Jewish Leaders In Oklahoma React to War In Israel

Here in Oklahoma, members of the Jewish and Israeli communities are feeling the effects of conflict in Israel.

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Local leaders say they are feeling hopeless as they watch their loved ones suffer.

"It really is so difficult," Edie Roodman, executive director of the Oklahoma Israeli Exchange, said. "It's heartbreaking and it's traumatizing."

As their beloved country turns to a warzone, Israeli and Jewish Oklahomans watch from half a world away.

"What has made this so difficult and made me feel so raw?" Roodman, who is married to an Israeli, said. "I thought of israel as the safe haven for the Jewish people and these pictures over the last 48 hours have shattered that."

Pictures of war have been pouring out of Israel since the conflict began.

"Children being ripped from their parents, elderly being dragged, youth that were celebrating the end of a Jewish holiday in the most joyous of manner being shot to death," Roodman recounted of the things she's seen online.

Roodman's family in Israel is safe, but not unaffected.

"They have not gone unscathed because the trauma of what's happening in the country at large is so real," she said.

Local organizations are gearing up to support families like Roodman's.

"How are we going to respond to this as a community?" Rachel Johnson, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater OKC, said.

She says it's time to be there for each other.

"We will find a way to come together as a community to support one another since we can't physically be there," Johnson said.

The hardest part-- according to Johnson and Roodman.

"There's a sense of helplessness," Johnson said.

"Almost like a sense of dread," Roodman added.

Roodman is holding on to a better picture of Israel.

"Israel is a country that follows a guiding tenant, 'tikkun olam,' which means repair of the world," Roodman explained.

"That's brutality that we don't understand," she added, referencing the attacks on Israel. "That's a mentality that we don't understand. That is not humane values."

If you want to donate to the Jewish Federations efforts to send aide to Israel, click here.