Episode 419, The Andrew Parker Show – Through Their Eyes: The Story of Kfar Azza

In this special episode of The Andrew Parker Show, Andrew is joined by Lawrence Badzin, co-founder of the Surviving Project, which is bringing the powerful memorial exhibit Through Their Eyes: The Story of Kfar Azza to Minneapolis from September 25 – October 11.

Kfar Azza, a kibbutz along the Gaza border, was one of the communities devastated on October 7, 2023. The exhibit tells the human stories of the victims, survivors, and hostages through personal testimonies, photographs, and real-time accounts. Visitors will also meet several survivors and former hostages who will share their experiences in person during the exhibit’s opening days.

In addition, don’t miss the Voices of Kfar Azza panel discussion at Beth El Synagogue on Sunday, September 28 at 6:30 PM, moderated by renowned author and activist Noa Tishby. All five survivors traveling to Minneapolis will share their stories in this unforgettable evening. Tickets are available at BESYN.org under the Events tab.

Andrew and Lawrence discuss:

• The origins of the exhibit and how it came to Minneapolis.
• The stories of resilience and survival from Kfar Azza.
• The upcoming panel with survivors moderated by Noa Tishby.
• The importance of remembrance, moral clarity, and truth in the face of terror.
• Current events in Israel, Hamas, and why eliminating evil must remain a priority.

Learn more and purchase exhibit tickets at: TTEexhibit.com

Transcript

The Andrew Parker Show, Episode 419 Transcript

Welcome to another episode of the Andrew Parker show. Thank you very much for joining us for this special episode episode number 419, holy mackerel can you believe? 419 and As we've talked about a number of times politics Israel and the law is what we focus on and boy

has it been busy, sadly busy, as the Jews through the millennia have had to deal with trial and tribulation? ⁓Nothing more horrific than what we have had to deal with of late, of the last almost couple of years, as we're coming up on the two-year anniversary of

October 7, not an anniversary to celebrate, most certainly. But on this episode, episode 419, we are honored to have with us co-founder of a very important memorial exhibit called Through Their Eyes, the story of Kfar Azza.

a kibbutz in the Gaza envelope, a kibbutz that I in fact visited several months ago when I was in Israel. And the story of Kfar Azza is truly horrifying. It is almost impossible to fathom in all of its dimension.

without going there and being there and even then.

You think when you're there, must be a movie set or something like that. But this was real. This happened to real people, real life.

and it's important that we not forget and it's important that we learn that we become educated that we not turn away

And so as I say, we are honored to have with us today someone who

is making sure that we have the opportunity to learn. That we have the opportunity

to make sure this never happens again.

and that we actually

Take it in and do not turn away. Believe me, there is much that you do not know of what occurred at Kfar Azza.

So stay with us during this episode ⁓ of the Andrew Parker Show and you too will learn.

So we're joined today by Lawrence Badzin, co-founder, what's it called, the Survival Project? Surviving Project. Surviving Project, which is bringing the exhibit, Through Their Eyes, the Story of Kfar Azza to Minneapolis. And the dates are September 25th through October 11th.

The exhibit is really, ⁓ the word spectacular comes to mind, but I don't mean it in a positive way, I mean it in an educational way. And in fact, during the first few days of the exhibit, ⁓ five survivors of the Kfar Azza attack

will be joining the exhibit and joining us and you all should attend. Two were taken hostage, ultimately later released. And three others survived the attack in Kfar Azza. Again, it's unbelievable that they did. If you have been to Kfar Azza and even if you haven't, should definitely either way get to the exhibit, but you will see.

the sheer and total destruction. When I was there, in fact, the father of a ⁓ son who lived in Kfar Azza was there giving a talk. His son was ⁓ beheaded on that day on October 7th. And it is a bone-chilling ⁓ reminder, the story that was told over.

by his father. ⁓ So, Lawrence Badzin, tell me a little bit about how you got involved in this and what it was that, really, mean, you aren't a regular ⁓ creator of exhibits. How is it that you got to where you're at today in bringing, through their eyes, to the Twin Cities?

