Ties between CT and Israel run deep and strong amid war. Here’s why and how the connection is close.

The attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas has overtaken the emotions of Connecticut’s Jewish and non-Jewish residents.

The connections between Connecticut and the Jewish state go deeper than their religious ties, however. They include trade, cultural and business links and a feeling that the state and the nation share values of educational excellence, democracy and freedom, according to Connecticut Jewish residents.

“Being one of the original states and, of course, we’ll call it the Constitution State, I think we have I would say almost a visceral bond with freedom,” said Rabbi Yosef Wolvovsky of the Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury.

“And when you look at the people of Israel, you see a people whose aspiration is to live freely, to worship God freely, to live in a free society,” he said. “And I think the people of Connecticut, by and large, identify with that on a very core level.”

Wolvovsky said it goes beyond being Jewish. “I myself throughout the years, and especially now, have received great support and encouragement from local residents who are not Jewish,” he said.

“I think it goes back to a deep-seated belief that human beings are designed to be free and our state is one of the original states that made that happen in our country.”

The strong ties between Connecticut and Israel were visible when the Israeli flag was flown over the state Capital building in Hartford. “Connecticut stands in solidarity with the people of Israel, and we are praying for lasting peace for the entire region,” Gov. Ned Lamont said when announcing the flag would be flown.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said leaders of Democratic and Republican caucuses of the House and the Senate worked closely in deciding to raise the flag. “I think that it will just reflect to them (the people of Connecticut) that we are feeling what they are feeling, this sense of horror at this terrible attack and the butchery and massacre involved,” Looney said.

‘It’s very close’

Eric Zachs, former chairman of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, said there are a number of similarities between the small state of Connecticut and the small state of Israel.

“We are a small state and we always like to punch above our weight,” he said. “There’s tremendous academic programs here, the universities, and tremendous emphasis on education. Israel is very similar in that respect. It’s the startup nation.”

Those academic links go beyond the campus, Zachs said.

“There are a lot of economic ties between academic institutions and businesses and that’s why the state also has promoted a lot of programs,” Zachs said. “Hartford Hospital I know has done a lot with promoting innovation, medical innovation, between Israel and Hartford HealthCare and the state as a whole.”

Wolvovsky said there also is a cultural aspect to the connection.

“I think there’s also many religious communities in Connecticut, many believers, not necessarily Jewish, but to understand that there’s something holy, something special, something unique about the Holy Land, and that it’s the Holy Land that belongs to the holy people,” he said.

Those connections have been given new meaning since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters broke through the fortified border between southern Israel and Gaza, killing 1,300 and taking 150 hostage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and promised a siege on Gaza to dislodge the terrorists and rescue the hostages as Israeli warplanes bombed the densely populated territory of 2 million Palestinians.

On Friday, Netanyahu ordered 1 million residents to leave their homes in northern Gaza as a ground invasion was expected.

The war has increased anxiety among Connecticut’s Jews, who travel to Israel frequently.

“We have community members who spend several months a year in Israel,” Wolvovsky said. “We have families … send their children to school in Israel for a year or two for a gap year. Many families right now are concerned about their brothers, their sisters, their sons or daughters, their cousins, who either live in Israel or are there for a long term.”

Some have been called up in the Israeli army reserves since the Hamas attack, Wolvovsky said.

“In the days since, every day, I’ve been on the phone with multiple people in … north Israel, people who have relatives who are being drafted to the army and it’s real time, raw, emotional reactions,” he said.

“It’s people who represent our community. We have people who are part of our community here, and they attend services, classes every day and every week, who just a month ago said goodbye to several families who went back to Israel for a few months,” Wolvovsky said. “So it’s very close.”

Generations of ties, travel and innovation

“In addition to the sentiments that Jewish people feel in general, all over the world, and historically, there are many people that have close personal ties with folks who do live in Israel,” said Rabbi David Small of the Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford.

“There are people that grew up in this congregation and … made aliyah, moved to help build up the society and participate and live and be a part of Israel,” he said.

“Many of their parents are in the congregation. And there are people who have friends and children and who know their children’s friends too,” Small said. “So when these horrific things happen, it’s not just a generalized sense of horror, but it’s a very personal sense of bereavement and loss.”

Small said he last visited Israel before the High Holy Days.

“It’s disappointing because this was actually a period of time where Israel was making inroads in prospects for peace with Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni nations, and had been seeking to deconflict and moderate the conflict with Hamas,” he said. “And so this attack came as a huge surprise. And it was particularly devastating because hopes were high for a different kind of future for this region.”

Shari Cantor, mayor of West Hartford, which has a significant Jewish population, said Jews’ ties to the state go back to before World War II, when they were leaving Eastern Europe and settling in Hartford, then moving to West Hartford.

“They’ve existed for a long time,” she said. “There were Jewish people that came and started synagogues, whether it was from the pogrom time to post-Holocaust, and … many of those Jews settled in the North End of Hartford and moved to West Hartford.”

Congregation Beth Israel was the oldest synagogue in the region, founded in 1843 by German Jews, Cantor said. She said there have been a number of missions between West Hartford and Israel, including one of Ethiopian Jews.

Danielle Moghadam, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation, said she helped lead a group of 150 people from Connecticut in March to visit a sister region in Israel, Afula-Gilboa.

“We had the chance to meet members of our sister region, to see organizations that the federation supports on the ground,” she said. “A lot of people had never been to Israel before. So it was a fantastic opportunity to build community and to do so while in our homeland.”

Cantor’s husband, Michael Cantor, chairman of the board of Connecticut Innovations, the state’s venture capital firm, said, “Israel is the startup capital of the world. And so there’s a lot of interaction there. A year ago, I went with Governor (Ned) Lamont. I was one of 12 people on a delegation to Israel for a week for business development between Connecticut and Israel.”

He said Connecticut Innovations has worked to bring Israeli companies to Connecticut.

“There’s a strong push to get some of those Israeli companies to reside here,” he said.

“That’s been happening for a while now. Israeli companies like to go to Boston and New York. We have a pretty good case to make that they can come here and it’s just as good as Boston or New York but less expensive,” Michael Cantor said.

He said Connecticut’s industries serve as attractions to Israel.

“Israel and Connecticut align very much in their strengths,” Cantor said. “So that’s biotech and pharma, software, advanced manufacturing and then aerospace, defense. So those are all strengths in Israel as well, so that the two places line up very well.”

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.