David’s Circle aims to support the thousands of Israelis who have relocated to Thailand to escape the war, trauma, and terror attacks they experienced in Israel.
By Shiryn Ghermezian,The Algemeiner
An Israeli nonprofit organization, founded by friends of a victim of the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7, recently opened a trauma center in Thailand for survivors of the Hamas terrorist attacks who are seeking an escape from Israel.
Let’s Do Something was created in memory of David Newman, who was killed at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im, Israel, where Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered nearly 400 people and kidnapped approximately 40 others.
Immediately after the Oct. 7 attacks, a group of Newman’s closest friends in their 20s formed a WhatsApp group called “Let’s Do Something” with the goal of helping to gather supplies, equipment, and humanitarian aid for those affected by Hamas terrorism.
Since then, the nonprofit has provided 300,000 pounds of humanitarian aid and equipment to over 20,000 soldiers and 50,000 displaced civilians, including bulletproof vests, army boots, kneepads, and drones for soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Its newest initiative focuses on helping Oct. 7 survivors and soldiers in the area of mental health, including many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Let’s Do Something opened a healing center, called David’s Circle, in Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand, a country that is a popular destination spot for Israeli tourists.
David’s Circle hosted its first gathering of people on Sept. 18 and will host another event on Oct. 7. The goal is to serve roughly 150 people a month at the new healing center, David Gani, the chief financial officer and co-founder of Let’s Do Something, told The Algemeiner.
Statistics show that more than 100,000 Israelis left Israel and traveled to Thailand since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
New data released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday also revealed that because of the Israel-Hamas war, there was a 59 percent increase in Israelis who moved out of Israel, with no plans of returning, during the first seven months of 2024 compared to last year.
Each month this year, roughly 2,200 more Israelis left Israel than in 2023.
David’s Circle aims to support the thousands of Israelis who have relocated to Thailand or traveled to the country for solace over the past year, wanting to escape the war, trauma, and terror attacks they experienced in Israel.
Let’s Do Something opened David’s Center in partnership with leading Israeli trauma specialist and therapist Yael Shoshani-Rom and Segev Ben-Shalom, an IDF social worker. The sanctuary offers “critical, multidisciplinary care and support to Nova festival survivors, bereaved families, soldiers, and others affected by the ongoing crisis, guiding them through their healing journey.”
Shoshani-Rom, her husband, and their children relocated from Israel to Thailand in August to lead the opening of David’s Circle as its healing director. She is a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of Haifa.
Earlier this year, she took an initial research trip to Thailand, to feel the waters and see how many people in the country could benefit from a healing center, and ended up hosted a healing event on Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Day of Remembrance) with 500 Israelis who came together to share their experiences.
Let’s Do Something is currently running a fundraising campaign to support David’s Circle.
The turnout at a healing event hosted by Yael Shoshani-Rom in Thailand earlier this year. Photo: Provided
“After October 7th, I committed myself to working with Nova survivors. It became clear that, for many, including survivors from the southern communities and soldiers, it still feels like October 7th, 2023, every single day,” explained Shoshani-Rom in a released statement.
“In Israel, you can’t escape the memory of that day. Many people need to leave, whether to India, Europe, or Thailand. However, their trauma follows them, and they are at great risk of severe mental health crises. That’s why David’s Circle was created.”
“Israel is a small country where almost everyone knows someone affected by the events of October 7th, whether they were at Nova, impacted by the attack, connected to hostage families, fighting in Gaza, or lost a loved one,” said Baruch “Bucky” Apisdorf, CEO of Let’s Do Something.
“Over 17,000 Israelis travel to Thailand monthly, many of them carrying the weight of serious trauma and facing a mental health crisis. David’s Circle is here to provide the peace and support they desperately need.”
How it started
The core eight team members behind Let’s Do Something were all close friends of David Newman and have quit their day-time jobs to run the nonprofit organization full-time.
Gani — who was born in New York but moved to Israel with his family when he was a teenager — explained to The Algemeiner that he met Newman in high school in Israel.
They eventually lived together and on Oct. 6, Newman borrowed Apisdorf’s car to attend the Nova Music Festival with his girlfriend Noam. Newman also attended the music festival wearing a shirt he borrowed from Apisdorf.
On Oct. 7, after hearing news of the Hamas terrorist attacks, Newman’s friends texted him, asking if he was alright. Newman replied that something terrible has happened and wrote ominously: “Pray for me.”
He then told his friends that he was hiding in a garbage container with other people at the Nova Music Festival and they were surrounded by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists.
Some of Newman’s friends, including two armed and trained medics, then began a mission to see if they could save Newman, or as least recover his body, by driving down south to get as close as possible to the site of the Nova Music Festival.
However, the friends were unsuccessful in finding Newman. On Oct. 8, they received a photo that showed a field of dead bodies and were able to identify Newman’s body from the picture, based on the shirt he borrowed from Apisdorf for the music festival.
Newman’s girlfriend, Noam, who was also hiding in the garbage container with her boyfriend and others, was shot in the hip and leg but survived the attack. She later told Newman’s friends that a Hamas terrorist “in flop flops and shorts” heard movement in the garbage container and shouted “Allah Akbar” before shooting into the container, and the gunfire killed Newman.
“All of us were broken and didn’t know what to do with ourselves,” Gani told The Algemeiner. “We, along with some of our other friends, decided we need to do something. We realized there is a lot of people who need things and don’t have it, and that Israel is quickly going to run out of goods. Let’s see if we can do something about that.”
“All of us, we absolutely used the chaos and insanity and poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this as a way to avoid our trauma,” he added.
“We all collectively felt we needed to do something; we couldn’t just sit with that grief. And this entire organization is ‘Let’s Do Something’ in memory of David Newman. A big part of all of this is honoring David and keeping his name alive. That’s a big part of it for us and that has 100 percent been a part of our grieving process and a coping mechanism.”
The WhatsApp group “Let’s Do Something” started immediately after news of Newman’s death reached his friends. Within 24 hours, the group set up a donation drop off location in New York, where people could donate urgently needed items, supplies, and gear to help displaced civilians and soldiers in Israel.
They then organized with the CEO of El Al Cargo to ship the items to Israel. Gani said 20,000 pounds of humanitarian aid and equipment arrived in Israel even before Newman’s funeral took place.
Since then, Let’s Do Something has organized many more planes to carry humanitarian aid to Israel, the majority of which goes to displaced civilians from the northern and southern border areas of Israel.
The nonprofit has also organized numerous “carnival-style” events where children affected by the Oct. 7 attacks could have fun and be given items they need like clothing, shoes, and toys, Gani said.
Let’s Do Something additionally helped supply drones to a special forces unit in Israel, which trains IDF soldiers on how to pilot the drones, and has funded different research and development projects.
During the first week of the Israel-Hamas war, Let’s Do Something crowdfunded approximately $500,000 and used that money to buy specialized equipment needed by various IDF units. The nonprofit is continuing to work hard to support the needs of soldiers and displaced civilians in Israel.
“None of us were incredibly Zionistic people,” Gani said about him and his friends who started Let’s Do Something. “I wasn’t an incredibly passionate Zionist or anything like that. But this — David’s death, this war, this reality that myself and my friends found ourselves facing – kind of changed everything. And we realized this is exactly what we want to do. I’ve never felt more fulfilled in my life.”