LEXINGTON, Ky. — The death toll continues in the Israel-Hamas war as the conflict rages on.
The Chabad of the Bluegrass’s long-time director, Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, feels the events transpiring mark a new point in history.
He and others are expressing concerns after terrorist attacks by Hamas led to violent conflict in Gaza and Israel.
“There’s been a cycle of violence led by the Hamas as well in the Middle East for a generation. We’ve never seen anything like this,” Litivin described.
He says those acts of violence have recently been verbalized in Lexington.
“The same hateful slogans that are being shouted by terrorists raping women and murdering babies in Israel, ‘From the river to the sea, we’ll kill every Jew,’ has been shouted here in Lexington,” Litvin explained. “Earlier this week, there was a hateful antisemitic rally in which they yelled, ‘From the river to every sea, that all the Jews in Israel should be killed.’”
For five years, Litvin lived and studied in Israel where some close friends and family still live.
Litvin wants people in the U.S. to acknowledge the impact these attacks have across the world.
“As we see this begin in the land of Israel, we know it doesn’t end there. And this is just the beginning. It’s incumbent on us to speak to our elected officials,” he said.
Litvin says veterans of the Israeli defense force who live in Lexington will be serving. Members of the center are currently donating resources to those soldiers and items to aid people in need. He says he also plans to make the trip soon himself.