By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“I’m scared. I’m truly frightened,” said Mira Guggenheim.
Guggenheim has family in Israel. She watches news reports — the latest rocket attack or artillery barrage — with her heart pounding.
“I have skin in this game. I haven’t slept in three weeks,” she said.
The Guggenheims raised five children in Passaic. As teens, each kid spends at least a year studying in Israel, including 17-year-old Dovi, who called home after three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered.
“I dropped everything, called my parents, let them know I’m OK because I knew the second they would hear that, they’d be hysterical,” Dovi said.
Visiting students won’t get drafted into the Israeli Army, but Dovi plans to return and live there.
“In Israel, you’re being drafted, and if you’re healthy, you’re gonna go into a combat unit, and if you go into combat unit, bullets are flying,” said dad Sal Guggenheim.
“Mom and dad are back home biting their nails,” Mira said.
“I’m gonna lose the few hairs I have left,” said Sal.
Seven miles away, other New Jersey families also watch events developing in Gaza from a different perspective.
Paterson is home to the largest enclave of Palestinians and Turkish-Americans in the U.S. They call this “Little Ramallah.” Everyone’s got family “back home” — and everybody’s worried.
“I have three brothers, with all their families, with the kids,” said Luna Bakery owner Mark Souda.
Souda monitors news broadcasts while preparing pastries for the evening Ramadan meals. His brothers live in an area targeted by artillery.
“Of course, we cannot sleep overnight. We’re worried about them — what happens– with some rockets flying here, there — that’s hit their building,” Souda said.
He says friends in Paterson now greet each other with this question:
“That first question: ‘How’s your family? Everybody is safe?’ ‘Yeah. Thank God.’ Next day — even if I see him next day — ‘They still safe?’ ‘Yeah.’ We’re waiting for the good news, or the bad news,” he said.
Souda just wants the killing to stop on both sides. So does Mira.
“I want my children. I want my children alive — all of them,” she said.
Something both sides can agree on.