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Israeli Nonprofit Started by Friends of Nova Massacre Victim Opens Healing Center in Thailand for Oct. 7 Survivors
David Newman and his girlfriend Noam. David was murdered by Hamas-led terrorists at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023. Noam was shot in the hip and leg but survived. Photo: Provided
An Israeli nonprofit organization, founded by friends of a victim of the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7, recently opened a trauma center in Thailand for survivors of the Hamas terrorist attacks who are seeking an escape from Israel.
Let’s Do Something was created in memory of David Newman, who was killed at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, Israel, where Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered nearly 400 people and kidnapped approximately 40 others.
Immediately after the Oct. 7 attacks, a group of Newman’s closest friends in their 20s formed a WhatsApp group called “Let’s Do Something” with the goal of helping to gather supplies, equipment, and humanitarian aid for those affected by Hamas terrorism. Since then, the nonprofit has provided 300,000 pounds of humanitarian aid and equipment to over 20,000 soldiers and 50,000 displaced civilians, including bulletproof vests, army boots, kneepads, and drones for soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Its newest initiative focuses on helping Oct. 7 survivors and soldiers in the area of mental health, including many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Let’s Do Something opened a healing center, called David’s Circle, in Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand, a country that is a popular destination spot for Israeli tourists. David’s Circle hosted its first gathering of people on Sept. 18 and will host another event on Oct. 7. The goal is to serve roughly 150 people a month at the new healing center, David Gani, the chief financial officer and co-founder of Let’s Do Something, told The Algemeiner.
Israeli media reported data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics that showed more than 12,000 people left Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and had not returned by June. Approximately 30,000 Israelis left the country permanently between November 2023 and March 2024. David’s Circle aims to support the thousands of Israelis who have relocated to Thailand or traveled to the country for solace over the past year, wanting to escape the war, trauma, and terror attacks they experienced in Israel.
Let’s Do Something opened David’s Center in partnership with leading Israeli trauma specialist and therapist Yael Shoshani-Rom and Segev Ben-Shalom, an IDF social worker. The unique sanctuary offers “critical, multidisciplinary care and support to Nova festival survivors, bereaved families, soldiers, and others affected by the ongoing crisis, guiding them through their healing journey.”
Shoshani-Rom, her husband, and their children relocated from Israel to Thailand in August to lead the opening of David’s Circle as its healing director. She is a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of Haifa. Earlier this year, she took an initial research trip to Thailand, to feel the waters and see how many people in the country could benefit from a healing center, and ended up hosted a healing event on Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Day of Remembrance) with 500 Israelis who came together to share their experiences.
Let’s Do Something is currently running a fundraising campaign to support David’s Circle.
The turnout at a healing event hosted by Yael Shoshani-Rom in Thailand earlier this year. Photo: Provided
“After October 7th, I committed myself to working with Nova survivors. It became clear that, for many, including survivors from the southern communities and soldiers, it still feels like October 7th, 2023, every single day,” explained Shoshani-Rom in a released statement. “In Israel, you can’t escape the memory of that day. Many people need to leave, whether to India, Europe, or Thailand. However, their trauma follows them, and they are at great risk of severe mental health crises. That’s why David’s Circle was created.”
“Israel is a small country where almost everyone knows someone affected by the events of October 7th, whether they were at Nova, impacted by the attack, connected to hostage families, fighting in Gaza, or lost a loved one,” said Baruch “Bucky” Apisdorf, CEO of Let’s Do Something. “Over 17,000 Israelis travel to Thailand monthly, many of them carrying the weight of serious trauma and facing a mental health crisis. David’s Circle is here to provide the peace and support they desperately need.”
How it started
The core eight team members behind Let’s Do Something were all close friends of David Newman and have quit their day-time jobs to run the nonprofit organization full-time.
Gani — who was born in New York but moved to Israel with his family when he was a teenager — explained to The Algemeiner that he met Newman in high school in Israel. They eventually lived together and on Oct. 6, Newman borrowed Apisdorf’s car to attend the Nova Music Festival with his girlfriend Noam. Newman also attended the music festival wearing a shirt he borrowed from Apisdorf.
“All of us were broken and didn’t know what to do with ourselves,” Gani told The Algemeiner. “We, along with some of our other friends, decided we need to do something. We realized there is a lot of people who need things and don’t have it, and that Israel is quickly going to run out of goods. Let’s see if we can do something about that.”
“All of us, we absolutely used the chaos and insanity and poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this as a way to avoid our trauma,” he added. “We all collectively felt we needed to do something; we couldn’t just sit with that grief. And this entire organization is ‘Let’s Do Something’ in memory of David Newman. A big part of all of this is honoring David and keeping his name alive. That’s a big part of it for us and that has 100 percent been a part of our grieving process and a coping mechanism.”
The post Israeli Nonprofit Started by Friends of Nova Massacre Victim Opens Healing Center in Thailand for Oct. 7 Survivors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.