⁓ First, Andrew, thank you for having me on your show and Mazel tov. Congrats on 419. 419. Yes, it is. It's getting close to the 613, the number of commandments. That'll be a big day. Yes, it will. Thanks for having me on your show. It's an honor. I've been living in Israel for 25 years. grew up, I was born and raised native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. ⁓ And we hooked in with the community of Kfar Azza after my wife and I decided ⁓in March of 2024,

that we wanted to take our staff, we have a small auto parts company in Israel. We want to take our staff to visit the Kibbutz, one of the Kibbutz team that was attacked and experienced this massacre, this horrific day. And Kfar Azza just happens to be the one that we hooked up with. We did multiple outreach, fundraising activities, involvement for the Kibbutz over the following months. And in October, 2024 in Kibbutz Shvaim in Israel.

where for a number of almost a year plus, most of the residents of Kfar Azza were living, they had this exhibit. They set up this exhibit. They invited donors and people who were involved. They ended up opening up to the public, and it was such a strong exhibit that when my wife and I were there, we said, maybe we can bring this exhibit to the United States.

Fundraised to have it go to different cities and so on and so forth We thought it was going to be a project of a couple months to get it to Minneapolis We said Minneapolis because that's where I'm from and it's turned into a 11 month project and we say thank God that September 25th. It's launching. Yeah amazing Extraordinary amount of work. So you grew up in Minneapolis to Minneapolis area you then moved to Israel tell us a little bit about

when that occurred and what you've been doing in Israel and then we'll talk more about the project. Yeah, no problem. Graduated actually from Hopkins High School and then went to school at University of Iowa, moved to Israel around 2000, early 2000, around 2002. First I was on the kibbutz because I wanted that taste of Israel of how the country was founded. After that I joined the IDF. I served as a combat medic for

After that, I was just working in the public sector. I was in the high-tech patent industry before I joined our family business of auto parts and did an international stunt before opening up a shop in Israel in 2016. And how's business been in Israel since you've been there, well, since your shop was opened? Yeah, it's good. know, everybody in Israel says, oh, know, America is so easy. I got, no, it's actually, it's not much different.

There's collection problems there. There's a lot of competition. There's so on and so forth. But it's great. We are in a brick and mortar, people to people business. And that's what I love, the people connection. One of the most important points, which is the luck of our, the success of our business. My wife found the location where our warehouse is. She's a Yemenite Israeli. We've been married for going on 20 years. We got four girls. She's helped me acclimate and really...

adjust who I am to better identify and connect with the Israeli culture. Because, know, every country you go to, even every state in the United States of America, if you don't understand the culture of the people from the place, then you're going to have a hard time. And so that has really helped me acclimate and become really, you know, I'd say 50 % Israeli and 50 % American since then.

If you're watching the news around the time that this episode will drop, you will see that Israel took a strong offensive action ⁓ to eliminate ⁓ several of the leaders of Hamas just this week. ⁓ Donald Trump announced that Hamas had one last chance. That was done early in the week.

They did not take advantage of releasing the hostages, which was the one last chance. And so the Hamas, remaining Hamas leadership, much of it has been eliminated, has been destroyed through a direct attack into Qatar. You know, there are many that are wringing their hands saying, ⁓ you can't do that. You can't take them out and ⁓ in an assassination method.

Well, wait a minute. If you ordered the murders on October 7th, the heinous acts of October 7th, if you were involved in them, if you carried them out, yes, you can expect to be eliminated. And that is the moral construct that we should all be living by, the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party, unfortunately, I have to pick on on this one. I don't do it all the time, but

You just have to call it out when it is. ⁓ And so this episode of the show reminds us of why it is so important that this evil be excised, be removed ⁓ from the earth.

