Lawrence Badzin

Show Notes

this week we have a special episode with Lawrence Badzin, a Minneapolis native who made Aliyah to Israel in 2002 but is helping bring the exhibit Through Their Eyes: the story of Kfar Aza, to his hometown. We talk about how he got connected with the kibbutz in southern Israel, the importance of bringing Oct. 7 survivors to Minnesota for the opening of the exhibit, and growing his family’s business in Israel, on this week’s Who The Folk?! Podcast.

Exhibit: https://tteexhibit.com/
Speaker event: https://www.besyn.org/event/voices-of-kfar-azza/ 

This week's sponsor: Minneapolis Jewish Federation: https://jewishminneapolis.org

The Who The Folk?! Podcast is part of the Jewfolk Podcast Network, a product of Jewfolk, Inc. Episodes are produced by Jewfolk editor-in-chief Lonny Goldsmith. If you have questions, comments, or a guest to nominate, send an e-mail to [e-mail]. For more information, go to TCJewfolk.com/podcast

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LG

Host

Lonny Goldsmith

Host/Editor/Producer

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This is the Podcast home of TC Jewfolk's Who The Folk?! Podcast. Hear from interesting Members of the Tribe from all over the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.

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Welcome to this week's Who the Folk Podcast.

I'm Lonnie Goldsmith, the editor of TC Jew Folk.

In this week, we have a special episode of Lawrence Badson,

Minneapolis native who made Alliott, Israel in 2002,

and is helping bring the exhibit through their eyes,

the story of Kaffir Aza to his hometown.

We talk about how we got connected with the Kibbutz in Southern Israel,

the importance of bringing our October 7th survivors to Minnesota

for the opening of the exhibit, and helping grow his family's business in Israel

on this week's Who the Folk Podcast.

But before we hear from Lawrence,

this week's episode is brought to you by Minneapolis Jewish Federation's Global Experiences.

Minneapolis Jewish Federation's goal is to connect you to Jewish people

and places around the globe.

Federation is excited to announce a new slate of upcoming international travel

experiences open to anyone who wants to explore the world through Jewish lens.

Highlights include Travel to Panama for donors in their 30s and 40s,

Women's Italy trip, and a mission of solidarity to Israel.

For more information, please contact Kara at K. Rosenwald at JewishMiniapolis.org.

Lawrence Badson, welcome to The Who the Folk Podcast.

Thanks for joining me.

Thank you, Lonnie.

Pleasure to talk to you.

You are the curator, creator.

What title do you give yourself for this project?

Normally I'm an auto part sales guy.

This is a long way from selling auto parts.

This is definitely not a curator.

There's somebody who curated this exhibit in Israel that launched on October 2024.

I'm one of the co-founders along with my wife, Metala, and my sister, Jackie.

So the exhibit that we're talking about is through their eyes,

the story of Kafar Aza, the exhibit is going to be at the Minnesota JCC in San Luis Park

from September 25th to October 11th, every day from their open from 12 to 8.

Tell us a little bit about what through their eyes is and how you got involved

in wanting to make it travel around from Israel to here in Minnesota.

Awesome, yeah.

Can I answer and refer sort of the questions?

You can answer the question in any order you would want.

Awesome.

So we got a little auto parts business in Israel and like everybody on October 7th,

half of our staff got called in to reserve duty, Milleouin.

And one of my top guys came back in March, February, March 2024.

He had told me that they brought their company, their unit down to visit one or two of the

keyboard seam communities in the south that was attacked and I had said,

"Wow, it's such a great idea. I want to bring our staff down and visit one of the keyboard seam as well."

And at the time, they were locked down as of January 2024.

They locked them down because people were not desecrating, but they just weren't respecting.

They were taking pieces of the buildings that got destroyed.

It was really.

Yeah.

It got, it was ugly.

So anyway, they locked it down to close military zones.

We weren't looking specifically to get into Kafar Aza.

We were just trying to get into a keyboard to see it, not wait for it to become a museum.

And so we happened to back in as somebody who hooked a sudden to Kafar Aza.

And from then until now, we've been connected with them.

And they, after raising some funds for them and helping with some outreach,

they invited us to this exhibition that they had a curator in Israel put together,

telling the story of those that fell on October 7th at Kafar Aza.

So it's the 64 civilian deaths.

It's the first responding security team.

It's the rescue forces, the police, the medics, the soldiers that showed up to defend and

rescue the people on the keyboards.

And then there's another couple sections.

One is for the hostages.

And one is the WhatsApp group texting communication that was actually happening at the time of the

attack.

And then there's actually two other separate rooms.

One's a photo gallery of Kafar Aza before and after.

And then one is a personal testimony.

The entire exhibition is not a graphic exhibition.

It humanizes the lives of those who fell.

And it tells their personal story.

