Connecting with Compassion: Support for Israel’s Terror Victims

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

It’s Mike Trayman, Crawford Media Group. Today, we’re joined by Naomi Nussbaum. Naomi is the executive director of OneFamily. It’s Israel’s leading organization serving the survivors of terror and some of these horrific attacks that we have heard about, but not enough detail about. So, Naomi, thank you so much for taking the time with us.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:22

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:24

So we’re talking, we’re scheduling this interview and talking just before October 7th. And one of the things that you shared with me offline is that, well, October 7th was such a horrific day and that was reasonably well publicized here. You know, you hate to use those words, but it was reported in the news here in the United States. But so much has happened after. Tell us about that, Naomi.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:51

Well, there was one horrible day, right, where so many people were killed, except there’s also an ongoing war that’s very personal to Israelis. It’s possible that Americans don’t realize Israel is about the size of the state of New Jersey. So when when we lose an Israeli soldier or a reservist, it’s not an anonymous person who we have no connection to. It’s such a small country that that person, you know, if you’re not directly related to him and if you never went to school with him, he’s most likely your neighbor’s neighbor. son or your cousin’s best friend or you know you’re going to have some connection to the people that are in the news there so it’s very deeply personal and traumatizing so we had that huge traumatic event on october 7th and then almost daily ever since then we’ve been losing more and more people right very hard to heal when the trauma is ongoing pretty much impossible

SPEAKER 01 : 1:53

Naomi, do these families, do they heal? Because there’s not only the reminders, but they’ve lost a loved one or somebody’s life’s been changed forever. Maybe they were gravely wounded and survived, but life has changed for them. And you, I know your organization supports them. Just give us a sense of that because people forget too quickly.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:14

There’s a spectrum of experiences that happen after an attack, and everybody responds differently. Some people get worse and worse and worse. Some people manage to find love and healing and forgiveness, and most people are somewhere in the middle. We specifically help the people who are getting worse and worse, right? We don’t want, God forbid, I don’t know if you’ve heard, right? There are some soldiers and people who survived the October 7th massacre who are now committing suicide because of the atrocities that they saw. They cannot bear that pain, right? And there are other people who have had children murdered or spouses murdered who were tortured, right? literally tortured brutally in front of them or in front of children. And there are people who were hiding in the bushes, watching women get raped and tortured, and they can’t live with themselves with those memories. Right. So we’re helping those people. We’re helping, you know, just like regular set of parents who had their child murdered. And how do they get out of bed every day and take care of more kids? Like, where do you find the energy and the strength when half your heart was ripped out? So we want to help everybody, but we especially want to help the people that cannot bear the pain on their own.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:36

So how does one family do that? What are some of the things that our listeners need to know? And Naomi, at the right point, let us know how they can. Let’s do that a couple of times just so people have that information.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:48

Sure. Anybody can go to OvercomeTerror.com right now and make a donation and become part of the family that is the support network for terror victims in Israel. We do help all victims in Israel, regardless of age, race, gender or religion. So just to unpack the religious piece a little bit, missiles don’t discriminate whose homes they fall on, right? Missiles, rockets, terrorists shooting up buses. There are Arab Israelis who are hurt. There are Christians who are hurt, Bedouins, everybody living in Israel, not just the Jewish people are affected. So we firstly don’t discriminate. We want to help everybody. And how do we do it? We provide emotional, financial, and legal support for the long term, for life, if they need us. We started more than 24 years ago with the infamous Sparrow bombing. And we are still supporting some of the people who need us from an attack 24 years ago. And going forward, we will be there as long as we can be for all of the victims of October 7th and everyone in between and everybody since then. So really, our name, One Family, indicates that we’re going to help victims like we’re family. in every way possible. So we provide therapeutic retreats. We provide support groups and a peer network of people in similar situations that can help support one another. We provide personalized therapy, group therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, a wide variety of nontraditional methods. You know, EMDR and deep tissue massage, yoga, mindfulness, meditation. Yes, anything that somebody needs, we will work to provide for them. And we also have clubs like psychodrama and creative writing therapy and phototherapy and hydrotherapy, art therapy. All of it, sand therapy, play therapy, right? So there’s like at least 20 in each of these categories that I’m rushing through because people heal differently.

SPEAKER 01 : 6:11

Yeah, it’s not one size fits all, is it? You told us that before, that you have to be able to meet these families where they’re at. And your people, they’re also in danger when they’re doing this, right? I don’t know that our listeners, it’s hard for them to understand that your folks with one family, your partners are putting themselves in danger at the same time.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:37

Absolutely. Like, unfortunately, you know, we had a group of people going on a retreat and the airport was had a red alert because they were sending missiles and rockets at the airport. Right. Or we’ve had countless events where people have to run to the bomb shelters. you know, because there’s incoming fire. So, yeah, everybody in Israel is to a certain degree or another in harm’s way. And people who are recovering are also in harm’s way. You might find it interesting or sickening that we’ve had families with multiple losses at different times, right? Somebody lost her brother 15 years ago in attack and then lost somebody else on October 7th and a third person in the army. Right. Like there were three men killed, but at different times and different attacks. I personally visited a family who lost three men from their family all on October 7th at the Nova Music Festival. And one brother survived, was severely injured. So it affects families differently. It affects families over time in ways that people wouldn’t expect necessarily, you know.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:48

How do you see the U.S., people here in Colorado, for example, supporting what you’re doing with One Family? Is there support from the U.S.? What does that look like, and why is that so important?