Through their eyes, the story of Kfar Azza. What is Kfar Azza? What was it before October 7, 2023? And then what occurred on that day? Kfar Azza is actually one of the more thriving Kibbutzim communities in the south and along the Gaza border. They call it the Gaza envelope. It was a community of about 1,000 people with a waiting list of about 200 people to get in.

You know, they slowly add members to the community every year. Had a strong industry, agricultural. They were peaceniks, know, peaceniks that they believe in peace. They had a lot of over border, cross border initiatives with Palestinians in Gaza. There was many Palestinians that were working in Kfar Azza, which unfortunately after October 7th, was found out that's how much of their intelligence was gathered about.

everything they knew about where to go during the attack of October 7th. But the people there and really the people in all of the South, and I've said this to many people, this story through their eyes is just one story, but very representative of all the stories of that day, October 7th, 2023, that all of these 20 plus communities faced with regards to this Hamas attack and massacre. So the story, again, it's really

It's actually not a graphic story. It's not about the attack. It's about the people that died and humanizing their personal life stories. And from that, we gain resilience and hope for the future. And that's really what you see in this community of Kfar Azza. They're just very resilient, just like Israelis in general. But I mean, to go through something like this, Andrew, and to lose and to have hostages and to not be home.

Which is by the way, why we call it the surviving project, because they're not survivors. Survivors is like, oh, something happened and you're back home now. They are still surviving, trying to get home, trying to get the bodies of hostages back home so they can mourn, try to get their kids. Ziv and Gali Berman, twin brothers from Kfar Azza that are still in captivity going on for over 700 days now. But again, to see the community, I've met them so many times. And I said, I just get the shivers when I'm sitting across the table from you guys.

Because how are you standing up? How do you eat? How do you breathe still? ⁓ But there's only two options. You're either a victim or you keep going and you stay resilient and strong and that's really what that community is. It's amazing and the exhibit is amazing. The focus of the exhibit is amazing. Again, September 25th through October 11th.

in St. Louis Park just quickly and we'll come back. I want to talk further about the exhibit and some of the people that will be with you ⁓ on that day. But ⁓ where can people get tickets for the exhibit? So all tickets are processed through the exhibition's website and through their eyes is the name of the exhibit. So we did the acronym TTE exhibit dot com.

TTE like through their eyes exhibit.com and there you can find background information of what the exhibit consists of you can have find a background of what is a key boots for all those people that don't know what a key boots is and that's where you actually purchase your tickets for $10 apiece all of the proceeds going to all the ticket sales are going to

Kfar Azza's young adult and young family neighborhood, was hit the hardest. The most people were killed and taken hostage from that neighborhood. All that money that we raised will go to rebuilding that neighborhood in Kfar Azza. And believe me, ⁓ that is the particular neighborhood that I visited when I was there. Believe me, it ⁓ is so sad. It is so horrific what you find, what you...

See there and all young people lived in that area TTE exhibit all one word TTE exhibit Dot-com go there learn more about the exhibit the location of the exhibit in Minneapolis Unfortunately because of the world we live today. can't give it Yeah after a tick after you purchase a ticket then you get a confirmation saying here's where the locations, but it's yeah think about that

That's what we have to do as Jews. it's, ⁓ know, it's a topsy-turvy, moral clarity lacking, no understanding, but that is what we have to do. But go to tteexhibit.com. All right, let's turn back. Maybe you can describe the exhibit and who will be with us during the first few days of the exhibit.

Yeah, absolutely. So the exhibit itself is broken into three different sections. The main section is ⁓ consisting of five different areas. First focus on the 64 civilian deaths. ⁓ Second area is focused on the security team, the first responders on the kibbutz that took action to defend the community when the attack took place. was 13 people on the security team against 100 plus terrorists that infiltrated.

