RUDY ROCHMAN

Cindy: You are often referred to as an IsraeliJewish rights activist, is that how you would define yourself?

Rudy: Yes. I see a difference between an activist and an advocate.

A lot of people talk about Israeli advocacy.

And when I look at advocates and what they do, which are important things, they’re usually more focused on supporting a cause.

Like a fan of a sports team rather than a player on the field.

An activist is someone who understands the current problems and how they fit into the context of the Jewish people:

What are the problems that we face?

What is the next chapter of Jewish history?

How are we trying to move forward?

How are we trying to create coalitions?

How are we trying to raise the younger generation?

And, how are we trying to find a mission statement that allows us to move forward?

That's more of the mindset of an activist, I think.

Cindy: What problems do you see facing the Jewish people today?

Rudy: I see five major problems facing the Jewish people.

The first is antisemitism, the constant movement against the Jewish people that has existed within the extremes of every society, throughout history.

The second thing is a lack of identity for a lot of the younger generation of Jews. There is a lack of empowerment, not knowing how to stand up and be ourselves, and learning to practice Judaism rather than to put Judaism into practice.

Praying behind closed doors rather than putting into practice the things that we're praying about.

The third is a lack of a mission statement.

There's no conversation or direction for the next generation.

Previous generations had a mission to come to Israel, to liberate Jerusalem, and everyone was united behind that goal.

What's the next chapter of that conversation-? We need to figure out where we're going. If we don't know where we're going, we're not going anywhere.

The fourth is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of Jews and Palestinians being completely divided and seeing this reality as a zero-sum game.

There's no reality where Israelis or Palestinians will disappear. If our mission as a Jewish people is to do tikkun olam-to heal the world, and to empower and enlighten other nations, that definitely starts with fixing our own home with our own cousins first.

A lot of people look at the issue of the Palestinian conflict as it's either us or them.

But the reality is that today we do have the power and thus the responsibility to change this. If this is our land and our home, we have a responsibility to fix this land and home.

In the Palestinian society, they don't have the power. They don't have freedom of speech. They don't have the ability to speak up and, to add to the issue, they're going through a lot of brainwashing growing up.

And lastly, the fifth issue concerns the Tribes of Israel being displaced to the four corners of the earth. There are so many members of our “family” that are disconnected from us and still suffering in North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

Everyone has heard of the Lost Tribe’s concept from a historical level. We know they exist. On a spiritual level, we talk about them three times a day in the Amidah, that they need to come home. If the situation was reversed, that we were the ones suffering and dispersed, wouldn’t we expect them to come for us? In order to do that, we have to shift the consciousness of the next generation and to understand who we are. It is difficult to do a puzzle with so many pieces missing.

Bringing home the Lost Tribes gives us the missing pieces which helps the greater collective that we're meant to be. And in so doing, we become stronger through that collective identity.

Cindy: Talk to me about your documentary, We Were Never Lost

Rudy: We Were Never Lost is a tool to bring awareness of the Lost Tribes. Season one takes place in Africa. This past year we were in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Madagascar.

On our way to visit the local Jewish community in Nigeria, the Igbos, we were arrested and imprisoned. The government is very much against the local Jewish community.

So by association, they saw us as enemies.

Cindy: I like how you just like skipped over the part when you were in prison. Were you aware of how many thousands of people were behind you, how much activism was going on to try to get all of you out?

Rudy: We had no idea of anything.

We didn't have our phones.

We didn't know if people knew.

We had no connection, understanding, or awareness for three weeks. We were completely months, or years. disconnected. It was really beautiful to come out and to see how much effort was made on our behalf.

But we definitely knew we would get out of there.

We went through a very harsh experience, especially in the last two weeks when we were jailed with Boko Haram terrorists. But what we went through is a small drop compared to what the Igbos have experienced. It was definitely not easy, but at no point did we lose hope. And there were constant miracles happening in front of our eyes that kind of kept us going.

Cindy: Can you give me an example?

Rudy: When we were taken to prison, they took everything away from us except my tefillin.

They didn't even open my tefillin case. It could have been a gun or a knife for all they knew.

One day, we (Noam, Eduard, and Rudy) heard that a protest was being planned and Noam suggested that we should participate wearing our tefillin. On the back of the Shema Yisrael packet we had received from Chabad, it said that it is written in the Talmud, that when you wear tefillin in times of war, it strikes fear in the hearts of your enemy. So, we did just that and we saw how frightened they became.

On the other hand, our mission was to tell their story, not to become the story.

Cindy: What kept you and your colleagues going? Did you ever lose hope that you wouldn’t be freed?

Rudy: We were kidnapped on our third day in Nigeria.

We didn't know when it would end.

We had no idea if it would be days, weeks,

Another miracle occurred when we were taken into interrogation. There was this long hallway of hundreds of rooms where all of these different people were being interrogated. They would always bring us to the same room, room number 18. And for the Jewish people,18 is a very powerful number: Chai-Life.

The room right across from us was room number 26, which is also a very powerful number for the Jewish people, which represents Hashem-G-d.

But I still wasn’t understanding yet that out of hundreds of rooms, the two room numbers connected to us were the two most important numbers for the Jewish people.

I kept wondering what was trying to be