“Through Soup, Words, or Support” with Amanda Markowitz

My name is Rayne Rose-Exselbeard and I am the CEO, Chief Empowerment Officer of the Rose Rose. To all my friends out there, what's up? And for those of you, if this is your first episode, it's nice to meet you. Hello, welcome to the Rose Rose podcast. I'm here with a very special friend, Amanda Markowitz. It's so nice to finally meet you. I feel like we've already been friends for years, the social media. And here we are, finally in person, but it's like I know you, which has been my life for the last two and a half years. All these friends through activism, you finally meet in person and it's this beautiful connection. So I kind of think too, like the power in connection, is it's almost like when you connect over values, you just kind of like have this connection. Yeah, it's an instant bond. And I have to say too, as descendants of Holocaust survivors, there's also like another kind of kismet bond. You feel when you meet other survivors. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your grandparents and their Holocaust survival story. Oh, well, there's a lot there. So all four of my grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Three out of the four were in Auschwitz and one was a partisan, which means he was fighting in the forest against the Nazi regime. It's pretty cool. I'm bad ass. Yeah. We'll take that. I would tanks and all this crazy stuff. So super cool. Really proud of him. And for people listening, like the people who were partisans who thought against the Nazis, like they literally snuck away, and live their entire life like an even more danger. Yeah, it's very interesting. And honestly, unfortunately, he passed before I was born. So I feel like I don't know a lot of his story. Whereas my other three, I was close to, so I knew their stories more. But I would have loved to know more about that life, because it's so fascinating to me. It's something I don't know as much about. I know more about camp concentration camps than I do about the partisans. So that's something to explore more of. Anyway, so yes, they are all survivors, which is something I'm super proud of. And they each have an incredible story of resilience. I mean, I could get into so many. They each, I think, came out of it very differently. My maternal grandmother, my nana, Tonya, she had been very religious before the war. Her family was very religious. And then she during the war, while she was in concentration camp, including various camps, she was at about five different camps throughout, including Auschwitz, she had these moments of where is God. It was very hard for her to continue her belief in God. My grandpa, her husband, they met at Bergen-Belson. Wow. When he came looking for his sister. So, my nana, Tonya was bunk mates with these, these, there were four women and they were all very close. They became like sisters. One of them was Tamara. And Tamara always said to my nana, my brother would be perfect for you. And during the war, even during the war, they were trying to set each other off and doing shit off. Yeah, you know. And that's who we are, talk about resilience. But no, he came after the war, looking for his sister. So, people were, you know, kind of going to different camps, looking for their family members. The concentration camps became displaced persons camp. So, my nana was there with these, these women, Tamara, Ella and Estosha. And my papa Nate came looking for his sister Tamara. And when he saw her, she painted because she thought he had died. My nana was there and they met. And Tamara had been right. And they ended up getting married pretty quickly. Wow. And then it makes you wonder how many camps, how many places he went to, looking for the sister before he actually found her. His story of looking for her is insane. He stole a bike from a store and like rode his bike from miles and miles and miles to get to her. He had just survived himself, but he was not in a great place, but he had to find his sister. Right. So, he went on this crazy journey to get to her. Wow. And when he got there, this is what happened. So, it's incredible. And he wasn't as religious so then she didn't become as religious after the war, more secular. And her brother survived also and he went to Israel. And his was very religious. You have 14 kids. Their kids had 14, 15 kids. So, totally, you know, different lives. Yeah. It's almost like for one, the experience made them feel closer to God, but for some other survivors, the Holocaust made them feel more distance from God. I think that trauma manifests very differently in different people. And it's very fascinating to me how people come out of trauma. Yeah. And my dad's mom, she wouldn't tell her stories much. My papa always talked about it. He had a number on his arm because he was at Auschwitz. And so, I don't really remember not knowing about the Holocaust as a kid because we saw his number. We'd ask questions. And he was very open with his stories in here. Some really crazy stories. So, my dad's mom really didn't talk as much about it until she was in her 90s. And I really asked her questions. A lot of questions because it was COVID. And I would go to her every Shabbat, even though, you know, for a while no one saw her and I think it was very hard for her emotionally. Yeah. And after a while, I was like, I'm not doing this. So, every Friday, I'd go with my daughter who was one and a half at the time. And we'd go over Shabbat to see her and it was really special. Do you think having children challenged you to have that conversation with your grandmother before she passed? Or do you think, like, what pushed you to finally, like, ask the questions? I just needed to know. And so, I'd hit record on my phone. I put it on the couch. She didn't want it out of her question. That's okay. And I did get her the gift. Her testimony to the Holocaust Museum of Life after that. That's a major. My other two grandparents, my mom's parents, both did the show at foundation with Steven Spielberg. So, I've hours of their footage, which is amazing and such a gift. Yeah. And my Bubby stayed very religious. She, I asked her how she believed in God through it. She's a soul survivor of her family. Her brother and sister were murdered. Her parents died. One, you know, her, her mom unfortunately died before the war. Her father was murdered in Auschwitz. So, she had a really difficult story. And she said if she didn't believe in God, she wouldn't be able to make it through. So, her faith was strong. And so, my grandparents had very different experiences with their spirituality and connection with religion throughout the war and after. And then, yeah, my other grandpa was, Carson. So, I don't know. There's a lot, a lot of really amazing stories. I'm like, I could give you stories. I know. Yeah. Here, I'll give you one of my favorite stories. So, my papa was at Auschwitz. And they, someone stole a potato peel off the ground. And the soldier saw, instead, all of you line up. And they put about 30 men in a line and they counted one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three all the way down. And they said, if your number three come out of line. So, 10 men came out of line. They marched them to the forest and said, dig four by five. They're digging their graves, obviously. It was very cold. So, they took them, you know, it was really hard to dig. And my papa, there was a dog, a German shepherd barking. And my papa said to the soldier in German, your dog's hungry. And the soldier said, you filthy