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Israeli soldier Amichai Oster, son of former JTA writer and editor, is killed in Gaza
(JTA) — Amichai Oster, 24, an Israeli-American touring the United States after his service in an Israeli combat unit, was observing Shabbat and Shemini Atzeret at a Salt Lake City Chabad when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“Of all the terrified faces on the morning of October 7th, I remember Amichai’s anguished features distinctly,” Chabad’s Rabbi Avremi Zippel recalled in an Instagram post. “He needed to go back.”
Oster received an official draft notice while in Salt Lake City and returned to Israel to join the army’s 7020 reserve battalion. On Monday, Oster, a sergeant in the reserves and the son of a former writer and editor for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, died fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, killed by an explosive device that also injured two other soldiers.
“Amichai did indeed rush here to fight for his country and for all of us,” his mother, Marcy Oster, said at his funeral Tuesday. “He was here doing exactly what he wanted to be doing. He died doing what he came home to do.”
Marcy Oster, who wrote breaking news stories for JTA for more than a decade, and her husband Howard, deputy director of the internal medicine division at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, moved to Israel from Cleveland when Amichai was 1. The family lives in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, in a neighborhood Marcy once described as “overwhelmingly American.”
“Marcy always spoke, and sometimes wrote, so proudly and movingly about her five children and the lives she and her family had made in Israel,” said Ami Eden, CEO of 70 Faces Media, JTA’s parent company. “Through her work managing JTA’s news briefs, she helped our readers feel connected to Jewish communities worldwide. Amichai’s death is a tragic example — and a deeply personal one for all of us at 70 Faces Media who worked with Marcy — of the way hearts are breaking in Israel and around the world since Oct. 7.”
Friends and family described Amichai as soft-spoken, charming, ever-smiling and eager to volunteer for those needing his help, including people with special needs.
After his initial army service he spent time traveling in Asia and the United States, a rite of passage for many Israelis post-army. On the road he would frequently sleep in an old Ford Crown Victoria that he bought in Florida. He was slightly embarrassed by the police equipment it retained, including a riot-busting bumper, recalled Ron Kampeas, JTA’s Washington bureau chief, who hosted Oster at his Northern Virginia home last year. Oster also described stopping in a Virginia forest on the fast day of Tisha B’av. His prayers were interrupted by a rattlesnake, a video of which he was proud to share with friends and acquaintances.
“He was interested in everything. If he was curious about something, he searched the internet and read everything he could,” his mother, currently news editor at Ynetnews, recalled in her eulogy. His interests included “music, art, science, photography, animals, plants [and] decorating cakes. He loved his travels both far and near and he loved this land, all of it.” He planned to complete the Israel National Trail, a 683-mile route that traverses the country from north to south. After the war, he also planned to return to the United States and continue his travels, she said, before starting university.
In addition to his parents, Oster is survived by three sisters, Sarah, Emunah and Tova, and a younger brother, Jonathan, a soldier who is serving in southern Israel.
According to the IDF, 175 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat during the army’s operations in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.
Among those eulogizing Oster was Igal Lahav, head of the Karnei Shomron Council. “When we speak of incredible, Zionist and value-driven youth who would leave everything behind and rush into the fire to defend the country, we are talking about young people like Amichai,” Lahav wrote on Facebook.
In an essay she wrote on the 10th anniversary of their decision to move to Israel, Marcy Oster wrote that “we knew Israel would be the best place to raise our Jewish children, where they would learn about their Jewish past, participate in their Jewish present and prepare for their Jewish future, and where we would have a front-row seat to Jewish history.”
At Amichai’s funeral, she spoke about a conversation with her oldest son when he was home on a recent two-day leave from Gaza.
“I told them that I felt responsible for the fact that he was fighting in a war and he didn’t make the decision to come on aliyah — that we made it for him,” she said. “He thought about it for a moment and replied, ‘Ima, what makes you think that if you never made aliyah that I would not have come here to fight for our country?’”
