I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, in an Orthodox Jewish home. I have three brothers; one of them is living in Israel and was in the IDF, the other one is in college in the US.

I graduated from Nova Southeastern University in South Florida in 2018 with a degree in marketing and a minor in psychology and entrepreneurship. I see myself as a driven, motivated, hardworking young woman, who wants to live a life of passion and purpose.

The work I’m doing these days, since the war broke out, is mainly centralizing volunteering efforts in Israel, which means managing the different elements of it, and just making it easy and accessible for people to come and volunteer.

“Do what you can with what you have in front of you to help.”

I was in Dallas, Texas, on the 7th of October. I just opened my phone and couldn’t move, I was in complete shock. Three days later I booked my flight to Israel https://www.israel21c.org/how-a-two-week-trip-to-volunteer-turned-lifechanging/, raised $17,000 on social media in five days, and came with 23 duffel bags of supplies, arriving back in Israel on October 20th.

I believe we must stay strong, keep the conversation going, and never forget what happened on the 7th. Do what you can with what you have in front of you to help, even if it’s wearing a Jewish symbol loud and proud.

It has become crucial for people to globally participate and see the good things happening in Israel. You can take action in your own community.

I find motivation in the pain and suffering that our people are going through — I felt like I had to do something, I couldn’t just sit by. When I do get burned out I think about all the work that still needs to be done to heal our people and it keeps me going.

We created a volunteer Facebook group that centralizes volunteering efforts so we can bring more people to Israel to give back and volunteer. I hope that we stay together and don’t get divided again. We are stronger as one.

I hope the world can open its eyes and have some compassion for Israel, and that it will be able to grow out of this moment and build a strong, resilient community.