All About Change - Montana Tucker - From Auschwitz to Advocacy
Episode Date: November 11, 2024 Montana Tucker built a massive platform on social media using her talents in art, music, and dance. She even shared her personal journey of exploring her family’s history with the Holocaust. But ...after October 7th, she knew she had to use her platform to combat antisemitism and make a difference.  Montana Tucker joined host Jay Ruderman to talk about her experiences raising awareness about antisemitism and supporting Israel. Montana speaks about her deep-rooted connection to her Holocaust-surviving grandparents, and her emotional experience of visiting Auschwitz with her mother. Jay and Montana also discuss how she has used her platform for advocacy despite facing backlash and hate, her passionate advocacy for Israel and against antisemitism, and her unwavering hope for peace in the Middle East.      Episode Chapters (00:00) Intro to Montana Tucker (00:51) Montana’s personal connection to the Holocaust (07:47) The importance of the state of Israel (09:29) Montana speaking out about October 7th (11:33) Dealing with backlash and hate (13:46) What Montana thinks people get wrong about October 7th (15:32) Visiting the Nova Festival site (18:02) How Montana starts conversations with others (21:47) Montana’s experience at the UCLA encampments (27:32) Montana’s advice on getting involved and speaking up (28:56) Montana’s dream of peace in the Middle East (30:06) Conclusion and Credits  For video episodes, watch on www.youtube.com/@therudermanfamilyfoundation  Stay in touch: X: @JayRuderman | @RudermanFdn LinkedIn: Jay Ruderman | Ruderman Family Foundation Instagram: All About Change Podcast | Ruderman Family Foundation To learn more about the podcast, visit https://allaboutchangepodcast.com/  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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Welcome to All About Change.
Once October 7th happened, this like instinct in me and like this feeling inside of me was like instant.
And I knew that I had to do something and this is my time to step up to combat anti-semitism,
to combat all forms of hate, and to share the truth of what's going on and the reality and really trying to make a difference.
Today, I'm thrilled to talk to Montana Tucker.
She's a talented musician, dancer, actor, and social media star.
Montana is also a passionate advocate for Israel.
She uses her platform to raise awareness about the situation there and to fight against anti-Semitism.
Her grandparents survived the Holocaust, which deeply influences
her views. Montana, welcome to All About Change.
Thank you so much for having me.
So I want to start off with your family, because I know you have a very close relationship
with your mother. And I saw a video series that you did on visiting Auschwitz and visiting Poland and the camps
and how impactful that is.
Can you tell us the story of your personal connection
to the Holocaust?
Yes, absolutely.
So growing up, I was extremely close to both my grandparents
but growing up, I was obsessed with my grandparents,
always heard their stories about the Holocaust.
They would speak at, I'm from Boca Raton, Florida, and they would speak at all the schools around Florida.
And my Zadie specifically always wore pins that said, I'm a survivor, never forget, and never
again. And he would speak to anybody that would listen about his experience in the Holocaust to
make sure truly that no one would ever forget and that nothing like that would ever happen again.
truly that no one would ever forget and that nothing like that would ever happen again. And when my Zadie passed away, I was obviously so destroyed and devastated and I rewatched
his and my grandma's testimonies from the Shoah Foundation. And even though I saw them
as a kid, I rewatched them as an adult and especially after him passing, I felt it on
such a deep level and I knew that I had to do something with their stories.
I wasn't quite sure what, but I knew I had to do something. And my mom and I never went
to Auschwitz and we've never visited the camps. And my grandma is a survivor of Auschwitz.
And we decided, hey, let's go to Poland and let's do it. But then we also said, hey, I
have the opportunity to impact millions of people. And my followers at the time were literally like only Gen Z. And a lot of them aren't
being taught about the Holocaust in schools.
Obviously, we know about the Holocaust, but it's crazy to me the amount of people around
the world that really don't know.
And especially the younger generation, it's getting less and less.