The third part is the rescue forces. So it's the paramedics, it's the medics, it's the soldiers, it's the police that showed up. Fourth section is ⁓ designated for the hostages that were taken. Fortunately, most of the hostages have been released and come home except for, like I mentioned, Keith and Ziv, or I'm sorry, Gali and Ziv Berman, twin brothers. And then the fifth section is actually large television screens that

have running the group chats that took place on that day from the start of the attack until middle day. What people were hearing, seeing, experience, really horrific actually. It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up in a bad way. So that's the main part of the exhibit and then there's two other pieces of the exhibit. One is the photo gallery that shows Kfar Azza before and after the October 7th attacks and then the third part is a personal testimony area that we set up.

almost like a mini theater room where you can walk in and there's three personal testimonies that are told of wives and children of their loved ones that went out to fight and defend the kibbutz on that day and fell in battle. Yeah, wow. Amazing exhibit. I definitely am going to go again. TTE exhibit dot com. Who's going to be with you?

⁓ from Israel during the first few days of the project. So we're fortunate to be hosting a delegation of five people from Kfar Azza in addition to the curator of the exhibit and one of the people from the nonprofit organization. But the five people from Kfar Azza and my wife and I will be hosting them here in Minneapolis will be in for the opening days, the 25th until the 30th. ⁓ It's five surviving members, ⁓ two of them former hostages.

Keith and Aviva Siegel. Keith is actually born and raised in America, moved to Israel when he was 20 years old. And his wife Aviva from South Africa moved to Israel when she was eight years old. They lived in Kfar Azza for over 40 years, were taken at gunpoint from their home in Kfar Azza. They were about 60 years old at the time of the attack. They're I think 64 now, 65, something like that. Taken at gunpoint in their own car, driven into Gaza Strip.

Viva was in captivity for about 60 days. Keith was there for about 474 days, I believe. Wow. Phenomenal stories. In addition to that, there's three other people who were fortunate to survive the attack, but also have horrific stories. Everybody with their own ⁓ significant story of survival and surviving for the past two years, not just on that day.

To hopefully get their lives back in order so all five of them will be with us and at the exhibit to meet greet host join groups people individuals that that sign up and attend the exhibit on the 25th to the 30th of September Wow September 25 to 30 The Seagulls will be there others as well from far Azza

to provide personal testimonies for their experience. Keith Siegel, over 470 days as a hostage, providing his ⁓experience, real life experience, as a hostage in the tunnels ⁓ of Gaza, and Aviva Siegel was there for two months as well, living in the dark in the tunnels of Gaza.

You know, ⁓ it's really amazing that we are able to get the live feed of what happened on that day. People still deny it. They still say, you know, it didn't happen, it's overstated, this sort of thing, to find excuses. But in fact, this is live feed that is part

I guess five of the exhibit that you were able to recover. Yeah, yeah. mean, everything is really personal, live stories because the people who fell on that day, who died, who were killed, the stories of what happened is from the people, from their family, you know, and the friends in the community. And now for this delegation to be coming over, you can't...

hear it from a more exact source than you can at this exhibition coming up. So it's a phenomenal experience. And how is it that you went about putting this together? I mean, it's a Herculean project, really, to get the funding for it, ⁓ to get buy-in from all of the various groups, and then to bring it over to the states.

I know it's starting in Minneapolis, are you expecting that this will be the only ⁓ showing of the project? So I was fortunate that my wife is a partner with me in this as well as my sister. My wife may tell on my sister Jackie and my sister Jackie comes from the events world. She's got her own company called Studio Badzin that does dinners, events, VIP events.

And it has been an enormous project. She knows what it's about. She knows. I told her, let's go live and launch it in three months. She thought I was crazy. She was right. I was crazy. It's taken 11 months to get here. It's been a ton of work. All the fundraising has been through private donors, whether it's colleagues, friends, family, neighbors, so on and so forth. We've raised over 600,000 U.S. to cover the cost of the exhibit.

