Relative of San Antonians killed, Texas A&M rabbi’s son wounded in mass shooting at Hanukkah event in Australia

The Jewish Federation of San Antonio is reacting to the terror attack that occurred on Sydney's Bondi Beach at a Hannukah celebration on Sunday.

In a statement to Texas Public Radio, they noted the global interconnectedness of the Jewish community and expressed that that they are "heartbroken to hear that among the fallen is an uncle of a teacher at a local preschool."

The statement went on to describe that among the injured is the 20-year-old son of one of the Head Rabbis at Chabad at Texas A&M University. In addition, among those present, "were a niece of a local Rabbi, who had to hide in the sand with her baby, in an effort to keep herself and her baby safe from the gunfire."

The statement also described the Jewish Federation's determination to continue to gather for the next eight nights for Hannukah.

"Our community will never retreat in the face of hatred and will never refrain from carrying on our Jewish traditions," they said in the statement. "We will use every tool at our disposal to make sure our communities are safe and that our lights burn brighter in spite of hatred and antisemitism."

Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff, the son of a College Station-based rabbi serving Texas A&M University's Jewish students and staff, was among the dozens of people injured in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah event on Sunday in Sydney, Australia, his father said.

Late Sunday evening, Lazaroff's father, Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff, wrote in a social media post that his son was in an intensive care unit in Australia following the deadly attack. Yossi was flying there to be with him.

“Sitting on a very long plane ride to Australia from Texas, while still grappling with the lives lost & communicating with the hospital as my son Leibel goes into multiple surgeries for his life threatening injuries,” he wrote Monday on social media. “This is about good vs evil, light vs darkness, up-standers vs bystanders. It's your choice to make. Who are you?”

Australian authorities said at least 15 people had died in the shooting, including a child, as of Monday morning. More than 40 others were injured. Investigators said the alleged gunmen were a father and son; the former was killed by police, and the latter was hospitalized.

Jewish groups and law enforcement agencies across the Houston area are on alert in the wake of the shooting. Several Hanukkah events are planned throughout the week by local Chabad groups, which are Orthodox Jewish organizations focused on outreach. Among the events are public menorah lightings at places like The Galleria mall on Monday and the Baylor College of Medicine on Tuesday.

Rabbi Yossi Zaklikofsky, who leads The Shul of Bellaire, told Houston Public Media he was unhesitant to continue with his community's Hanukkah festival, which took place on Sunday.

"We’re always in touch with the Bellaire Police Department," he said. "We’re in touch with [Harris County] Constable Alan Rosen’s office. We were [in contact] in advance of this event, regardless, and obviously we were in light of this event. And they’ve looked after our community and events up until now, and they’ll continue to do so."

Rosen said he went to both Bellaire’s Hanukkah festival and Houston’s menorah lighting at City Hall on Sunday evening.

“I was very responsible for the safety and security of both of those events, along with other law enforcement partners,” Rosen said Monday. “We added more law enforcement officers. … It was already planned very well, and executed very well, but we added more.”

Chabad of West Houston also moved forward with its menorah lighting on Sunday evening following the Sydney shooting. According to a news release, the group put more security in place on Sunday and plans to hold another menorah lighting on Tuesday evening.

“A little bit of light dispells [sic] a lot of darkness and it is necessary now more than ever to do acts that generate MORE LIGHT IN THE WORLD!” Rabbi Dovid Goldstein said in a news release.

Yossi Lazaroff, the rabbi at the Texas A&M campus, said his son had been working with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, an assistant rabbi and one of the organizers of the event in Australia. Schlanger was among those killed, according to the global Chabad organization.

Yossi Lazaroff, alongside his wife Manya, founded the Chabad Jewish Center at Texas A&M in 2007, with the self-professed goal of being a "home away from home" for Jewish Aggies.

"This boy grew up here, you know, outside of Houston," said Zaklikofsky, the rabbi in Bellaire. "And even beyond that, you know, the Jewish community, and especially the Chabad community, is a global family."

Republican state Sen. Charles Schwertner of Georgetown shared his condolences in a post on social media.

Following the attack in Sydney, Houston Mayor John Whitmire participated in the menorah lighting Sunday evening at Houston City Hall. He condemned the shooting in a statement.

"This is a time for people of the Jewish faith to celebrate light and hope,” Whitmire said. “Instead, families are grieving the unimaginable loss of loved ones. ... Violence and Antisemitism have no place in society. I ask everyone to pray for the victims and their families."

Houston Public Media’s Rob Salinas contributed to this report.