So I knew I had an opportunity to do something.
So we decided to film it and make it a docu-series solely for social media.
It was a 10-part series called How to Never Forget.
You can watch it on my YouTube,
but we made it solely for Instagram and TikTok at the time.
My followers at the time didn't even know I was Jewish really,
not on purpose, but because I grew my platforms from singing and dancing.
My goal was always to make people singing and dancing and my goal was always
to make people smile and happy with my videos and so this was the first time that I was
really going to introduce them to my family, my heritage and make it very different than
the content they're used to.
I was a little nervous about posting it because I wasn't sure the reaction or how they were
going to like it but I said, you know what, if I had the opportunity to impact even one
person from this series, I got to do it. I wasn't sure the reaction or how they were gonna like it, but I said, you know what, if I had the opportunity to impact even one person
from this series, I gotta do it.
Sorry that I'm crying right now.
Usually you guys see me posting really fun dance videos
where I'm always smiling and dancing.
And today I'm going to do something
very, very, very different.
It took off in a way that I don't think any of us would have ever expected,
and I'm so grateful for it because it really did make an impact.
And I started traveling around to different schools to talk about it.
I got invited to the White House to have a sit-down conversation with Doug Emhoff
about both of our experiences at Auschwitz,
because he went right after me, actually.
And I hosted Israel's 75th anniversary with Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff about both of our experiences at Auschwitz because he went right after me actually.
And I hosted Israel's 75th anniversary with Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff and Michael Herzog. So this was all before October 7th. And it's still very important to me to talk about the Holocaust
for Holocaust education. I think it's more relevant than ever now.
So just an FYI for our listeners, the Shoah Foundation, what they have done is interview Holocaust survivors
and to get their stories on tape and video
to save them for perpetuity,
to have personal stories about what people went through
in the Holocaust.
So I appreciate what your grandparents did
to tell their stories.
What do you know of their stories?
What do you know of what they went through in Holocaust?
You can't even imagine.
Like even when I knew the stories
and even when I actually went to the camps,
you still can't even really fully understand
and imagine what they went through.
And even after hearing their stories
and the fact that they came to America
with absolutely nothing,
and they built such incredible lives for themselves, for my family. And also the fact that they had so much love
inside of them, I still to this day don't understand because they dealt with so much
hate. And my grandma specifically, a story about her is she literally saw her mother
get beaten up and dragged to the gas chambers right in front of her, saw other family members get killed right in front of her.
Thankfully, she survived with her sister in the camps.
They were the only two from her family that survived.
And my Zadie, he worked as an electrician in a labor camp, and he had blonde hair and
blue eyes, so he would kind of get away with a lot.
And he made friends with one of the guards. And the guard would always tell him like the guard was going to be not if the guard wasn't
going to be there. Or the guard would give my Zadie extra food. And one day the guard got sick
and couldn't tell my Zadie he wasn't going to be there. So my Zadie came came back like a little
late and replenishment. They made my Zadie sleep in a coffin with nails on both sides. If he moved
forward or back, he would get stabbed.
Those are just two stories of many, many, many crazy,
heartbreaking stories that they had to go through.
But my grandparents are the main reason
why I'm doing what I'm doing today,
and they inspire everything that I do.
And it's crazy how similar are these stories
that I'm hearing from today, especially in Israel,
how similar they are to things
that my grandparents experienced, especially in Israel, how similar they are to things
that my grandparents experienced,
especially before going into the camps.
Your last visit, I believe, was with your mother in Auschwitz.
And that's where your great grandparents were killed,
were murdered.
What was that experience like?
I thought I was prepared.
We did it on the last day of our trip, so we already had a lot of really tough, hard
days.
It was extremely difficult to see the gas chambers.
My mom and I actually stood by one of the cattle cars.
It's very likely that my grandmother was on that cattle car because it came from Hungary
and it came from the exact time that she got there.