⁓ with additional proceeds going to for Azza like we mentioned, we're still trying to fundraise to get up to a million. ⁓ It's been a heck of a project and we just feel like everybody needs, there's so much to do for Israel and for the world in general that everybody needs to do their little piece. And I, as a auto parts salesman, didn't think it was going to be such a big project, but it's very rewarding if we can get people, as many people as possible to show up and have this experience, which is so.

powerful. It's really something I don't think that that would normally ever come to a city like Minneapolis, but since we're in Minneapolis, that's where we're starting. And the goal is with a surviving project to continue this ⁓ exhibition as a traveling exhibition to hopefully many other cities across the United States of America to keep the story out and get the exposure to the doorstep of many other communities. amazing project. September 25th.

through October 11th, go to tteexhibit.com. That's tteexhibit.com. You can contribute, donate. You can get your tickets from the website and you can read more on Kibbutzim in the State of Israel, Kfar Azza in particular, both before and after.

But again, September 25th to the 30th, you will have personal testimonies from five survivors of the attack who are surviving as the project is called every single day. And they will be in the Twin Cities ⁓ and in attendance in order to provide their first hand testimony from September 25th through the 30th.

In addition, there is going to be a panel discussion, I understand, ⁓ Lawrence, ⁓ at Beth-El Synagogue on September 28th. Listen up to this, ⁓ it's going to be fascinating, very interesting, as the five survivors who are going to be in the Twin Cities during the last several days of September will be on a panel at

Beth-El Synagogue moderated by NoaTishbi, ⁓ who is really traveling the world to bring ⁓ notice and in the forefront the issues that were faced by Israel because they are being swept aside as the war in Gaza rages on. We forget about the real life impact of the heinous atrocities

of Hamas and the Palestinians that attacked on October 7th. So Lawrence, maybe you can describe, but as I understand it, you can get tickets to the panel discussion on September 28th. That's a Sunday night at 630 by going to BESYN, that's Beth-El-B-E.

Synagogue s y n five letters be s y n dot org and you go to the events tab and you will see this ⁓ moderated event through their eyes ⁓ Set for September 28th and you can get your tickets there. Yeah, it's gonna be an extremely powerful event

⁓ special days for sure. TTEexhibit.com. Lawrence Badzin, thank you so much for the work you are doing for the Jewish people, but most importantly for the State of Israel and to keep alive and clear and with truth and focus ⁓ what occurred on October 7th such that we should never ever forget and we should always make sure

It never occurs again. Thank you for joining me on the Andrew Parker show. Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate it. God bless. So go to the Andrew Parker show dot com. Subscribe, follow. Like us there, go to the YouTube channel and make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel, engage us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. It's all.

right there for you. And text us. You have a question, you have a problem, you have an issue. Text us at 952-522-2818. 952-522-2818. We went to the mailbag on our last episode and we will

again coming up. ⁓ But if you agree with what we're talking about, what our opinions are on the Andrew Parker show, send us a text if you disagree, I like those even better. Send them along. Thank you once again. And until our next episode. Be kind to your neighbor.

This is really a bonus to the whole exhibition that we're putting on. And so where the exhibition is called Through Their Eyes, because it's a self-immersed visual, mostly exhibition, this is we're calling Voices of Kfar Azza, where everybody will have the opportunity to really hear the personal, extremely powerful stories of each individual from the Kibbutz Kfar Azza that will be part of the delegation, all five people, their story of

What was Kfar Azza before October 7th? Where were they on October 7th in the past two years? Where have they been? Well, how have they been surviving? Some in captivity, some just moving around trying to get home, some waiting to mourn their loved ones. It's gonna be a very, very powerful event and very complimentary to seeing the exhibit as well. That's 28th. September 28th at 6.30, go to

B-E-S-Y-N dot org. Go to the events tab and you can get your tickets ⁓ for this very special eye opening experience with survivors of Kfar Azza moderated by Noa Tishby.