Clustered in front of the information desk at the Nashville International Airport, a crowd of people sing, dance, wave American and Israeli flags and pass out homemade cupcakes.
They’re gathered to greet a plane carrying about 140 people fleeing the Israel-Hamas war. That group of passengers, mostly U.S. and dual citizens, includes a Holocaust survivor and survivors of Hamas’ initial attack earlier this month. The flight was chartered by the Shai Fund, a nonprofit based in Jerusalem that organized similar rescue flights to evacuate U.S. translators and others from Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrew in 2021.
Maya Hed and her parents left Tel Aviv in a hurry. She said the welcome committee was a pleasant surprise after a long and emotional journey.
“I can feel all the love and how everybody’s so happy to see us. It’s very touching and lovely,” she said.
Getting on that flight was not an easy decision for Sarah Hakim, who is originally from Memphis and moved to Israel about 20 years ago. She said it was hard to leave but that she had to think of her two young children.
“We woke up in the morning to sirens, which is something that unfortunately is not new. But we realized very quickly that we were talking about something of completely different proportions than we had ever seen before,” she said.
Hakim and her family are among dozens of passengers who disembarked here in Nashville, while others continued on to rejoin friends and family in other cities.
Rose Gilbert WPLN News A trio of musicians played for nearly two hours straight, as passengers from Israel began to arrive.
The welcome event was organized by members of the local Jewish community, including Guy Cherkesky, who is originally from Israel.
“I think it will give people the understanding that they’re not alone,” he said. “I want them to feel that warmth. I want them to feel we are welcoming them with everything that we have.”
Lenn Goodman, a Vanderbilt philosophy professor, is hosting a family of six who are his close friends. He said he was relieved to hear they were on the flight, which was organized less than 72 hours before it departed.
“It’s very sudden. War happens very fast, and peace has to happen very fast,” he said.
Earlier this month, Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, killing over 1,400 and abducting nearly 200 people.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, killing over 3,500 people so far. The Gaza Strip is small and densely-populated. And half of its population are children. It has been under blockade for 16 years, which means people living there can’t easily leave.
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