We stood literally in the same spot that pretty much my grandma probably stood
to see her mother get dragged and taken to the gas chamber.
And I was there arm and arm with my mother sitting there, standing there,
in the exact spot my grandma had to last see her mother.
So I think that was a really powerful moment, like to be Jewish women, descendants of Holocaust survivors, coming there and standing
there, honoring our family and being proud Jewish women. That's Hitler and the Nazis'
worst nightmare.
I want you to tell Montana what happened. I want you to tell standing here what took
place on this spot.
I think that your great grandma knew she was going to be marched to her death.
Very powerful. But I want to talk about your grandparents and what message did they give you regarding
what they went through in the Holocaust and the importance of having a state of Israel right now.
Oh, you know, my grandparents, they're not from Israel. They're from Hungary and Romania,
but they would talk about how important the state of Israel is for every single Jew around the world.
And they would always say they believe the Holocaust would have never happened if there
was an Israel. And that's why it drives me crazy when there are Jews around the world that aren't
supporting or not standing for Israel.
Again, this has nothing to do with the government or politics, but Israel is so important for Jews
around the world because God forbid there was another Holocaust, which there is not going to
be. But God forbid Israel is the place that we would need. And I went to Israel for the first
time on birthright when both my grandparents were
still alive.
And they were so happy that I went and so thankful that I went.
And again, I think that's why once October 7th happened, this instinct in me and this
feeling inside of me was instant that I knew that I had to do something and this is my
time to step up.
And I almost felt my grandparents' energy and voices inside of me being like, this is my time to step up. And I like almost like felt my grandparents energy
and voices inside of me being like, this is it.
This is why you've built the platform
of almost 14 million followers.
This is your moment.
This is your moment to step up
and do everything that you can to combat anti-Semitism,
to combat all forms of hate
and to share the truth of what's going on
and the reality and
really try to make a difference.
So I have a lot of respect that you have taken your platform and spoken out about Israel,
the atrocities of October 7th.
But did you ever feel that you were taking a professional risk by talking so publicly about your support to Israel
to your huge following?
No, honestly, I think that like right when the seventh
happened, I didn't even think it was gonna be a risk.
I knew it was something that I had to do.
But when I did start posting,
I immediately lost hundreds of thousands of followers.
And the hate I started receiving was insane.
Like I received some hate when I did my Holocaust series,
for sure, but the hate that I received, of course,
for talking about Israel was like on just a whole other
level and still to this day, I get death threats every day.
It's still to this day, the comments people say,
I mean, I just came back from Israel filming a documentary about the children of October 7th. Now these kids are not talking
about the conflict whatsoever. They're not involved in politics or anything. And they
are just sharing their personal stories about what happened to them and their family that day.
My dad screamed that he lost his arm. I did see my dad fall over, but my mom, I knew she was dead.
Immediately, I just stayed still.
I didn't make a single sound.
And literally people were commenting on my video.
Oh, how much are you getting paid for posting this?
You're such a liar, you propagandist.
Like how is this propaganda?
These are these innocent kids
sharing their personal stories. So did I know
that this is going to happen? No. But do I regret it? No. And I will never stop posting and I will
never stop sharing. And I think the more hate that I receive, the more it shows me why I'm doing this
and why I need to keep doing this because these people are so either misinformed or so ignorant to
watch a video of a kid crying and sharing their story and to be able to comment that
and say that, that just shows their character.
And again, shows why I need to keep doing this.
So first of all, thank you for doing it.
And how do you deal with the trolls?
I mean, it's coming at you all the time.
How do you deal with it?
And how do you deal with your own mental health?
You know, social media can be such a negative crazy place, but I also believe it can be
such a positive amazing place.
It has really the opportunity to impact millions of people around the world from watching a
one minute to two minute video.
