SAN ANTONIO – News that took many Americans by storm this past weekend hits especially close to home for one San Antonio man.
Brian Feld has been closely following updates on the war in the Middle East. He said his wife, daughter, mother-in-law and sister-in-law are all in the region, taking cover in bomb shelters in Israel.
“(My wife would) fall asleep, and then the alarms would go off. She’d have to run down to go back to the shelter,” Feld said. “They’ve got minutes to get into the shelter. So my mother-in-law, who’s 76, has been in the shelter nonstop.”
Feld said his wife, Lizette, along with her mother, Raquel Holzman, and her sister, Sharon Contie, all made the trip from San Antonio to their ancestral homeland last week.
They were going to visit the Felds’ 19-year-old daughter, Hannah, who is spending a post-high school year in Israel, studying and doing charity work.
“I was terrified when I got the news of this,” Feld said, referring to the war. “But then I was also grateful that my wife was going to be there to take care of our daughter.”
The family spent a few days touring the country together before bombs began dropping in the region.
Feld said his daughter has since separated from her relatives, traveling back to her group’s home base in Jerusalem.
The other family members, he said, remain in a hotel in Tel Aviv.
Every time an alarm sounds, though, they have to scramble down nine floors to get to an underground bunker for their safety.
“They’re seeing the same people over and over and over again, so they’re kind of forming a little community, and everyone helps each other out,” Feld said.
Here at home, Feld said people in the community have been helping him through this difficult and worrisome time.
“I’ve gotten so many calls and, like, ‘We’re just thinking about you. We’re praying for you,” he said.
While he has no word yet on when his loved ones might be able to return home, Feld said he knows for certain that his daughter will not be among them.
He said his daughter plans to stay and finish out the remainder of her year in Israel.
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