AUGUSTA (WJBF) – Many Jewish people emigrated to Augusta from Eastern Europe from 1880 to 1910. They formed several congregations.

Monday morning, Mary Morrison went to one of the Synagogues where she met with the Rabbi about this horrific attack in Israel.

Adas Yeshurun  is located on Johns Road in Augusta.

We met with Rabbi David Sirull, in a peaceful garden outside the Synagogue.

Inside, a beautiful place of worship where he reflected on the devastating attack on Israel.

Rabbi Sirull said, “We literally found out about it during services early in the morning but we weren’t able to get the whole story until later on, quite awful.”

Rabbi Sirull showed us the location of the Gaza strip on a map. A tiny stretch of land where the attack occurred. Hundreds killed. Thousand’s injured.

We asked him if members of his congregation were directly affected.

Rabbi Sirull said, “Some of our members have family members and at the last service we had a couple of them waiting to hear back, wondering whether or not their family members were ok.  There was one former member of our congregation that is in Israel now that’s living there now and we were able to make contact  with them and they’re ok, thank God.”

Saturday night, the congregation met for a Jewish holiday that was supposed to be a joyous time.

Rabbi Sirull said, “You know the bible commands us to be joyous on that day and that was one real challenge for us, worrying about what was going on in Israel and at the same time, knowing that we are obligated to be joyous and to celebrate this festive day. very challenging for us, no question.”

And no doubt challenging times lie ahead.