About this episode
Current Time.Macabit Mayer discovered strengths she never knew she had, leading the family campaign to bring Gali and Ziv Berman home from captivity. Her life paused in an instant shortly after October 7, and she found herself learning what activism is and how to stay in the public eye to generate constant interest.All activists, family members, and friends of the hostages realized they needed to learn a new profession from scratch, not because of a career change, but because they had to understand how the media works to keep the campaign active and prevent it from fading.Parents, siblings, partners, children, family members, and friends who barely used social media or had never spoken in public were suddenly required to learn how social media works, how to speak to and manage media outlets, and how these industries operate.In this episode, Mark and Samantha discuss my stories about Macabit Mayer and share their insights about Jewish identity from an American perspective. Their conversation explores the historical connection between her name and the Maccabees during the Hasmonean kingdom, and the coincidence of opening up to new Israeli communities through a Hanukkah project for the hostages.Macabit Mayer’s journey in forming coalitions to support the effort to bring the hostages home led her to meet religious people who were light-years away from the secular world she lived in. She built friendships with women rabbis and participated in Jewish rituals like lighting Shabbat candles, kiddush, and Torah scroll ceremonies, which gave her the strength to keep fighting for Gali and Ziv’s return.I’m always curious about how my stories are perceived and interpreted by people from other cultures, especially native English speakers. Do readers understand them as I imagine they do, or are some parts lost in translation without me even realizing it?Israeli music connects us as a society, no matter our political opinions, whether we are religious, traditional, or secular, or what our economic status is. We all find comfort in listening to artists who reflect and articulate our lives in the impossible reality of living in Israel. Playlists built around artists like Ivri Lider, Idan Amedi, Shlomo Artzi, or Ofra Haza help us keep going and believe that peace will come.The connection we have with the people we love most is deeper than the visible one. We can feel and sense each other fr
