Members of the Iranian Jewish community gathered to show solidarity with Israel at Eretz Cultural Center. Photo by Karmel Melamed Nearly 400 members of the Iranian Jewish community gathered on Oct. 25 at the Eretz Cultural Center (ECC) in Tarzana for an event to show solidarity with Israel and raise money for three prominent Israeli non-profit groups helping Israelis after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists.
“Eretz Cultural Center’s ‘Stand with Israel’ event was not just about raising funds, but to bring awareness to antisemitism, hate threats on college campuses, educate on the organizations and what they are currently doing for Israel and its people,” ECC Executive Director Rebecca Aghalarpour said. “More importantly this event was about unity.”
The gathering also featured prominent Jewish and non-Jewish community leaders such as Israeli deputy consul general Amit Mekel, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean for the L.A.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and Los Angeles Police deputy chief Allen Hamilton.
“Unfortunately, on that Shabbat, Oct. 7, we all experienced the worst slaughter of Jews since the defeat of Adolf Hitler in 1945,” Cooper said. “Yet from the moment they (Hamas) did that nightmare, we as Jews were awakened with a renewed unity and that kind of unity will help us prevail in the end.”
Aghalarpour said the ECC event raised roughly $300,000, all of which will be donated to the non-profit groups Beit Halochem for IDF Wounded Soldiers, Magbit Foundation and Jewish National Fund-USA.
ECC President Nader Gaim said the event was also an important gathering to help bring a sense of healing to many local Iranian Jews who have long been very supportive of Israel and were deeply pained by the events that transpired on Oct. 7 in Israel.
“I absolutely think that this event brought us together in Jewish unity, hope and that there is a light at the end of this tunnel,” Gaim said.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.