“I felt anger. I kept asking myself, ‘For what purpose was this done? Why? What did they hope to accomplish?”
Laguna Woods Shalom Club co-President Paula Kruger’s sentiments was among the furious, exasperated and aggrieved reactions of the Village’s diverse residents upon learning that Hamas terrorists had invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
More than 3,000 people have been killed on both sides of the border, thousands more have been reported wounded, and around 150 people have been taken hostage by Hamas since the attack began Oct. 7.
Kruger has visited Israel 12 times. She lived with an Israeli citizen for 15 years and served as a volunteer in the Israeli army, so she knows the beleaguered country well, she says.
“I just spoke with someone I consider my Israeli sister and she said, ‘I don’t know anyone who is not going to a funeral.’”
Given the number of Jewish residents in Laguna Woods, some of whom have come from Israel, have family and friends there or who, like Kruger, have visited the Jewish homeland, the shock of the brutal attack reverberated through the community with blunt force.
Nearly 300 residents of varied religious and political persuasions gathered Oct. 9 on the back patio of Clubhouse 1 for a peace vigil organized by Rabbi Joe Mendelsohn of the Reform Temple of Laguna Woods.
“These are not just kids throwing stones … Hamas are terrorists,” Mendelsohn told the gathering. “Hamas murdered Jews across the spectrum – they did not care.”
Mendelsohn made a strong distinction between militants who fight for a political cause and Hamas, who are terrorists.
“Hamas has rejected negotiated settlements with Israel, and they are opposing the Palestinian Authority that would negotiate peace with Israel,” he said. “They are opposed to peace.”
He said this is not a religious war, not a war between Islam and Judaism, and not a war of moral equivalents.
“Yes, there will be noncombatants killed, but…
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