From Los Angeles to Israel, Community Feels Impact of War

Los Angeles-based comedian Avi Liberman is the founder of Comedy for Koby, which brings comics to Israel to perform. The hope is the comedians will become ambassadors for Israel after being exposed to the on-the-ground realities in the Jewish state.

While Liberman has made countless trips to Israel with other comedians, his latest one brought fresh challenges he’d yet to experience. Liberman and three other U.S-based comics — Ray Ellin; Erin Maguire; and Brian Scott McFadden — were in Israel at the time of Israel’s preemptive surprise strike on Iran. On Thursday night, June 12, they performed a successful show in Beit Shemesh, with plans to the visit the Dead Sea on Friday during their day off. But at 3 a.m. on the Friday morning, alerts went off, signaling Israel had pulled off an unprecedented attack on Iran and was now warning everyone in the country about an imminent retaliation from Iran.

Back-and-forth missile attacks between the two counties, separated by approximately 1,000 miles, followed over the subsequent days, prompting the cancellation of the remainder of the Comedy for Koby tour dates. This included a June 14 gig in Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements in the West Bank. 

Making the best of it, however, the group performed for a group of Birthright 20somethings who were similarly stranded at their Jerusalem hotel because of the Iranian missile barrage on Israel.

“The things I’ll go through to not do a show in Gush Etzion,” Liberman joked at the start of the rooftop set for the Birthright group.

Leave it to a comedian to find the humor in any situation.

As the war between Israel and Iran continues, there are plenty of people who are dead serious about the rapidly unfolding events. The Journal spoke with several community members and asked for their reactions to the news out of Israel. While the responses varied, everyone was quick to highlight solidarity with the Israeli people who are facing a stream of missile attacks from Iran. 

“Jewish Federation Los Angeles stands in complete solidarity with Israel,” Jewish Federation Los Angeles CEO and President Rabbi Noah Farkas said. “We have activated our global network alongside our partners at Jewish Federations North America to make sure the immediate needs of those on the ground in Israel are met. Locally, we are working to make sure members of our community with friends and family in Israel and Iran are supported.”

Since June 13, when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, its surprise attack on Iran to prevent the regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, Jewish Federation Los Angeles has urged the local community to write letters to Congress highlighting their support for Israel.

Additionally, for those concerned about the possibility of Iranian-sponsored attacks on Jewish communities in the Diaspora, Farkas, CEO of the LA Federation, said that security was the highest priority. As the community enters its second Shabbat since Israel’s war with Iran started, the LA Federation’s Community Security Initiative is engaging with local law enforcement about any possible security situations, Farkas said. 

“Our Community Security Initiative is monitoring for any increased threats to make sure we keep everyone safe,” he said.

At the time of Israel’s attack on Iran, Carey Fried, director of Friends of the Israeli Football League, was in Los Angeles, where she was visiting to build awareness for Israeli flag football teams that hope to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics. As part of their time in Los Angeles, the teams were set to participate in an international tournament with other countries, from June 20-22, while also headlining a June 17 community event at the J In Los Angeles, formerly Westside JCC.

Ultimately, the war prevented the Israeli athletes from traveling to Los Angeles. 

“We were really looking forward and excited about this event in LA,” Fried said in a phone interview. “Aside from the craziness of the war with Iran, making everyone so emotional and upset, not being able to come to this tournament has been heartbreaking for these athletes.”

Fried, who made Aliyah from Los Angeles to Israel in 2017, said she wasn’t surprised that Israel had finally struck the theocratic and antisemitic regime in Iran.

“I would say everyone in Israel has been talking about this for years. We all knew this would be a scenario. But until a week ago, we thought Bibi wouldn’t have the muscle, wouldn’t show the courage to do what needed to be done,” she said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “People thought he didn’t have the nerve.”

While she worried about friends and family back in Israel, she was confident the unmatched strength and durability of the Israeli people would help them get through what’s undeniably a challenging moment. 

“Israelis are unbelievable,” she said. “The craziest things happen, and they wake up the next day, go about life, they just don’t stop. You can be sitting at work, and the person next to you is working on a spreadsheet, and this guy was blowing up tunnels in Gaza a couple months ago. In Israel, it’s just considered part of life. We don’t go into theatrics and hero-talk.”

Members of the Persian community, meanwhile, expressed hopefulness that a new dawn was coming for a country with a long history of repressing its people.

“This is our generation’s ‘fall of Berlin Wall’ moment, a moment in time where a people can be liberated, and an evil regime can be defeated,” Iranian-Jewish-American activist and attorney Sam Yebri told the Journal. “All of us should be praying, chanting, and marching in a united voice for a Free Iran!”

“This is our generation’s ‘fall of Berlin Wall’ moment, a moment in time where a people can be liberated, and an evil regime can be defeated.”  – Sam Yebri

“I believe we are now witnessing anmassive earthquake of change in the Middle East with this war and the very soon demise of this genocidal Islamo-Nazi regime in Iran after 46 years,” Iranian Jewish journalist Karmel Melamed said.

At Sinai Temple, a congregation with a sizable Persian population, the clergy was taking steps to bring comfort to those who had family still residing in Iran, which is home to approximately 9,000 Jews, Sinai Co-Senior Rabbis Nicole Guzik and Erez Sherman said.

