Rep. Sherman, City Councilmember Blumenfield Attend Event Honoring Israeli Teens Who Survived Oct 7

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks.) and Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield attended a ceremony at de Toledo High School in West Hills on Thursday morning honoring 12 Israeli teenagers who survived the Oct. 7 massacre.

“Today, we honor and recognize the 12 students from towns and Kibbutzim near the Gaza border who have been displaced from their homes,” Sherman said. “They are among the 250,000 more Israelis who have been displaced either by Hamas on the southern border with Gaza or by Hezbollah from their attacks on the northern border. The entire Jewish community around the world has its eyes on Israel.”

Toward the end of the ceremony, which more than 120 people attended, Sherman presented the teens with an American flag flown at the United States Capitol. “I give this flag to an organization that is of outstanding service to our nation in bringing these students together, to tell their story and to build bridges between the United States and our greatest ally in the Middle East,” the congressman said.

The teens had been at the school for the past two weeks with host families to give them a “psychological and physical respite” from everything, Head of School Mark Shpall said at the beginning of the ceremony. The teens attended classes and had the chance to explore Los Angeles, he added, which was possible due to the school’s Global Jewish Education program. “You have now become a deep part of our de Toledo community,” Shpall said to the teens.

Four of the teens — who identified themselves as Maya, Mai, Nadav and Vlad––recounted their experiences on Oct. 7. Maya, who is from Sderot, said she was in a safe room with her mother for seven hours. Mai was working in a coffee shop that morning when she and her co-worker Benny “heard a really big boom” at 6:30 a.m. The two of them hid in a safe room for an hour-and-a-half; eventually two men with weapons came into the shop and told Mai and Benny that “we need to leave with them.” “I thought they were going to kill us or kidnap us,” Mai said. “We left the safe room and got in a pickup truck and we started to drive.”

Mai and Benny were driven to an operation room in a kibbutz, where they stayed for two hours; she recalled seeing a man shot in his throat. Eventually, a woman in the operation room said they could not stay, so she took and Mai and Benny to a private home. “We stayed there for two days without clothes, without chargers, without food, without nothing, especially without our parents,” Mai said. After two days, Israeli soldiers came and took them back home.

Nadav said that he was visiting the northern part of Israel with his uncle on Oct. 7 when he saw that alarms were sounding in the south, “but we’re used to it.” He called his father when he saw \ videos of the Oct. 7 atrocities on social media; Nadav said he “heard gunshots in the background of the call” with his father. Nadav’s father eventually escaped the kibbutz after a few hours and they now lives with Nadav’s aunt further inside Israel, as Nadav’s house is damaged.

Vlad, who lives in Netivot, recalled waking up at 6 a.m. to sirens; two hours later, he heard gunshots. The city was locked down for a month, where Vlad constantly heard sirens; he didn’t leave his house until two months later. His brother was at the Nova music festival and witnessed the carnage, but ultimately escaped and survived.

All four of the teens praised their two-week trip to Los Angeles and their host families, calling the experience “comforting” and “relaxing.”

During the ceremony, Sherman, the most senior Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the Oct. 7 massacre the largest “attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust” and he mourned the at least 200 Israeli soldiers who have killed while fighting in the ongoing war as well as “the many thousands of Palestinians who have died… all of them dead as a sole result of the decision by Hamas to launch this horrific attack.” He also prayed for the release of the remaining hostages that are still being held by Hamas.

Sherman then pointed out that there has been a 337% increase in antisemitic attacks in the United States since Oct. 7, citing the killing of Paul Kessler in Thousand Oaks as well as “the desecration of the large veteran’s cemetery” as examples. Sherman then touted himself as “the strongest advocate for the most recent decision to make Israel a visa waiver country and then to accelerate that decision immediately after Oct. 7” so that Israelis could engage in visa-free travel to the United States.

He also discussed the recent allegations that several staffers for the United Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, though the UNRWA leaders claimed they didn’t know. “Israel has presented evidence that thousands of UNRWA staff are active members of Hamas,” Sherman continued. “They didn’t know. But what UNRWA has always known is that their educational materials teach hatred, advocate terrorism, and the United States is the largest supporter for UNRWA.” He adding that the House of Representatives passed his “Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act” to ensure that the “next generation of Palestinian children cannot be taught what this generation is being taught.”

But in Sherman’s view, the most pressing issue is the $14 billion in aid requested by President Joe Biden (D) “months ago” that has stalled in Congress. “First they said, ‘well we won’t pass it unless we reach an agreement on the border’… Congress would pass this aid if we got an up-and-down vote for it,” contended Sherman. “I am for aid for the Ukraine, I’m for humanitarian relief for Armenia and Ethiopia… but I have voted for the aid––and most of my party didn’t––as a standalone bill because Israel needs the aid now, and other issues can be dealt with.” He added that “Israel needs the resupply effort. The war continues.”

Sherman also said that students on college campuses are being presented with a distorted picture of what’s happening in the Middle East,  as “Israel continues to be besieged” and that Hamas’s position is “from the river to the sea, the land will be ‘judenfree.’ That all Jews will be killed or expelled.” Sherman pointed out that Hamas has announced that would commit the Oct. 7 massacre “again and again and again.” “Israel needs to finish the job until Hamas is neutralized,” Sherman declared, resulting in applause from the audience.

Blumenfield said during his speech he was able to get 13 out of the 15 Los Angeles city councilmembers to attend a press conference and “stand unequivocally with Israel” following the Oct. 7 massacre. He claimed that “folks from Israel” are the best tool to educate people about the Middle East, touting the fact that he brought in families of hostages to meet with Mayor Karen Bass (D) and some of his colleagues. “That made a huge difference to folks, people who before were calling for a ceasefire and not quite understanding the region,” Blumenfield said. “When I was able to introduce them to some folks––some who are very progressive and left in Israel––to have them talk to some folks on the city council directly behind closed doors who also share a very left perspective, it opened their mind in many ways.”

“Having these exchanges, having students like you come in, it makes a huge difference,” he  added.

Blumenfield shared his concern “about the politics surrounding Israel on our campuses” but the best way to address it “is through education.”

“Given the unspeakable trauma they endured, today’s ceremony served as an important opportunity to highlight the nearly 300,000 Israelis who are still displaced since the October 7th massacre.” – U.S. Rep Brad Sherman

“I was honored to attend today’s Solidarity Ceremony at de Toledo High School and help welcome to Los Angeles a delegation of Israeli teens who were directly impacted by the horrendous October 7th terrorist attack on Israel,” Sherman said in a statement. “Given the unspeakable trauma they endured, today’s ceremony served as an important opportunity to highlight the nearly 300,000 Israelis who are still displaced since the October 7th massacre, and to de Toledo High School’s tremendous work supporting these students and demonstrating that they are not alone in the wake of such an unimaginable tragedy.”