Lynn & Tony Know
Lynn & Tony Know
The Queen of Jewish Activism. @melissaschapman
What if your blog could transform from a simple lifestyle platform into a powerful tool for activism? Join us as we sit down with Melissa Chapman, the remarkable voice behind the Staten Island Family blog. In this episode, Melissa opens up about her incredible journey from being a newspaper columnist to becoming an influential lifestyle blogger and an unexpected advocate for Israel. Her story takes us through the evolution of her blog, her initial plans to sell it, and how a significant event on October 7th redirected her focus towards advocacy against Jew hatred.
Melissa's profound commitment to her Jewish identity and activism is a central theme as she reflects on her Orthodox upbringing and a pivotal Zionism class that shaped her worldview. She candidly shares her struggles, from being deactivated on social media to the financial sacrifices she has made to amplify the voices of survivors and victims. Our conversation dives into the broader implications of the general public's lack of awareness and support for Israel, and the sense of betrayal felt by Jewish individuals who have supported other marginalized communities only to face silence in return.
In our heartfelt discussion, we emphasize the importance of unity within the Jewish community and the role of creators who inspire Jewish activism. We touch on the emotional and social toll of standing up for Israel, the challenges posed by legacy Jewish organizations, and the significance of supporting and uplifting the younger generation. Ending on a hopeful note, we express our deep gratitude to Melissa for her incredible contributions and look forward to future discussions that continue to shine a light on these crucial issues.
Your hosts: @lynnhazan_ and @tonydoesknow
follow us on social @ltkpod!
Hey, welcome to the Lynn and Tony Know podcast. I'm your host, Lynn.
Speaker 2:And I'm Tony. We are both wellness coaches and married with kids.
Speaker 1:Join us as we talk about all things health, wellness, relationships, life hacks, parenting and everything in between, unfiltered. Thanks for listening and let's get into it. Welcome to the show. Welcome back. Season three, episode two. We are back Super excited. School just started, kids are back in school. We're getting back on the flow of things and the routines.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we have a very special guest. I'm really excited. She's like, she's awesome and I feel like we have so much in common. You guys will understand when I tell you guys about our first guest. So our first guest of season three is someone I have a lot in common with, who I admire very much.
Speaker 1:Melissa Chapman is the blogger behind the Staten Island family, a lifestyle blog that offers a mix of lifestyle content, including parenting tips, relationship advice, recipes and fashion. Melissa started the blog as a way to share her experience as a mother-wife, particularly focusing on her life in Staten Island, new York. Does that her experience as a mother wife, particularly focusing on her life in staten island, new york? Does that sound familiar you guys? Chick p jc, uh-huh, uh-huh. So we share very similar stories. Over the years, she's built a strong community of readers who appreciate her honest and relatable approach to family life.
Speaker 1:In the last few years, melissa emerged as an accidental activist for israel and against jew hatred, with an emphasis on platforming smaller Jewish creators. This transformation began in response to the growing anti-Semitism she observed both online and in her community. As a proud Jewish woman, melissa felt compelled to use her platform to speak out against the rising tide of Jew hatred and to advocate for Israel. Melissa's advocacy work has resonated deeply with many of our followers, further amplifying her influence beyond just lifestyle blogging. Tony and I had the pleasure of meeting her recently at a Shabbat dinner and she is a wonderful human being and we are so insanely grateful to have her on our show. Melissa, welcome to the Lynn and Tony Know podcast. We are so excited to have you.
Speaker 3:Wow, that was such a beautiful intro. I want someone to read it at my like obituary you know, like we'll just print it out and frame it instead.
Speaker 2:You don't have to wait.
Speaker 1:And you know like I really resonate a lot with your story as as a mom and like a lifestyle blogger, and you know we literally our, our paths are our, our writing and our.
Speaker 3:The origins of, like our story, you know, is really very it's so similar. It's like creating that we didn't, that we didn't overlap, I guess I'm I'm like 10 years older than you, so that's probably why you know, you're a pioneer, it's it's interesting that like well in the blogging space, but like a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:And uh, yeah, when I, when I heard your whole story, I was like wow, she's, she's awesome, like I can really resonate with where she is. And so you know, before, before you started your activism, did you, did you envision things shifting for you? Like, who were you before October 7th?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I mean, I started this. I was like a, I was a writer for the Staten Island advance. I did like a column called kids in the city. It was like a take on like sex in the city, but like with kids. And then when that you know when, when newspapers released cause I, you know, back in the day it was like newspapers, freelance magazines, when newspapers really, because I, you know back in the day, it was like newspapers, freelance magazines when that all dried up, I was like you know what? There's this new thing called blogging and everyone, all these moms, are doing it. I'm just going to take all my content and all my contacts that I've built up and I'm going to put them into this blog. And I started this blog and you know it was great. I did a lot of brand partnerships and it sustained me for like a good I'm going to say a good like eight years where I was just doing lifestyle.
Speaker 3:And then, but then realizing, you know, as your kids age out of it, you know you don't really have the. You see yourself sort of not getting the same opportunities. You know, because your kids, you know they're not playing with toys anymore. And then you know it's like when they get to be teenagers they don't really want to be on camera anymore. They don't. I mean, I really stretched it Like my kids were really good they were, they were good. I got them like contacts, braces, like I did. I. I got everything I love that.
Speaker 3:I totally pimped them out and they were, you know, they were very good. I mean, listen, I got them a lot. I got great trips. You know, we were getting paid a really good money. So it was like, you know, it just seemed like for everything, you know, it was a great deal. And then, to be perfectly honest, like about a year before October 7th, I was planning on selling everything Because I was like I have this amazing platform, I have like 400,000, you know readers a month on my blog. I was really mainly then focusing on like cause, you know, I was age, I aged out of the parenting thing so I still do, you know evergreen content. But I was doing more like plastic, a ton of plastic surgery stuff, fitness and a lot very recipe heavy. And I was like you know what? I'm going to sell it, because now everyone wants to be online and I'll sell all my social media properties, so they're going to get everything. It's over, definitely way over, you know, probably like 2 million total for the subscribers and all that stuff. And I had a deal was six figures, was amazing, ready to go over six figures, like really what I wanted. And I was like I'm done with this space. I'm old, I'm not, I'm like, done.
Speaker 3:And September 7th happened and I thought, you know, I'll sell everything, but I won't sell Instagram. Just let me have Instagram because I could already. I already felt like people were going to, israel was going to get thrown under the bus, the Jews were not going to come out and support Israel and Israel was just going to get creamed and maligned. And this is just what I felt like October 7th, that morning, you know, I just had this feeling and the guy that I had a company doing it for me. They said, no, it's got to be. We need Instagram now, we need to take your Instagram, we're going to scrub it and, just, you know, keep everything. So I said no and I didn't sell anything. And you know, and since then and ever since October 7th, it was just been like all Israel, all the time, all is real, all the time.