Jew, take my dog to the kitchen and get it something to eat. And he did that. And after he found out that all those men were murdered and put into the graves, they had just dug. And he survived. Because he was in the kitchen. Because, yeah, because he took, he said to the German, your dog's hungry and from the forest, marched back to the kitchen to be the dog. I mean, the soldier didn't have to say that to my grandpa. My grandpa didn't have to say that to the soldier. I mean, it's just these crazy stories of survival. I believe in whatever you believe in. Yeah. Higher power, coincidence, whatever it is. Yeah. But he loved dogs. It's end of you. They won't send you a lot of the animals of this dog. He loved dogs, loved. And I love dogs so much. And it's like genetic. And my uncle, his son had a German shepherd growing with his kids. And everyone would say, your father survived the Holocaust, your father, another, how do you have a German shepherd? And he'd say a German shepherd saved my dad's life. Wow. You see? This is such a powerful story. And what I take from that story, too, is acts of kindness. It was like, you know, he was trying to do something kind, even for a German soldier, like, your dog is hungry. And it just goes to show that like in South, we have a saying, like, you know, get him with kindness. And through saying, like, let me help you with your dog. He wasn't even, he wasn't even thinking about, you know, everybody over here is dying. And now you're leaving with the dog. He was just thinking, oh, you know, my dog's hungry. I mean, when he arrived at Auschwitz, he saw his best friend there as an SS soldier. He was a Nazi. His best friend from childhood. His best friend from childhood was in Jewish and became a Nazi because his father made him become a Nazi. So when he got there, oh, so the best friend was Jewish? No, not Jewish. Okay. Does that make sense? He was a German. Okay. And not Jewish. And it was his best friend growing up in school. And he showed up to Auschwitz. And there he was in uniform. And my grandpa was a prisoner. And it actually helped save his life too because he gave him a really good job of going into the, the different barracks and spraying them with chemicals when there was a, you know, an outbreak of typhus or something to clean it. And so none of the soldiers wanted to get near him because they thought he was like dangerous because he had all these chemicals. Yeah. So it kept him away. And it also he would take extra bread to the different, like women's camps or people that needed food, he would do that in the Nazi or your grandpa. Wow. To help other people. And it was, you know, I love you can call it kind or whatever you want to call it. But his best friend did give him this job intentionally and it helped him survive. So that is an act of kindness. It's just a very crazy situation where you show up in your prisoner and your best friend is a a Nazi. You think he knows someone. Yeah. I guess. And my grandma, when she showed up at Auschwitz, she was in the train for three days, three nights. I mean, people were dying on the trains to Auschwitz. And when she got out, she saw women, very skinny women behind a fence. And she had been holding onto this piece of bread for three days to try to make it last. And she threw the bread over the fence to these women. That is an act of kindness. She was starving herself. And she decided as a teenager to give her bread to these other women and share it with them. And so I think those moments are so powerful to me. And just these moments of kindness, like there was a soldier named White Hans, and he'd give a little extra food to my grandma. And she really remembered him. Because when he'd be on duty, they all were so relieved that he was there. And he would be a little kinder than the other guards. And so these are stories that stuck with her and stick with me. And, you know, there was, sorry, there's so many stories. But one day, the soldiers told this group of women, you know, you're going to get on a boat and go to Sweden. And you're done. Everything's okay. Like, you're going to get on a boat and go to Sweden. And they took, we're taking hundreds of women on this boat to Sweden. And one woman was like, I can't go. I'm injured. I was too hard for me. And they said, okay, we'll pick one other person to stay back with you, which is weird. And she chose my grandma because my grandma had grown up in the same, on the same street and same town. And they'd been in the ghetto together. And she remembered my grandma. So she picked her to stay back. And then all those hundreds of women were sent on a boat to Sweden, which they were never going to. And they were all murdered and thrown in the ocean. Oh my gosh. So that's a story of survival of my grandma. Yeah. That, I don't know what you want to attribute it to again, if you're a spiritual or if you're, you know, look at the kindness of that woman or chance or coincidence. So I just have endless stories. Yeah. It kind of like, I don't make Holocaust analogies, but I recently read Eli Sharabi's book "Costaged." And the way that you're talking about how, you know, some of your family, remember, like they would recognize like when the kinder guards were there and when they weren't. It's very similar for a lot of the hostages in Gaza. Yeah. That's why I feel like I can you know, relate a little more to them. And like when I interview people, it gives me a level of sensitivity and empathy and understanding. And I feel like I ask questions that maybe people are scared to ask because I've grown up with so many survivors surrounding me. I know when they can be, you know, push chance or hard questions, I know when they're need to let go and be a little more sensitive. And I feel like being a descendant of survivors helps me better connect to people who have gone through drama and certainly like the hostages. Yeah. A very similar Holocaust type. I also think with the Holocaust survivor population, there's something to be said about when a young person that's not related to them is asking them questions. So, actually, sometimes they mentally, social and emotionally let go of some of the boundaries and walls that they keep up around their family to. Yes, I would say also that their generation, my grandparents opened up way more to me than their own kids than the two G's than my parents because it's different talking to a kid than a grand kid. There's a different level of sensitivity. The relationship between a grand parent and grand kid is very special and there's a different bond than with your child. So, my grandparents talk to us and I asked questions more than my parents did. So, there's something about the third generation that I think we. We like to rock the boat. Yeah. And we also, I think, have gone through more social emotional stuff. Yeah. And are more open to conversations. About those feelings and challenges. Yeah. Therapy in my parents' age. Like, what? That was not a thing. Yeah. And now everyone our generation isn't therapy. So, it's a very different situation. My mom, I was like when I was younger, I had told her I wanted to maybe speak to a therapist and she said, "Why didn't you speak to a therapist? You just talked to me." When I told my mom in high school, I went to this to go to therapy. She was like, "You just need to learn to follow the rules." She was like, "I'm fine. You need to learn to follow the rules." A generational gap when it comes to social emotional therapy and self-help. So, yeah. They definitely opened up more to the