American Jews listen to harrowing stories of death and disarray from Israel

(RNS) — A retired general in the Israeli army spoke on Zoom to members of the Conservative Jewish movement Monday (Oct. 9), recounting his mission on Saturday to rescue his son and his family from a kibbutz under siege by Hamas militants.

Maj. Gen. Noam Tibon, 62, said he and his wife sprang into action after his son called him Saturday morning to tell him that Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he lives, was being invaded by Hamas militants.

“We took our Jeep and we started to drive as fast as we could because I knew that if there are terrorists inside Nahal Oz, then the whole system has collapsed and I need to secure and protect my family as a father and as a grandfather,” Tibon said.

Speaking clearly with conviction, Tibon told a harrowing tale to about 600 listeners on a Zoom call organized by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and its counterpart, the Masorti movement, in Israel. It was one of many venues in which American Jews, jolted by the news of the boldest attack on Israel in decades, heard dispatches from the besieged country, where hundreds of gunmen infiltrated Israeli towns and communal settlements. In the small farming community of Beeri, rescue workers found more than 100 bodies. In a camping area where an outdoor music festival was taking, place some 260 people were shot dead in the early morning hours.

A total of 900 Israelis, many of them civilians, have been killed and at least 150 taken hostage into Gaza. More than 600 Palestinians have also died. The dead include several foreign nationals, including at least 11 Americans, the U.S. Embassy has announced.

Tibon’s daring rescue of his son and his family, who barricaded themselves in a room with no electricity, is one of many stories now being shared in the American Jewish community.

Armed only with his pistol, Tibon and his wife drove from their home in Tel Aviv through several checkpoints set up by soldiers and police on their way to Nahal Oz, a kibbutz close to the Gaza Strip, where his son, a journalist, and his family live. Along the way, they came across scores of dead bodies, took two wounded IDF soldiers to a nearby hospital and eventually joined a group of Israeli commandos trying to regain control of the kibbutz.

“Basically, we started to search from house to house inside the kibbutz,” Tibon said in his accented English. “We killed six more terrorists on those searches. There were other terrorists — they were killed by the brave people of Nahal Oz.”

When he finally arrived at his son’s home, Tibon knocked on the window. His granddaughter, Galia, was the first to hear it.

“Sabba’s here,” she said, using the word for “grandfather.” The entire family burst into tears.

American Jews are taking pains to decipher the scale of the tragedy that unfolded in Israel three days ago. For now they are absorbing the agonizing stories of people who escaped and those who couldn’t.

“I think for most of the American Jewish community, certainly anybody who has family, friends, colleagues in their broader network who they’re worried about or worse, who are dead or missing or injured or mobilized, it’s really a time of mourning and shock,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, chief executive of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.

Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. The rockets were fired as Hamas announced a new operation against Israel.

At hundreds of synagogues and Jewish Community Centers across the country, informational gatherings and community solidarity meetings are being set up to help them sort through the events of the past few days.

Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip, has said that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, recent Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the detention of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails were the reasons for the brazen attack.

But deeper analysis of what led to the present conflict, or how Israel should respond, were not on the minds or the lips of most American Jewish leaders.

“There’s time for analysis, and also many of us are sitting with that pain in those stories and those families,” Jacobs said.

American Jews have been divided about Israel’s ultranationalist government and its repressive policies toward the Palestinians. But those conflicts took a back seat as many Jewish institutions, including the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, took up the slogan, “We Stand with Israel.”

“Having spoken with (Israelis), it means an incredible amount to know that they are not alone in this struggle,” said Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, who heads the USCJ as well as the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. “So that’s, that’s the first thing — just to support one another and be connected.”

American Jews are also raising money for Israel. The UJA-Federation of New York announced it was allocating an initial $10 million in emergency funding from its endowment. The Jewish Federations of North America have also begun raising money.

On Monday, Israel’s defense minister ordered a “complete siege” of the long-blockaded Gaza Strip. Israel has already launched a series of retaliatory strikes from the air against Gaza. A ground invasion is imminent.

Tibon, in his Zoom address, laid the blame for the attack directly on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and called for his resignation.

“After the war, there will be tough questions, and I believe that his government and Benjamin Netanyahu cannot stay even one day on his chair because of his responsibility,” Tibon said.

But for now he called for unity and predicted Israel would win a “decisive victory” over Hamas.

“We have a lot of casualties,” he said. “But we are strong, and right now, we have no choice — just to win.”