Speaker 3:When October 7th hit, I think I had like maybe 75,000 followers on Instagram, which was a lot for me because, you know, I wasn't like heavy Instagram person, I was more blog and other social networks, but um, but uh, I just like, after October 7th, I just posted every day what was happening in real time, like completely forgot it. I mean, I wish I would have sold it, because I literally left everything dormant for about six weeks. I couldn't leave Instagram and I could see that nobody was. I mean, the day after October 7th, people were calling for ceasefire. Israel hadn't even done anything, we were just attacked. Nothing had even been done. And you know, ever since then, just like ever since October 7th, I just every day, you know.
Speaker 3:And then the main thing was, like you said in the intro, you know, seeing that nobody was posting, and seeing all these Jewish creators not getting any airtime on any of their stuff, I was like I have to find a way to make sure that every Jewish creator that wants to speak anybody I don't care if you have two followers, I don't care if you have 10,000 followers, I want to put you on my platform so at least everyone gets to see, gets to hear from you. And I feel like you know that's been my goal since October 7th and you know that's been my goal since October 7th. And you know I wasn't, it wasn't my plan and, like I said, I was ready to sell everything and I was ready to sell Instagram too. October 7th hadn't happened, I would not, I would not be even speaking to you because I would be off. I would be. I was ready to like, finally say goodbye to social media, Cause it's like a it's a really crazy you know place, but it's where all the people are and it's where all the news happens now. So to have given up Instagram and not to have been able to have a voice, I think would have been bad for the Jewish community. So I feel like that's been.
Speaker 3:The silver lining in all of this is that maybe it was meant to be that I should continue. Maybe, like you know, it was meant to be that I should continue, you know, but, um, I mean, you know we're speaking like this, we're having this conversation now, but a couple of days after, uh, hersch, poland goldberg, was executed along with five other hostages, I mean I really, really thought that things were going to be different. You know, and the fact that an American, an American most people don't even know this American and that you know he was executed, and it's like it never even happens, you know, no one said anything. It's barely a blip on the screen of what's going on in society. I think it says a lot about, like, where people you know how people see israel and jews and what we should see ourselves as american jews in the landscape.
Speaker 3:You know yeah sorry, I just went on like a whole we love it.
Speaker 1:we're taking it all in. I mean trying to give you you know like a whole, we're taking it all in, we're taking it all in yeah, yeah, I'm trying, I mean.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to give you, you know, like a little background.
Speaker 2:No, that's incredible context for your story that I certainly would never have known, because for me, what you've done is so admirable, just at face value. At face value, even if without the the, the desire to sell and to have the deal in place and then to pull back and go maybe I can't give this up right now was I mean that's that's talk about putting your money where your mouth is, like that's the real deal. I mean, even without that, what you've done to lift up voices that might not be heard or definitely would not be heard, I mean there's not, there's not many days that you can go on online without somebody going, you know, without Melissa. I don't know if this page would be where it is. Like I just watched, you know Barack say that two days ago, right, and, and literally you were one of the when we, when we first interviewed somebody about this, it was Millette, who was a survivor of the Nova Music Festival and we were cutting up content for that and getting ready to put out some of the clips for it.
Speaker 2:And Lynn was like, just collaborate with Melissa Chapman, she'll probably accept it. And I was like she doesn't have any idea who we are, like, why would she do that and, sure enough, before we'd even probably said two words to each other, I added you as a collaborator and you accepted it. I texted Lynn. I was like she accepted. This is great. What an amazing thing like to have this message put out there. So I mean, we've been direct benefactors of that, of that kindness and that willingness to go above and beyond for smaller voices, um and and to hear you having given up that sort of deal to jump back in the fray with everyone and grow the entire community around you is incredible.
Speaker 3:I mean honestly. You know I was raised I. I. I was raised Orthodox. I went to Yeshiva for 10 years, um, you know. So it's like ingrained in me that you know I had a class in high school Yeshiva, Flatbush High School um, yoav Eliyach, uh, yotav or Yoach. His mother is uh uhaffa Eliyach. She wrote an amazing book about being a survivor of the Holocaust.
Speaker 3:He gave us a class in Zionism and I still have my notes from my 9th grade class because it was it really imprinted on me that like we really have to support Israel in every way and I feel like we should all be living there. And if we can't be living there, I feel like how could we just abandon Israel when everyone is coming out against her? I would feel like the worst Jew if I was on. I had a platform and I didn't use it, and I know that so many people are not doing it and I don't know, maybe it's because they weren't raised the way I was. That like you know. You know it's like if I, if I forget Jerusalem, like I forget my right hand, you know it's like you can't, you can't let you know the Jew, jew. It's like everything is about Israel, everything you do everything, israel's and everything, and I don't know how people could like not be supporting her now and her people. It's just to me it feels like it's your duty and I wish that more people listen. I have I've been deactivated three times.
Speaker 3:Before October 7th, I definitely made a couple of thousand dollars a month on Instagram and I wasn't even trying, just, you know, doing brand partnerships. You know you were able to. You know I was able to make money and obviously I've not been able to make any money since then money and obviously I've not been able to make any money since then. But how could you not share and support and give voices to people who have been killed? And when people say thank you, like it's like people say thank you to me, like even you saying thank you to me, it's like I thank you because you're giving me the opportunity to do a good deed, do a mitzvah, like I'm sharing in the mitzvah, sharing the survivor story that everyone should hear what happened, because you know, as you know, the minute October 7th happened, everything that we said happened was denied. What people? You know it's like we were gaslighted. So we have to. You know it's like after October 7th, we had to not only try to heal, which we didn't even have time to heal, we had to just immediately go into defensive mode and and, and, fight, and, and, and, and survive.
Speaker 3:And I think that it's like, as a Jew, on these platforms I really have, I just don't understand how you could have a platform and not use it, like I just I don't, I don't know how you could like you know, cause you were saying oh, you know, it's amazing, you can walk away from money, you know, and.
