Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed sorrow on Thursday over the wildfires raging in Southern California that have killed at least five people, led to the evacuation of tens of thousands from their homes and consumed more than 25,000 acres of land and property worth billions of dollars.
“I am deeply saddened by the terrible wildfires in Los Angeles. From Israel, I send encouragement to all those affected, and my support to the president of the United States [Joe Biden], Governor Gavin Newsom, the U.S. government, and the state of California,” Herzog said in a statement.
“We are following with concern and admiration the heroic efforts of the first responders, firefighters, policemen, paramedics and volunteers who are risking their lives to save others,” he added.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected so terribly as well as with our Jewish sisters and brothers, mourning the loss of synagogues and institutions, while stepping up to help their communities and beyond,” the president concluded.
The destruction “is just devastating at the moment,” according to Noah Farkas, a rabbi and the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation Los Angeles.
“Fires devastate so much more than just property,” Farkas told JNS. “They devastate memories, connections to places. It’s hard to go back to a park where you used to play with your family and have that just be gone.”
The fire feels like previous ones in many ways, but “in other ways, it’s totally unprecedented because it’s everywhere at once,” Farkas said. Still, he thinks that the federation and some of its related agencies can handle the local Jewish community’s urgent needs.
“We’ve been operating at this heightened tempo for so long after Oct. 7,” he said.
Daniel Sher, associate rabbi of Kehillat Israel, a Reconstructionist synagogue in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, spoke through tears in an Instagram video, in which he described his home going up in flames.
“I cannot begin to describe the feeling that I’m currently holding, as I hear from so many beloved community members, who’ve lost their homes, while my family has found out we’ve lost our home,” he said in the video.
“Our community that we love so dearly is in disarray,” Sher added. “But I do know that we will continue to care for one another, to reach out to one another and we will rebuild.”
