University of Rhode Island students hold a vigil for Israel

KINGSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — Rhode Island communities are still looking for ways to deal with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

On Wednesday, students at the University of Rhode Island held a vigil, taking a moment to hear from their peers and staff in the wake of this chaos.

Dozens of URI students gathered at Hillel, an organization for Jewish students on college campuses, to process the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

Students, professors, and mental health professionals all took time to talk through the attacks that have left nearly a quarter million people displaced in the past few days.

Even 5,000 miles away, staff at Hillel tell ABC 6 News that these attacks hit close to home.

“Some people have lived there themselves, some people have relatives there, some people have friends there, many people have traveled there. So, it’s just one degree of separation of people who are really, personally feeling this,” URI Hillel Executive Director Amy Olson told ABC 6 News.

“A friend of mine told me a story about his niece who escaped the massacre at the music festival by playing dead,” Olson continued.

Stories like that were one of the driving factors of putting this vigil together. The other was trying to find a way to make a difference from here.

One student, who asked to keep her last name private due to safety concerns, told ABC6 she currently has family in Israel who are in hiding.

She’s trying to raise money with local Greek life to help fund emergency services for the hundreds of civilians stuck in the crossfire.

“So united Hatzalah is volunteer-based, and it’s an ambulatory system that works all over Israel,” Mia, a URI student explained.

They’ve raised over $3,000 in just the last few days, and Mia says it can go to just about anything.

“If you go on their website actually, you can choose what you want to sponsor, so if you’re looking to purchase epi-pens, that’s an option. If you want to purchase a trauma kit, that’s an option. If you want to donate an ambulance, by all means, donate an ambulance,” Mia continued.

Mia said she went to high school in Israel and has a lot of family members and friends who she’s been trying to stay in contact with since the conflict began.

“We do vigils every year about the Holocaust. We did a vigil for Ukraine, we did a vigil for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting,” Olson continued.

“None of us knew the people who were shot at that event. It was a communal horror, but not personal. And this is very, very personal,” Olson explained.

Mia says their goal is to raise around $10,000 for united Hatzalah.