grandkids. Yeah. So, what kind of advice do you have for people when it comes to talking to kids under 10 years old about anti-semitism and some of the things we're seeing in the world today? And why is it important for parents who aren't Jewish to also be thinking about having some of these conversations with their kids? There's multiple things. Later, he says, later. I have three young kids. I have an almost seven-year-old, a four-and-a-half-year-old, and a ten-month-old. And so, very different ages and level of comprehension, obviously, my ten-month-old. But my seven-year-old just started asking questions recently. I would say, in general, they're more aware than you realize. Kids are listening to everything. In the past couple years, we have been so collectively traumatized by what's happening with the rising anti-semitism. They feel it. As long as we think we're hiding it, they know. They see posters. They see things. They're listening to us talking. They hear the news. So, I just feel that you can't lie to them. You always have to tell the truth, because you'd rather them hear it from you than some other person at school. So, sorry, the other parents who might hear about Hitler from my kid at school, but like, you should have told him. I'm going to be the first to tell my own kid. That's on you. Us. Yeah. So, if my kid tells you about Hitler and all of us, sorry and not sorry. I don't worry. My kid's not going to ruin Christmas and say, "See, it is not real." However, he might bring a killer exactly. No different from Hayman, really. I learned about her own story. So, I did. I equated it to the poem story, actually. My oldest was in the car. We were in the car driving school with my almost seven and four and a half year olds driving the school. She had just gotten a Jewish calendar for Hanukkah. She even asked him for a calendar. So, we did this really cute Jewish calendar of different dogs every month. It was really sweet. Gifted, I got from someone and I'll have to share it with you or anyone who wants to. It's really, really, I'm seriously, really, really cute. If you love dogs and you want to know what date it is, this calendar is free. It's really cute. I seriously. So, it has different holidays in it and she was going through the calendar in a car and she just says, "Mommy, what's International Holocaust Remembrance Day?" I had always thought that I'd be asked by my kids or I'd have the conversation one day. I didn't think it would be so soon. So, I said, "I want to tell you you're the great grandchildren of eight Holocaust survivors." That's a miracle. You are miracles, both of you. And not a lot of people are great grandchildren that all eight survivors. And I said throughout history, there are people who don't like the Jews and it's not nice and they're not kind to Jewish people. And so, there was a man named Hitler and he didn't like Jewish people. And it's very similar to Heyman in the porn story. They didn't like Jewish people and the Jewish people came out of it and they survived and you know, became very proud. And it's an important story to understand and I gave more details. She asked questions which I was honest about and then I heard her say to my four-year-old and that's why it's so important to be Jewish. And it was- You didn't traumatize where you empowered her. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, "My work is done. I'm an amazing mother." So, it was really cool and so I would just say, "Tell them the truth. They can handle more than you think they give." And don't lie. Obviously, you've got to do it age appropriate. What I'm going to say to my nieces and nephews who are 14 is, yeah, I'm going to say that six million Jews were murdered, probably more. Yeah, we talk about the hostages. Yeah, we talk about the 12-hundred people that were murdered on October 7th. We talk about it in detail, they're 14 years old, different. Not going to tell my seven-year-old that, but when she goes to school or when she's around and she sees, bring them home and she sees pictures of you on posters, she's going to have questions. Per year point, I have a cousin who one of her younger kids after October 7th, he started sleeping on her floor. And when they asked like, "What's the deal?" he was like, "I don't want the monsters to come get you." And so the parents said to their child, "The monsters aren't going to come get you. They don't hurt people your age." And he said, "You're lying." I've seen the posters. I've seen the flyers. I like in the story how you shared how she connected it to Purim. For me, like the Jewish holidays have always been like a traditional thing, but since October 7th, every holiday took on like such a deeper meaning, you know, adding a seat at Passover, thinking about. They saw that. My kids saw that. I'm not going to lie. They see that. And I told them that people who don't like Jews went into homes and some people were Jewish, went in and kicked off them. And we're trying to get them all home. And you know, they would sing at temple and school a song about bringing them home. So they know. Yeah. And I can only shield so much. I'm not. There are certain things I'm going to say differently than I would an older child. Right. Bottom line, not going to lie. Yeah. In terms of the people saying things that to children that aren't Jewish, I think it's really important. We're 0.2% of the population. We can't do this alone. We need our allies and we need the future generation to stand on the right side of history. So I think that part of the population is incredibly important. And in many ways more important. I think there's two things. We need to raise very proud Jewish children, very proud so that they stay with us and raise their children proud and not just Jewish the Zionists. And I think it's very important to really raise them with that understanding. And it's also important to continue to have allies because we have a phenomenal supportive Christian days. And there are millions of people. And I'm forever grateful for that. I'm so grateful for our allies. And I hope they're teaching their children because those are going to be my children's allies. Right. And also it's just important to teach our children about humanity in general. So my daughter also asked me what Martin about Martin, their King Junior day, when she was going in the calendar. Who was the Zionist, by the way? So I told her why you better believe I told Zoro. Yeah. So I told her. I said, she had learned about Martin Luther King in school. So I said, remember last year you did that project. She said, oh yeah. And I explained how people didn't like black people. People still have our kind and that they had different water guns and they had to sit differently on the bus and they went to urine schools. And I said, and I want you to know the signs said no black people and no Jews Jewish people and black people stood together. Yeah. Always. And I said, and that's why our relationship with black people is very important. Yeah. And the Jewish people and the black people have to stick together. And I preferred that to her. And I hope that sticks with her. And it's not. And so I'm not a black person. But that's me inspiring humanity in my child for other ethnicities, for other religions, for this humanity in general. Yeah. So to me, I think that's a big gift you can give our children so that they can better create a better world for the future. So that's everyone should be teaching their children about antisemitism. And they should be teaching their children about racism, xenophobia, all