Hamas attacks Israel: Jewish community ramps up security at Arizona synagogues
TEMPE, Ariz. - As the death toll rises in Israel, devastated is the word that comes to mind for Tempe resident Sarah Kader.
"It is not lost on us or anyone that the invasion came 50 years and one day since the Yom Kippur War when Israel faced a similar surprise attack," she said.
Kader works for ADL Arizona (Anti-Defamation League) and says they have offices in Israel. She has friends there that she's been checking on.
"Everyone is really scared and traumatized, which makes sense," she said.
KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - OCTOBER 07: Smoke rises after Israeli forces launched an airstrike on Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 07, 2023. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
On the heels of the Jewish community's high holy season, it's something not just felt in Israel, but for Jewish Americans right here in Arizona.
"I think people are very rattled and concerned, reasonably, and this attack today... we know at ADL that when things happen in Israel and the Middle East, there can be real impacts for folks in the United States, and so that's something that we're monitoring – extremist activity and antisemitic threats," said Kader.
It's causing a ripple effect with heightened levels of scrutiny at local synagogues and Jewish centers. According to Kader, it isn't the first time they've been forced to react to a situation like this.
"Just this past couple of weeks at our synagogue and Jewish institutions with these hoaxes, but terrifying calls of death to the Jews at synagogues, inducing a SWAT team response, and so everyone's kind of on edge already, and now the Jewish state is at war," she said.
ADL does an annual audit on antisemitism and says the most recent incidents show the highest levels of it since they started tracking it through the 1970s.
‘Beyond upsetting’
An American journalist living in Tel Aviv says the entire city could hear sirens blaring.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost immediately called it war.
On Sunday morning, Oct. 8, the country formally declared it.
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Unconfirmed reports say people of multiple nationalities were among victims of Hamas killed at a music festival in southern Israel near the Gaza border.
Journalists don't often tell their own stories, but on Sabbath in Tel Aviv, Shanna Fuld found herself in the middle of one.
"It feels apocalyptic," she said. "I personally had to run into my stairwell to take cover and I heard a rocket. It sounded like it had crashed right outside my home. I wasn't wrong about that because it crashed five blocks north of where I live."
At midnight in the Middle East, she shared her story with FOX 10, so other Americans know exactly what the invasion feels like.
"People are always concerned or worried to say something that might put them into a box. This is a very clear invasion of Hamas into Israel," she said.
Jewish Americans in Arizona, like state representative Alma Hernandez, say they haven't been able to turn off the TV.
"We were in a briefing earlier with soldiers from the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and we were being told that this is the highest number of Jews that have been killed since the holocaust in one time," she said.
Forty-eight hours into the war, dozens of people gathered at Tempe Town Lake to host a pro-Palestine rally.
"I think it’s gotten to a point where Palestinians really have not very many options being in an open-air prison," a rally-goer named Finn Rowe said. "We don’t necessarily support a fundamentalist group like Hamas, but it is unfortunately one of the only groups that has the power to stand up for Palestinians."
The United States put Hamas on the foreign terrorist organizations list in 1997. Those in support of Palestine say they are just hoping for solutions.
"It’s not necessarily about supporting the attacks in that way, but it’s about supporting Palestinians's right to defend themselves under this occupation," Rowe said.
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Social media showed Hamas fighters parading what appeared to be stolen Israeli military vehicles through the streets while an angry crowd shouted "God is Greatest."
Rep. Hernandez calls it "beyond upsetting."
"This rally that they're having is literally celebrating the slaughtering of the Jews that just happened," she said.
The United States is sending additional help through the Navy and Air Force to the Israeli Defense Forces.