On April 7, CAMERA Fellow Abraham Mercado at Florida Atlantic University organized an event featuring Elad Seker. The event attracted over 25 people, including a few professors. People were able to learn from Elad, who volunteers to travel to other countries in order to help with disaster relief, about the difficulties involved in traveling and being involved in such work. According to Abraham, people were “in shock” of Elad’s work.
One of the most emotional and memorable moments during the event was when an attendee asked “If you aren’t getting money, why do you volunteer to go all the way across the world to help people? It’s amazing, and thank you, but why do you do it?” Elad answered the following while holding back tears, “My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. When I was little, she told me, ‘When I was in the graves of Auschwitz, I reached my hand out and there was no one there to help me. You have to go help people’. And that is why I am a volunteer rescue commander.”
Elad’s speech showed the attendees what it is like to live in Israel and volunteer to give disaster relief to other countries. Such a moving speaker could change someone’s impressions and beliefs about a certain place that is involved in controversy, like Israel.
Contributed by CAMERA Intern Eli Cohn.
