Attack on Israel hits close to home

TYLER — The Rabbi of Congregation Beth El, the Jewish Synagogue in Tyler, says his teenage daughter and two members of the Beth El congregation are currently trying to make their way home from Israel. Rabbi Neal Katz says he has been in constant communication with his daughter and that he hopes she will be leaving her high school studies in Tel Aviv to return to East Texas this week. He says his Synagogue members have had to go to a bomb shelter twice already this week. He says all he can do is pray for them.

EAST TEXAS — East Texas man barely escapes from Israel before terrorist attacks. As a Sunday school teacher for more than 40 years, visiting the Holy Land was the dream of a lifetime for John Ray, of Carthage. With soldiers and security guards everywhere, he felt secure. He flew out of Tel Aviv the day before the terrorist attacks, and did not hear about them until he was back home in Carthage. Ray says he thinks about his tour guide, a 55-year-old woman with a son in the Israeli military who was getting out in two weeks. “Thank God my son has not seen war,” she said.