PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — As the death toll rises in Israel and Gaza, families across Jacksonville are having to watch the horrors from a distance.
Rabbi Nochum Kurinsky of Chabad at the Beaches has a niece in Israel right now. She's okay, but hasn't been able to get a flight home.
He’s seeing the images from Israel while also consoling families in his congregation who are worried about their own families overseas.
“I was just there a couple of years ago," said Kurinsky. "We dedicated a fire station.”
Kurinsky has spent the past few days thinking about that trip to Israel, when he took a bike ride from the North end to the South end, riding through 22 different cities.
Now, he’s having to watch as those cities are engulfed in war.
“The city up north where we left from is under direct fire from Hezbollah and down south, all along Be'er Shevah, every single city," said Kurinsky.
Nancy Soderberg served as a UN ambassador under President Bill Clinton.
She explained Israel was formed by the UN Security Council after World War II by dividing up Palestinian land to provide both sovereign nations.
“Israel said yes and created the state of Israel, and the Palestinians said no and went to war many times with Arab support to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and failed every time," said Soderberg.
She says while she was an ambassador, peace talks between Israel and Palestine gained a lot of traction in 2001.
“In the end, failed, and it’s been a slow boil really ever since," said Soderberg.
Soderberg says the future of Gaza, Iran’s role and whether the conflict escalates outside of Israel are issues she’ll be following as the situation develops.
Kurinsky pointed out this all happened when his congregation was supposed to be celebrating a holiday. He doesn’t want it to cast a shadow on that celebration next year.
“This holiday will forever be more powerful," said Kurinsky. "Yeah there will be a lot of mixed emotion, but we’re not going to cut back in any way, if anything, we’ll do quite the contrary.”
Kurinsky is encouraging anyone feeling like they can’t do anything from thousands of miles away to help by performing acts of kindness.