"I'm very scared": Brandeis students from Israel worried about family back home
WALTHAM - As images continue to roll in of unprecedented violence in Israel, students from the country who live in Greater Boston sat down with WBZ.
Two students in the group are Jewish Americans, who either studied in Israel, or have extended family in the country. "My mom has just been crying, nonstop," said one student who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It's been a lot for my family."
"As a grandchild of Holocaust survivors, these past few days, it's almost like we went 80 years into the past," said Steven Andrea Berchin, a junior at Brandeis University.
"I'm very scared," said Ofri Levinson through tears. The junior at Brandeis is from Israel, and her entire immediate family is still in their home country. Some relatives have been called up to fight in the war as part of mandatory military service, while the women in her family have started creating care packages to send to soldiers.
Levinson shared a video with WBZ that her father texted to their family group, explaining to them how to lock the door to their safe room, where they have to go during any military strikes or attacks. The video explained "how we make sure that the door cannot open again just in case people come by and try to kill us," Levinson explained. "So the whole family is supposed to get in there, close the door, and just pray."
One scene that continues to replay in Levinson's mind is that of hundreds of people fleeing a music festival when Hamas showed up and began shooting civilians and taking others hostage. "[The festival goers] are all my age, right? Like 20 to 25, people just having fun at a party," she said.
On social media, she saw "the plastic bags with the rows of people. We have stories on social media of our friends, people that I know personally, posting about how they survived from this massacre."
Yuval Gur recently graduated from Berklee College of Music, and still lives in greater Boston. He, too, is from Israel, having served in the Israel Defense Forces following high school graduation. Gur told WBZ his work was focused on nonviolent solutions to conflict. He's frustrated that a terrorist attack on his people is being weaponized for political debate. "You have to do a moral check right now," he explained. "If you are on the side of good and hope, you will stand with us, with Israel. If you are on the side of rape and murder and kidnapping children," you would stand with Hamas, in his opinion.
The attacks in recent days have been described by some officials as the most Jewish people killed in one event since the Holocaust. Gur likened the attacks to September 11. "I don't remember people being on the side of Al-Qaeda when 9/11 happened, right?" he said. "This is exactly the same situation. We are talking about a terror organization that is attacking civilians." Gur lost two friends in the attacks.
"This is not political," added Gonny Nir, a Brandeis Junior, whose family moved out of Israel when she was six years old. "This is about people, and this is about children and about men and women and boys and girls that are getting murdered for no reason. In what world is that right?" she said.
In a letter to the entire student body, Brandeis University President Ron Leibowitz sent a message standing with Israel. "Many of us in the Brandeis community have close family, friends, colleagues, and former classmates and students in the region, and many have spent a frightening day trying to reach those who live there," the email read. "We condemn in strongest way terrorism such as we have seen...perpetrated against innocent civilians."
One thing all students who spoke with WBZ share in common is an appreciation for the community they have formed at Brandeis and in Greater Boston.