Tali Speizman is a physical therapist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, but right now, she is more than 5,000 miles away.

“I would not forgive myself if I’m not going to go in and do whatever I can,” Speizman said on a recent Zoom call.

Speizman is back in her hometown in Israel after Hamas killed more than 1,400 Israelis earlier this month.

The difference between life in her hometown compared to the city she lives in now could not have been more stark on the call.

“Sorry. I need to go because there are alarms. I will talk to you later," Speizman said as she ran out of the room in her parents' home.

A few minutes later she texted that she would be back shortly, and the interview continued.

“Thank God everyone I’m with are OK,” Speizman said.

But everyone in her family is not OK. She had multiple family members die in the terrorist attack.

“My dad’s cousin’s wife who was 82 was also dead and I loved that woman dearly,” Speizman said, referencing the initial Oct. 7 attack.

Speizman knew in her heart she had to come back to Israel. But what would she do? She wasn’t sure.

“If I just stay at home and scroll through social media, this is not the person I am. This is not the person I was raised to be,” Speizman said.

Speizman thinks about her dad, who was in New York City 50 years ago when the Yom Kippur War broke out. He returned to Israel to serve.

“So I think that the more we grow up the more we realize that values are in doing, not about talking,” Speizman said.

For two whole days, she took planes to get to Israel. In less than a week, she attended three separate funerals for family members.

Now she is volunteering in central Israel at a hospital that had been short-staffed.

“A lot of people got called back to the army. A few people were injured. A few people are grieving over close family that died,” Speizman said.

Speizman treats people injured from the initial terrorist attack and others as the war has continued.

Speizman booked a one-way ticket to Israel. She has no idea when she will be back in New York. But she says the support in the city has been unbelievable.

Her colleagues at Mount Sinai raised money for her and donated their own time off, in an effort to prevent her from needing to take unpaid time off.

And her landlord? He has waived her Upper East Side rent.

“Everyone went above and beyond. My colleagues, my friends, my landlord. The community,” Speizman said.

Speizman takes everything one day at a time. She does not know how long she will help at the hospital, but for now, it is where she knows she is needed. And that, to her, is good enough.

"We’re just ready to, trying to be ready for whatever may come,” Speizman said.