Members of Haifa synagogue ravaged by Hezbollah rocket vow to rebuild

HAIFA – The “miracle” in the synagogue in Haifa hit by Hezbollah rockets on Saturday evening wasn’t that the Torah scrolls inside the holy ark were spared.

“The great miracle is that we all weren’t praying there when the rockets fell,” longtime worshiper Gershon Saft told The Times of Israel on Sunday afternoon as he stood next to the ruins of the study hall that is part of Avot Uvanim (Fathers and Sons) synagogue in Haifa’s Carmel neighborhood on the top of Mt. Carmel.

“Two hours before the attack, 20 of us were inside,” Saft said, noting that after the worshipers had finished the Havdalah service that marked the end of the Sabbath, they went home.

Two hours later, 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon in the attack, with the IDF reporting that some were intercepted. The historic 150-year-old stone study hall building was destroyed and the main synagogue was lightly hit. The synagogue’s events hall, which was temporarily housing a private preschool, was damaged, along with dozens of adjacent apartments. Cars were smashed and several people were lightly wounded. But nobody was killed.

“It was a great miracle,” Saft said.

Hezbollah has targeted Haifa and fired hundreds of rockets at it in recent weeks as Israel stepped up its strikes in Lebanon aiming to push the terror group away from the border and make it safe for tens of thousands of displaced residents of northern Israel to return home.

Hezbollah began launching missiles at Israel over a year ago in support of its ally Hamas following the terror attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Signs of destruction

All around the synagogue were signs of destruction from the Saturday night rocket attack when The Times of Israel visited there early this week: burnt cars on the pockmarked street, shattered windows and a glass case displaying the synagogue’s prayer hours lying in the rubble.

As some workers set about restoring electricity to the area, others inspected the damage and hung a few defiant Israeli flags on the side of the building.

Workers had attempted to enter the study hall to remove the Torah scrolls but stopped because of the danger of collapse. Reached by telephone on Monday, Shlomo Gerst, head of the synagogue’s steering committee, said that the scrolls had finally been extracted, undamaged.

“We were relieved that we were able to rescue them,” Gerst said. “Thank God nobody was hurt but there was extensive damage.”

Hundreds of books housed in the study hall, including a 200-year-old edition of the Talmud, were ruined.

For now, synagogue members are praying elsewhere. Saft said they would be able to return to the main synagogue building, which suffered far less damage, as soon as the bomb shelter becomes accessible again. Saft also said that they plan to restore the study hall as soon as possible.

“It will be even more beautiful,” Saft promised.

Immediately after the attack, members of the Haifa police force, fire department, Magen David Adom emergency response team, and the Home Front Command headed to the site, according to Eliran Tal, a Haifa municipality spokesman.

“Our first goal was to check on residents and then make sure there were no other bombs or potential hazards,” Tal said.

“Because the building had a basement, it absorbed the shock of the rocket,” he said. “The bomb went deep into the earth, and there was a smaller radius of damage.”

By early Sunday morning, Haifa’s emergency response team and social workers had set up a tent on the street to help residents. In the afternoon, Yaffa Peleg, 76, dazed and in shock, sat under the tent with a black eye, a bloodied nose, and bandages on her hand and foot.

She said that she and her husband were in their third-floor apartment opposite the synagogue when the sirens went off, signaling incoming rockets. Haifa residents have 60 seconds to reach a shelter.

As soon as they heard the sirens, Peleg said, she and her husband headed for the shelter at the bottom of the building. But they didn’t make it.

“There was a very loud boom, and suddenly, everything went dark, and I was blown off my feet and fell down the stairs,” Peleg said. “My husband couldn’t find me in the darkness. Once he did, he called an ambulance.”

Peleg spent the night at Bnei Zion Hospital and was released in the morning.

“I can’t describe what it was like,” Peleg said as she sat next to some of her belongings taken from her apartment. The couple, along with dozens of other residents in nearby buildings, will stay at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Haifa until other living arrangements are made.

“My mother is a hero,” said Shany Peleg, standing next to her.

Saving Haifa’s history

The synagogue and study hall are situated on Keller Street, named after Fritz Keller, the German vice counsel in Haifa, who built a summerhouse two doors down from the synagogue building in the late 1800s. Keller was part of the German Templers, devout Christians who had moved to Haifa in 1868 to build what they called the Holy Land.

In Haifa, they founded the suburb of Carmelheim — now known as the Carmel neighborhood — on the top of Mount Carmel. The area is full of trees and parks, as well as historic stone buildings.

Keller’s summerhouse became the University of Haifa’s Gottlieb Schumacher Institute for the Study of the Christian Presence in the Land of Israel.

The building’s roof was damaged in the attack. The institute posted an emergency announcement on social media requesting help to move historical materials from the building before the forecasted rains.

Some 30 volunteers worked all Sunday, moving through the institute’s rooms, dim without electricity, using flashlights and cellphones to pack up whatever they could. Volunteers carried cartons of documents and books up the stairs and to the street, where a truck waited to take them to a storeroom. On the sidewalk, next to books and posters, was a battered old leather suitcase with travel stickers, including one for Victoria Station.

“The institute has information dating back to the Templer period in Haifa,” said David Algrisi, the logistics manager of the institute. He said they were working against the clock to save the materials, even enlisting his son, who had flown into Israel from New York at 5 a.m. that morning.

“We’re saving the history of the city,” Algrisi said.

The reality of rocket attacks

“This is an open wound in the community,” said Sara Barnea, a Haifa resident who lives about 10 minutes away. She stood with a crowd of onlookers at one cordoned-off end of Keller Street and said that she often walked down the street because it is just behind the Haifa Auditorium and parallel to Carmel’s main boulevard.

Barnea said that she has gotten used to the Hezbollah rocket attacks that seem to come “almost every other day.”

If she’s walking in the street when sirens sound, she said, “If there’s no protection, I just try to accept my fate.”

Barnea observed that Haifa residents seemed unfazed as they walked through the streets, took buses, and rode the Carmelite light rail up and down the mountainous city.

On Jaffa Street in downtown, near the Haifa Bay port, Michal Menachem, a singer, and Alex Kolonaty, who owns Studio Double B, a music studio, were sitting at a café.

“There are times we’re scared, but we have to keep on living,” said Menachem, who said she would be performing at Alf Bar across the street the following weekend.

“If I am afraid, the terrorists win,” added Kolonaty. “Terror is all they have.”