For my mental health personally, I think what keeps me going is just, I see how strong Israelis
are in general. I see how strong
these families of hostages that still have their family members in Gaza. I see how strong
these kids, especially from my documentary that lost both of their parents, Hamas murdered
both of their parents, yet these kids still have so much love inside of them and the will
to live and thrive. And so when I see that and I'm like, you know what,
if they can handle this,
I can handle these trolls on social media.
So all of that is what keeps me going.
How does that stay with you?
You know, when you talk to people who are,
people who've been kidnapped and come back,
or families who have family members that are kidnapped
or have lost loved ones who have been murdered,
how does that affect you personally?
Yeah, I mean, it's been really difficult. I mean, over the past year, I've met with so many
different family members of hostages. I've met with many released hostages. I've now built
friendships with these people that really do feel like family to me now. Again, it's the same thing
with my grandparents. You can't imagine what they went through. You can't imagine what they're still
going through. But again, the fact that they are so strong and resilient and never gave up and
are still not giving up is so powerful. And really, like in every interview that I did
on my past trip, I wanted to break down and cry. And a few of them I did.
But I would see, I would look them in the eyes and see how strong they're being.
And I said, you know, I need to be strong for them.
They're being strong, I need to be strong.
But again, it's the stories will stay with me forever.
Their faces will stay with me forever.
But their strength and resilience, I hope, is what really stays with me forever.
I want to ask you about what do you think the media and others get so wrong about October 7th and the coverage of the war?
Listen, this conflict, I think—I'm not a historian by any means, and I will never try to make it like I am.
Every day I learn so much, and I'm never try to make it like I am. Every day I learn so much and I'm continuing to learn.
And I think that's what's most important
is that everyone needs to be educated
and continue to educate themselves
because I think that's what the issue is.
There's such a lack of knowledge and lack of education
and people just make these assumptions
and all the propaganda that is on social media
and in the news is so crazy to me,
but people who genuinely don't know better, they
see a video get 20 million views and say, okay, this must be true. Or they see their
favorite news station reporting something and they say this must be true. And that's
why for me specifically, it was so important to go to Israel and be on the grounds. And
I've been there three or four times since the seventh and I'm going back again at the
end of the month and I'm going again in January and I'm not stopping going there because it's important to be there
on the grounds, interview these survivors, go to the... I've been to the Kibbutzim, I've
been to the Nova site, I've been all over. So that way, okay, all this denial that you're
having, well, I'm here. I'm actually physically here and I'm seeing it with my own eyes. And
I've talked to people of all religions, all races, all walks of life in Israel. And so these, there's so many misconceptions about it. And most
of the people that are, are spreading this stuff have never been. I'm like, please come,
come to Israel and see with your own eyes. Come, go, go visit, go, go talk to these people,
see it, hear it. Again, everyone has their own individual experiences, of course. But
when I go there, that's what
I see and that's what I hear and I hope that the rest of the world can visit and just see
it with their own eyes.
So thank you for coming to Israel and thank you for being here.
I want to talk about one thing that you did since the attack on October 7th, that you
got some survivors of the Nova Festival together,
and you did a dance at the Nova Musical Festival site.
Why did you decide to do this,
and what were you hoping to get across from this performance?
Yeah, so for me, I was having a little bit of a struggle
with combining all my worlds.
I felt like I had my activism on one side,
and then I had my dancing, my singing, my acting over here. And it was really hard for me to combine
them because my dancing and my singing and acting is very happy and I do it to make people
smile and it's very bright and colorful and upbeat. And what was going on in the world
was not that at all. And I was the complete opposite of that. But then I thought to myself, everyone went to that Nova Music Festival to sing,
to dance, to hear music.
And once I had that realization, I was like,
okay, I can do something and I can combine my worlds.
And I found a dance group actually,
L'Lac Freedman Dance Center in Israel,
who lost three of their members at Nova Festival.
And they actually won a dance competition for dedicating this amazing dance number to
Nova.
And I saw it and I contacted them.
I actually was brought out to Israel by Combat Anti-Semitism, CAM.
They're an amazing organization.