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The post Israeli soldier Amichai Oster, son of former JTA writer and editor, is killed in Gaza appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Trump Says Israel ‘Will Not Exist Within Two Years’ if Harris Elected President During Heated Debate
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump points towards Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris, during a presidential debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump insisted on Tuesday night that his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris would prove catastrophic for Israel if she were to win the White House in November.
Trump argued during his first presidential debate with Harris, the current US vice president, that she “hates” Israel and that her election would lead to the Jewish state’s swift demise. He also took a jab at Harris for allegedly snubbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by not attending his address to a joint session of the US Congress in July.
“If she’s president, I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now. She hates Israel,” asserted Trump, who served as US president from 2017-2021.
Trump went on to claim that Harris also “hates” people of Arabic descent and that her foreign policy approach would result in a destructive regional war in the Middle East.
“At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up. Arabs, Jewish people, Israel, Israel will be gone,” Trump said.
The Republican nominee also took a swipe at the Biden administration’s approach to Iran, arguing that its policies have resulted in empowering and enriching the Islamist regime in Tehran.
“Iran was broke under Donald Trump,” Trump said. “Now, Iran has three-hundred billion dollars, because they took off all the sanctions that I had. Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror.”
Trump was referring to his decision as president to withdraw from the controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose harsh economic sanctions on he regime. The Biden administration sought unsuccessfully to renegotiate the nuclear accord and has offered certain sanctions waivers, which according to critics benefit Tehran and allow it to spend more money on supporting terrorism.
US intelligence agencies have long labeled Iran as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. Supporters of Trump’s policies toward Iran argued in part that they gave the regime less resources to give to its terrorist proxies across the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Critics countered that the nuclear deal was a better path to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that Washington should work to prevent escalation with Tehran.
“They had no money for terror. They were broke. Now, they’re a rich nation. And now, what they’re doing,” Trump continued.
The former president urged the audience to “look at what’s happening to the Houthis and Yemen. Look at what’s going on in the Middle East.”
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia, a US-designated terrorist organization, began disrupting global trade with its attacks on shipping in the busy Red Sea corridor after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, arguing its aggression was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza. The Iran-backed movement has also said it will target all ships heading to Israeli ports, even if they do not pass through the Red Sea, and claimed responsibility for attempted drone and missile strikes targeting Israel.
Harris on Tuesday night emphatically denied Trump’s assertion that she harbors animosity toward the Jewish state. She argued that the former president was attempting to distract from his own “weak” foreign policy record.
Harris echoed her previous comments on the ongoing war in Gaza, insisting that “Israel has a right to defend itself” and that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
She added that the war in Gaza must “end immediately” and repeated calls for Israel to strike a ceasefire and hostage deal with the Hamas terrorist group. The Democratic nominee also underscored the need for a “two-state solution” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The post Trump Says Israel ‘Will Not Exist Within Two Years’ if Harris Elected President During Heated Debate first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli TV Stars Call for Immediate Release of Hamas Hostages in New Video Message
Gabriel (played by Michael Aloni) and Rochel (played by Yuval Scharf) in “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.” Photo: Yes Studios.
Some of the biggest Israeli television stars are calling for the immediate release of the 101 individuals still held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip for almost a year now following the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
Actors from “Fauda,” “Shtisel,” “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem,” “Night Therapy,” “On The Spectrum,” and other popular shows in Israel pleaded for the safe return of the hostages in a video message released on Tuesday by Israel’s Yes TV.
“When we shoot a show, we know the script, we know what the story is, who is against who and we know how the story will end,” they said in the video, with each person stating a different part of the message. “But now, this isn’t a show. These are real people, and their time is running out. This pain is impossible to bear. There’s no air.”
“If they don’t come back, then who are we? Who?” many of them asked. “What does it say about us?”
“How will we look our children in the eyes?” asked Noa Koller, the star and creator of “Rehearsals,” who is also a mother of two. “Our grandchildren?” added “Shtisel” star Sasson Gabay, who is a grandfather.
