Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue hosted more than 200 attendees honoring Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the communities in southern Israel that was attacked on Oct. 7.
During the Dec. 19 gathering, local resident Galia Mizrahi shared the story of relatives returned from Hamas captivity, the Goldstein Almog family. Chen Goldstein-Almog, one of the hostages abducted by Hamas, is the wife of Mizrahi’s cousin. Almog, along with her three children, were safely returned during a temporary ceasefire in November.
Additionally, the event featured testimonies from the Rosenfeld family. On Oct. 7, Hadar and Itay Berdichevsky were killed in their homes at Kfar Aza; their ten-month-old twins were rescued by IDF soldiers 14 hours later. The orphaned siblings’ aunt and uncle, Dvir and Maya Rosenfeld, are now helping raise their twin nephews, and they recently visited Los Angeles to share their story.
“Walk with WIZO,” an Israel solidarity march organized by the Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO), was held on Jan. 4 in Beverly Hills. Approximately 300 people turned out to express support for women and girls who were assaulted by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Photo by Ryan Torok
Attendees included WIZO California Chairperson Gina Raphael, Beverly Hills City Councilmembers Sharona Nazarian and John Mirisch, Deputy Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles Amit Mekel, Adat Shalom Rabbi Miriam Potok, Israeli-American Civic Action Network CEO Dillon Hosier, L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park; congressional candidate Nick Melvoin; and Cantor Shanee Zamir.
“Today, as we bear witness to the unspeakable trauma and the brutalized bodies of our sisters, we know that this is not our time for peace,” Potok, one of the event’s speakers, said to the crowd gathered outside Mickey Fine Pharmacy on Camden drive. “Yet we hold out hope.”
Attendees carried signs reading “I Stand with the Women of Israel” and “Believe Women,” while waving Israeli flags. They marched up and down Rodeo Drive to show their solidarity with Israel and demonstrate support for Israeli girls and women who were sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists during the unprecedented October attack on southern Israel.
“I think it’s time to finish Hamas,” Pablo Nankin, a participant in the march, said. “It’s time to be heard, it’s time for the poor people who were raped and killed to be cared for [and remembered] and that’s what we have to do. We have to tell the people we’re here; we’re going to stay here, and they can’t keep on doing this to us.”
The event was held as increasing evidence has emerged of Hamas’s gender-based crimes against Israeli women.
On Nov. 2, in celebration of the Shabbos Project’s Worldwide Challah Bake initiative, more than 160 Sinai Akiba Academy (SAA) community members came together for a community-wide Challah Bake. Led by SAA Middle School math teacher Heather Lipman, the SAA community mixed and braided bread together, in preparation for Shabbat and in honor of Israeli soldiers.
When registration went live in October, the event sold out in less than three hours, and was a highlight of the school year thus far. Special shoutout to the tireless event committee, led by Co-Chairs Hannah Khoubian, Elian Ohebshalom, Mahsa Pakravan and Shelly Shapiro.