kinds of things. So I think kind of what I'm getting from you. And I don't have kids of my own. But it's, you know, when connecting top topics in the world, it's how do we relate it to something that they already understand? And depending on the situation, how can we maybe even on a small scale have some sort of action in our life that's showing that we are connected to this thing, whether it's looking at the news or, you know, with Jewish people, it was wearing a tag or a tag every day. I wore a yellow ribbon every day, which is very sad. I don't have on right now. So we still have one hostage that we need home. But they thought it. It kind of reminds me. And I don't want to like predict your childhood. But I feel like our childhood was similar in that it kind of reminds me of like growing up, watching my parents, my father's commitment to Holocaust education. You know, and as you're describing this, I'm like, imagining like your kids are seeing like really powerful modeling. Well, I keep thinking about how when I was growing up, my dad was always going to these events, these different Jewish events and Israel events. And I always would say, why are you going out again? Why are you going to another thing and missing that time of always? And then now that's what's happening to me. My kids told some I worked for Israel. And you're in the one hearing $7,000 of post. She said, I don't know the thing. I'll ring or it's good to order. It's fine. I'm not, I'm not getting any money. But I, I will fully admit, I'm no money. So I, I just think it's so interesting that you know, when I go to an event, they're always like, oh, you're missing bedtime again. Why are you going to another event for Jewish things and Israel stuff? And I'm Liatz. And I say, this is very important. It's very important. And so it reminds me of my dad and that continuation with Dorvador, John Anderson, and Elevation. And I hope that my kids have a series of their children. And I'll remember, oh, yeah, yeah, remember it. I don't know why I just remembered this. But I think I was like eight or nine. And like every Yom Hoshowa, we would do like this big program in Memphis, similar to your grandparents with the Lodge group. My grandparents. So not from Lodge, but in Memphis, we had like a survivor group. Yeah, no, no, no, when I, we had the Lodge class. Yeah, no, no, no, we were, we are not from that schedule. But what was I going to say in Memphis, you had? Oh, I remember when I was like eight or nine years old social. Every year we did this Yom Hoshowa, and like, you know, I'm in the three, three G choir. But I remember her. Yeah, I thought it was an amazing thing. So I have. So I asked one of my friends, I'm like, what's wrong? I'm thinking, right? I'm like, hey, well, do you want to be in this event? Like, do you want to, you know, there's this big event? Like, do you want to be in the choir with me? And I remember my dad sending me down. And he was like, you can't invite other people to be in the choir. Like, this is specifically for people. Yeah, I didn't really, like, at a young age, like, I almost didn't, like, fully understand. And then as I got older, I realized, like, it's a responsibility. Like, it's not, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a really heavy responsibility. It's a heavy heavy responsibility, but I'm so proud to have that responsibility. Yeah. But also, it's really cool. You're in a 3G choir. I know I just laughed, but I mean, music is so integral to our culture and to so many cultures. And what a beautiful way to come together and you connect through music. So yeah, I actually, you could borrow, like, you could borrow that idea. And it's cute. You know, you see, like, everybody, like, grow up, like through the years. But I will say, Memphis, we have about 10,000 Jews. Wow. It's really special when it's Yamaha Showa, everything shuts down. Like, when I was growing up, the entire JCC shut down. Like, they held it in the social of the JCC, but like, every Jewish organization, it was, it's one of the few events where you really see that everyone in the community, like, comes out for. I have a little bit of a controversial take on Holocaust education. So when we were talking earlier about, like, allies, you know, as a Jewish community. And you want to hurt my feelings if you disagree with me. But I think as a Jewish community, one of the biggest mistakes we've made in Holocaust education is not including other populations who were affected by Hitler in our memorial, continuing education disabled people. Exactly. So that LGBT population, that do talk about that stuff. But as an institution, we should have been inviting lay leaders from these organizations and educating them for the last 50 plus years. I fully agree. I feel like part of why we're in the situation we are today on college campuses is because we didn't educate their parents. And just another thing, a controversial, not controversial, part of like the other challenge I see like in the Jewish education world is we're hitting the same schools. We're hitting the same people. We're not really broadening the base. Like, yes, it's important to speak to people outside of our community. But if you're only speaking in the same 15 cities every year, you're only speaking in the same 18 schools every year, how much of an impact are we really making? And like, just to add to that, we had a situation many years ago in South Florida where there was a principle who like a parent call because they were upset that it wasn't mandatory, the Holocaust class, whatever it was. And he was trying to be politically correct, but he wrote this letter and he was like, as a black man, I can't, he was like, as a black man, I can't really say if slavery actually happened. And because of that, I also can't force a child to take this Holocaust class because who am I to say it? The Holocaust actually happened. So, of course, the headline that makes it in the media is principle at most popular Boca Ratan public high school denies Holocaust, right? So that's the first headline. And then everyone's mimicking this guy at Auschwitz. It should be about slavery too. So let me take a step back. At this school, I have spoken many other organizations have spoken. I know the principle signs off for kids to go on March of the living. When that incident happened and everybody started bullying this guy on the internet, which he did say something very wrong. I'm not excusing his behavior, but what it kind of taught me about some of the people in our community in that situation was. We've all been in the school a thousand times. You mean this man didn't feel comfortable enough to call any one of us before he sent the email? And exactly what you said. Let's have a conversation with someone before we cancel them, because if this man had learned, wouldn't he be a much more affected teacher? And the truth is, he probably didn't hate Jews before, but he lost his drum. We made fun of him on the internet. He definitely hates us now. I have the problem. No, I obviously believe in education. It's what I do. I go into classrooms. I primarily speak to non-Jewish students. I'm going to school next week. That is not Jewish. That is where I think the work is. And relating it to just humanity in general, so important. So people aren't like, oh, the Jews are this separate thing. It's like, no, we are all this minorities in many ways. And let's come together and let's support each other. And let's learn about each other's culture. And I can't be so insular in that way. And