“Once again, the events in Israel and Iran are both historic and personal. As we pray for the freeing of the Iranian people from the evil regime, we also have concern for our own members of our community, some with family still in Iran, and many with family in Israel in direct lines of fire,” the rabbis said. “As we watch from afar, we continue to be inspired by the resilience of the people of Israel, who understand that this is not only a war to protect Israel from the existential threat of a nuclear Iran but also to protect the free world.”

Elsewhere, organizations – including Birthright Israel, Camp Ramah and Diller Teen Fellows — were following the rapidly-changing developments in Israel.

Phil de Toledo, a Los Angeles-based philanthropist and the board chair at Birthright Israel Foundation, said Birthright Israel — which offers free 10-day trips to Israel, among other programs — was taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety and security for the nearly 3,000 individuals, including Birthright participants, trip leaders, staff and others, who were currently in Israel.

“We have 2,800 participants on the ground, and the team at Taglit-Birthright, which is how Birthright is known around the world, has done just an amazing job putting the safety and security of the participants first, as they always do,” he said in a phone interview. “Israel is resilient, and Birthright is resilient, so once it’s safe to restart trips, we will do so.”

“We have 2,800 participants on the ground, and the team at Taglit-Birthright, which is how Birthright is known around the world, has done just an amazing job putting the safety and security of the participants first, as they always do. Israel is resilient, and Birthright is resilient.” – Phil De Toledo 

Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian reiterated that “This is a profoundly difficult time and the pain is real. Many in our community are directly affected and have asked me to speak out. My heart is with all innocent civilians—especially children—who deserve to live in safety and dignity, free from fear and violence.”

It’s important to remember, she added, that “Israel’s conflict is not with the people of Iran. In fact, the people of Israel and Iran share a long and rich history of friendship dating back to the time of Cyrus the Great. The Iranian people have suffered deeply under a regime that has isolated them from the world and placed them in harm’s way.”

“Israel’s conflict is not with the people of Iran. In fact, the people of Israel and Iran share a long and rich history of friendship dating back to the time of Cyrus the Great.” – Beverly Hills Mayor Sharona Nazarian

One of the stranded Birthright participants was Cantor Josh Goldberg, who was ordained at Academy Jewish Religion, California, and currently serves on the clergy team at Congregation Micah in Nashville, Tennessee. Goldberg had visited Israel as part of an Israel Outdoors’ Volunteer program that took him to a kibbutz in Israel’s south, the Nova festival massacre site and a nonprofit in Jerusalem, among other sites. He was joined by others from Nashville.

Like everyone else in Israel on June 13, he was caught off-guard by the early-morning alerts announcing Israel’s attack. At the time, he was at a rooftop bar in Tel Aviv, celebrating a friend’s birthday, and they were getting ready for the weekend’s Pride festival.

The days since haven’t been easy, he said, with frequent trips to bomb shelters. The ground has shaken underneath his feet as Iranian missiles have landed nearby. Birthright, he said, moved him and others to a hotel in Ein Bokek, a seaside resort on the Dead Sea, believing they were safer there.

He thought he’d be stranded from his wife, other family and friends back home for an extended period, and at times he’s had to fight off getting too disheartened. But on the evening of June 16, he learned that Birthright was chartering a cruise that would take him and some 800 Birthright participants from Israel to Cyprus. From Cyprus, with the help of the Florida National Guard, he would board a flight to Tampa, Florida. From there, a connecting flight to Nashville would follow.

The experience, he told the Journal in an email shortly before he departed from Israel, has been frightening — but it also affirmed his love for Israel.

“We came to Israel to volunteer. Little did we know we were volunteering to witness an historic turning point in the war,” he said. “Despite how terrifying it was to be under attack from hundreds of rockets, drones, and ballistic missiles from both Iran and Yemen during what we expected to be a routine trip, nobody in our cohort was upset or remorseful about coming — rather we are all filled with pride for our homeland having the courage to stand up to the Iranian regime. 

“It’s a David and Goliath story,” Goldberg said. “We got to have an experience we will never forget and will tell our children and grandchildren one day. We mourn for all those who were killed and injured in Israel this week — and rather than watch it on the news from the States, we watched it on our phones in bomb shelters during all hours of the night. 

“Perhaps I’m overly optimistic, but I believe in my heart that Israel will be victorious in this war and the world will finally realize Israel is not the villain they make it out to be, but rather was the world’s hero this entire time,” he said. “I have to believe that.”

What will unfold in the ensuing days between Israel and Iran is unknown, but Richard Sandler, executive vice president of the Milken Family Foundation, said he hopes the often-fractious Los Angeles Jewish community comes together in solidarity with the world’s only Jewish state.  

“We should be so grateful and proud of the fact that Israel exists and exists as a strong nation that contributes so much to mankind and has such a strong mutually advantageous relationship with the United States.” – Richard Sandler

“As the war between Israel and Iran continues, it is my fervent hope and prayer that the Los Angeles Jewish community rises above the political divisiveness that has been so prevalent in our country and our community for far too long, and focuses on the importance of Israel, the sole Jewish state in the world, to our future and our children’s and grandchildren’s future,” Sandler said. “We should be so grateful and proud of the fact that Israel exists and exists as a strong nation that contributes so much to mankind and has such a strong mutually advantageous relationship with the United States. We should also be proud of what the IDF and Israeli intelligence has accomplished.  Finally, we should include Israel, its leaders, and its soldiers in our daily prayers for survival, strength and peace.”