Linda Maurice woke up Saturday morning to a flurry of “please stay safe” messages in a group text of friends from when she lived in Israel. Many of the friends, like Maurice, now live in the United States, but one friend still in Israel had written to the group and told them the nation was under attack. 

Early Saturday morning in Israel, sirens sounded as Hamas militants carried out surprise attacks, murdering hundreds of civilians and prompting Israel to strike back on the Gaza Strip and declare war on Sunday. With a death toll of at least 2,600 on both sides, including at least 27 Americans, the United States announced evacuation flights for Americans on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. 

Maurice, executive director for the Jewish Council of North Central Florida, said while she does not know anyone who has been killed or kidnapped, she has heard of many through her friends and family, including a missing 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who went to the same Jewish summer camp as Maurice’s children. 

“We just have to pray that that he’ll get out safely, and hope. That’s all we can do,” Maurice said in a phone interview. 

Jews in America have heavy hearts about the situation, Maurice said, but they also feel overwhelmed by an overabundance of internet fundraisers, and do not know where to contribute. From her position with the Jewish Council, Maurice has tried to direct the community in North Central Florida on the most efficient ways to help. 

The friend who texted Maurice’s group chat is chief of staff for an Israeli medical response organization called United Hatzalah, which Maurice said ran out of supplies in the first three days of the unexpected war, and now is raising money for supplies. She also directs people to the Jewish Federations of North America and Brothers and Sisters for Israel. 

Maurice said there are also many young “lone soldiers,” Jews who moved to Israel without their families, and who community members can write letters to through the Israel Forever Foundation. She said the Jewish Council may hold a fundraising event in the future, but she expects the war to go on for an extended period of time and said the current focus is on filling immediate needs. 

Rabbi David Kaiman, who serves at Congregation B’nai Israel in Gainesville, says he and every member of his congregation have friends and family in Israel and the surrounding territories. Kaiman said this is not a sign of how tight-knit the global Jewish community is, but evidence of how small it is. 

“Everybody knows someone who was killed just recently, over the weekend, or kidnapped,” Kaiman said in a phone interview. “We [the Jewish community] are a small community, Israel is a small country. So, this is family.” 

Kaiman said he is in daily contact with his own relatives in Israel, several of whom are serving active-duty military service. He said no one he knows is currently in immediate danger, but the whole area is dangerous, and he is worried for their safety. 

Local Jews also worry about their own safety, Kaiman said. While pro-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstrations span the globe, some Jewish circles swirl with talk of a former Hamas leader Khalid Mashal’s call for “global jihad” on Friday to express anger against Jews, according to Rabbi Berl Goldman. 

“We hurt for all the victims on both sides,” Rabbi Kaiman said. “For all those who are involved in the conflict. War is terrible, no matter who is involved, and indeed, we pray for the peace of not only those in the Middle East but those in Ukraine, and in other places where there’s conflict. Peace and security are important for everybody, and we’d like to see a time when everybody can live in peace.” 

Goldman is the director of the University of Florida’s Lubavitch Chabad Jewish Student Center. He and other UF Chabad leaders have offered themselves as available to students for a “call, text, or for a comforting cup of tea coffee, a hug, or a shoulder to cry on,” in a newsletter on Monday. 

The University of Florida (UF) is home to the largest undergraduate Jewish population in the United States, according to a UF Twitter (X) post on Tuesday. When the Jewish student center set up a table on campus starting Monday, Goldman said hundreds of students stopped by on that first day, many of whom are not normally involved with his group. He described students as “heartbroken,” “outraged,” “shocked” and “emotionally devastated.” 

“It is very important that students know that they have to be proud of their religion and faith, and not to be scared,” Goldman said in a phone interview. “Goodness and kindness is ultimately what always prevails, light over darkness, and that we will get through this together as a people, and the nation of Israel has always lived and will continue to live strong.” 

Goldman said UF Chabad is providing opportunities for students to lean into their culture and their faith, performing traditional acts of goodness, or “Mitzvah,” to help build Israel’s strength. 

A Monday newsletter from Chabad UF included a list of suggested Mitzvahs. For men, this can mean wrapping on black leather boxes that hold verses from the Torah. For women, it can mean lighting Shabbat candles on time. The newsletter also encouraged students to engage in prayer, faith and charity, including a donation link to send money to the Israel Relief Fund.  

On Monday night, UF Chabad helped organize a candlelight vigil for Israel at Turlington Plaza, under the university’s iconic Century Tower. Hundreds of students packed the area, listening to speeches and testimonies in support of Israel, including from UF president Ben Sasse. The event was cut short when an attendee fainted and someone’s request to call 911 became a confused panic that sent the crowd running, resulting in about 20 minor injuries. 

“[At the vigil there were] lots of strong feelings of sorrow, of tragedy, but unity,” Goldman said. “A lot of unity and good spirits.”  

Rabbi Goldman’s wife and co-director Chanie Goldman, said people were on edge when they arrived at the vigil, knowing it could be a potential target for violence. Linda Maurice said the Jewish Council is directly communicating with law enforcement to continually evaluate the situation and the safety of Jewish people in North Central Florida. 

“We appreciate all of our North Central Florida community,” Maurice said, “whether Jewish or non-Jewish, for the outreach of support, and just the unity that we have felt and heard in the last couple of days. The community is really coming together to show that we are one community and we are here for each other.” 

The war in Israel has also affected non-Jewish Americans who planned trips to the area.

Jeff Smith, a Micanopy dentist, said the community has also been “over-the-top” supportive since he got a phone call from his daughter Natalie on Saturday and could hear bombs and sirens in the background. She was in Tel Aviv on honeymoon with her husband, and most commercial flights were suspended, including theirs with Delta Airlines. 

By Tuesday, Natalie and her husband Zack had traced down tickets to Istanbul and had that flight canceled, then managed to obtain tickets to Greece. After a “treacherous” car ride to the airport, they sat with a couple who had lost their house after holding the door closed against Hamas terrorists. 

“I have to be optimistic,” Smith said in a phone call on Tuesday. “So I’m cautiously optimistic, but everything keeps getting canceled.”  

On Thursday, the couple arrived in Greece, planning to spend a day in Athens before flying to Atlanta. 

Also on Thursday, the United States and Florida announced plans to help citizens evacuate. Smith said his daughter and son-in-law received forms they no longer needed, allowing access to evacuation if they signed a contract promising to pay back the transportation fees. 

While the couple’s safe return was still in flux, Smith said he lost sleep worrying about his daughter, but felt guilty even for that when so many Israeli and Palestinian families have lost sons and daughters. Now that she is safe, he said he worries about the atrocities she has seen, knowing the trauma can still hurt her mind, and knowing that many others are seeing the same things every day. 

“It’s not even a Palestinian effort,” Smith said on Thursday. “It’s a terrorist group of thugs and criminals that are just animals.”