TULSA, Okla. — Liora Eilon and her two granddaughters Mika and Gali had just celebrated the Jewish holiday of Sukkot with other family members in their kibbutz village near Gaza when Hamas fighters attacked October 7.
Gali’s father, the kibbutz’s civilian defense team leader, was killed in the ensuing fight.
The granddaughters helped their grandmother light candles for him in a moment of silence Saturday inside the B’nai Emunah Synagogue off Peoria Avenue in front of a small audience.
“It was very important to them to go and tell the truth. And it was important to us to bring to the people of Tulsa the opportunity to hear these stories firsthand, and by that becoming witnesses themselves,” Shachaf Feinkuchen said. Feinkuchen serves as the Israeli Emissary for the Jewish Federation of Tulsa and worked to bring the three women to Tulsa to tell their stories amid the current war.
The synagogue's Rabbi Daniel Kaiman told 2 News it’s the hardest stories that must be told.
“I think that’s meaningful for how we shape community,” Rabbi Kaiman said.
The war itself has reached the point of a major humanitarian crisis, continuing even after the recent ceasefire.
In fact, the majority of the dead are Palestinian civilians in Gaza killed by Israeli bombings.
Kaiman said that tragedy cannot be forgotten either.
"I'm not a politician. I don’t represent the State of Israel. I'm a Jewish person in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” he said.
“What I do know is that when tragedy happens, humanitarian crises are happening, the human condition is to respond.”
“If there were three Gazans coming through Tulsa tonight I would be happy to hear their stories as well. I think those are important stories that we need to be sharing."
Saturday's talk was the last on a tour of visits for the women before they return home, but they know it will be a much different home than the one they knew before.
"And this is only one story of hundreds of stories in my community, our community,” Eilon said at the end of the event.
The three women said they survived by hiding in the grandmother’s house’s safe-room for 35 hours with no food or water even as Hamas members tried to break through.
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