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Rabbi Chaim Zippel poses for a photo with his son, Toviah, in his Lehi home on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Zippel's home serves as Chabad of Utah County, a Jewish meeting place.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald file photo

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Rabbi Chaim Zippel writes notes in his Lehi home on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Zippel's home serves as Chabad of Utah County, a Jewish meeting place.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald file photo

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Rabbi Chaim Zippel reads the Chumash, a Torah in printed form, in his Lehi home on Thursday, April 20, 2023. Zippel's home serves as Chabad of Utah County, a Jewish meeting place.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald file photo

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The Jewish culture and traditions are all about God and families. They love and support each other, including extended family members. That is why Rabbi Chaim Zippel traveled to Israel with his wife, Esty, and their 1-year-old son to help celebrate her young brother’s bar mitzvah.

But he couldn’t have predicted the tragedy that would befall the country during his stay.

Following the recent high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Zippel and his family left to meet up with Esty’s relatives in the town of Omer, about an hour from Gaza.

They spent a week traveling throughout Israel and then came back to an uncle’s home for the end of the festivities.

“I put our baby to sleep in peace on Friday night (Oct. 6),” Zippel said. “At 6:29 a.m. Saturday, Sabbath, the red-alert sirens went off. We had no phones, no TV and no radio. We were unaware of how bad it was.”

Zippel noted that there are military flare-ups every few months between Israelis and Palestinians. “As jarred as I was, my relatives were kind of calm,” he said. “They were used to it.”

But Zippel said they learned by word of mouth how bad it really was. At 9 a.m., the men of the family started walking toward the synagogue. A car pulled up next to them and the male driver had one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand held a gun. He was yelling at them to get inside, that there was chaos and terrorists, kidnapping and murdering in the streets.

An assault by the Palestinian political entity Hamas on Saturday killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers — a toll unseen in Israel for decades — and the ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to The Associated Press, citing intelligence from authorities on both sides.

Zippel and the others ran back home, gathered the family and all went to the bomb shelter.

“I wasn’t sure I was able to get out, but knew I had to,” Zippel said. His thoughts were about the people connected to his Chabad in Lehi.

While they had tickets on Delta Air Lines, they learned the only planes flying were the Jewish airline El Al. Zippel called and told the reservationist to get him and his family anywhere.

“They said they had two tickets to Zurich, Switzerland, and that they needed to know (immediately) if I was going to take them,” Zippel said. “We were to leave Tel Aviv airport on the 8 a.m. flight the next day.”

He said they were going to leave at 3 a.m. for Tel Aviv, but around midnight Hamas had launched about 300 rockets toward the airport. The little family also had to travel in the dark around Gaza to get to the airport.

“With God’s help, it went smooth,” Zippel said. They caught the plane and landed in Zurich and learned that Delta had canceled all flights in and out of Israel until November.

The family couldn’t get a plane to the U.S. for 25 hours so Zippel had to get a hotel. Day-of plane tickets, hotels and food are not cheap. Keeping a 1-year-old calm is stressful too, but Zippel and his young family were protected.

It took almost 50 hours get home from Israel. Zippel says they are in constant communication with Esty’s family. Two uncles are rabbis and have been called to help with numerous funerals. Other uncles have been called to gather food and supplies for those in need.

Zippel doesn’t plan on returning to Israel for a while. “At the current moment, our community needs us here. I focus on the now of this,” he said.

He said the terrorists have done unthinkable things.

His message to the community is this: “Everyone should use your platforms to support Israel and find peace through goodness and kindness.”

Following in the footsteps of his father, Rabbi Benny Zippel, who established the first Orthodox synagogue — Chabad Lubavitch of Utah — in the state about 30 years ago, Chaim Zippel opened the Utah County Chabad in Lehi 10 months ago and there are now between 45 and 50 people who celebrate and worship there. For the first time, Utah County Jews of all kinds have a gathering place to have meaningful experiences, pray, celebrate, educate and be educated, and get to know one another.

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