By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Israeli-American actress, producer, author and social media influencer Noa Tishby told over 750 StandWithUs supporters on Sunday night that the fight against anti-Israel haters is “a marathon not a sprint” but predicted that “at the end of the day we’re going to be okay.”
Between 30 and 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the Hilton Bayside Hotel chanted that the attendees were supporting “genocide” in Gaza. They banged on some cars, harassed guests in the parking structure, and were quite aggressive, Bill Ganley, the Jewish Community security coordinator, told San Diego Jewish World. He said he was disappointed by the lack of protection afforded by the Harbor Police and would request a meeting with Harbor Police Chief Magda Fernandez.
Oz Laniado, San Diego Regional Director of StandWithUs, interviewed Tishby who, referencing the tactics of similar anti-Israel groups, said they antagonize patriotic Americans when they take down the U.S. flag and replace it with a Palestinian flag.
Tishby emphasized that Israel is “on the front line” between western civilization and jihadism. She alluded to the chants during mass demonstrations in Iran and among its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria calling for “death to Israel, death to America.” The recent anti-Jewish riots in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, have helped Europeans understand that such hatred is not only Israel’s problem, but also their problem.
The Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack on Israel by Hamas-led Gazans, in which nearly 1,200 people were murdered and another 250 taken hostage, was a watershed moment, according to Tishby. It prompted Jews around the world to unite and presaged a groundswell of Jewish pride.
She said there had been apathy among American Jews and their non-Jewish supporters before the wave of antisemitism that started on Oct. 8, the day after the massacre, but since then people have come to understand that they have to be involved in opposing hatred.
Anti-Israel nations and the “useful idiots” who support them in the United States know they can’t defeat Israel militarily, so they have been going about it geopolitically, enlisting aid from such groups as labor unions, Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March, Tishby told attendees of the gala.
A majority of Americans support Israel, she said. She suggested that Jews need to continue to build alliances for Israel by inviting non-Jewish friends and acquaintances to their homes for a Shabbat dinner. “The idiots out there demonstrating” are in a minority, she added.
Tishby’s half-hour discussion with Laniado followed a kosher dinner that was preceded by an hour-long program that began with Jonathan Valverde, founder of Latinos for Israel, singing the U.S. National Anthem, and young Ari and Maya Gimbel—children of Rabbi/ Cantor Jeremy Gimbel of Congregation Beth Israel — singing Hatikvah, the Israeli National Anthem. Chabad Rabbis Yonah and Josef Fradkin led the pre-dinner prayers, including one delivered by Josef for the return of the hostages. Ariel Laniado, 8-year-old son of StandWithUs’ regional director, led the HaMotzi blessing.
The elder Laniado set the tone for the evening when he declared, “This is not a Jewish fight, this is a fight for all humanity.” He said Oct. 7, 2023, was “a moment of profound awakening” and in the “aftermath of these horrific attacks, we found unity.” He mentioned that in the last two years, StandWithUs has paid for security at the House of Israel in Balboa Park, which, regrettably, is the only international cottage which is regularly targeted by vandals.
“Israel has the right to exist and the Jewish people have the right to thrive,” Laniado declared to applause.
Bianca Gorodzinsky, a board member for the San Diego region, introduced Roz Rothstein, a co-founder and CEO of the national StandWithUs organization, who said when StandWithUs was founded more than 20 years ago, it was during the second Intifada when Israel and its supporters faced “the same problems we face today.” After the Oct. 7 massacre, StandWithUs felt the need to greatly expand its staff, which it hopes donors will help sustain, Rothstein said.
Through its social media platforms and its presence on six continents, StandWithUs reaches millions of people every week, Rothstein said. She quoted 98-year-old David Wiener, a Holocaust survivor who received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University last month, as saying “Never Give Up.” After the Holocaust, he came to America without financial resources yet built a successful real estate business in the Los Angeles area. Rothstein said Wiener reminded her of her own parents, also Holocaust survivors, whose motto was “A Jew always find a way.”
Finding a way included the flight of 100 Israeli war planes to Iran to retaliate against a missile and drone attack, she said. More recently, it included sending eight planes to Amsterdam to pick up 2,000 Israelis who had been endangered by an anti-Israel pogrom. “Imagine if we had Israel during the Holocaust!” she said.
Rabbi Yael Ridberg of Congregation Dor Hadash introduced the awards segment of the program in which Jaime and Dan Feder were presented a lifetime achievement award for their volunteer work in support of the pro-Israel organization. Students Nathan Pupko and Nate Neustadt were also awarded for their Israel advocacy at the college and high school levels respectively. The students were interviewed on stage by former One America News Network journalist Stella Inger Escobedo, an Uzbeki Jewish immigrant to the United States.
In the evening’s printed program, the Feders wrote: “During this crucial time in the world it is imperative that we stand strong, be brave and most importantly stand together. It isn’t easy but we must stand up each day willing to fight antisemitism so that our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will not have to face what we have, and still are facing as Jews in this world. We must stand together. We encourage you to StandWithUs so that history will not repeat itself again. Am Yisrael Chai!”
Pupko told of founding a Jewish organization at Southern Methodist University to counter the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine. Neustadt had similarly taken a pro-Israel initiative while in high school. Now a freshman at Geroge Washington University, he has continued in advocacy with the founding of a “Jewish on Campus” chapter there.
StandWithUs Regional Board Member Doron Malka made a fundraising appeal just before the dinner break. “When you consider giving too little or too much, choose too much!” he said. Oz Laniado quipped to San Diego Jewish World that after encountering the demonstrators outside, guests said ‘You know what, I am going to increase my donation to StandWithUs.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.