SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Thousands of people gathered in Sandy Springs Tuesday evening to show their support for Israel.
Rabbi Mark Zimmerman said he has struggled to watch what's happening in Israel from afar.
"So many of us have seen the videos, the incredible barbarity... Atrocities that are frankly, just too horrific to even say on TV," the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom in Dunwoody said. "We're just a very scared and traumatized community right now."
His son lives in Tel Aviv, where sirens keep going off. Zimmerman said he's one of the lucky ones.
"All they have to deal with is making sure they're nearby a shelter.," he said. "But the brutal attacks, a thousand people killed, way more than that injured — the absolute brutality is just unfathomable."
He helped organize two buses from Dunwoody to the rally in Sandy Springs, where officials estimate nearly 4,000 people showed up.
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"It really is gratifying that we have that love and support now at this just deeply difficult, traumatizing time," he said. "At a time when anti-Semitism is ticking up around the country and around the world, you have no idea how touching and reassuring it is to the Jewish community just to know that we're not alone, that people care and people are standing together."
Nearly a dozen metro Atlanta leaders spoke at Tuesday's gathering to show their support for Israel.
"It is horrific. It is heartbreaking. Too many lives have been lost, too many people injured, too many families are suffering," Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said. "At times it seems like this crisis is insurmountable and that there is nothing that we can do. But we know that that is simply not true."
Sen. Raphael Warnock and Gov. Brian Kemp delivered remarks on pre-recorded videos. A representative for Sen. Jon Ossoff read a statement on his behalf to the audience.
"The American people and the people of Georgia stand in support of and, in solidarity with, the Israeli people at this moment of outrage and tragedy," Ossoff said. "I want to share that for all Georgians with family and friends in Israel who require consular support, my office is in constant touch with the State Department and can assist."
The event was organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
"I hate that we have to gather like this. But, I love that I have all of you to gather with," President and CEO Eric Robbins said. "Our family has been traumatized. Not since the Holocaust have we seen this many Jewish lives taken in one day.... being together can help numb the pain."