Speaker 3:But I feel like a lot of people are choosing their business over their Judaism and I think it's a really it's very risky and you're you know, if you have kids, the younger generation, everyone's watching and you think I'm taking. I mean, it's a different situation, like, if you're like I guess, if you're a single mother and everyone's, because one woman said to me I got very angry because I wanted her to share something and she said I'm a single mother and I'm the, you know, I'm the custodial parent and I really can't risk my business right now on Instagram to share. I can't get too political. So I guess you know, I guess in certain situations I understand, but I think for the most part, you know, if you can, anything you can share. Um, there's so many lies, there's so much propaganda. I don't know. I don't really know what to say and I have gotten a little, you know, more less aggressive and more and more sweet. But I don't know, I just it's been very hard to see, I think.
Speaker 1:I appreciate your courage because I feel like you say what a lot of people think and I think, especially post October 7th, and sadly people are, you know, you know be. I've become activists, but maybe for the wrong reasons and you can kind of tell who's in it because it's like, okay, we're all in this together, we don't have a choice, and who's in it to like, you know, for the likes and the clicks and the following, and I feel like you call it out, you call, you call it out and you call out when people are being fake and and and and you know you keep them honest. Like I don't, like I wish I had half the balls that you do.
Speaker 3:I mean, I mean, you know it's honestly it's not, it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can hear you. I think I lost you for a second.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. I feel like it's like my duty to like keep reminding people, because if I don't remind them and if I don't, you know, then we're just gonna, you know, we're just gonna fall back into just. I mean, listen, it's like another part of my story and a big reason why I have this feeling of like being so vocal. My father was born in a work camp during the Holocaust. We don't really have a lot of information Other than that. You know he my grandmother, told us that she had to like stand between two women to like hide her pregnancy when she was like in line, and I don't really know, like how she gave birth in the work camp. I don't know if maybe he was delivered and then held somewhere until after the war, but I know that his whole life he died very young. I feel like his whole life was filled with so much pain, a lot of physical pain, a lot of emotional pain, and I believe it was a product of, you know, his environment and the way he was born and the way he was parented, and I feel like the kids of October 7th will be experiencing this exact same thing. The generations of survivors, like will be experiencing the exact same thing. The generations of survivors will be experiencing the exact same thing.
Speaker 3:And I wonder you know the people who lived in America when the Holocaust was happening? Were they? I mean, they didn't have social media then, so maybe they had an excuse. But what's our excuse? You know what's our like? If he was still alive, I really believe that he would say to me like Melissa, you have to be loud, you have to say something, because no one spoke up for me when this happened to me. So I feel like it's my duty as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor to say something. And we cannot say this is like the Holocaust, because obviously there is nothing that will ever come close to the Holocaust, but it's a massacre of Jews on a scale that we haven't seen since the Holocaust. And I think that it's important. You know that we support the people who were killed and the people who are still grieving, the families of survivors, the survivors themselves.
Speaker 3:You know the kids and just I think you know just the collective. I mean, you're from Israel, you know, you were just there. You know the whole country is sort of like holding their breath right now, and then everything's like in limbo. When I was there in May, even like, our waiter was like you know, you don't understand Like he was a crying, thanking us for coming and saying to us you know, my daughter lives with us now because my son-in-law has to be in the army. He's going, he's in the reserves, but he's got to be in the army and like, and then my other daughter's going in the army.
Speaker 3:I'm terrified. I am terrified that they're going to die, but like we have no choice but to fight, and I just think that we as Americans need to, like continue to tell their stories and, and that's why I will partner with anybody and especially, especially, with Israeli creators and and Israeli families who want people not to forget their loved ones who passed away, Obviously, the people that are still trying to get their loved ones back or kidnapped, you know, hostages, and it's tricky because you know there's so much politics going on, but there's, there should be no politics when it comes to Jewish lives and Jewish safety and Jewish sovereignty in a Jewish homeland, and I think that that's like something that we should we can all agree on. You know, in a Jewish homeland.
Speaker 3:And I think that that's something that we can all agree on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. Obviously, the world doesn't, but within the Jewish community it should be an undeniable truth for everyone. What I do want to highlight is that, while what you're referencing inside of you seems to come from just this natural, innate place of duty, that I want to shine a light on the fact that it's not innate in everyone and it's not innate in everyone and it's not there in everyone. So, you know, when somebody does thank you or tell you that it's special, it's because, unfortunately, it is because not everybody will pick up a sword. You know, and that's true inside the Jewish community, almost entirely true.
Speaker 2:It's even more frustrating for me, as someone who didn't grow up as part of the Jewish community and just you know, in the past couple years has sort of been involved with it to have had so many people pick up a shield for so many different causes, myself included. You know marching, marching during COVID, during BLM, you marriage, celebrating with their entire community. And then you know to to look around at all of those communities now and go, wow, where are you, where are you.
Speaker 2:And it's not well, not even. It's not even where are you. I know where they are, I know where they are and I know where my friends are that were in the same boat as me during BLM. I see them too and it's one of those things that has their core. They were just and they were the right thing to do.
Speaker 2:But then to to look back and to take a step back at some of the ways that that those causes were, were advocated for, and it feels so eerily similar to the way that this is now being advocated for on the, on the pro-palestinian side, and it's and it's it's a bit infuriating, so like for me, it's. You know, you, you speak to the, the, the jewish people that are maybe unwilling to to pick up the fight for themselves and and I can understand that out of out of the fear that must be, at this point, generational, but to look at like people like me outside of the community that are willing to go to bat for literally everyone and then see them dead, silent, dead silent or worse, or worse is has been one of the most eye-opening things over the past year for me.
Speaker 3:To just it's, it's heartbreaking, honestly, I know I I mean like I, you know, I, I, I know woody allen, you know he has his issues, but I have always loved his films and I remember watching like I. I've been watching woody allen films like forever and I think it's I think it's in the film manhattan maybe, or maybe it's annie hall, where he's like I, I feel like there's this anti. I always felt like there was like this anti-Jewish sentiment, but I never wanted to really really believe it. That was a product of the Holocaust and my father and you know, was so happy to be in America. You know, they worked so hard to get here and they, you know, achieve the American dream and I felt like every downtrodden group, every marginalized group, was like was was my cause too.
Speaker 3:And even in my blog and I know Lincoln speaks to this too you know, like I, I did, I made sure that every Black History Month, I did, I mean, I did so much for Black History Month, asian American Month, lgbtq plus, I, I, I made sure to go out of my way right To like make sure that these were. Everyone was represented on my blog, on my Instagram, on my Facebook, and I always asked friends, you know, tell me what I can do. How can I support you? I went out of my way to make sure that I would do it for these people.
Speaker 3:Literally my story Right Same thing and like just yesterday, after Hirsch, an American was killed, not one Jewish friend, not one, not one non-Jewish friend has said to me hey, melissa, I see you and I'm so sorry. Nothing, it's been silence.
