Latest / Brett Keane and Eve Show / Gal Gadot Jewish Heritage VS Hamas Hate

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Gal Gadot Jewish Heritage VS Hamas Hate · Brett Keane and Eve Show

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  My name is Gal. I'm a mother, a wife, a sister,
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  a daughter, an actress. I am Israeli and I'm Jewish.
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  I'm going to say it again, My name is Gal and I'm Jewish.
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  Isn't it crazy that just saying that just expressing such a
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  simple fact about who I am feels like a controversial statement?
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  But sadly, this is where we're at today.
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  I grew up in Roshan, in the center of Israel.
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  My mother was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
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  Her father, my grandfather, Avram Vice, may he rest in
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  peace, was born in what was then Czechoslovakia.
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  He was the only one in his family who survived.
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  His father died fighting for the Czech army when the Nazis
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  invaded, and his mother and brother were murdered in the gas
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  chambers of Auschwitz. He came to Israel with nothing
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  and build a life for himself, and despite the horrors he
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  endured, he always taught me the values of love, compassion and
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  tolerance at La Mesiga Shum de Varbekas the basin.
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  Ah, you don't win anything with anger and hate, he used to tell
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  me on my thank you. On my father's side, I'm the 8th
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  generation to be born in the land of Israel.
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  One of my ancestors was the very first chemist in the Chalet
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  Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. I'm very proud of both sides of
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  my family, and they show the two sides of Israel, on the one
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  hand, a country that provided a life raft for refugees fleeing
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  the horrors of persecution, pogroms and the Holocaust, and
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  on the other hand, the historic homeland of the Jewish people,
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  where our roots run deep and where we are an indigenous
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  people. I am proud to be an Israeli and
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  I am proud to be Jewish. But this this is a time when
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  many of us in the Jewish community have had to find our
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  voice and confront the hatred against us, even if it's
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  extremely uncomfortable. That's been the case for all of
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  us in every walk of life and every profession, including my
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  own. I never really wanted to talk
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  about politics. I kind of tried really, really
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  hard to avoid it because no one wants to hear celebrities
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  talking about political issues, right?
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  But also I regarded myself as a citizen of the world, an equal
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  among equals. I'm Israeli, of course, and I
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  knew that anti-Semitism and anti Israel hate existed.
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  And like all of us, sometimes I'd cut a whiff of it, but I
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  never thought of myself as being where I came from.
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  It was an aspect of who I am, but it didn't define me.
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  And then October 7th happened, and every everything since.
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  Never did I imagine that we would witness such a day of such
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  death and destruction of Jews in our lifetime.
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  And never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States
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  and different cities around the world, we would see people not
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  condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying and
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  cheering on a massacre of Jews. I know I'm not the only one in
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  this room when I say that this was a wake up call.
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  And there's the thing. Here's the thing.
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  However much you tried to avoid it before, even if speaking up
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  wasn't really your thing, none of us can ignore the explosion
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  of Jew hatred around the world anymore.
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  And that's what I'm doing. No way I need it.
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  It's it really is me standing in front of you today saying simply
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  that my name is Gal and I'm Jewish and we have had enough of
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  Jew hatred. We will confront anti-Semitism,
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  we will call it out, but we will never let it not only defeat us
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  but define us because our love is stronger than their hate.
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  In the days after October 7th, we were all distraught.
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  Like many of you, I was glued to the horrors coming out of Israel
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  and the hatred spilling over here.
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  I'm not religiously observant person, but I found myself in
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  the temple, in the synagogue. And it was then when finally I
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  was just a little bit comforted. I felt the embrace of the Jewish
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  people and the power in the warmth of our community.
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  And I will never forget that feeling, because even though I
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  was a long way from home in Israel and I was in a temple in
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  Los Angeles, I felt at home among family.
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  And for those few precious moments, the chaos and violence
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  of the outside world felt just a little bit easier to deal with.
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  October 7th showed us that what happens to Jews anywhere effects
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  Jews everywhere. And this goes both ways.
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  Not only what happens there affects us here, but what
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  happens here effects them there. So here we are, in this room
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  together, calling for the release of every single one of
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  our hostages. We have to bring them home.
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  With every hostage release, we hear new testimonies of the
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  horrors they've been through. Every minute for them is hell.
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  Their lives are in danger and we need them home.
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  We want the hostages and their families to know that we have
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  your back, that we are here for you.
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  And we need them to know that wherever they go in the world,
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  where there's a Jewish community, they will always find
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  people who campaigned for them, who love them, and who will
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  never let them walk alone. Because this is who we are, and
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  this is who we will always be. Taking responsibility for each
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  other. Along with my husband Yvonne,
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  we're bringing up four daughters to also be proud of who they
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  are, to take responsibility to love themselves.
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  We're raising strong, independent Jewish women, strong
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  women who stand with other women.
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  Now. I know many women in this room
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  and in our community that have stood strong for the rights of
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  women and girls. On October 7th, Jewish women
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  were sexually terrorized, raped, murdered and kidnapped by Hamas.
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  We were all listening. Listening for, hoping to hear
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  support from our sisters around the world and and too often
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  heard silence. We can't wait any longer.
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  We can't hold our breaths and pray or beg for support from
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  people, groups, community that don't want to be there for us.
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  We need to be there for ourselves, and This is why every
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  single Jew must lean in now. In whatever way we can speak up,
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  learn more about our history, we can always do that.
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  Join a temple, find your community, get connected.
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  And as we support our own community, never stop reaching
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  out to the world. Rabi Ileil famously said IMN
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  anili mili, if I'm not for sorry, I'm too excited, I'm not
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  used to this. Rabi Ileil famously said If IMN
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  anili mili, if I'm not for myself, then who will be for me?
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  And if I'm only for myself, then what am I?
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  So even if we don't hear others speaking up for us, we have to
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  keep speaking up for ourselves and reaching out our hands to
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  everyone to join in. That is what I tell my
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  daughters. First, learn to love yourselves,
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  who you are and where you're from, and then the rest will
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  follow. It's time to pass on to our
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  children a love of who they are. So who are we?
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  We, the Jewish people, are an ancient people with an ancient
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  story in an ancient homeland. We are the people that celebrate
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  life. We work to see better and more
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  peaceful future. We challenge hate when we face
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  it, but we do it with love while always striving to make the
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  world a better place. And who am I?
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  My name is Gal and I'm Jewish. I'm Isaiah Khai.
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  Thank you.