“There are people alive there,” the actors said repeatedly. “These are their lives, and our lives — all of our lives. We have to bring all of them home, now, now,” they said again and again.
The video also featured “Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” stars Yuval Scharf and Hila Saada, “Fauda” and “The Lesson” star Doron Ben-David, “Fauda” and “Night Therapy” actor Yaakov Zada Daniel, “On the Spectrum” and “Bloody Murray” actress Neomi Levov, Israeli film star Yael Abecassis, “Fire Dance” star Yehuda Levi, “Berlin Blues” actress Shirah Naor, comedian Tom Yaar, comedian and actor Yuval Semo, and others.
The post Israeli TV Stars Call for Immediate Release of Hamas Hostages in New Video Message first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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NYC Art Exhibit With Israeli Artists Commemorating Oct. 7 Attack Focuses on ‘Resilience and Reflection’
A partial view of the canvas painting “Enduring Hope” by Nirit Takele featured in the exhibit “Resilience and Reflection: An Artist Response to October 7th.” Photo: Provided
A new art exhibition opening in New York City on Thursday to honor the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre will showcase a variety of memories, stories, and emotions — including grief, resilience and hope — surrounding the deadly attacks in southern Israel.
“Resilience and Reflection: An Artistic Response to October 7th” will be open to the public at the David Benrimon Fine Art Gallery. The exhibit features 24 works of art from emerging and established Israeli artists, and each piece of art included in the exhibit tells a personal story connected to Oct. 7.
“Art has long been a powerful tool for processing collective trauma and catalyzing communal healing. ‘Resilience and Reflection’ aims not only to remember the lives and stories intertwined with October 7th but also to showcase the incredible capacity of human beings to seek hope and renewal in the face of despair,” according to a released statement about the exhibit.
“Resilience and Reflection” features various mediums, including painting, poems, sculpture, video, and mixed media, “each serving as a personal response and reflection on the events of that day.” A print photo by Benzi Brofman showcasing the Bibas family is a mostly black-and-white image, except for some background color and the bright red hair of the Bibas children Kfir and Ariel.
The entire Bibas family was abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 and remain held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Kfir, the youngest hostage to be abducted by Hamas during its deadly rampage across southern Israel, was 9 months old when he was kidnapped.
One Hebrew language poem is featured in a mixed media piece titled “Handful of Dreams,” by Dede Bandaid and Nitzan Mintz. Its translation reads: “A bed bakes my body like bread/filling it with a handful of dreams/When I open my eyes/How great is the hunger/Woe to the walls.” The artists said that the poem is about “hope, hard reality and big dreams.” The duo also created a collage titled “October” that includes different memories connected to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
A hand-carved wooden sculpture of a solitary individual standing beside a small house with a red roof was created my mixed media artist Yarin Didi and is titled “Cut Apart.” It is part of an Oct. 7 sculpture series and was made from oak, olive, and eucalyptus woods. Didi said the small house with a red roof “stands as a testament to the horrors around Gaza on that fateful October 7th.”
“The earth beneath the figure, crafted from olive wood, symbolizes peace with its olive branch. The entire composition — from the figure to the ground and the house — captures emotions too heavy for most to bear or speak of,” he added. “In silence, I create. I carve memories and experiences of that October from wood, teetering between hardship and hope — that change may come, and we might yet find healing and joy.”
Danielle R’Bibo is the curator of the exhibit, and this is her first solo curated show.
“Art allows us to communicate the inexpressible, to process pain, and to find hope amid sorrow,” R’bibo said. “The artists in this exhibition are deeply moved by the opportunity to share their work in America. Through their art, they aim to honor the memories of those lost, bringing a human face to the war. This exhibition is not about politics; it’s about the people — their stories, their pain, and their resilience.”
“Resilience and Reflection: An Artist Response to October 7th” will be open to the public Sept. 12-26 at the David Benrimon Fine Art Gallery.
The post NYC Art Exhibit With Israeli Artists Commemorating Oct. 7 Attack Focuses on ‘Resilience and Reflection’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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