JTA — When he arrived Thursday morning at Taboonia, the Druze restaurant he owns in Chelsea, Raif Rashed still didn’t know that two Israeli embassy employees had been gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington, DC.

When he was told of the attack by a reporter, he exhaled: “Wow, wow, wow.”

Then, half-jokingly, he said his restaurant was open for anyone who needed a warm and safe space.

“I mean, when is all that going to be done?” he said. “If you feel — if you feel scared, you can come by. Don’t worry, we can protect you!”

Like a not-insignificant share of Israelis, Rashed has personal experience with violence. He’s lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, since 2019 but was in Israel on October 7, 2023, and narrowly escaped the Hamas terror attack at the Nova music festival.

He also wasn’t the only Israeli in New York City to react to the murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim with responses honed in a country that has become used to terror attacks: initial shock, resignation and then a resolve to press on.

“It’s frightening and it’s difficult to leave it aside when it hits so close to home,” said Erela Nornberg, a family and child therapist. “But on the other hand, these things happen from time to time, and Israelis know that life must go on.”

Nornberg, like Rashed, has made it her job to create an inviting space for Israelis. After October 7, she founded the Israeli Hug Center on the Upper West Side to offer support groups and services to Israelis.

She extended drop-in hours on Thursday evening, anticipating that some people will feel a desire to connect after what happened in Washington.

But she said she understood that others........

© The Times of Israel