And they helped me contact this dance group.
And they were excited to do this video.
And then we reached out to Nova Survivors, seeing if they were comfortable with this,
if they'd want to do this.
And we ended up doing it.
We went to Reim and we filmed it.
And we had a bunch of Nova Survivors and we had actually Marron's Deli and I, who was
a released hostage.
She was at the Nova Festival and was in captivity for 54 days.
Her and I actually have become great friends now.
I love her so much.
And it was just a really powerful moment
to see these people standing there strong,
saying we can dance again, we will dance again
and be there.
It was a lot of that some of their first times going back,
it was very difficult because a lot of them
have so much trauma.
It was a very surreal experience.
And I'm really happy because I feel that video made a big impact in a really special way.
First of all, I would urge everyone to watch the video because I think it's really powerful.
I want to ask you about, again, about social media.
You often approach people
and try to have conversations with them.
How do you handle people that disagree with you,
whether that's online or whether you're meeting them
on the street?
I remember there was something,
I think it was on the Santa Monica Pier,
where you had an artist that did a rendition of the sweatpants
that were worn by one of them that was taking hostage and they were all bloody and in Namalevi.
And you were, people were approaching you and you were explaining to them what this
was about.
But how do you handle those type of conversations?
Because it's got to be really difficult.
I remember one person walking by you and saying, you know, Hitler didn't do his job.
You know, how do you do that and put yourself out there?
You know, it's interesting because we always go into these videos that I do in public and
I always think, okay, we're going to be met with so much hate.
It's going to get crazy.
There's actually just people who really don't know about it, which is pretty wild to me I always think, okay, we're going to be met with so much hate. It's going to get crazy.
There's actually just people who really don't know about it, which is pretty wild to me
that every time I do these videos in public, people genuinely don't know.
They're shocked by what we share with them and what we show them, especially the ones
with the sweatpants.
No one knew about these girls.
These people couldn't believe what they were watching and what they were hearing. And they told us, thank you for educating me and thank you for sharing.
And now they're going to go home and talk to their friends and their family about it.
But then, of course, it does come with hate.
And I did a video with a Muslim peace activist who's incredible.
His name's Loai Al-Sharif.
We're here to convey the message that Muslims and Jews, Arabs and Israelis can unite together for peace and understanding.
If anyone listening doesn't follow him, you should follow him because he's been an incredible
ally. He's incredibly educated. He went out with me in public in Santa Monica Pier and
held up a sign that said something along the lines of, I'm a Muslim Arab who supports
the only Jewish state, Israel. And then I said something like, I'm a Jewish American
who supports peace with the Middle East. And we invited people to come and talk to us. And the amount
of like dirty stares that he got specifically, like people could not believe that he was
supporting Jews in Israel. People would walk by saying, disgusting, blah, blah. A man from
Ireland was there with his wife and two kids and he had no ties to this conflict whatsoever.
He walks by and said,
Hitler had the right idea. Jews are responsible for all the problems in the world. And he was
saying this openly, loud in front of his kids, like had no shame in talking like this. And now
his kids are going to learn from him and that's going to be a spiral effect of what they think
and feel. But then there was a lady who was from Palestine and
she said, I asked her where she's from, she said Palestine. And she said, I support you.
And I said, what? And she goes, I support the peace. And I could not believe that she
said that. I asked, can I, I said, can I please have a hug? Like I was so grateful for that
moment and we hugged and there was another group of kids that were Muslim that
were probably in college and they came up and actually just had an educated conversation.
They were asking questions. They didn't necessarily agree with the wife, but why was sharing very
specific stories and facts. And even though they didn't necessarily agree at first, they
appreciated the conversation and it ended up with them being like, I'm going to go do
more research. thank you.
And we all hugged goodbye.
Yeah.
So conversations are so important.
I think people are so scared to have them because of how polarizing they could be or how,
I feel like just how much separation and how much hatred there is.
