WASHINGTON β A crowd gathered inside Washington Hebrew Congregation in Northwest D.C. Monday night.
"It's a time to grieve and a time to come together for peace," said Lindsay Feldman, the Executive Director at Washington Hebrew Congregation.
They prayed together and called for peace.
"We pray as we light this candle that we may bring the light and the light of peace," said one of the speakers.
Another told the crowd "the world as we know it has forever changed."
Many told WUSA9 they've been horrified by what happened and what's happened since the surprise deadly attacks in Israel by Hamas over the weekend.
"It's just an unbelievable situation it's just unreal," said a woman named Jane.
"I have friends over there. I have family over there," said Dan Caplan.
He told WUSA9 what makes it worse is that they don't know what will happen next.
"Nobody is safe right now there is no stability. You can deal with good things and bad things but it's instability that sometimes is the most difficult thing to deal and cope with," said Caplan.
"I have extended family who you know took me in when I was in seminary there and we've reached out but haven't heard back yet," said Rabbi Eliana Fischel.
She told WUSA9 they are sad, but they are standing strong.
"We are going to stand together we're gonna be loud and we're gonna pray," said Rabbi Fischel.
"I want the world to know that we're not going to sit back. This was not a war, this was a massacre," said board member Nancy Duber.