Speaker 1:I'm so with you on this, melissa. It's been such a pain point for me in the last year, uh, as someone who's championed Jersey city for the past decade, just always lending my platform to every small business and every minority group, sponsoring events, donating, you know, getting them events, spaces. I had my own nonprofit organization for inner city youth and I just poured myself my like. Month of June, you know, month of August was Jersey city pride month. The whole month was all city pride month. The whole month was all just pride content. During BLM, I was there, I was marching in, I was standing in front and I was reaching out to all the business owners and how, what can I do? How can I help? How, what do I need to read, you know? And I was like I don't, don't educate me, I'm going to look at books. It's not your job, you know. Like.
Speaker 3:I listened.
Speaker 1:I listened, I reached out, I'm here, I'm your friend and everybody in the city knows I'm an Israeli woman. It has always been part of my platform, since day fucking one. They know my parents are from Israel, they know my family is there, they know I go twice a year. It's always been a big part of who of my identity. And October 7th happened and I can count on one hand, out of the thousands of people that I've I've platformed, I can count on one hand the amount of people that reached out and asked me if my family was okay and and since then it's been it's been 11 months and people still ask me to, you know, promote or whatever but it's been kind of like crickets, it's like.
Speaker 1:It's like a lot of the people turned. Not only did they not reached out, but they turned against me and turned against my people. And I came to this realization and this was the most heartbreaking realization that all these years, all the bullying and I don't know if you experience any bullying or online trolling or or you know things of that nature but I dealt with a lot of horrible things and I always thought is oh, because I'm a successful woman? No, it was never just because I'm a successful woman. It was always because I'm a Jewish woman and they looked at me and thought she is a white settler, she is a gentrifier, she is, you know, she steals land. So all these things that they call Jews or they call Israelis, that is what they projected onto me, and to have that is so heartbreaking after you dedicate a whole decade to a community that spits in your face.
Speaker 3:I mean, you're literally preaching to the choir. My community was like the blogging community and the blogging community, like with the way society, you know it changed as society changed. So with you know, you know the Me Too movement, black Lives Matter, you know everything. The blogging world, you know, followed suit and promoted all those causes. So, being in the blogging world, having friends, you know other bloggers influence, you know the influencer world you, you know you do what you're supposed. You know you, you go along with the trends and you and you support, and these were trends that I thought were, you know, good, they, they, they, they deserve my support. But then to see these same people. So now, so the? So they followed the Me Too movement, black Lives Matter, and then it became Free Palestine and they all just followed along the Free Palestine thing, they didn't even question it.
Speaker 3:I don't know if it's because they're Jewish people or they're just like following the trend, but I would think that the people that did know me and that saw me rallying specifically against the free palestine movement, specifically because it calls for the annihilation of the jews and a jewish state, the existence of a jewish state, you would think that they would understand that, but I really believe not only is it a jewish hate thing, but it's a money thing.
Speaker 3:It's all about the money. It's follow the money when brands, you know, when you say free, when you don't get on board with the free Palestine movement and you start supporting Israel, people are not going to support you because the mob, because the majority, is going to say free Palestine. So if you're not going to go along with that, then you're going to be ostracized and nobody wants to. No one wants it to affect their bottom line. So I'd say, most of the influencers that I continue to support and just like you, you know, for all these years and all these campaigns and a handful, a handful, asked me how I was doing. But I don't think, I don't know that anyone actually put up any kind of not promote any kind of acknowledgement, anything on their feed to support Israel. I don't think I saw anyone after October 7th, and this was even before the defendant self.
Speaker 1:So you know, but let's, let's find the silver lining, though like yeah after. October 7th. What is the so? What has been the silver lining for you?
Speaker 3:um, I mean just, you know, hearing people say that you know I've been able to help them and give them a voice, um, just connecting more to my roots. You know, cause, before October 7th, you know I was just doing everything for, for the bottom line, for the money I was in it, also for the money, you know and like, and for the ego, you know and the likes. And really I guess October 7th taught me that you know, if you don't have roots, if you don't have a connection to people, if you don't believe in something and really stands for what you believe in, then what is what? What is your purpose? What is your legacy? What are you teaching your kids? What you showing others, you know. So I feel like it's made me. It's made me more, um, introspective and also feel more connected to my roots and to other jewish people and it's made me, you know, find other jewish people that I, that I never would have spoken to, I never would have gotten to know you, I never would have gotten to know so many people, um, if not for October 7th.
Speaker 3:I still wish October 7th never happened. You know, like I wish that we could turn back everything and rewind. We could have learned this all without October 7th, but, you know, maybe this was the silver lining to reconnect us with what's important, to remind us that we can never forget the Jewish nation. We have to, you know, we can't just blend in and forget who we are and assimilate, and we have to be strong and we have to, you know I guess that's it for me, and you know, and finding and lifting other people up and, you know, creating our own communities and remembering and understanding that, like, we really only have each other, even though you know it's like every other. I mean, it's crazy how history repeats itself. You know, in Germany, this is what my father always told me. This is the only story he ever told me, you know.
Speaker 3:So they lived in Poland and they owned a mill my father's 11 brothers and sisters. They were so happy in Poland, they really felt they were Polish. They were Polish first and then they were Jewish. Nobody wanted, you know, they heard there were rumblings, hitler, but they didn't want to leave because they had everything. They had a beautiful life, they were very good standing in the community, they had money, they were cultured and 11 brothers and sisters were all killed in the Holocaust.
Speaker 3:So maybe this is Hashem's way, god's way, of saying you're getting too comfortable in America. You're getting too comfortable. You're assimilating too much. You're not too comfortable in America, you're getting too comfortable. You're assimilating too much. You're not, you're not remembering who you are, you're not remembering Israel, you're not remembering your people. And maybe this is. You know, this was the wake up call that we all needed, and I know that. I know that it's. It's woken me up and I know that's woken up other people too, and I hope that you know we will continue to be welcoming, we will continue to create our own community. You know, you and I spent so much time building everyone else's community. We left our own communities behind.
Speaker 3:And I think a lot of these liberal, progressive Jewish organizations have done the same thing. They're guilty of it too. They were so busy, you know, being tikkun olam repair the world. Let's help the Black Lives Matter LGBTQ+, me too and they forgot they left Jews behind. So maybe this is the wake-up call we all need in America and around the world.
Speaker 1:And I think the people-pleasing needs to stop. I think that's been the issue. Is that, as Jews, we want to fit in.
Speaker 3:Oh, we want to sit at the table. We want to sit at the table. I don't need to sit at the table. We want to sit at the table. I don't need to sit at the table anymore. It's okay, I'm making my own table.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting at the Shabbat kosher table. I'd rather yeah, listen.