And through that, we get resilience and hope to continue going forward.

Many of the people forget that it's not like the attack happened and then a week or two later,

they went home.

These people still are not home.

So that's what we call it, the surviving.

Because they're still surviving.

So our hope is by bringing this to first the twin cities and hopefully many other cities,

people will experience the human nature of these people through their personal stories,

realizing really we just got to stop these atrocities and the hate, anti-Semitism and everything

that's out there all over.

Yeah.

It's one of the taglines of the exhibition is the story of survival resilience and rebuilding.

And that rebuilding is still happening.

And it's, I would imagine it's hard to concentrate on rebuilding when there are so many other

things to concentrate on.

There are still 50-some hostages being held.

People are still displaced from their communities that were in the Gaza envelope.

Yeah, 58 hostages.

Some of those are people that are known to have passed away that the families haven't even

started mourning them.

Right.

Because we haven't gotten the bodies back.

But yeah, it's been a rough two years for everybody in Israel, but specifically for these people

from Kfahaza and every community.

This exhibition is pretty obvious, but represents just one, but the very similar story that

happened to all these communities in the Gaza envelope.

Any key boots that was hit, it's pretty much more or less the same story.

Lots of deaths, lots of hostages, lots of stories of resilience, heroism and surviving.

I was fortunate enough in February of 2024 to get to go to Nathipassara, which is a small

Masha'uva on the Gaza envelope for those who don't know, but got a tour by somebody who grew

up on the Masha'uva.

And similar to Kfahaza was closed off and sort of a, call it a full on military installation,

but it was closed by the military and not everybody got in.

So we were lucky and we got to walk through and pointed to all of the spots and where so

many of the atrocities of that that happened.

And it really is eye opening and brings it to you in a way that you watch it on the news,

and you watch it on social media.

It doesn't really do it justice until you get to see it in person.

And obviously seeing this exhibit is not going to Kfahaza, but it is bringing as much as you

possibly can to the people of Minnesota to really humanize those experiences.

Absolutely.

You said it right on.

As part of this is an event at Bethel Synagogue on September 28th featuring five members

of the Kfahaza community, Mikhail Rotenberg, Liri Sobel, Hanida Baram and Yvonne Keith Siegel,

who will be in conversation with Noah Tishb.

Correct.

Which is an amazing opportunity for people and we will have a link in the show notes to

people who want to buy tickets for that.

And again, it's the 20th of September.

I'm curious how interested were these five survivors in coming to Minnesota to be part

of the first days of this exhibit and then be part of this event?

The first thing they asked is what's the temperature?

And once we told them it's not going to be minus 30, it's only in September, there was

actually, you know, a serious note.

There was over 50 people who applied to be part of the delegation.

And so from that they chose, we were saying three to five people and we kept an extra spot

or two open, hoping one of the former hostages would partake, which fortunately they are

as you know, Keith and Yvonne.

But there's a lot of interest and there was a lot of participation.

There's a lot of training that's going on that they are sitting with the professional

coach in Israel two times a week asking questions to prop their English.

They have phenomenal English.

I was in one of these sessions.

But they take it very seriously and they're very not excited isn't the word, but they're

very eager to share their stories because they're stories that should be heard.

And again, it's from the people that experience it.

It's not through, you know, this person in that person, the news in the media and so on

and so forth.

It's right from the original source.

Does it surprise you how willing they are to talk about what happened to them and be

as direct as they are about it?

That's exactly why the theme as you pointed out of the exhibition and the speaking event

is resilience and hope because you meet these people.

You see them, you hear the stories and you think, how can you even be getting out of bed

in the morning?

You didn't just lose one person.

You may have lost many.

You may have family friends that are still hostages.

You haven't gone home yet.

All this stuff that's happened to them and continuing to happen to them as they strive

to survive and make it back home is just gives you a sense of, wow, I got to be strong

and resilient because these people are so strong and resilient and sharing their story

and personal experiences.

It's honestly, it's breathtaking.

And there's no sense of when normalcy can start for them.

If it ever starts again, they may never feel like they can get back into any semblance

of what they used to have.

Yeah.

I would say that the new normal, it's not going to be like the before.

I mean, Israel is a different place.

There's more reserved duty that everybody accepted will always be.

It's not going to be 30 days of years and so on and so forth.

But the new normal for them in the country, the nation, including Jews all over the world

will begin the day after the hostages are all back and hopefully an end to the fighting

and Gaza.

But first we've got to get our people back.

No, absolutely.

So it is rare that we have folks under the folk who aren't Minnesota based anymore.

You used to be Minnesota based.

You did grow up here and you made Aliya.

It was when we were talking about this when we first met last month.

You moved to Israel right about the same time as I got here in 2002.

What was it that led you to make Aliya?

You know, we're very zionistic.

I'm the youngest of four.

