Jewish community center in Arlington gathering supplies for Israeli families
ARLINGTON - Local Jewish organizations are collecting supplies to send to Israel to support the victims of the Hamas attacks.
"The amazing thing about Israelis is that we comfort each other in our times of need," said Shirly Gurten, a member of the Center for Jewish Life in Arlington.
"We're preparing boxes to send to Israel for supporting of the villages that are close to the border of Gaza. We're packing up diapers, baby clothes, toys and anything we can to help and support them," said Gurten, who was born near Jerusalem where many of her family members still live.
"My entire family is there, I moved to the U.S. by myself. We keep communicating with them constantly and checking what they need and based on that we're asking for donations," said Gurten.
A way to help from so far away.
"Being so far away we feel a little bit helpless there's nothing we can do, so we do what we can," said Gurten.
"I brought suitcases, toiletries, I looked around my house to see what I had," said Tara Mathur who lives in Arlington.
"We're privileged in so many ways, one of the ways is we have so much volume of things in our homes already and so it wasn't hard to look in my drawers to see what's useful," said Tara Mathur.
The supplies will be heading to Logan Airport then placed on an El Al flight, one of the only airlines allowed to land in Israel, before they're given to the people who need them.
"We have a point of contact in Israel that is currently on the ground and is going to receive supply shipments. No one is running away from this, this is our home and we're going to protect it," said Gurten.
The center does not want us to say where exactly these supplies are being sent for security purposes but they will be arriving in the coming days.