BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:2423@wjcenter.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250221T203000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250221T213000 DTSTAMP:20250128T205545Z URL:https://www.wjcenter.org/events/author-talk-liz-hirsh-naftali/ SUMMARY:Author Talk: Liz Hirsh Naftali DESCRIPTION:The post-Rhythm &\; Ruach speaker for February 21 will be Li z Hirsh Naftali. Liz is the great-aunt of Abigail Mor Edan\, the four-year -old American who was taken hostage on October 7th and\, after 51 agonizin g days\, was miraculously freed. Since then\, Liz has dedicated herself to advocating for the release of others still held captive in Gaza.\n\nAbiga il’s release was a moment of pure relief\, but Liz’s work continues. S he’s still fighting every day for those who are still in captivity. Liz recently wrote a book\, Saving Abigail: The True Story of the Abduction an d Rescue of a Three-Year-Old Hostage\, where she shares the unimaginable j ourney Abigail and her family endured. It’s an emotional account of resi lience and hope\, and it brings forward so much of what hasn’t been wide ly told in the news.\n\nAbigail’s Abbreviated Story:\nThree-year-old Abi gail Mor Edan\, a dual US-Israeli citizen and her family were some of the first victims of Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7th when Hamas terrori st stormed her community\, Kfar Azza\, about two miles from the Gazan bord er. Abigail’s mother was slaughtered in front of her and her 6-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother. The children ran outside and found their f ather who was a Ynet photographer and had been taking some of the earliest documented photographs of the assault. They started fleeing to shelter\, when Hamas terrorist then killed their father while he was holding Abigail . Abigail's siblings ran back to their house and locked themselves inside a closet and hid for 14 hours just feet away from their mother’s lifeles s body until rescued by special forces. It was assumed at the time that Ab igail was murdered while in her father’s arms. It wasn’t until days la ter that the family learned that Abigail\, now an orphan\, survived\, and crawled out from under her father's lifeless body\, covered in his blood\, to a neighbor's home who took her in as the rampage raged. That entire ne ighbor’s family then disappeared. But later\, Abigail’s name appeared on a list of hostages along side those of that neighbors family.\n\nHere i s Liz’s Bio:\nLiz Hirsh Naftali is the great-aunt of Abigail Mor Edan\, a three-year-old who was held hostage in Gaza for fifty-one days. Abigail was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7\, 2023\, from her community \, Kfar Aza\, after her parents were both murdered in front of her by Hama s terrorists. In the wake of that attack\, Naftali became a fervent advoca te working for the release of the hostages. Even after Abigail’s release on November 26\, 2023\, she remains dedicated to working for all those wh o remain in captivity in Gaza.\n\nLiz is a businesswoman and the host and creator of The Capitol Coffee Connection podcast\, a platform where she in vites prominent\, diverse leaders to talk about the common thread that bin ds us all together—our shared experiences\, stories\, and the very essen ce of our heart and humanity—leaving out politics and policy.\n\nShe was raised in Los Angeles where Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam were an important pa rt of her upbringing. Her father\, Stanley Hirsh\, was the publisher of th e Jewish Journal\, president of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and c hairman of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. Her mother\, An ita Hirsh\, was a leader in the Soviet Jewry movement and Jewish Family Se rvice in Los Angeles. Naftali is the mother of five children and has lived between Israel and the US since 1992. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.wjcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024 /12/uscpaha_team_naftali.jpg CATEGORIES:Adult Education,Community,Featured Events END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20241103T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR