ST. LOUIS — Madison Pines boarded an international flight out of St. Louis just months ago to teach English to students in the Middle East. Now, she's bunkered down and has no idea when she'll be able to return home.
"Within minutes, we were in a bomb shelter," Pines said. "Watching as we got red alerts hearing the sirens. When we had a break, we could go out on our balcony and you could see rockets."
The Hamas militant group launched an attack against Israel and breached the Palestine-Israel border in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. Hundreds on both sides of the conflict have been killed, with thousands of others badly hurt.
"It's an atmosphere filled with terror," Pines said. "We see Israeli families be taken hostage. We are seeing rockets exploding in front of us. We don't know what's happening. The airport is currently shut down. We don't know if we need to leave. We don't know if we can leave."
As Pines is trapped with a war raging around her, supporters back home are working to provide aid. The Jewish Federation of St. Louis is one of those organizations, mobilizing the area's Jewish community for the past 120 years to generate support during times of crisis, including the recent attack.
"It has never been like this since the founding of [Israel]. This is unprecedented," Federation President and CEO Brian Herstig said. "Every single person has to help defend it."
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