During her talk at Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen in January, Jewish influencer Lizzy Savetsky said, “There’s two wars going on. There’s this war on the ground and this war in the media and on social media.”
Savetsky was referring to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza but also to the narrative warfare that inevitably follows in this age of media ubiquity.
NA’AMAT, the largest women’s organization in Israel, is fighting that two-front war.
On May 9, two of the organization’s Israeli leaders — President Hagit Pe’er and Director of the International Department Shirli Shavit — spoke at Beth Sholom Congregation about what they are doing.
They attracted a mostly female audience from Montgomery County, Cherry Hill and other areas. Attendees started arriving around 3 p.m., more than three hours before the talk.
NA’AMAT USA, the sister organization of NA’AMAT, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the nonprofit’s efforts since Oct. 7, according to Susan Miller, NA’AMAT USA’s fundraising vice president.
Its goal on May 9? Raise more, according to Pe’er.
The women came because they wanted to help. It was Pe’er and Shavit’s job to explain how they could.
Pe’er talked about the humanitarian assistance that NA’AMAT is providing on the ground. That’s the war.
Shavit discussed the messages that she is sending out through Facebook and email lists to NA’AMAT’s eight sister countries. That’s the narrative war.
“I’m trying to learn more about that tonight,” said Beth Sholom President Ruth Lefton of NA’AMAT’s efforts. “I want to know how I can help.”
Pe’er
NA’AMAT operates a hotline for domestic violence victims or women who fear they may become victims. It was open six hours a day before the war, according to Pe’er. It’s now open 12 hours a day.
Pe’er said domestic violence has become more common since Oct. 7. Tens of thousands of Israelis remain evacuated from their homes. They’ve been staying in hotels and living in close quarters for more than seven months.
This has elevated both the number of incidents and the fear of them, according to Pe’er.
“It’s a dangerous situation,” she said.
NA’AMAT is also supporting female soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces. Pe’er drives all over Israel to meet them. NA’AMAT USA has donated hygiene kits for female soldiers, according to Miller.
After Oct. 7, NA’AMAT hosted evacuated families in two of its youth villages. It provided food, clothes and entertainment for almost a month, according to Pe’er.
“Everything they need,” she said.
With husbands at war, wives must find ways to balance child care and work. NA’AMAT’s day care centers have helped with that, according to Pe’er. And when NA’AMAT needed 10 safe rooms for the centers, NA’AMAT USA leaders stepped up to raise the $500,000 needed to build them.
Shavit
There are about 10,000 NA’AMAT members around the world, according to Shavit. The director of the international department sees them all as potential foot soldiers in the narrative war.
Shavit lives about 18 miles from Gaza. She knows what happened on Oct. 7. So, she also knows that much of what she has seen on social media and in the media is, as she put it, “fake news.”
“It disturbed me,” she said.
She wanted NA’AMAT members to know how Israel and women were impacted.
“It really was horrible, a massacre,” Shavit said.
Shavit sends out such messages to about 25,000 followers through the NA’AMAT Facebook page. She also sends messages to an email list of around 500 female NA’AMAT executives in the eight countries. She even sends them out to a general email list of people affiliated with the organization called NA’AMAT News.
Shavit estimated that tens of thousands of people end up seeing the messages. And once people see them on Facebook, they spread them around themselves.
“I hope to expand,” Shavit said.
Shavit feels overwhelmed by anti-Israel sentiment. As she put it, there are only about 15 million Jews against approximately 1.8 billion Muslims.
“Many of them are fanatics,” she said. “So, it’s maybe a lost war on social media.”
Then why fight?
“Even if we don’t win, we do approach people and we get people to understand,” she said. “It’s not a complete victory, but it’s not a complete defeat.”