In my family, I watched my brother and sisters go over there.

I've been over there really once or twice for a camp and my first trip was with my parents.

And I just love the weather.

I love the people.

I love the food.

I love that there was different types of Jews, tall, short, fat, skinny, black, white, religious

non.

It was an eye-opener for a little Jewish guy like me coming out of Hopkins High School.

He dined up before that in junior high.

So I've loved it ever since.

It's not for everybody.

Yeah.

It's a crazy place, but I love it.

How easy was it for you?

And again, it's a couple decades ago now.

How easy did it feel to settle in as an American college graduate?

Yeah.

You just decided to make this move?

I mean, not easy, but what is easy?

You know?

Fair.

So everybody kind of needs to find their path.

And for me, it seemed a natural fit.

I originally wanted to go Chicago, and then I decided New York, and then I landed in Israel.

So it's all--

And one is a little faster than the next, if you look at it.

So it just-- it fit me.

It's Israel, like I said, Israel is not for everybody.

We need Jews there, but we also need Jews not in Israel.

And so I felt like, OK, for me, it works.

It fits.

It's not easy.

It took a lot of years to learn the language.

It took more to learn the culture, which is critical.

Yeah.

And any country you go, but you just-- it's like you would move into Minnesota.

You can't just act like you remind me where you're from.

I'm from Michigan originally.

OK, so it's this kind of Midwest--

Midwest, but it's--

It's pretty different.

It's a different world.

It's different.

You know, you betcha and a lot nicer, and you're kind of like, what?

You're holding the door for me?

But no, I love it.

The culture, I'm still adjusting.

There's still some discussions or talks with my wife where I said, did you just say that?

Or the translation of, you know, you live in a movie doesn't sound so good when you translate

in the Hebrew when you're in an argument.

But no, but it's fun.

It's fun.

Well, I mean, it's interesting.

I think there are some parallels to people who move here being a transplant to Minnesota.

It's-- people are nice, certainly, but it's not always the easiest place to break into.

Exactly.

It's not at all.

There are definitely some parallels to what it's like moving to Israel.

How close to settled do you think you are?

In Israel?

Yeah.

Is really a Yemenite origin wife and four girls.

I'm settled.

I'm settled.

Not settled in the sense that you might like up and move back here, but like feeling like

it is home.

Yeah.

I always felt like it was home, which is why I moved there.

It feels more and more.

But in terms of like my identity, I think anybody who moves to another anywhere, they're

always kind of 50/50.

And that's I've really gotten to that junction in my life is I really identified 50% as an

American and 50% in Israeli.

Do you foresee if 51% is really coming or is this this is just what it is?

Well, so my sister and the Nina Badsen, who I think was on once, she wrote a great article

years ago, decades ago, where she says relationships or marriages not 50/50, meaning one person's

always a little more or a little less doing or not doing.

So that's same with identity.

It all depends on the moment.

Sometimes I'm 99% Israeli.

Sometimes I'm 99% Minnesota in America.

And it's never 50/50, but depending on the day or time of day that you catch me.

Sure.

So sure, I suppose that it really does all depend.

So this current trip as we are speaking, letting people in, behind the curtain, it's Monday,

September 8th.

You will be back in Israel in this airs, but your trip here to Minnesota in this, you

know, currently, we could have done this over Zoom, but you're here for like what, two

and a half days?

Yeah, pretty much on the ground.

We actually left, as you mentioned, we were here, my wife and kids for the month of August,

we left the 25th.

And I came back now strictly to focus on this project, the surviving project with the exhibition

that starts on the 25th that runs for two weeks that we're trying to sell tickets for

$10 a piece for, and the panel discussion on the 28th of September.

I mean, you're a salesperson, so I suppose it helps that you're good at that to try to sell

this, right?

I'll tell you in October 11th, it's all results-based, but yeah, I like to think that, but yeah,

no, we're really pushing.

It's a special opportunity.

People say, "Many Atlas, why many Atlas?"

I go, because that's where I'm from, you know.

But it's a special opportunity that we're bringing to the doorstep to the community, and

we hope people go to the website, TTE, like through their eyes, exhibit, TTE, exhibit.com,

and tickets can be purchased there for $10.

All of the times are slotted for five entries a day, and we run it for two weeks.

We hope we can get as many people, both from the Jewish and non-Jewish community there as

possible.

How is, I mean, I know a lot of the times we've talked, it's all about how to get the word out.

Are you finding people receptive to the concept of this?

People are excited when they hear, but they're fatigued on the subject.

And they've forgotten, unfortunately, people in general forget really quickly, everything,

most things.

But they've kind of been fatigued and forgotten about October 7th.

And so it's definitely been one of the tougher challenges I've experienced in my personal

life, because we've done so much work to get it here.

Private fundraising, the production company, the venue, the so on and so forth.