you also have to be more open to other cultures. I hate to say it. I think that we should do more to support and bring in other allies. To your point, like real, genuine relationship, building, not like, oh, it's your culture's month, so we didn't event together. Check on the list and see you next March. I want to see the block Jewish alliance. How it used to be. Yeah. We lost it. Yeah. In many ways. Now it's starting to come back. Yeah, definitely. You should more. You should look up back in the day. There was something called basic, the black American support Israel committee. I love that. They took out a full page ad in the New York Times and basically said that like Jewish people have the right to self-determination. And what sad is, and like, I don't know if say this to you, but like in a time where you have people like Kanye West and Candace Owens and other influencers who are saying things about our people, it's easy for us to be like, who believes these people? But I'm telling you, I get messages from people who I've grown up with who are like, well, how come the tall mood says, duh, duh, I'm like, bro, you are not Jewish. I'm impressed. You even know what the tall mood is. Like, probably don't. Just because you, you heard somebody who hates Jews talking about what our sacred text say. Like, I also just feel like other minorities are a lot more. I don't know. I don't want to say the wrong thing. A lot more respected in they can define what is racist for them and they can define. Let's not define their culture and let's not appropriate what their experience is. But I don't feel like we get that. You respect. It's like, no, I don't know what anti-Semitism is. I don't know what anti-Semitism is. It's like people are like, that's not anti-Semitic. And it's like, no, let me tell you as a Jew, what is anti-Semitic? That is anti-Semitic. You're like, oh, you just start calling out. It's not. It's not. I don't see it back. It's a little standard. Where I experienced it in college, the anti-Israel group at our school, SJP. I hope Sarah Jessica Parker sued them. Yeah. They brought in someone who denied the Holocaust. And we were a public university. So we went to the dean of affairs. We said, you know, from my stand with this training, like, can you write a letter on school letter? I had saying, like, you, this group has the right to freedom of speech, but you don't endorse the message. It was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll write the letter. We didn't get the letter. Not even a week later, a professor at my university wrote Jesus on a sheet of paper and stomped on it and asked his students to stomp on it. Oh, yeah. It made national news. And immediately the man who promised us the letter and never wrote it, made a video installing the Christian students feelings on campus that the professor had the right to freedom of speech, but the message wasn't endorsed by the university. And I've kind of found with with our group on the East Coast. I know the West Coast is different. I think on the East Coast, you do have well intentioned people, but they've never been exposed to this stuff. And as a college student, it was uncomfortable at times being a 20 year old, educating the student newspaper on why, you know, not putting free pizza, free Palestine and quotation marks on the school newspaper, like how you're saying that's a view of the university. But at all, I really believe a lot of it comes on education. I mean, look at how they've been educated the other way. Yeah. For decades. Yeah. I mean, they've been brainwashed for education. So it's been a brainwash people. So no, we need to educate our work. We have our work cut out. I have to properly educate them on facts. I think it's education, but I think also what I've really honed in on in post October 7th world, I think the most important thing to being a successful advocate, self-confidence. You can learn the facts, you can learn the history, but like going back to what you said at the beginning, you're not proud as a Jew. If you are not self-confident and being able to say that out loud and wear that, maybe work on the self-confidence piece before you start trying to learn the whole dissertation of the Middle East. And also it's okay to not know everything. And it's okay to admit that. I love telling people I had no idea. You could just be probably Jewish and be like, I'm probably Jewish. I believe in Israel's right to exist. I don't fully know the history because the history is very complex. And changing every day. Yeah, and you know, I also think that it's okay for other people to I had a friend reach out and be like, I see a friend hurting. I'm not going to pretend to understand what's happening, but I'd love to sit down for coffee with you and learn. Yeah. We do that. And we sat for hours. That's amazing. She left an ally when she had had been. She's like, all I'm seeing is pictures of Palestinian children being murdered. Like, I don't know. And I could easily go that way. But yeah, I do. I want to talk to you because they see your front hurting. And this was right after October 7th. That's amazing. Amazing. There's so many people who I was. There's so many people who I was like, I would love to sit with you. They didn't, they just wondered the message me their opinion. And that was it. They didn't exactly, but she actually put in the time and was willing to learn. Yeah. Amazing. You know, you know, what I'll say with the African-American community this summer, I had an opportunity of speaking to all the social workers for the school district of Memphis. And do you remember a couple weeks ago, not a couple weeks ago? It was like over the summer. There was a podcast of like these young black teens who were like, oh, Hitler had a reason. Yeah, of course. And we need to do that today. Like, we need to, you know, we have a Jewish problem. Right. So, so I said to all these social workers, before I played the clip, you know, I'm like, do you think anti-Semitism still exists in the world? Oh gosh. And that was that was kind of what I thought. But then there's one woman raised her hand and she says, as a black woman, I know that as long as I experience racism, the Jewish people will always experience anti-Semitism. And I was like, oh my goodness. And then I played the clip. And if you would have seen like 120 social workers faces horrified, it for us, I feel like when you're Jewish, you're in this echo chamber of the host. Another day, another interesting comment. Like 100%. The size blew. Right. So like in our hold, we're like, everybody's like heard about this, you know, but then it's like when we go out of our community, I realize like holy shit. This video hasn't been on any of their social media views. Algorithms. Correct. Different algorithms. Correct. That's the problem with social media. The more you view certain content, the more it signs you that content. Yep. So my whole feed is Israel and Jewish and Holocaust and some children stuff. So like that's my content. If you're just focused on beauty, you're going to get that back. You're not seeing anti-Semitic videos. Right. So that's they don't know. Yeah. And so I think that it's really important to realize and good on you for going and doing that. I think that's so powerful. I appreciate that. But if people ask me, do you feel scared to go and wear your jewelry on public and travel and wearing it? I said no. Yeah. If the day comes or I'm not hiding, hiding, I will not let that happen. Yeah. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I had last January, I had a trip to the Bahamas and it was in the middle of like hostage releases and I was like, I have this really cute Israel crop top. I was like, I don't know who's going to be in the Bahamas. And I'm ashamed to admit it, but I left the crop top. But then I get to the Bahamas and what's happening in my hotel? It's Yushiba Week. Every Jew you can imagine from the whole world is there. And when I called one of my Holocaust, my late Holocaust survivor friends and told her about the story, she said, Mama, you should always bring it. She said, you should always bring it because better to have it than not need it. Yeah. Than to need it and not have it. It's true. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I fully agree with that. But I get why. I get why. And I get why people in my childhood, the UK not have their mug and to feed out, but how sad is that? Because if you're a crowd want to say, and to Zionism is not interested in Buddhism, then I should be able to wear it. I can defeat and not have it about Israel. Yeah. So I mean, I'll be honest. I'm recently single. I'm in a new apartment and it's on a very busy street. And my mentor sent me a Missosa. I have not put it up yet. Okay. Mama Amanda. Mama. Yeah. That's exactly how that's what get her. That's literally what she with you need. And you should have. Yeah. That's going to protect you. But I get it a lot of what I want. But I mean, there was a mon chat going around right after October 7th. We had Halloween right after October 7th. And I consider myself my kids up his IDF so badly. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, But right after October 7th, they were frozen. And I consider myself my kids up his IDF so badly and I consider myself my kids up his IDF so badly and I consider myself my kids up his IDF so badly. And what better way to honor them? I will never, I will never let fear drive me but I understand why it does for other people. I'll say that. I understand. I think this is why it's so important to have a tribe because it's important for other people to like remind you. I don't fear afraid. I only hang out with Jews and allies. It's like we've been here for five years. We've been here for five thousand years. We've experienced hate and regeneration. Like what's the worst thing that's going to happen? You're going to knock off my mizzo? Like you might break in and hurt someone? There are a lot of violent stories. Unfortunately and we've seen England. I was scared. We've seen people murdered for being Jewish. I know. It is a real threat. I'm not going to sit here and say it isn't. I just, I think I don't want to let it drive me. Yeah. I think that's too like really important for people to understand that anti-semitism has always been there. But after October 7th, the anti-semitism has exploded and the checks and balances in dealing with it. The people who aren't educated in dealing with these issues, it's very easy for them to be like, "Oh, they're talking about Israel, this isn't racist. We're not going to get involved." If something that happened in Israel triggered anti-semitism in a diaspora to increase 400%, you have a Jew hate problem, not just an anti-seinist problem. That I'm certain of. Otherwise that would not have happened. So they are completely intertwined to anti-seinism and anti-semitism. I think so too. I think so too. And it kind of scares me that the Jewish people of this generation who are like, "Oh, I'm Jewish, but I'm not a Zionist." I can't. The religion wouldn't be here without Israel. So shifting gears a little bit? Yeah. What's the kind of thing someone's ever done for you? I'm like, "I want to shift gears." But also, I feel like October 7th is such a pivotal moment in my life that it's really what is kind of on my mind. So right after October 7th and the shock of, honestly, October 8th and everyone turning their backs on us, my entire life shifted. My entire social media platform shifted. Immediately it was about Israel. And I had someone reach out to me who I hadn't been particularly close to. And she messaged me and just said, "It was silent from so many people, silent for weeks." I had a lot of friends. And you see that they're watching, like you see that they're looking at your story, but no text, no goal. Nothing. My family in Israel. I mean, I'm posting every day multiple times about how hurt I am and I don't have anyone reaching out to me who are friends. And this one girl reached out to me and she said, "I'm so sorry that this is happening. I'm with you. If your family ever needed anything, she lives a little outside L.A. She said, "Please bring your family to our chickens. I like their farm and come take a break." And if you ever felt unsafe, you have a safe place here at our home. Well, I do. She said that. I hate anyone to say this. She said, "I can see you." She said, "I hate that I have to say this, but we would hide you in your family. That's how much I support you." And I literally said, "Well, hopefully that's not a thing that ever happens, but I knew what she meant." And she was willing to put her own family at risk to help my family. And in that moment, it meant so much to me because I hadn't heard anything from anyone of my friends. And it wasn't just, "Hey, I support you, and I'm here for you." It was beyond that. It wasn't like, "I understand what you're going through. This was a horrible event." Yes, but it was also, "I will do whatever I need for your family if it ever is needed." It was always like that to give you hope, and really keep going. Also, it was really nice when someone brought me homemade mots of all soup when we all had COVID. How were the balls? When my whole family got COVID, yeah, she came with a big pot of mots of all soup homemade. That was really nice. You know, it's funny. You mentioned that I have built so many relationships with people who, if they're not feeling well with Uber Eats. If there's mots of all soup in the city, I Uber Eats mots of all soup. We have the family on the valley. We have the best mots of all soup in on the menu. It's Mandy's mots of all soup for me. Oh, you're Mandy. Mandy, more. Give me more. So, I do love factors mots of all soup. But, hi. Oh, Donnie. Oh, my God. This looks just like my dog. This is Hazel. Hazel is my daughter's name. No way. It looks just like my dog. And I don't mind that being here at all. I really don't. So, your seat has been taken as a new interviewer. Oh, excellent. So, any more views? It's only the dog thing that my daughter's thing. Come here, Hazel. You look like Daisy by dog. Homemade mots of all soup was very good. And so, and I'm vegetarian. Even though my family owns a deli, I've been vegetarian for like 20 or 4 years. Oh, my God. And she bought me a vegetarian month. So, it's the little things. I mean, these are pivotal moments in our life, COVID and doctor herself. But also the fact that like she knew you're a vegetarian. Like, how many people would have gotten the mots of all soup, not even thinking about like the chicken being in there? My own mom, awkward 20 years about being vegetarian, she'll be like, the mott, yeah, it's vegetarian. It just has chicken broth. And I'm like, that's not vegetarian. Oh, my God. It's like my big, fat Greek one, they know. No, it is. You'll eat lamb. Yeah. That's what you fast. And we'll put windbacks on it. But my aunt's always, they aunt Debbie always makes sure there's vegetarian options for me with whatever food we're having. We do a lot of, you know, that's the thing we're both bumpy. And she always has that. And it's like that is so kind. Just I think going out of your way and thinking about someone and just wanting someone to know like, hey, I thought of you means a lot. Yeah. Yeah, I'll say, it's fine. This is life. I have three kids and two dogs. My life is utter chaos. I like to think it's organized chaos, but it's chaos. So this is like nothing for me. Fair enough. You're right. 