And you feel like you have to choose a side or whatever, but it's not really about that.
We all have to listen to each other and understand each other.
And I think if there was more of that, I think
the world would be a way better place, that's for sure.
I want to talk about a video that you did that was very emotional.
And it hits home with me because I have a daughter who just started at Columbia, but
you were at UCLA and there was an encampment.
And you wanted to have a conversation with the pro-Palestinian activists that set up this encampment and they would
not talk to you.
And it brought tears to your eyes.
Just trying to understand what you're protesting.
For some reason, no one from your guys' team will let you guys speak.
And I don't know why you guys can't speak to me.
And like this is so intimidating and scary for you guys to be standing here.
I literally have walked around for the past two hours just asking peaceful questions,
like, what's going on here today?
Why are you guys here?
And no one can speak to me.
And you guys are laughing.
I don't understand how this is funny.
It was extremely powerful to me,
but can you talk about what that was like
and why you decided to do that?
And what brought out the emotion in you?
Yeah, so I went to UCLA maybe like a day or two before it started getting very violent and crazy,
but the encampments were already up for a little while.
You hear everything online and you hear,
okay, some of them don't even know why they're there,
some of them are getting paid or some of them just whatever it is.
I said, okay, I want to go there
and I want to have conversations.
I want to actually know why they're there.
I want to speak to each other.
I want to see if we can come to some kind of understanding
with each other.
I specifically went there and I didn't have, like,
any of my jewelry on.
I wasn't holding an Israeli flag or, like,
I wasn't saying anything about Israel
or anything at all whatsoever.
I was literally just there to say,
hey, like, what are you guys doing here today?
And no one would speak to me.
And they were sitting there spray painting things.
And I was like, well, you guys are clearly trying to get a message out there.
What do you guys want the world to know?
And they said, sorry, I had to speak to our media liaison.
And I said, OK, I'm just wondering.
I literally would just be like,
I'm just wondering what you guys are doing here.
Like that's it, okay?
Then I go to, I'm like, okay, fine.
I have no problem going to the media liaison.
I think that's crazy that like, it was like robotic
the way that they were all answering me, but fine.
I don't have a problem.
I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.
So I go over to them and I said,
hi, I would love to interview them, whatever.
The lady knew who I was and said,
we don't speak to agitators.
You're an agitator.
We don't speak to agitators.
And then like she started watching me walk around
the whole thing on the outside.
I wasn't allowed inside.
I wasn't allowed inside the encounter,
which it makes no sense.
It's public property.
Okay.
But I wasn't allowed inside.
Then every time I'd walk anywhere,
they were following me from the inside while I was walking on the outside to make sure I wouldn't speak to anybody and
Then when I did try to walk in because I I said this is public property
I should be able to walk wherever I want to walk
they started blocking me and
So it started with like two people and then it got to like 20 people blocking me from walking and I would never
Ever touch anybody ever get physical
but if I were to walk like they would have physically pushed me if I would have
kept walking. Right.
And I think what was the hardest moment for me is I was looking them in the eyes.
Like, what are you guys doing?
And the amount of it was just like this, like hatred in their eyes.
And then they started laughing at me.
They were literally laughing.
Like this was a joke.
And I just couldn't believe it. It made me so sad to know that this younger generation,
these college students who either their parents have worked so hard their whole lives to send
them to college, or they are working so hard to be in college. And this is what they're doing with
their education. And this is how they're spending the best years of their lives,
having this much hate inside of them. And it also made me think of my grandparents too. They would
tell me stories about friends, they were friends with their whole lives or even, I mean, they
weren't in college yet when they were sent to the camps, but just how everything changed for them.
And it was just wild to me. So I think it just really finally hit me that like this is the reality of what is going
on in the world and then it only progressively got worse.
Thank gosh it's better now, but at the time it was terrible.
Well, I should say there's a recent Harvard Harris poll that came out that said 81% of
Americans support Israel.