And I've said to people, I said to you as well, if you build it, they will come is definitely

not true.

So we've tried and we've got it built.

It's all ready.

It's going to be a phenomenal event, but if the people don't show up, then it wasn't really

worth too much.

How do you find the people to put on something like this?

Because again, it's not in your wheelhouse.

Yeah.

You are not a curator as you corrected me on right away.

So how do you go about to put together the right team to do something like this?

So fortunately, my sister, Jackie, who offered to volunteer her time at the very beginning when

we started all this, she's in the events world.

And she's got a company called Studio Bedzin that pretty much exactly what she does.

It could be VIP dinner events for 10 or 50 people.

It could be big exhibitions.

She used to work for Google and Nike, so this is her world.

And she helped me understand that there's a world of mobile exhibits.

So the company that we're using is actually a mobile exhibit company where they can try

and help, they're going to pack this exhibit up at the end of the day.

And hopefully we can continue to raise funds to move it to other cities.

But it actually wasn't easy to find somebody and they even had a staff that wouldn't work

on the project.

Which was another kind of quirk and everything.

But there are companies that actually built these types of, they produce and fabricate these

types of exhibitions.

So it's new to my world.

Listen, it's good to have family who knows these kinds of things because that was totally

foreign to me, the whole idea that there are people that just travel around and put these

things on them.

So that's pretty amazing.

And as you mentioned, you are in the auto parts business and remiss if we didn't mention

the family business is factory motor, factory motor parts.

How, obviously the culture is different in Israel than it is here.

How is it, you know, the car culture is obviously very different between Israel and the United

States.

What's it like sort of carrying on the family business but in a different place in a different

language?

A lot of pride.

That's where I really realized that I'm not Israeli and then I became Israeli.

It's been 10 years since we opened the branch over there, the sniffly thing in Hebrew.

But that's where I really started getting, you know, rough around the edges I would say.

The first couple of years is a lot of bites that you take and bites are meaning, you know,

people kind of take advantage and you think you know, but you don't know, like anything

in life.

But the Middle East is a tough place, it's very fast paced, Israelis are very fast paced.

And so I got a lot of pride that we have an operation over there.

Like I said, it's going on 10 years and probably around year four or five six, I started

around the corner and be like, okay, okay, hubby b, you know, okay, now I understand.

I've heard that a couple of times before.

You know, I can only once fool me twice, you know, the same.

That's right.

Well, I mean, look, it's good that you figured it out there.

I mean, that feels like a pretty quick timeframe to figure it out.

Well, that's five years running the company, but that's after almost 20 years of being

there.

So that's Kibbutz Army, living in Tel Aviv working in a patent agency, then working in

like a different trade operation and then opening on the ground.

So it's like the point is that I was there for almost a couple decades.

That's true.

And then I realized, oh, I'm really not that is really yet.

Now I'm starting to be Israeli when you're in the deep end.

It's amazing how service in the IDF wasn't enough to, yeah, as a lone soldier wasn't enough

to throw it in.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, look, this is a fabulous exhibit that you're, you're helping to put on.

I know I am very excited to see it.

We'll have links to everything in the show notes and in the article where people can find

out about it.

But before we let you go, last two questions, we always like to end on first, what is your

favorite Jewish holiday?

Wow.

Hard left turn from what we just talked about.

No problem.

I mean, it's very easy.

When you say Jewish, I consider Israeli in that mix.

Of course.

And it's Yomat Smout.

Because it's not a Yom Tov because we keep the, the, the, the, the shabbos and we keep

the hearts.

And so we, you can't travel around.

So Yomat Smout, you can go, you can meet up with everybody.

No doubt the favorite holiday for me.

And it's a party.

Yeah, everybody likes it.

Everybody likes it, right?

It's a real party.

It's a real party.

Again, with the same caveat of Jewish also being Israeli, favorite Jewish food.

Wow.

It's pretty, it's between Shwarma and Humus.

But I'd probably go with Humus because Shwarma without Humus is not as good.

Even though you can just do Shwarma with China.

You can, but it's not the same.

And it is.

Yeah.

Is there a good, humus spot near you?

In television?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, there's a lot.

But you've got your loke.

You have your loke.

I got my favorite spot, which is in Yafo, which many people know it's called Abuchasan.

It's the most, it's one of the older Humus restaurants in Israel.

It's a very significant, specific flavor.

I mean, it's just amazing.

It's amazing.

Now you're getting me hungry.

All right, well, next time, you'll be back there soon.

Next time I'm there, you'll have to take me.

I'll bring you there for sure.

Fantastic.

Lawrence Badson, again, we'll have links to everything in the show notes.

But thank you again for stopping in.

I can time on your travels and best of luck in putting the sun.

We'll see you later this month.

I really appreciate it.

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