Speaker 2:Melissa, you're spot on. I don't think it's a maybe in terms of what's being taught right now. In the harshest of lessons it is. It is simply one of those things where you know the reason, I believe, why it's so innate in you to to do what you're doing and so innate in us to do what to do what we're doing is because we can see the lesson and we can understand that there is no other choice right now. There simply is not, because if this lesson doesn't get learned, then we will repeat it. The universe will keep in this case, hashem will keep bringing this lesson back to His people until the lesson is learned.
Speaker 1:Until the Mashiach comes, and it'll get louder.
Speaker 2:The wake-up call gets louder and louder.
Speaker 1:To those listening and who don't know who the mashiach. It's like our, our redemption right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes hurry up the redeemer, the redeemer, yeah any day, yeah, he's not.
Speaker 1:He's not. I don't think he's, he's I don't think it's close at all.
Speaker 3:I don't I mean, yeah, not at all, but no, but also, you know, for I really this is like one of my main things is like the younger generation, like I'm like so focused on the younger kids because that's the demo that we really have lost in the Street. Palestine movement, because, like every other trend, you know, it's trendy. It's like Vogue magazine all the TikTok stars, you know, they're all hopping on this trend. So we need to like make sure that this younger generation continues to hold the mantle, and it's like we have to. We have no choice but to make sure that we lift their voices, we inspire them, we support them, because it's probably the hardest for them, you know, than it is for any of us, you know, to be on those campuses, to be a high school student. Oh, my God, in this climate, like in high school, you just want to fit in, like you're not, you know you just don't do anything to fit in. And to have to choose between, like free Palestine and and who you are, your Jewish identity, it's like how could anyone be forced to make that decision? So you know all the you know trying to pass all this legislation, voting in the right people. Like, we have to do that so that we can make it a little easier for the kids that are coming up, because we're leaving this to them. You know, we leave them this scary, we leave them this like balagan, this mess, yeah, crazy, yeah, what are they going to do with it?
Speaker 3:You know, and so I hope that you know, more people will, will hear this podcast, they'll, they'll follow you and they'll, they'll, they'll wake up like a light will go off, and you know, and people say well, I don't have any followers, it's okay, first of all, you can collab with me and then I'm going to get you followers. But every voice counts, because it's like everyone, you don't know who's watching and then they're sharing and you know they're talking in real time. They're at you know, they're at coffee and they're looking at each other's phones. They're sharing messages, like you just don't know. So every voice matters. This is a fight for like, for the Jewish identity, for the Jewish homeland. Like this is every, every Jew. This is your fight. Whether you're religious, you're not religious, you're atheist, you're still a Jew.
Speaker 1:A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, and so this is all of our fight right now, and even for the non-Jews listening, it's never too late. Like, stand up, like it's never too late. Fine, you don't want to post on social media?
Speaker 1:Fine, call your Jewish friends, ask them if they need anything, offer a hug, donate to a jewish organization like like you know, your jewish friends have stood by you and supported you and, regardless of how you feel about israel and and and gaza, you have jewish friends that live in in America that need you and feel alone. Support them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, support them. The thing that I can feel and I can imagine, if I put myself in the shoes of somebody that comes from a good place, that doesn't have any ill will towards Israel, that maybe is even neutral, but even Israel, leaning, that hasn't said a word, at some point they go. I can't jump in now, I've been quiet for too long and they'll notice, They'll notice right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's the permission that I want everybody to be able to have, is that the fight is not over. This is not a one-time thing. Anti-semitism is not going to end when the war ends. Your friends are not going to stop needing to hear from you just because there isn't an intifada. There's going to be this battle for who knows how long, but well beyond our time here, I would imagine. And it's never too late In the grand scheme of things, it is simply never going to be too late. Like, yes, the the. The best day to get on board would have been October 8th. The next best day to get on board is today. So, uh, you know, there's no, there's no, nobody's going to go. You know where the hell have you been for the past 11 months? I mean, somebody might, but who gives a shit? Like people are gonna be.
Speaker 1:like thank you. I had somebody recently reach out. Uh, you know she's like I'm sorry, you know I've never I haven't messaged you all year but like I, I'm, I'm sending you love and I was like that means a lot and I didn't, like, I didn't make her feel like shit over it or anything like that. Like that means a lot and this is just a stranger on the internet, just just poor.
Speaker 1:You know, like not taking a stance, just showing empathy and just showing just show empathy, like what people don't understand, like what happened the other day with the six hostages. We are all one nation. We are a family, a big family, and like Hirsch and and Eden, like we, we feel a close relationship with these, close relationship with some of these hostages. We've heard their stories, we follow their families and it's very personal to us, like on October 7th. You know, it's like the Jewish geography Everybody knows each other. Everybody knows a hostage. Everybody knows somebody that is in the IDF, in a reservist. Everybody knows somebody that was at Nova or was murdered, a reserve reservist. Everybody knows somebody that was at Nova or was murdered.
Speaker 1:It's such a small community. We are 0.2 percent of the of the of the whole world and we all know each other. So when one of us gets killed in such a brutal way, it affects all of us. And I know that the other day was was the second worst day since October 7th for me personally. And I'm still, you know, I'm still processing and we, we we need to hear from our friends, we need it. But the thing is I'm at a point in in in this journey that I don't expect it anymore and I lean on my family and I lean on my Jewish community.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, I definitely don't expect it at all. Like and and and my content. It's interesting because my, my Instagram was initially, I'd say, like 80% non-Jews, because I wasn't really posting, I was just posting lifestyle stuff. You know, I was just posting stuff, you know, about it being, you know, America and I, and I did post, you know, holidays, whatever, but it wasn't, like you know, a constant, it was, you know, every once in a while, I mean, I played the influencer game like everybody else did and, um, you know, I, I, I have not, I just don't, I just don't expect at this point really any.
Speaker 3:I don't expect anyone to say anything to me, but it would be nice if people you know could start posting something you know or or would reach out to me. But, like you know, like you said before, you know I have maybe a handful I don't even know if I have a handful of people and I work with a lot of. You know I work, I work with a lot of people that I helped a lot. I mean, it's like we have the exact same story.
Speaker 1:It's so freaky it is, it's great.
