On Thursday, November 21, women from Women Leading a Dialogue and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) presented to the Holocaust and Genocide class, a senior elective. Robin Krause (Social Studies) and Shannon Kederis (Social Studies) organized this presentation with Amy Fouts from the Jewish Federation of Louisville for the Holocaust class’ students.
Students learned more about what they are studying and about these women’s lives in Israel. The students also had the opportunity to ask questions regarding the war between Israel and Hamas after the presentations.
Eden and Kyla, the two teenagers from JAFI, gave a presentation focused on the facts and history of Israel. Eden is from Akko and Kyla is from Tzoran. Both are taking a gap year after just graduating high school, coming all the way from Israel. Their goal is to connect Jews and non Jews to Israel and incorporate that inside Louisville.
Shahrazad Bargout Swidan was the first to share her story. She is from Arab-El-Aramshe in Northern Israel and is a Human Resources Coordinator. She joined Women Leading a Dialogue in 2020 which has allowed her to share her experiences and ideas, while also expressing herself.
Similar to so many other people in Israel, Swidan’s life has changed dramatically. On Oct. 7, 2023, she received a message from authorities about an immediate evacuation of her village. Swidan and her family took only a backpack and stayed with her relatives for two weeks. Their situation became increasingly difficult, so they packed up again and moved to an evacuation center hotel. Swidan and her three family members stayed in a one bedroom hotel for two months.
But even with these hardships, Swidan was able to connect with the families around them. “We become a new community in the hotel where Arab and Jews live together,” Swidan said.
Eventually, Swidan’s family moved into an apartment, where they lived for six months. In June 2024, they moved again into an apartment she had bought as an investment.
When they first arrived at their new apartment, Swidan reflected on her daughter’s actions, stating, “we looked over, you know, the rooms, she’s like, this is gonna be my room, the shelter room.”
Over time her family adjusted to this new lifestyle, but their lives are still impacted by the daily sirens. Usually Swidan’s family is able to find a shelter, but if they are driving, they have to pull over and lay on the side of the road.
She also reflected on having many sleepless nights due to worry and sorrow inflicted by the countless losses on both sides of the war. Because of this, Swidan’s goal is to bring coexistence between all people. She wants everyone to be able to live in peace and have a mutual respect and understanding shared between one another. To achieve this, she hopes to build bridges between different groups.
“By embracing diversity and treating one another with dignity, we can foster communities built on mutual respect and understanding. Together, we can create a world where differences unite us, rather than divide us, and where every person can thrive in a spirit of shared humanity,” Swidan said in her poster. Each of the women had these posters that the students could read as they walked in, introducing themselves.
Maor Levy-Ratz is from Kibbutz Eilon. She first joined Women Leading a Dialogue in 2020 and is a florist, event planner and coordinator. Before the war, she owned and operated her own shop in her kibbutz, or a small community. Kibbutz Eilon is 2.18 kilometers from the Lebanese border and much of it has been burned and destroyed.
On Oct. 8, 2023 at 8:30 a.m., one day after the first attack by Hamas, she was ordered by the Municipality to evacuate. They were told only to bring a backpack. Levy-Ratz and her family left with their car and dog and have not seen their home in over a year. She was also forced to close her shop, which has caused financial challenges for her.
For the first few days they stayed with family away from the conflict but eventually moved into a hotel at Kibbutz Sde Boker. At this hotel, Levy-Ratz took action. She volunteered to manage daily operations of their community, establishing a K-12 school for the children there.
“I never thought that I’d be in this kind of situation, that they have no roots to hold on. On the other hand, it’s time for us to learn a lot about ourselves, about our resilience and to try to make lemonade out of lemons,” she said.
In July of 2024, after over eight months of living at the hotel, a family from the United States offered for Levy-Ratz’ family to come live with them. After lots of discussion, she moved her family here and enrolled her kids in a local summer camp.
While her kids were away, Levy-Razt and her husband gave lectures about the North of Israel in different local communities.
Safinaz Beromi grew up in Akko and is a lawyer. For the past 11 years she has worked at the Ministry of Finance and for the last 4 years she has been integrating student practice at the Faculty of Law. This is Beromi’s second time participating in Women Leading a Dialogue.
After the horrific day of Oct. 7, 2023, Beromi took her family to Turkey. After staying there for some time, she realized the war was not going to cease, so they returned to Israel without a choice.
When Beromi and her family returned, they were faced with even more difficulty. “This new reality presents us with the increased racism, extreme extremism, and violation of freedom of expression,” she said.
When Beromi is in the gym, her coach carries a gun at his side.When she is at work, she feels the weight of her own colleagues glaring at her. But, her biggest fear is not even the circumstances of the war. It is the removal of coexistence.
“I aspire to have a future where justice and equality is ensured for all of us no matter how big our differences are and to call on the world to end hatred immediately, to silence the extremists and stop murdering the innocent and powerless people in Gaza,” Beromi said.
Beromi’s goal for Women Leading a Dialogue is to have a world where conflict ends through cooperation and continues with peace. She envisions a world where everyone is given justice and equality and hatred is ended.
“I believe that the change begins within us, in our awareness, our environment, and our attitude toward life. I have faith that women have the power to change the world, and I hope that this change starts within our group,” Bermoi said.
Karin Nathans Gefen was born in Kibbutz Matzuva and is 1.3 miles from the Lebanon border. In 2020, she joined Women Leading a Dialogue in order to get to know her neighbors of all cultures.
On Oct. 8, 2023, the municipality advised them to evacuate and go further south into Israel. After COVID, she opened a café in her kibbutz, but her dreams have since been closed due to the evacuation.
Gefen and her family lived in a hotel for four months. When showing an image of the skies where she lives, with streaks of smoke from bombs and missiles kept away from civilians by Israel’s iron dome, she said this view was normal.
Gefen did not let this new reality stop her from helping other innocent civilians. She became a volunteer on the community welfare committee where she assists and advises families and runs a bicycle shop with her husband.
“When you are doing something, when I’m taking something in my hands, I have to complete it and to finish the mission. So I did my best, but I try to give my kids as well, their needs. So I don’t know where I get the strength from, probably I get it back from the community, but it’s really, it’s very hard,” Gefen said.
