For a Utah rabbi who was in Israel when Hamas fighters attacked, ‘this is personal’

Rabbi Chaim Zippel, co-director of Chabad of Utah County, was in Israel for his wife’s brother’s bar mitzvah last week. Afterward, they stayed in the town of Omer, an urban community in southern Israel not far from Gaza.

Early Saturday morning they were awakened by the sound of “red alert sirens warning of rockets heading in the direction of the home we were staying in,” he said.

He and his wife Esty and their young son rushed to a bomb shelter.

“Being that it was Shabbat and it was a holiday we didn’t have our phones or televisions on for updates. So we remained unaware of the gravity of what was unfolding around us despite the sound of booms from all around,” he said, speaking at a Stand with Israel rally Wednesday on the south steps of the Utah State Capitol.

At 9 a.m. Saturday they headed toward the synagogue for services, but before they got there, a frantic young Israeli man with one hand on the steering wheel of his car and a gun in the other told them in Hebrew that there was chaos.

“He explained that terrorists had infiltrated the border and that they were coming into the villages and killing and kidnapping people so we should not leave our home. As he finished speaking we looked up to see a large black pillar of smoke in front of us and we took off running home for shelter,” he said.

They managed to get to the airport in Tel Aviv to arrange a flight home, “all while Hamas was firing hundreds of rockets at the airport,” he said.

“Friends, my message to you this evening is that this is personal,” Rabbi Chaim Zippel said.

“When I turned on my phone after Shabbat I felt completely gutted. I came across a video from a pro Hamas rally in downtown Salt Lake City in which people were dancing and celebrating the terror in Israel. My neighbors in my home state in Utah were dancing and celebrating the terror that my family was experiencing. They were rejoicing over the hundreds of my brothers and sisters that were murdered,” he said.

“We need to take this personally. This is not a fight happening to strangers thousands of miles away. This is happening here, too. And we need to use every platform at our disposal to stand with Israel and support our Jewish brothers and sisters,” Rabbi Chaim Zippel said.

He addressed a crowd of about 300 people who braved chilly and rainy weather to support Israel and Utah’s Jewish communities. The attendees included elected officials, community members and members of several faith communities.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who wore a yarmulke, told those assembled that Utah stands with Israel.

“Tonight, we gather in solidarity and support for the people of Israel as they defend their right to exist free from those who would destroy them from the face of the Earth. We also gather in support of our Jewish community here in Utah,” he said.

Cox said he recently spoke with the Israeli Consul General and told him that Utahns are allies to Israelis. “He corrected me. He said, ‘No, we’re not allies. We are family,’ and he was right.”

The governor said he had the opportunity to travel to Israel about a year ago, during which he visited Israel’s Holocaust memorial and laid a wreath on behalf of all Utahns “to honor those lost and as a symbol of our commitment to never allow it to happen again. And I said a prayer of gratitude that our world has changed so much for the better.”

Cox said he was horrified to learn of “the depraved terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against innocent women and children and men, the largest massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

As videos and images of the carnage began to circulate, “we all saw the unspeakable horrors. Yet, we must speak of them or risk repeating history again. Women murdered and their bodies dragged through the streets. A peaceful celebration gunned down execution style, families kidnapped and tortured. Human beings burned alive. Babies beheaded. Evil exists. Hamas is evil. We must say it and we must defeat it,” Cox said.

Utahn James Weaver, who attended the rally with his wife, Shantaal, and their two young children, said he had the opportunity to spend about four weeks in Israel working with farmers.

“In our Western world, we don’t understand what it means to be over there,” he said.

Instead of police, soldiers serve and protect Israelis “out of necessity.” They have bomb shelters in their homes. When he traveled, he rode in a bus fortified to withstand bombs, which he later learned was actually a school bus used to ferry children to and from school.

“For somebody who’s prepared to go through this travesty, we ought to have sympathy beyond what we had in the past,” he said.

While some have described the terror attacks as Israel’s 9/11, Weaver said the stakes are even greater. Hamas fighters attacked Israel “for annihilation,” he said.

“They’re not after peace. They’re not after land. They’re after getting rid of a people as a group. You can’t even compare the two. They’re not on the same level,” he said.

Shantaal Weaver said the events are a reminder that “we are to love our neighbors, but evil is very real. We don’t hate the Palestinians. Our heart hurts for them, too, but the Israeli people are very important to us and very important for our Christian walk as well.”

The rally featured prayers and readings from the Torah and the Old Testament.

Rabbi Benny Zippel, executive director of Chabad of Utah, blessed community member Tzachi Korzbart, who is returning to Israel to re-enlist in the Israeli Defense Force.

The rally was held on the fifth day of fighting following the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas militants on Saturday, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, including at least 22 Americans, among them children and elders. Meanwhile, 150 people are believed to be being held as hostages in Gaza, according to The New York Times.

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• Israeli who recently relocated to Utah killed in terror attack, rabbi confirms

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, issued the following statement following the death of Lotan Abir, an Israeli who relocated to Utah eight months ago, who was killed by Hamas militants in Israel while attending a rave:

“The horrific, inhumane, and depraved terrorist acts perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis have touched everyone around the world. Today, news of the loss of one of our own from Utah further tears at our collective heart. I offer my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Lotan Abir — may he rest in peace,” Romney wrote.

He continued, “I continue to pray for the safe return of hostages, for the Israeli soldiers and first responders in harm’s way, and for the families of the victims of Hamas’ brutality. I condemn these unprovoked atrocities in the strongest possible terms and wholeheartedly stand with Israel, with the Jewish people, and our Jewish community in Utah.”

The governor asked those attending Wednesday’s rally to observe a moment of silence to honor Abir.

Rabbi Avremi Zippel, program director of Chabad of Utah, thanked Cox for ordering the nation’s and Utah’s flags to fly at half-staff after the terrorist attacks, noting this was not the case in many U.S. states.

Zippel displayed photographs of men, women and children killed in the terrorist attacks, one of them a Holocaust survivor.

“There will come a day in the not-so-distant future when the world will ask you to forget these names, these faces and these stories. Your being here today promises that these names, these faces and these stories will never never be forgotten,” said Rabbi Avremi Zippel.

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