Speaker 3:That's why I was like so excited to have you on the show, because, like, I feel like we're so freaky right, because we did the same thing for so many communities and it's just so hard like I didn't even mention that. I was like a. I was like a really hardcore vegan these past 10 years. I did everything like I did. I spray so much, I did so much, you know, work the way. See, this is why this is why this has been very kind of like a very easy thing, because as an, as an influencer who understands how to use social media, but the stuff that I'm doing for Israel now is the same stuff that I would do if I was working for a brand, the same kind of like, you know, non-stop posting, capturing things, like I was doing all the same stuff, but I was just doing it for brand. So it was very natural for me to just like immediately just take those skills and adapt them for Israel. But it's just, it's just shocking to me that every of all these things, all these campaigns that I did and all these you know relationships that I built and so much you know, it's like it just all evaporated. And it evaporated with the vegan community as well. The sanctuaries that I was supporting, that I was giving money to every month, started coming out with fundraisers for Gaza. Not one word about Israel. All these vegan communities that I were in were like you have to, melissa, because we hate israel. And I was like what? Literally yes, and and all of a sudden, making all the recipes about leave palestine. I mean it was like it's been like living in the twilight zone, just all the, all the communities and the causes that they. And this wasn't even like work stuff, this was just like personal, on a personal level, like visiting, you know, visiting sanctuaries. I did a lot of rescue work like for, you know, homeless dogs and and and cats, and just have been abandoned, abandoned since saying I support Israel.
Speaker 3:And you know how easy it would be to know, how easy it would be to just say, you know what? I just want my life back Free Palestine. That would be the path of least resistance and I understand people who aren't Jewish would choose it because then you have no problems. It can all continue the way it was. Back to school. I mean, come on, lynn, you know, back to school we would have been doing like a million. We would have been doing Scholastic Book Fair. We would have been doing all the stuff, all the you know, back to school, the knapsacks working with Staples. I just posted a picture from Staples of a woman wearing a hijab who you know wouldn't talk to a Jew in Staples because they're Jewish. Like that's what I'm doing about Staples now. You know, it's like it's just such a different it's so everything is so different now.
Speaker 1:And I wish, yeah, what do you? What do you do to take care of yourself? Cause obviously this is a lot, and you've been full speed for almost a year now. How do you take? What do you do to take care of, like, your mental health? I know you're like into health and you guys, you know I love your videos when you're jogging and and I like that makes me feel like, okay, she's taking care of herself because I don't know you know online at six in the morning till till late at night you're posting you're posting, you're all.
Speaker 3:I mean, this is what I dream. This is is literally all I dream about. It's crazy. This is all I think about. It doesn't end. It's like a never-ending cycle in my head.
Speaker 3:So it's very hard to, and even when I'm running I try to. I've been doing that counter. I have a bring-them-home counter that I started on October 8th and I run with it every day and some days if I don't run that day I feel guilty because I didn't do the. I try. I can't run every day because it's, you know, it's too hard on my legs, but you know I, just I I running and just you know talking. I mean I spend hours talking to people, like people that I don't know, just giving advice. I mean it's crazy. You don't even understand, like the amount of time that I spend just like talking to random people from all, from Australia and Belgium and just you know, just trying to help them like understand things.
Speaker 3:And like you said about educating, you know, like it really something that really does stick in my cause that people are like, well, I don't know. And if I educate myself, no one educated me on Black Lives Matter. I didn't ask anyone to, I didn't. If you did, god forbid, don't you dare ask me to. You know, don't you dare ask me to educate you on Black Lives Matter. It's not my job, so why is it my job to educate anybody else about Israel and about Judaism? You know, know it's. It's different for us, but it's the same thing. You know we, we have to constantly defend ourselves and educate people.
Speaker 1:You know, and not only do we have to and and we're expected to know every fucking detail and nuance. Like I grew up in israel, I even studied middle middle east relation like history in college in Canada.
Speaker 1:And my teacher was Christian Egyptian, so you don't get more nuanced than that and I don't even fucking know every detail. Also, I was very stoned in class, but that's another thing. But I'm just saying, if I lived in Israel and my dad fought two wars I studied it in school in Canada and I read all the books that you could pop. I don't know every like what happened in 19,. You know, I don't know all the details, like I am still learning, and the fact that people like expect us to know every single detail is like in minority group.
Speaker 1:Well, it's again it's like spit out you know, no, it's typical gaslighting.
Speaker 3:That's how they, that's how it's like. It's like it's like such a manipulation and no other, no other group is manipulated and help. It's like we're held to a standard that no other group is held to and it's it's. It's so frustrating. It makes me angry, you know, and I just feel like you know. We just have to keep putting out this content because no one else will. I mean, excuse me, nobody else will. And what is the alternative? What is the alternative Like? The alternative is that we all end up just saying free Palestine, and you know, and, and, and we just, we just go along with it and we just leave our, we leave Israel behind, but that just that just can't, that's just, it's not right, it's not.
Speaker 3:it's not a reality. It's not going to be my reality and you know we owe it. We owe it to like we're part of a link. We're in a chain that has gone back, you know, thousands of years. Like we owe it to the people that came before us, that fought, that had it much harder than us. You know we're lucky. We have the ability to like get the message out. To not do it is like it's a sin.
Speaker 1:It really is a sin. I mean we owe it to our soldiers, to our soldiers who are on the front lines. Oh my God, we owe it to like what is that what is posting on social media when they're like literally 19, risking their lives for our safety, risking their bodies?
Speaker 3:their mental health, everything. I mean how many? How many? Like wounded soldiers did you know, have I met online and and in at events? When I went to israel, you know, we were at shiva hospital like, and these guys, like it was it's not even. And one guy I met like got majorly injured and he's like as soon as I get better, I'm going back. And I'm like what do you mean? You're going back and he said, because like I can't leave my brothers out there, me knowing my brothers are out there without me, I don't feel whole. And like we have to feel like we're part of Hashem's army. You know, we're part of the Israeli army too, in our own way, like we we're part of the online army, israel's online army. You know and I don't consider it like propaganda, I consider it just telling we're truth tellers. We're truth tellers for what's really happening, and every case of anti-Semitism that's happening now is directly related to people hating Israel, whether they say it or not. Nothing would be happening.
Speaker 1:It's not just hating Israel. It's hating Jews. They hate Jews that fight back. They prefer dead Jews.
Speaker 2:Israel's the lightning rod.
Speaker 1:People love dead Jews.
Speaker 2:It's the easy thing to rally around.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes, people do love dead Jews. It's true, you're right, and you know. I mean, like you know, my nephew was at Penn last year and he was a freshman and you know those kids on that campus, you know. It was like I really hope that we've learned and we're going to move forward and we're going to be more helpful to these students and we're not going to let them have a repeat of last year. I hope that we're smarter and we're better and we're more organized. But I think we have a lot of catching up to do because, like I said, you and I are guilty of it too.
