The annual StandWithUs (SWU) gala, known as the Festival of Lights, is held each year during Hanukkah. The nonprofit educational organization’s priority is to advocate for Israel and to counter BDS campaigns and antisemitism on campuses and beyond.
One thousand attendees filled the sold-out event at the Century Plaza hotel on Sunday, December 10, and gave standing ovations to October 7 survivors Karen Haddad and Ela Shani, who told their story.
Haddad was at the Nova music festival with friends and danced until 6 a.m. Shortly after, they started hearing rockets and the chaos began.
“I texted my sister and told her I love her and to tell the family I loved them,” she said. “I thought I was going to die. We rushed to our car and started driving, but a blood-covered woman warned us of terrorists, urging us to head in the opposite direction.”
Upon reaching Kibbutz Alumim, Haddad and her friends discovered that Hamas members were present. “We took cover behind our car as terrorists fired at us for 30 minutes until IDF soldiers intervened and rescued us,” she said.
One of Haddad’s friends who attended the festival with her didn’t survive. “Bruna thought she was safe where she was and didn’t escape with us. Her body was found three days later.”
Fourteen-year-old Shani’s dad was murdered and her cousin kidnapped (and recently released), her grandmother was shot three times and the town she grew up in, Be’eri, was destroyed in the terror attack.
After hours of hiding, Shani and her younger brother were rescued by IDF soldiers. “They strategically surrounded us as they took us to the car, acting as a human shield against potential gunfire from Hamas. I covered my brother’s eyes, but he still witnessed the gruesome scene — mutilated bodies, burnt remains. Parents were subjected to torture before their children, and vice versa. The soldiers who rescued us ensured we had a place to sleep that night. They are the bravest and most humane people in the world.”
Roz Rothstein, CEO who co-founded SWU along with COO Jerry Rothstein and President Esther Renzer asserted that the current period is the most challenging for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel Bachar, the Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Southwest, underscored that the war in Israel “is not about territory but about terrorism” and emphasized the critical point that the world must recognize: there is no distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
Scooter Braun was honored during the event with a special award recognizing him for “standing with Israel and the Jewish people award.”
“I brought my two children here to see a room like this full of love and support for Israel.” – Scooter Braun
“I brought my two children here to see a room like this full of love and support for Israel,” he said. “My two grandparents were in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Dachau, and despite witnessing evil and the worst humanity can offer, my grandmother turned out to be the most loving person who sees the best in people.”
Numerous heroic stories have emerged from the war, including that of Major General Yair Golan, 61, an Israeli politician who served as the IDF Deputy Chief of Staff. He became a war hero after he had rescued many people from the Nova Music festival.
Golan doesn’t consider himself a hero, but many beg to differ, especially after he had rescued so many of them. Journalist Nir Gontarz took to social media, urgently seeking help for his son trapped at the music festival. “He is surrounded by terrorists, there is no police, no army,” he wrote, pleading for assistance. Gontaj reached out to Golan, who personally embarked on a mission to rescue him. In a poignant interview for Israeli media, the father recalled, “Amir’s mom gave birth to him in September 2000, and Yair Golan gave birth to him a second time in October 2023.”
The keynote speakers, Loay Ahmed Alshareef and Enes Kanter Freedom, shared their own insights. Both of them Muslims, they were initially exposed to hateful rhetoric in their upbringing but underwent transformative changes in their perspectives after getting to know Jews.
Alshareef, born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is a content creator. He met a Jewish family for the first time in his life when he studied in France. “They were my hosting family and they changed a lot of my beliefs. We were raised with a curriculum that taught us to hate Jews. Now things, thank God, are changing. Honestly, I was with the hate but things changed dramatically in 2010, and I’ll never go back to it.”
Alshareef said that hate prevents people from listening and learning about others but despite it all, he decided to open his heart and learn about those he considered enemies in his childhood. This had taught him a lot about the Jewish people and history and their connection to the land of Israel.
A parallel narrative unfolded through former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom. Upon his arrival in the U.S., the Turkish basketball player found himself getting to know Jews for the first time, leading to a profound realization that the animosity he once harbored towards them was unfounded.
The transformative moment occurred during his first invitation to a Shabbat dinner by a newfound friend, where he was pleasantly surprised by the striking similarities between Jewish and Muslim traditions.
Recalling the experience, Kanter Freedom shared, “When we arrived at my friend’s house, she kissed the doorpost. I asked her what she was doing, and she explained that it was a mezuzah. I said, ‘We have something similar too.’ They sang some songs and did prayers around the table and it was so touching, but when I got back my heart was shuttering because I realized there are millions of kids in the Middle East who are growing up with anti-Israel, anti-West and anti-America [rhetoric] and it’s just because of hate speech. There are many schools where students need to step on the American and Israeli flags and if a student doesn’t do so, he isn’t allowed to attend class and he is bullied [for] the rest of the year by the teachers and classmates.”
Kanter Freedom also shared a lesson his mother taught him: “Do not hate anyone before you meet them. I promised myself that I’m not going to hate anyone, any group or any religion or any culture before I meet with those people.”
The evening also included lighting of the menorah, singing of “Hatikva” by the Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy Choir, a musical performance by Sapir Tzemah and some comedy relief with Elon Gold.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.