and save the officer’s life all this as bullets we’re flying above.
As Leibel worked, the terrorist began approached him directly.
Leibel saw the threat and shouted urgently to the wounded officer, telling him to shoot the attacker with his other hand. The officer did not fire.
In that moment, the heroic Leibel asked for the officer’s gun and said he would shoot. Being from Texas, Leibel was trained in shooting and was ready to act to protect others.
Before he could, the terrorist opened fire.
Leibel was shot in the stomach and thigh. He collapsed beside the officer he had just tried to save.
Leibel Lazaroff is a young American rabbi whose parents lead the Chabad Jewish Center at Texas A and M University. He was in Sydney for an internship with his mentor, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was murdered in the attack and was laid to rest on Wednesday in the first of the funerals for the fifteen victims.
He saw Rabbi Eli get shot.
Rabbi Eli was his mentor.
“He saw Rabbi Eli get shot, and Rabbi Eli was his mentor,” Leibel’s father told CBS News. “He said, ‘I wish there was more I could have done.’”
What followed was a brutal fight for life.
Leibel has undergone seven surgeries. Doctors fought to save him as prayers poured in from around the world. Despite the severity of his injuries, Leibel is recovering quickly.
Today, twenty year old Leibel Lazaroff took his first steps since the attack.
Each step is a miracle.
Not only because he survived, but because he survived after choosing courage over safety and compassion over self preservation.
Leibel Lazaroff is a miracle.
Please continue to pray for Yehuda Leib ben Manya.
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