Speaker 3:Not that we meant to do it, but these hero organizations, these legacy Jewish organizations, they're all really guilty of it too. Not that we meant to do it, but, like these hero organizations, these legacy Jewish organizations, they're all really guilty of it. And we're guilty of it for, like, not holding them to the, you know, holding them their feet to the fire and saying, like, what are you spending our money on? You know, and I should have, and I should have realized it when my daughter, who's now 23, when she was in high school, she joined the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. Do you know what they were fighting back then. Black Lives Matter, that's what they were fighting.
Speaker 3:I said but isn't it like a Jewish organization? She goes oh, no, no, no, but they do you know, just for Black Lives Matter now, and that should have been like a light going off in my head. What do you mean? It's ADL, like. I know that we ADL is like. It's run by Jews, right, it's a Jewish organization. But I think that ADL and a lot of these organizations have forgotten who their main core audience is, who their main community is, and they're playing catch up too. Now. They're very behind me, april, and I just noticed.
Speaker 2:This has woken so many people and organizations up speaking, you know, just as somebody fresh to the fight, so I can see it with a little bit of a different perspective. I suppose is that the thing about the legacy organizations is, at this point they are nowhere near as nimble as we are online where you can go hey, I'm putting this deal down and now this is what I'm doing or even you, dibi, can get up and running and make an impact instantly. They're playing catch up, but they're too far behind, I agree.
Speaker 2:They simply, unless there is a top to bottom overhaul in the way that they approach this approach, this topic, which these types of organizations just seem to move too slow. They're, they're a little too outdated and you go online and look at what they post and you know what that. You know what they're they're posting. It's it's like this isn't going to move the needle it's not going to move the needle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is not going to move the needle and you're way behind the eight ball on some of this stuff and at some point it's almost like you just want them to hand the keys to the car. Yes, it'd be like okay, we have the infrastructure, you have the ideas, let's. Let's agree to like, pass the baton a little bit and go, let's get into some people that can make some moves.
Speaker 1:Who are your favorite creators?
Speaker 3:right now that you look up to. I mean good question, I mean obviously the people that I work with, the people that I partner with every day, you know? Oh, there's an account, joan of Judea. We love Joan of Judea.
Speaker 2:There's an account called Joan of Judea.
Speaker 3:And and she's really helped me. She's really helped me, like, you know, really, not be afraid to really be as powerful and as strong as I want to be. You know, she's really made me say, like you, you know, just do it Like, made me say, like you, you know, just do it, like, don't be afraid. Obviously, jew Hate Database. They are, um, really, you know, calling people out, rallying people, um, you know, they're not afraid to just go for the jugular and just call things out the way they are and I think it's awesome because, right, you know they're, they're, they are new and they don't have to go through donor lists and like do eight committees to get one motion passed board of directors.
Speaker 2:There's no board of directors.
Speaker 3:Right, and you know it's not like, but it reminds me of like. You know the way journalism used to. You know how you would have to like you know everything would be so slow. You know you have press releases and you have phone calls and like now it's like there's no more press releases, there's no more phone calls. It's a quick text, it's an email, that's it. And everyone's got to get up to speed with the level, the way things are communicating so fast, so furiously. You know you need to, you know they need to be on that same pace or at least hire people, like you said, bring them in people that can at least manage that part of their organization, so that they can at least, you know, be there in some capacity.
Speaker 2:yeah, there's, there's a whole there's a whole world of talent that we are immersed in that if I was these big heavy hitter organizations with the checkbooks to match, I would be hiring, consulting from these guys, and the Juhe guys specifically consult and say, hey, what can we do to get in this fight in a really impactful way? We have the resources we, just we realized we don't know how to allocate them properly. What can we do? I would be consulting with them daily because, you know, I'm excited to see where what those guys do, specifically in the evolution of what they're, what they're taking on is, is going to be it's, it's beyond just this moment in time. Yeah, what they're going to do with their platform is going to be so far beyond just this specific fight. It's. It's going to be really, it's going to be really cool to watch them evolve because they're so passionate, so energetic and so talented.
Speaker 1:And I think it's a new era for Jews. We're like we're, we're not Jews with trembling knees, like we fight back, that's it. Like we're not walking to the gas chambers and, uh, you know, we're, we're, we're fighting, we're going to fight till till the death. Like we're, we're. No, no more shit. Like especially the Jew hate guys like they're, they're calling out like Jew haters, and that's how it's supposed to be. There needs to be consequences.
Speaker 3:There needs to be consequences to Jew hatred.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I was told so many times like don't say anything, be the bigger person, don't call it out, just like pretend like it doesn't exist. And then what? And it continues and continues. Like I've, I've I've dealt with so many Jew haters and like you get to a point where you're like I'm going to fight back, like why do I have to just sit here and and and get abuse like abuse like this, like it's not, it's not okay. And I think, like Jew hate is setting and Jonah Judea is setting a standard of we're not going to take shit from anybody, we're going to call this shit out and we're going to be on like unapologetic about it it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would throw abraham in that mix as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course abraham hamra, yes, um, and and also, you know, there's so many amazing israeli creators there's so, oh my god, that people should be following. Um. Uh, what did you say, sahar?
Speaker 2:yeah, yes, you want to talk to somebody that? If anybody asked me anything specific about israel, I'd be like go watch three of Sahar's videos. He can rattle off the history of not just Israel but the Middle East. He rattles off things that I'm just blown away by. His knowledge is an ocean.
Speaker 3:It's like if you want to know about Israel, you have to go to the source and Israeli creators. Really, because you know, I think part of this big, the biggest problem in America is that you're judging Israel based on Western values. You're judging Israel based on race. Israel, in Israel, the concept of race is very different than it is here. Most Israelis are brown and black people. They're not white. So you can't.
Speaker 3:You know you're using systems of judgment that don't apply in Israel and just the way that Israel fights the enemy that Israel is fighting is not the typical Western enemy. It's a very different kind of mentality and Israeli creators understand this. They understand the Palestinian mindset, hamas, hezbollah. They understand it in a very different way than American Jews do, and so that's why it's important to follow them, to really understand it from their perspective, to understand what it means to live in Israel. Most people don't even understand what it means to live in Israel. You know most people don't even know what it means to live in Israel and as Americans, you know they don't even, they don't even know about Israel. So you know Israelic creators like Adiel of Israel I love him.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, he's such a neshama.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, I love him. There's another one, eliran Ben-Yair. He is amazing. Also, all these guys have been in the army. They were in the reserves all throughout this year and they really have a good handle on, like the politics, the history. You know, israel is a very, very it's such a beautiful complex, but it's not white jews like people think, it's just. You know, white colonizer ashkenazi jews. It's not, it's the majority, aren't even white. There's like so many misconceptions about israel, but even ashkenazi jews are from like.