2026 reclaiming my voice, standing in authenticity. This is life. It's not relatable than this for a keeper of viewers. Like, let's take down the walls. Yeah, thank you. This is scratching a dog's tush right now and it's so happy. Oh, I like it's good. They are the bus minus an animal. Yeah. When my dad was in the hospital, I got my dog to like, like, serve it. Qualified and would bring her and just like put her in bed. And it's not an hospital bed. And it just like changes like their spirit. Yeah, no, it's amazing. I don't understand people that don't like dogs. Very sus. They're the best. So I guess to talk, yeah, to wrap it up. I'm curious what we could talk about. Yeah. So to wrap it up, I'm curious. Since October 7th, has there been like a conversation or like a chance for you to make an impact that like, really surprised you how it turned out? There's a couple. Definitely the girl who reached out to me and said, I'm not going to pretend to understand what's happening. I just see a friend hurting. I love to meet her coffee. I went and met with her. And again, I knew her from entertainment, both actors. And now I lost a lot of my community. So it meant a lot that she reached out. And we met for coffee lunch for three hours. And I explained everything that had happened on October 7th. I explained the history. I talked about black Jewish alliance a lot. Right. I met how Martin Luther King marked with the Jews. I mean, in the rabbis, I talked a lot about this with her because she's a black woman. I'm a Jewish woman. Let's find our commonality. Exactly. With my in. And we talked about BLN movement and the lack of support after October 7th and the parachute imagery. And so many like the resistance that came, like the their messaging of how resistance is. Okay. Okay. Adjusted by October 7th and the lack of support there. So I found like those were my in's with her to better relate it. And she was so receptive. And we left that lunch with a huge hug. And her just saying, you have an ally in me. And I'm still going to be learning. I'm a work in progress. But you have an ally. Here are those of what's happening. How do you deal with people who you educate? But then like along the way, you're like, wait. Why are you wearing a ceasefire pen at this Hollywood event? Like when we've spoken like at length about XYZ. I mean, the ceasefire now. Social media. Though no, all lies on Rafa. Yeah. Look, that was rough because I had a lot of friends who hadn't hosted anything. It's like supporting Jewish people. And then that's their first pose. That's why the Jewish people got so upset with Miss Rachel. By the way, was that the issue was you're posting about like all of these children in Gaza. But you didn't also mention the Israeli children. And then by the time you did, you accused us of like being racist and hateful. When we all admire you, we think you're very talented. But we were just pointing out that you are not being inclusive of all my kids. Like, as they were watching it, I turned it off. I called one of my friends. He's 101-year-old Holocaust survivor. And I said, "What do I do?" His name is Jack Waxel. I have a lot of interesting survivors. You'd like to meet in Florida. But I called Jack. I said, "She's like the Elvis Presley of education." I said, "I really respect her. I really admire her." But I said to her, "No one is saying anything about this." And I said, "Should I say something?" And he's like, "Rena, of course you say something. You have to say something." So I messaged Elaine Haya, a mutual friend of ours. And I had never made an Israel reel before. Like, I had been on Fox talking about the situation, but I messaged Elaine. And I'm like, "I can't believe nobody is talking about this. Like, we need to do something." And this goes back to why it's important to have a tribe. Because literally, this is why it's important to have a tribe. Because literally, she was like, "You know, come here." She was like, "This is how you do it. Here's what I'm going to say. Here's what you should wear." And for me, I'm an educator. I've had to learn how to be a content creator, but by messaging someone like Elaine, she really gave me the confidence of like, "Hey, we can do this together." And let's put it out there. And not that anyone should have a claim to fame. But Elaine and I were the first people on the internet to raise awareness about what was going on with this Rachel's feed. Just what you have coming up? I feel like there's a lot coming up. And my head has been spinning. I'm not emoji with the spinning eyes. Because there's so much I want to do. But I'm also juggling being a mother of three children. And I'm a new-born driver. Not right. Pick up, drop off. Respect to the Uber drivers, but I'm not actually an Uber driver. I just live in my car. My office is my car. I'm going from activity to activity to top off being a loser class list. Again, doesn't end. And my regular work. And how did you balance both? Because I'm over here being like, I'm complaining about having to learn how to create content and educate. And that's a full-time job. How in the world are you teaching and posting and mothering? And wifeing? Yeah. I definitely go through, like, Uber and other events. Yeah. And I feel like one year or so. You can't give everything 100%. Or sometimes I'm pulled in different directions. And it's really hard. And I'm only able to give my kids 25% of me. And I'm already split between three. And I'm like, I want to give them 100% of me. So I really need to be better about, you know, really turning off my phone. But it was so hard in the beginning. I felt like a night crawler and the after October 7th. I called my son room and my old house, the war room. I would wake up. I wouldn't even shower. I would wake up. And I would just go in there and sit in there. All day. And I was unavailable to my kids. I was in the middle of the night checking the news. I wasn't sleeping. I'm not sure a lot of people can relate to that. So I think now I've gotten the balance down a little better. But some days are harder than others. And a lot will happen in the news. And I feel an obligation to say something. But recently I kind of released that obligation. I've really released a lot on that. I'm not always in comment. The last like month or two. But I think I had this moment of like, I have this baby. And she's getting, like time is going really, really fast. And I don't want to miss out on anything right now. Because I'm consumed by my phone. And I get so concerned with the followers and making sure they are staying. And because I'm, what if I'm not creating content? And it just, you know, I would spend hours on a post. And then like, it didn't do well. And I'm like, why did I just do that? And then I'll write one sentence on a post, on a white post. And that gets 3 million views. So I'm like, what does that tell me? We started quating it with self-worth unintentionally. No, I mean, like, I don't need to be putting in hours. Yeah. I just putting one thought might it be enough. And so I've been popping in and out more. Whereas I used to be on there available all the time. And now like, okay, I'm on vacation for a