So you're encountering students who are very anti-Israel,
but I don't think they represent the majority
of the American people.
No, and also at the end of the day,
I think especially with the younger generation,
everyone wants to be popular and cool.
And for whatever reason, it's like popular and cool
with the younger generation to be hateful
or to be anti-Israel or anti-Semitic.
But I don't even know if all of them actually feel that way. They're just following the trend and wanting to be anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. But I don't even know if all of them actually feel that way.
They're just following the trend and wanting to be cool.
And I think a lot of these people finally feel like they have a community
and they belong somewhere.
And they like, if it was popular to be like pro-Israel, they would do it too.
They just want to follow the trends and be cool.
Right.
And Montana, what do you say to people that say, well, you know, I'm on, I'm
not anti-Semitic, I have nothing against the Jews, but I'm anti-Zionist.
I personally don't agree with that.
And I don't understand that concept.
I don't know if that's controversial, but I don't because again, like my
grandparents said, the state of Israel is important to every single Jew around
the world.
And again, you don't have to agree with someone's government.
Just like, it's like saying, if someone doesn't agree with our president, are you
going to hate all Americans and are you going to hate America?
That's just not how it works.
And that's not how it should work for Israel as well.
And that's why I always talk about how this is not political.
This like it has nothing to do with politics whatsoever.
But I just genuinely don't understand the concept of Jews not supporting Israel.
It really, it goggles my mind personally.
So Montana, people who are listening who want to get involved and speak up about Israel
and anti-Semitism, but they don't know where to go, where would you tell them to go to
start?
There are so many things you can do.
I think people look at me and they're like,
oh, well, you have 14 million followers.
Of course you can do this,
but you do not have to have 14 million followers
to make a difference and make an impact and to stand up.
There's so many organizations you can get involved with
and you can help out.
If you're on campus, I know there are so many clubs
and organizations on campus that can really help
and feel it and bring
you to a community that supports you.
I think having conversations with friends, even if they don't agree with you, don't
be scared to have them.
Try to open the door for conversation, whether it's your friends, your colleagues, even your
family.
Some people have family members that are disagreeing with each other.
I think try to have conversations and
try to come to an understanding. This is a very complicated, hard time that we're all
in right now, but this is the time that we all need to step up and we all need to do
something. We all have the power to make a difference. And I think whatever way you can
do it, whether it's if you have the funds to donate, if you have the voice to speak,
if you have the network to gather communities, to do rallies, not protests, not even protests,
they do rallies to support. All of these things make a difference.
That is great advice. Israel's been fighting terrorism in the south against Hamas in the
north about against Hezbollah, against Iran that's supporting Hezbollah and Hamas and the north about against Hezbollah against Iran that's supporting
Hezbollah and Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen and the pro-Iranian groups in Iraq.
What hope do you have for the region?
It sounds like you're like so cliche and so like beauty pageant, but peace.
I mean, I think that if you're discussing this conflict and your goal is in peace at
the end of the day, you're on the wrong side.
I think every person should want peace.
And again, there are a lot of people who don't want that, unfortunately.
And so I think the majority of us need to come together and really just want peace for everybody.
And we all need to be united against terrorism
at the end of the day.
And we know who the terrorists are.
We know who the bad guys are.
And there are innocent civilians,
there are innocent people on all sides.
And we all need to come together against this terrorism
and really strive and hope for peace.
Moshe, well, Montana, thank you for everything that you do. You're amazing,
you're talented. And I wish you to go from strength to strength. I really appreciate you.
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me on and enjoy Israel. And thank you for being there.
Thank you for everything you do as well. Today's episode was produced by Joachim Etaal and Mijan Zulu.
To check out more episodes or to learn more about the show, you can visit our website
allaboutchangepodcast.com.
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All About Change is produced by the Ruderman Family Foundation.
That's all for now. I'm Jay Ruderman, and we'll see you next time on All About Change. But not goodbye
Au revoir
But not goodbye