Speaker 1:We're all from Judea.
Speaker 3:Well, this is the funny thing, my mother this is why my mother's, my grandmother was born in Tiberias. They were so she's like a Sabra, she's dark. My mother's mother was like a Sabra, dark. And they had to leave this was before 1948 because their Arab neighbors were very violent and they couldn't live there anymore. So they had to find sponsors in America. So both sides of my family my mother's side and my father's side different reasons, had to like because of their Jewish identity. They had to find, they had to come to America. You know, so it's like you know my blood, I cause I, I, I went.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you know this program. It's called Chatzavakash, I don't even know if it's still around. It was a program where kids with Israeli heritage were allowed to come and work in the Israeli army, the Gadnav, for six weeks during the summer. So the only reason I was allowed to go on because they're like you're not Israeli, I'm like my grandmother is they were like okay, then you can come on, because everybody there had an Israeli parent. So you know, I don't look like I have Israeli. You know like, my heritage is from Israel, but I am, I don't look like I have Israeli.
Speaker 1:You know, like I, that my heritage is from Israel, but I am you know. So it's like I mean every Jews look like I, like I lived in Israel, and there's blonde Jews, blue with blue eyes, there's black Jews, there's brown Jews, there's Asian Jews, there's all the Jews there's, there's. It's like. It's like you walk in Tel Aviv. You feel like you're in the United States, almost very diverse in the United States, almost. It's true. It's very diverse and a lot of different types of Jewish people, Ethiopian Jews, and we're all from Judea.
Speaker 1:Our history dates back 3,000 years and we were just expelled to different parts of the world and we change and our skin color changed, but at the core we are all Jewish people, we're Amichad, we're one nation and you know it's so narcissistic for Americans to compare the American struggle to a nation that has been going through the history of a three, a people of 3000 people. It's not an oppressor versus oppressed, it's not, it's it's. It's it's good versus evil, it's. You know we're going against a radical Islamism, we're going against, not like a Nazi ideology.
Speaker 2:Well, I think this is this ties together to what Melissa was speaking to. When it comes to the diaspora and and the disconnect that has evolved over hundreds of years, I suppose or at least especially the past, let's say 60 or 70 years right, that the glimpse that at least people in America specifically have gotten of Jewish people is of a people that wants to assimilate, that wants to be part of America, right? So now everybody in America is going wait a minute. Now all of a sudden you care about Israel. How are we supposed to care when you haven't been caring? They see the example that's been set in the diaspora. So it's much harder for people to go to rally around this thing when the people, when the Jewish people in the West haven't been rallying around it until now. And so that, to me, is part of what has been awoken in you and Lynn and everyone else, where it's like, oh shit, we did take our eye off the ball and, while we want did lash out at everybody else for not getting it, we didn't fucking get it either.
Speaker 1:And look where we are so, to my defense, I always talked about being jewish, and maybe not to the place where I am now. It wasn't like my whole personality, where now it is my whole personality and you're right. You're right in a sense, but it was always part. It was right in a sense, but it was always part. It was always like a part of me. It was always like right.
Speaker 2:But now, but now you've started creating community around it. Right Now there's community, Now there's a Friday nights or Shabbat nights, right Like these things.
Speaker 1:The identity has been calling me out. No, I'm not calling you out.
Speaker 2:I'm, I'm, I'm, no, you're right.
Speaker 1:You're right, I think the diaspora, especially like people who are not religious, who are more like secular and I grew up, you know, I the thing is like my story is a little different Like I grew up in a, like an Israeli home, so my excuse was always like I'm Israeli, I don't need to do Shabbat.
Speaker 3:I'm Israeli.
Speaker 1:I don't need to fast on Yom Kippur, but I live in New Jersey and since October 7th, I'm like I'm not, no, I'm being pushed towards the religion even more and we are doing Shabbat every Friday and we are doing all the Jewish holidays and we are being intentional about it and we're going to shul and we're we're being more involved in the jewish community because I'm I'm recognizing like that I need to be, I need to for my kids, especially that we live right now.
Speaker 1:We don't. If I lived in israel, I'd be back to being just, you know, living the life and just being the israeli woman that I am. But I live in new jersey and I want to set an example for my kids that there's just shabbat dinner and that we, you know these are the holidays and you are Jewish. And me, my daughter, my 11 year old, wears a Star of David and she's going to have her bat mitzvah and and my babe, noah, when she, as soon as she's old enough, she's going to go to a Jewish school, like because I see how important it is, and definitely October 7th pushed me into that direction.
Speaker 3:It's saying on my phone that I'm losing storage. I don't know if that like does that matter, so I have to. I don't know why it says that. It says that I'm losing storage on my phone, that I have to stop the recording. It says I don't know why, device storage is running low. You should stop recording and free up device data. I don't know what that even means.
Speaker 2:You finally tapped out your phone, you're gonna have to get a computer. That's it. Your shem has said enough with the phone, get a computer.
Speaker 1:But as far as I mean, we can talk for hours.
Speaker 2:We could talk for hours, I suppose that's, that's uh. We're getting shoved out the door then and they're telling us to wrap it up.
Speaker 1:So I want, can you tell people like where to find you and like you know what's next for you?
Speaker 3:Sure, no, I mean, just follow me on Instagram at Melissa S Chapman and like, everything's there. I mean, you know, that's really, if you're a Jew, if you're not a Jew, if you want to be an ally, follow me, get in touch with me. Ally, follow me, get in touch with me. I, you know, I'm always here to share my experiences and to help people understand what's going on and and to to create, you know, new relationships. That will, you know, that will support my Judaism in America. You know, as a supporter of Israel. So that's really, you know, that's really the main goal right now. And, and, to you know, keep sharing the stories of people from Israel. And obviously, you know, hopefully, by the time that this is, you know, that this is live, Maybe more hostages will be released. It'll be a ceasefire deal, A ceasefire deal with a hostage deal, one that's really in place, but not one that just gives everything away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's hope and let's pray and, melissa, thank you for all that you do. Thank you, we really appreciate you, we love you and we thank you so much for talking to us Like. This was so much fun. I like we need to do a part two, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I would love it.
Speaker 3:You let me know when, after I get my check.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, get your mouth in order.
Speaker 3:Get my mouth in order and I'll be back.
Speaker 2:And then you'll be back. Thank you so much thank you.