The joy felt during a Friday night party in the town of Omer, in southern Israel about an hour from Gaza, was quickly lost the next day. A multi-pronged attack by Hamas caught Israel, and the world, by surprise.
Utah’s Rabbi Chaim Zippel, the co-director of Chabad of Utah County, along with his wife and young child, were among those celebrating Hoshana Rabbah the night before. They were in Israel for a family member’s Bar Mitzvah and happily joined the street party.
“We had a particularly good time. Everything was normal,” said Zippel. “ We got to put our baby to sleep Friday night with a sense of calm and safety that was then shattered.”
Awoken by the sound of a siren warning people to shelter immediately, Zippel didn’t waste time.
“We grabbed our 1-year-old son — we were lucky enough to have a bomb shelter in the basement and we ran down.”
Still, being so close to Gaza, shelter warnings were not uncommon and they were unaware of the extent of unfolding events. As Orthodox Jews, they don’t use electronics on the Sabbath, so they “had basically zero information of what was going on.” But they could hear the sounds.
“Besides the sirens, we'd hear a lot of different booms, some further away, some closer just boom, boom.”
Then came the moment that struck home. His uncle, a Rabbi in Omer, “came running in with about six little kids as the siren’s going, and I saw fear in his face.”
Seeing that terror, Zippel said, “it hit me deep.”
Eventually, word trickled in of the attack and that Hamas was in southern cities close to Gaza.
“We didn't know how much we should barricade ourselves because this was a city in the south and we didn't know which cities the terrorists were entering.”
In a move to calm the children, they eventually left the shelter and moved upstairs in the house. As the situation eased there was only one more siren that day and they were able to move about and eventually get out of harm’s way. First, on any flight they could get and then finding their way back to Salt Lake City. KUER spoke with Rabbi Zippel the morning after he and his family returned to Utah.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Pamela McCall: When did you decide to leave Israel and how did you get out?
Rabbi Chaim Zippel: I knew that the longer we waited, the less chance we were going to have of getting out, because who knows what's going to happen. … Delta just announced they're not flying for the next two, three weeks minimum. So Sunday morning [following the Saturday initial attack], I reached out to a couple of travel agents. One of them specifically, and I told him, I need you to send me anywhere right away. I'm like, I have a kid. I have a baby. We're in the south and we cannot be here. Get me on a flight, anywhere. So he texted me back an hour later and said I have two tickets for you to Zurich tomorrow morning, 8 a.m. Do you want it? And yeah, we booked our flight and the flight, thankfully, did [take off].
PM: What was it like when you touched down in Salt Lake City?
RCZ: I haven't slept in three or four days, but we're running on adrenaline. It was amazing to be back in Utah. My parents, God bless them, stayed up late to come and pick us up from the airport. And that was special to be able to squeeze them and give them a tight hug. I was definitely thinking if that would be possible during the more intense moments of the war.
PM: How are your relatives who remain in Israel doing?
RCZ: We're very concerned for them, but it’s unbelievable to see how they go about with absolute self-sacrifice. My wife’s two uncles in Omer were both called to service. One of them specifically was called to go and start burying the hundreds of bodies waiting in the streets, waiting in these different cities that were extremely dangerous to even go into, and without blinking he ran to service.
PM: What are your thoughts about civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, who are caught in this conflict too?
RCZ: It's really tough. You don't ever want to see any innocent civilians caught in the middle of this. Not Israeli, not Palestinian, not Americans. Not anybody. I just think that Israel is going to have to do what Israel has to do to prevent something like this from happening ever again.
PM: As co-director at Chabad of Utah County, how will you gather with the Jewish community here, and how will you all handle this?
RCZ: The answer is not to go and start spouting hate to those who have harmed us. That's not going to help anybody. Darkness does not fight darkness. Light fights darkness. Call your friends. Call your neighbors. See if they're OK. Through doing these mitzvahs, these good deeds, we are adding ammunition, so to say, but spiritual ammunition to the fight.
