BATON ROUGE, LA. (BRPROUD) – Several members of the Jewish community in the Baton Rouge area are terrified about what they are seeing in Israel. They continue to pray and donate to those in Israel.

One member of the Jewish Community group, Peretz Kazeen of the Chabad at LSU and Greater Baton Rouge says with this war, “Everybody knows someone whose lost a relative or a friend.”

Kazeen says witnessing another attack is painful for him and his family who have friends living in the Jewish homeland of Israel.

“It’s really just old fashion terrorism and hate being allowed to fester and boil and just boil over,” says Kazeen.

According to The Hill, the death toll has reached over 1,200 lives.

The President of the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge, Steve Cavalier, says these are record-high numbers. “This is the largest number of Jewish people that have been killed since the Holocaust,” says Cavalier.

Cavalier says he works with nearly 1,500 Jewish families across the Baton Rouge area. For the last few days, the phones in his office kept ringing off the hook with those sharing their trauma.

“We have families here in town who have friends who were killed,” says Cavalier. He said, “I heard from one person just a few minutes ago whose son is in Israel right now who’s having to stay in a bomb shelter.”

The Congregation and Chabad at LSU and Greater Baton Rouge held online Zoom prayer vigils for people to come together in a time of need.

This weekend marked the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kipper War attack on Israel. That is when Arab forces hoped to regain territory lost during the third Arab-Israeli War in 1967

Cavalier says he was attending college in New Orleans when the Yom Kipper War broke. He calls this surprise attack a “reminiscence of 1973.”

“It just brought back all those horrific memories of that and the unnecessary and tragic slaughter of Jewish people,” says Cavalier.

Local organizations are encouraging the public to educate themselves on the ongoing fight in the Middle East.

“Take a moment to give actively charity and make a difference in the world and making the world a better and brighter place, a place which love really can overcome hate,” says Kazeen.

If you are interested in donating, these are some organizations to consider:

Both organizations will continue to host more prayer vigils throughout the week.