RSS
How Olim Are Helping Israel’s War Effort, Part 4: This Survivor Found Meaning by Creating New Year’s Fundraising Event for Orphans of Oct. 7 Massacre
Ari Fruchter and his son, Arad. Photo courtesy of Ari Fruchter
Since the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre, immigrants who moved to Israel (olim in Hebrew) have been helping the Jewish state’s war effort in crucial ways beyond the battlefield. The Algemeiner has spoken to several of these individuals — natives of the US, Europe, and elsewhere — gathering their stories of courage and resourcefulness to help Israel prevail over Hamas in Gaza. Over the coming weeks, The Algemeiner will share some of these stories as a new series on how olim are helping Israel’s war effort. To read part three, click here.
When Israeli-American Arad Fruchter, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier in an intelligence unit, found himself caught in a barrage of rockets during the Supernova music festival, he couldn’t have imagined the significance of a throwaway text message he sent to his commander.
“I’m fine, I’m in Gaza,” the 20-year-old quipped when asked by his commander if he was OK.
Fruchter was indeed one of the lucky ones. He and a group of friends, one of whom was shot, hid in a banana plantation and covered themselves in leaves until they were rescued. Of the 4,000 attendees at the festival, 360 were murdered by Hamas terrorists and more than 40 were abducted to Gaza.
“For four terror-filled hours you lie to your friends that everything will be fine. Then you pray to everything that exists and everything that does not exist that you will make it out alive,” Fruchter told The Algemeiner.
A month before the massacre, Fruchter and developer Gal Zilberstein launched an event planning app called Zygo. The app was designed to facilitate event planning by connecting organizers with suppliers, venues, and DJs, as well as managing guest lists. But after Oct. 7, Fruchter felt event promotion for its own sake was bereft of meaning.
Seeking a way to keep himself motivated after his harrowing ordeal, Fruchter decided to organize a New Year’s Eve gala, the proceeds of which will go towards the Israeli Children’s Fund. Established by a group of Israeli high-tech leaders and venture capitalists in the wake of Oct. 7, the fund offers financial aid and emotional support to children who lost their parents, siblings, or homes in the attack.
The gala, called Echoes of Hope, is the first fundraising initiative promoted by Zygo and, according to Fruchter, is the only New Year’s Eve event in Israel that is also a fundraising drive for victims of the Oct. 7 massacre.
“New Year’s Eve is a time for celebrating and laughing with friends. But this year, of course, it’s different. I can’t just enjoy and smile like everything is normal,” Fruchter told The Algemeiner. “My friends in Gaza are fighting for me to be able to have the privilege of enjoying New Year’s Eve, and I can’t forget that. But on the other hand, we can’t allow ourselves to wallow [in despair].”
He co-produced the event together with his father, Ari Fruchter, an environmental activist and entrepreneur. Fruchter made aliyah from Philadelphia when his son was five years old.
The elder Fruchter said that for each shekel earned from ticket sales of the event, which will be hosted at the upscale Jaffa Hotel, they have received double the amount in direct donations. So far the event has raised more than $100,000, Fruchter said.
“I’m unbelievably proud of my son who’s given so much to the country, and not just as a soldier,” Ari Fruchter told The Algemeiner. “He was so intent on using the fact that he’s still alive to generate more good in the world.”
Arad Fruchter, meanwhile, expressed his hope that the event will be an inflection point for a more united Israel in the future.
“The day after the war, when my friends return from Gaza, I want them to come back to an Israel which is more unified, more healed,” he said. “This event is my small way to contribute to the kind of Israel we all want to see.”
The post How Olim Are Helping Israel’s War Effort, Part 4: This Survivor Found Meaning by Creating New Year’s Fundraising Event for Orphans of Oct. 7 Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
The post UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
The post Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.