SPEAKER 02 : 8:01

Yes, there are donors from all over the United States and really over the world. And the reason why it’s so important is because the people in Israel who are attacked are attacked by random terrorists. They are not attacked for who they are. They’re attacked for being alive and where they’re living. And when you have donors who are randomly supporting Israel, It counters the random acts of terror. It’s literally the strongest counter force that there is. It’s another stranger reaching out to someone saying, hey, I don’t know you, but I love you and I support you and I’m here for you. And we have not forgotten your loved one and we want to do anything we can for you. And without donors around the country and around the world, we couldn’t do the work that we’re doing right now, which is literally keeping some people alive.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:56

We’re speaking with Naomi Nussbaum. Naomi is the executive director of One Family. That’s Israel’s leading organization serving the survivors of terror. And Naomi, why do you think people in the U.S. are supportive? And by the way, give your website too. I want to do that a couple of times. But how do you, why? I mean, I know the why. You and I have talked about the why. I want to hear it from you. What are some of the stories you hear?

SPEAKER 02 : 9:24

I’m so sorry. I’m not sure if I know what you’re asking.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:26

Well, just why people in the U.S. are coming alongside because I know that’s happening for one family. Why do you feel like they connect with that?

SPEAKER 02 : 9:34

You know, some people have really good morals and values, right? And that’s something that brings us together regardless of religion, right? People who are true to their faith often have excellent morals and values, even if our religions have different names and some differences. You know, many of the religions are based in peace and honesty and caring for each other, you know, being your brother’s keeper, right? peace and love and honesty right and it brings so many of the religions together and that’s a huge piece of what we’re doing here we’re telling people in israel we don’t care what your religion is we know that if you’ve had a child murdered or a spouse murdered or a sibling murdered that’s the single most important thing in your life right now and somebody else of any other faith is going through the same thing that you are you have more similarities than differences So we know that it’s what’s on the inside that counts with the victims, with the population in Israel, and equally with our donors.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:39

It would seem that, too, and tell me if I’m wrong, there might be some people, too, that have experienced some horrific circumstances in their life. Maybe they had a family member murdered or they died in a car accident or something happened where they can relate to October 7th and atrocities across the decades and hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s not just October 7th, as we know. And what’s followed and say, oh, I know how this feels. I’m going to help out. I’m going to find a way. Yes.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:11

Yes. So please go to OvercomeTerror.com and make a donation. You’re also welcome to email me at Naomi at OneFamilyFundUS.org. Please give us a call in the office at 646-289-8600. Many of us have lived through traumatic events. But not many of us in America have lived through terror attacks, right? That’s a different beast. I can share with you that I was a pedestrian hit by a car last summer, and that was a very traumatic event, and I sustained many injuries. It’s been a long year for me. However, a big difference between surviving something terrible here in the U.S. and terrorism is that nobody filmed it and posted it on social media, and there weren’t people celebrating in the streets. cheering and rejoicing, and there isn’t somebody else coming to follow up and finish off the job, if you know what I mean, right? So I can be traumatized by a car that hit me, but I also know that that woman just wasn’t paying attention. It wasn’t intentional. She made a mistake. No one’s going to come and hunt me down in my sleep. Nobody’s going to, God forbid, come for my child or my children or or my parents, right? But that’s not so in Israel. And something that didn’t get enough attention is in all of the deals where Israel has released hundreds or thousands of prisoners in exchange for innocent hostages, we are caring for victims who… needed our help to be courageous enough to testify against their perpetrator and legally put them behind bars. And now their sentences are being cut short and released. meaning somebody who wanted to kill them is now free in the area and available to come back and finish the job. So people who were really vulnerable and scared and traumatized to begin with are like these wounds are being ripped open to fresh wounds and fresh fear and terror because people are being let out of our jail system in Israel. So that’s another big issue that we’re dealing with.

SPEAKER 01 : 13:34

There’s so much that our listeners can’t comprehend. And I think getting connected with one family, getting connected with you directly, if that’s what they prefer, is so critical. We’ve got a few seconds left. Would you go ahead and give that contact information again, Naomi?

SPEAKER 02 : 13:48

Yes, please make a donation at OvercomeTerror.com. And you are welcome to email me at Naomi at OneFamilyFundUS.org. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:02

Naomi, thank you for taking the time with us. These are such hard discussions to have, but they’re critical to have, and we look forward to having you on again soon. Thank you.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:11

I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Have a great day.