“The Jewish community is a very small population. Every single person has a connection in Israel,” said Rachel Levy, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut.
For Connecticut’s Ron Leeser, that connection is his daughter who currently lives in Israel.
“My daughter had planned some day trips, Sunday morning we were going to go to brunch,” Leeser said.
Leeser has been visiting her in Israel since last Wednesday. Three days into the trip, everything changed.
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“It’s just that life is different, and everyone is focused on the crisis right now,” Leeser said in a video chat from Israel.
He said he and his family are staying about 80 miles from the direct violence, but still, the threat of rockets remains.
“We’re walking down the street and wondering where we can go, so it’s a constant, it’s a constant concern,” Lesser said.
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Back in Connecticut, that concern is shared by people like Jerry Fischer, former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut.
“Waiting for answers is the worst thing,” Fischer said. “For me, it was painfully personal.”
Just two months ago, he was hosting his relatives from Israel here in the United States. This week, that time together became even more valuable.
“When this happened on Saturday, we immediately started to call the family and the first thing we learned was that Aviv, my cousin’s son-in-law, was part of the defense unit,” Fischer said.
The exact whereabouts of Aviv and his wife Liat are currently unknown after Fischer said Aviv’s defense unit was forced to surrender.
“One cousin said, ‘Jerry, he was in face-to-face combat with the attackers, and we were very very scared,” Fischer said. “We just know they’re in Gaza. We know Gaza is being bombed. We know they’re being held by Hamas.”
As Fischer holds his breath, Scott Wolfe, president of the Board for the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut, thinks about his 66 relatives also living in terror.
“They hear sirens going off all the time. They hear the sound of bombs exploding nearby. They rush in and out of bomb shelters,” Wolfe said.
An unimaginable reality that here in Connecticut has members of the Jewish community leaning on each other for support.
“Every single member of the synagogue has friends and family in Israel, and we’ve been getting together at our office to hug one another, to be together, just to make sure that no one is alone,” Levy said.
She said the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut will be holding a call to action on Sunday, asking for continued support for Israel from state and federal leaders.
