(RNS) — The Israel-Iran conflict that broke out on Friday (June 13) has already resulted in more than 20 deaths in Israel and well over 100 in Iran as of Monday morning, but its impact is being felt around the world as synagogues and other Jewish institutions are locking down against possible attacks.
“There’s heightened security all over Jewish places,” Rabbi Menachem Lazar, a Chabad rabbi in Rome, told Religion News Service. “Both from our own security and police.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters Sunday that security agencies in his country are preparing in case Iran targets Israeli or Jewish institutions. France’s Interior Ministry sent out a dispatch ordering local authorities to heighten security around “places of worship, schools, state and institutional buildings, sites with high traffic,” with a special focus on “Israeli and U.S. interests as well as to establishments in the Jewish community.”
Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, have long been suspected of retaliating for Israel’s actions by attacking Jews abroad. Argentine prosecutors have consistently pointed fingers at Hezbollah for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed 86 and injured hundreds, the most deadly attack in Argentine history.
More recently, Turkish and Israeli intelligence reported that they had thwarted an alleged Iranian plot to target Israeli tourists in Istanbul in 2022, and Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates last fall. Kogan was serving as an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement in Abu Dhabi when he was picked up by three Uzbek nationals in November and murdered outside the city.
Iran’s embassy in the UAE has denied any involvement in the killing.
Threats have been increasing this week as Iran and Israel trade missiles. “We’ve seen a rise in antisemitic posts online, which was already so high since Oct. 7,” said Yael Landman, the director of EUCARE, a program that provides security awareness training and security advice to Jewish communities in Europe.
Meanwhile, the closing of Israel’s airspace after the first strikes on Thursday left at least 150,000 Israelis stranded abroad and foreigners in Israel unable to leave. Many flights on their way to Israel when the bombings began were diverted to Europe, and by Friday morning, with the Sabbath fast approaching, hundreds of religious Jews found themselves unexpectedly in unfamiliar places.
Mark Feldman, CEO of the Jerusalem-based Diesenhaus Travel Agency, told Religion News Service on Sunday that once Ben Gurion Airport reopens, passengers stranded due to the cancellation of earlier flights “may have to wait weeks” to procure a seat back to Israel.
On Monday, the Israeli airline El Al announced that it was planning a “rescue” initiative with the Ministry of Transportation to gradually bring Israelis home. The airline posted an online registration form for Israelis whose flights were canceled. Within an hour, more than 50,000 people had flocked to the website, with a wait time of more than an hour.
Rachel Sharansky Danziger’s El Al flight from the U.S. to Israel was a half hour away from Ben Gurion Airport when the plane suddenly headed to Europe with no explanation from the flight crew. “We knew that this wasn’t just another Houthi missile attack,” said Danziger, a writer and educator, referring to the Yemeni militant group that has been launching missiles toward Israel in recent weeks.
Confined to the plane for hours, the passengers shared internet hot spots to contact the outside world. “People were going out of their way to be kind, to hold each other’s children” to give parents a break, Danziger said. “Flight attendants put out toys.”
Jewish communities have mobilized to lodge and feed those stranded by the war.
Shimshon Horn’s flight left Milan an hour late on Friday and was only minutes from Israel when it made a U-turn and instead landed in Cyprus. Israel has signaled that the island, about 175 miles from Haifa, will be a gathering point to bring stranded Israelis back home by ship while the country’s airspace remains closed. (The Times of Israel reported that ships filled with some 1,500 participants in the Birthright Israel program, which brings young Jews to Israel every year, set sail for Cyprus on Tuesday in hopes of getting them home from there.)
Horn and his fellow travelers have been supported by local Chabad Rabbi Itzik Eisenbach and his family, who prepared Sabbath meals and services for them. For many religious Jews, the Sabbath is a time of disconnection when they don’t turn electrical devices or lights on or off manually, and cooked food must be prepared in advance. Outside of cities or towns with major Jewish populations, kosher food is often hard to find.
“It’s not obvious to get a call at 4 in the morning that hundreds of people have arrived and you would prepare a synagogue and food for them in a few hours,” Horn said. “It really was amazing.”
Horn described a level of camaraderie rarely seen, with ultra-Orthodox Jews alongside secular ones. “One was from Milan, one from New York, one from London, but we were all together as one, with one heart,” Horn said. “It wasn’t a Chabad house for (religious Jews); it was for all, and everyone felt comfortable.”
In Rome, where several flights to Israel were diverted, the Jewish community set up a hotline to support the displaced Jewish travelers.
“I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, and I see that my phone is going crazy. Our WhatsApp was getting like, messages like nonstop,” said Rabbi Menachem Lazar, a Chabad rabbi in Rome. “We got almost 300 people writing to us.”
By Friday night Lazar had more than 100 people in his home for the Sabbath meal. Other members of Rome’s Jewish community opened their doors as well, as did several kosher restaurants and caterers.
Lazar is working with leaders of Italy’s Jewish community organization, UCEI, to make sure the unexpected guests have a place to stay and can manage their lives from abroad as best they can.
Many individual Jews are also pitching in, offering space where they can. Marcelle von Wendland, a technology executive and entrepreneur who lives in London, offered a room by posting in a Jewish Facebook group.
“I’m Jewish myself, and this is a way to really help people,” Wendland said. “I’ve experienced so much hospitality from the Jewish community and wanted to offer the same.”
During the past few years, while she was volunteering in Israel, several Israelis invited her for Shabbat meals and helped her find places to stay. “It’s really special to know that when someone needs help, we stick together, especially now, when antisemitism is rising,” Wendland told RNS.
EUCARE’s Landman said that those stranded are not only struggling to find accommodations, but afraid for themselves. “There’s already stress for their families. Some have kids stuck under the missiles in Israel. So, there’s a mix of, you know, being scared for your own family and your friends, but also, what is going to happen to them in Europe and around an increase in antisemitic acts and hate speech.”
Michele Chabin contributed to this story from New York.