week. And I'm not posting. How do you feel in the shed? Was it weird at first? Like, are you reaching? Yeah, really anxious that I wasn't putting out content. And people were going to lose interest. And I've also been struggling with my content, you know, because I want to post things about a mom. But I'm also posting about Israel. I'm going to post my Jewish and post about Holocaust. I'm like, what am I followers more? And I sometimes will just be like, this is who I am. I'm not one thing. And you might be coming here for Israel content. You might be coming here for mother content. You might be coming here for photos. Like, I'm going to have photos of my kids. And we're going to be on vacation. And that doesn't mean I don't care about what's happening in Israel. It means I'm a very three dimensional person, like most people. And yeah, this is my life. This is really me. And I think that more and more I'm leaning into that is like, if you don't want to follow me, leave. But if you're a mom whose pro-Israel in Jewish or an ally, and there's wanting to learn more and also want to see that I'm a mom with kids and struggling at all, like, then it's the space for you. Exactly. But if you're only looking for, go follow a news page. Yeah. That's not, I was trying to be that in the beginning. I'm not that. That's not who I am. Exactly. There's other people who serve that. I think for you, like your true power is like your storytelling and your ability to connect with kids. And your family history. But the way, I think something that you and I have in common is we're able to take something very complex. And in some situations, taboo, but talk about it in a way where we are kind and relatable. And we're not preaching to anyone that you have to be a Zionist, but we want you to know what the definition is. So that when you see a Zionist's Zionism as racism, there is nothing racist about Jewish people having a home. I just want to, we didn't always have one. For me, it's just all about human connection. And that's my goal in this world. And making it a better place for my children, my grandchildren, and so forth and so forth. Like La Dorega Dora. I want it to be good and raised proud Jews, little Zionists. And feel I did my work. I want to look back and know I did everything I could not feel like I was silent. You know, we don't have that option. I won't stand by silently. I refuse to be silently see what happened when the world was silent. I can't do that at an obligation. And I'm proud to have that obligation. What am I working on? I said, I didn't tell you. Speaking, we're speaking engagements, more educating with children getting in schools, doing that, really prioritizing that. But also I'm working on two different podcasts. One is about being a Jewish mom. And what that means right now, it's going to be fun and quirky and chaotic and relatable. And it's, yeah, it's me. I like that. It's me. And Jewish mom energy and what that means and being proud, but also being real. Like real conversations with being a modern Jewish mother. That sounds way more fun than having to commentate on everything I'll say that comes out of Israel. It's a real fun and funny and silly and relatable. And then I'm working on another more serious one about how you go through trauma and come out on the other side into the light. So through this darkness and how you overcome it and what that resilience looks like and spiritual journey. And it will at first focus on October 7th. Survivors and families related to it and going through trauma and how they connected spiritually and came out of it and found that light. And eventually, I'd like it to continue with other forms of trauma. I want to have the opportunity to go to Nigeria and focus on Nigerian Christians and really see what their lived experiences. That's powerful. And just show different parts of humanity and how we connect and how we come out of it and find resilience. And continue putting one foot in front of the other. Like real unity in our diversity is shared humanity. We're all kind of going through that same truth. I think at the end of the day, it's like people want to be seen. They want their challenges to be understood. And kind of like your story with the soup or letting someone be at your house. People really want to feel that they're supported. And oftentimes, I think one of the biggest lessons I got from you today is sometimes showing someone that you support them is it doesn't have to be a gift or a fancy thing. It's just like really showing that that person that like what they do and who they are matter. Yes. It's like, hey, I got you. I got you. Mama. I got you. You in connection. I near for me. And I think that really connecting because we're in this phone a lot of. Yeah. We're not connecting but like really connecting. It's so true. Yeah. So true. So last story, full disclosure. I went to factors deli yesterday. And at the end of my lunch, I asked if Amanda's father was there. She said, it's Mandy's dad here. And they said, no, but her aunt is here. So yesterday, I met Amanda's aunt, Susie, who has graciously adopt. She said that she will be my element or which is so exciting. She couldn't have been like more nice and it's just when they say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. It's like really, really a blessing that you have such an amazing family filled with like so many kind individuals. And that you guys do so much for the community. It's not like you're just this institution who's been around. It's like, no, like you guys are really involved in a lot of people's like memories. And, you know, some of their toughest days over the years, you all soup has, you know. Really? I mean, chicken soup for the soul, right? I mean, we go to every ship, eat over every life of that. We're there to support people. Do as people need food, be good comfort food and we're here to deliver. And I think that's so important. I think that's why we're such a pillar of the community and why people have come back for four generations at this point. That's phenomenal. Yeah. And it means a lot. I mean, I think growing up, my dad always said you treat the bus boys, you treat the owner. Yeah. And I lived my life that way. That's the shared humanity it doesn't. And that's my lesson from the Holocaust as well as humanity is humanity. And what that, that was the worst ugly aside of humanity. And how do we move forward and create a better world for all of humanity? The Jews, yes. And we have to prioritize ourselves because we're always prioritizing everyone else. We have to prioritize ourselves, but also we need to include others. We need to take care of others. Yeah, I just, that's how I was raised. And I'll also treating people the same no matter if you want to call it a hire. It doesn't matter. From the boss to the bus boy, it's, you treat the bus boy like the boss. Yeah. You just, that's what you do. No one is worth more than anyone else. Yeah. All here, just humans living on this earth. It's a short, finite amount of time and we need to respect each other. And that's how I was raised. So I love that. And I just think that's been a big part of my life is comes down to humanity. That's amazing. There's your soup. Oh, your words for through support. That's what it's about for. That's fabulous. Amanda, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. 2026. Welcome back. Here we go. This was domain. And that folks is a wrap. Oh no, I didn't record and I'm just kidding, I did. I just kidding. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]