Israel-is head: Empathy is the best method to teach people about October 7

Israel-is brought stories of Nova music festival survivors to campuses in the US, bringing these relatable yet horrific stories into regular people’s realities.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF NOVEMBER 8, 2024 22:50 Updated: NOVEMBER 9, 2024 17:12

Nimrod Palmach, CEO Israel-Is (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Nimrod Palmach has made it his life’s mission to bring the story of Israel to the world, and by the end of 2025, he intends to take Israel-is – the company he founded on this principle – to over 500 US college campuses with this exact purpose.

That’s what he revealed to The Jerusalem Post at “Coming Home: Aliyah in Times of War,” a conference on the struggles of making aliyah in the past year. Sign up for our newsletter to learn more >>

Catch up on all you missed from the "Coming Home: Aliyah in Times of War" broadcast >>

“Now, more than ever, we see the Jewish community in desperate need of guidance and help with what happens with kids in universities and campuses,” he said. “Try to imagine a young, 18-year-old student for the first time outside of his house without any support, without any parent nearby, and now he needs to defend himself, not just himself as a person, but become an ambassador of Israel without even asking for it.“What we see is parents who are frightened and have no tools to better educate or equip their kids, and we see the kids that are totally confused about how to defend themselves, how to defend Israel.”Palmach explained that there are so many people, especially students, who are not supportive of Israel but are not opposed to it either; they are simply lacking information.“We give these students both the understanding, the knowledge, and the tools to better defend themselves on social media,” he continued. “Not only that, but a lot of these students had traveled to Israel, either throughout the last year or a year ago. And we want these students to be able to share their stories about Israel because we believe in people-to-people connection.” He explained that Israel-is shared stories of Nova music festival survivors on US campuses, bringing these relatable yet horrific stories into regular people’s realities.“You stand in front of the mirror, and you look at your clothes, and you look at yourself, and you try to imagine what the party looked like,” he said. “Every student in America can relate.”On the other side of things, Jewish students on campuses have consistently felt entirely alone. “They [feel the] need to defend themselves and to defend Israel,” he said.

---

---

“It’s even a war of numbers; there are only a few of us there, and many, many of them,” he continued. “We try to create a coalition of people in universities to better advocate for Israel. Not only are they connected to the Nova festival, but it draws empathy… Empathy, in my point of view, gets you to do an action.”He said Israel-is had met with several students abroad who were interested in making aliyah, a handful in order to volunteer to serve in the IDF and several who had actually followed through.“We talked with empathy,” he said. “This is exactly what it does.” Israel-is took footage from shortly after October 7 and combined it into a film. Soon enough, the organization had traveled the world, sharing the stories of those survivors and family members of victims who spoke on camera. Learn how to buy your home in Israel with confidence >>