Focus on Israel

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: I'm Laurie Cardoza-Moore and this is Focus on Israel. The massacre of October 7th was the bloodiest in Israel's history. Despite the deadly surprise attack and with little to no way to fight back, many stories of bravery and heroism by Israelis were witnessed. One young man demonstrated an amazing courage that saved lives but not his own.

Welcome to Focus on Israel. In 2006, I founded Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and sharing the message of Christian biblical responsibility to the people and land of Israel in the face of a growing global antisemitism. PJTN was birthed to stop the silence, to wake up Christians and people of conscience to the realities of a world bent on destroying Israel and the Jewish people.

That ceaseless drive to destroy the Jewish people and Israel was on full display to the world on October 7th of 2023. On that morning, Palestinian terrorists invaded Southern Israel, murdering over 375 young people at the Nova Music Festival. Two friends at the event, Aner Shapira and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, reacted quickly to the attack and led others to hide in a nearby public missile shelter.

Shapira was the last to enter the shelter and attempted to inspire hope by telling those inside that the Israeli military would arrive soon. Shapira stood near the exit, telling those next to him that if the shelter was attacked with grenades, he would throw the grenades back. For several minutes, Hamas militants shot bullets and fired rocket-propelled grenades into the shelter to kill those hiding inside.

Shapira ejected the grenades from the shelter seven times, but the eighth exploded in his hands, killing him. Shapira's friend, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was also throwing back grenades but lost his hand from a grenade explosion. He was able to tie a tourniquet around his arm and was subsequently taken hostage. At least seven people who were hiding in the shelter with Shapira and Goldberg-Polin ultimately survived the attack.

One of the survivors later said that Aner Shapira saved our lives and he deserves a Medal of Honor for being the angel who kept us safe. Goldberg-Polin was held hostage for almost 11 months until his body was recovered from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip on the 31st of August, 2024. It was later revealed that he and five other hostages with him were executed by Hamas.

His autopsy indicated he was likely shot from close range 12 days before his body was found. How does a mother deal with such a terrible loss? I sat down with Aner's mother, Shira Shapira, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli Heritage Foundation. She shares the heart-wrenching story of her son who gave his life protecting 27 others in a bomb shelter.

Shira reflects on Aner's bravery, the profound impact of his sacrifice, and the importance of preserving Israel's heritage. This conversation highlights the unwavering spirit of the Jewish people, the sacrifices made for Israel's survival, and the legacy of those who stand in the face of terror.

Guest (Male): Ladies and gentlemen, we are back at the NRB 2025 and we have another interview with a government official. We have Shira Shapira who is the deputy CEO of the Israel Heritage Ministry. Not only does she have an amazing job and responsibility within the Israeli government, she has an amazing story. Shira, thank you so much for spending this time with us today. Tell our audience a little bit about who you are, your work with the Ministry of Heritage, and let's talk about your son, the hero.

Shira Shapira: I'm very happy that we are talking together. Thank you very much. I'm an architect and urban planner and I work the last six years in the Ministry of Heritage. It's a governmental office. We are responsible for the tangible and intangible heritage in Israel, which means that we usually, regular life before the 7th of October, we document heritage, then we have to sometimes save the heritage from getting ruined or falling apart.

Our goal is to connect the people in Israel with their heritage. So we want to connect people to the heritage. That's what we do on regular days. Since the 7th of October, we understood in our ministry that we have to go and really rush against time in order to document and to save all the artifacts in the Gaza Envelope in order to make sure that the stories will be with us forever.

We have 1400 cars on the route 232, which is next to the Nova Festival. It's a main route in the Gaza Envelope and people were shot in their cars, were murdered, and people tried to save one another in these cars. It's unbelievable. So this became another heritage site. And we have the kibbutzim where people were slaughtered in their houses and fought for their lives and for their loved ones' lives.

There are two main forces that everyone can connect to, every human being. One force is the force of remember. We want to remember, we want to commemorate, we want to cherish the past. The second force is circle of life. Life must go on. So only if you feel these two forces together and you combine them, this is a way to build resilience. And the heritage is the bridge. That's what we're trying to do.

Guest (Male): Thank God with His help, you'll accomplish it. So Shira, tell us about what happened on October 7th for you and for your family.

Shira Shapira: Me and my husband, we have seven kids. Our oldest one, sometimes people introduce me as the mother of Aner since the 7th of October because people know his story. But I'm not only the mother of Aner, I'm the mother of seven kids. It's very important to remember and to keep in mind that six are alive and one is alive in a different world.

So what happened is my son, my oldest son, Aner, he was a soldier in the elite unit of Nahal and he was off-duty on that Saturday. So we had a meal, all of us together, no guests, only us. Everyone was at home, all the kids. It was really special. It was a great meal, thank God.

Then he went to the party with his best friend, Hersh Goldberg-Polin. And then they were bombing and shooting on the road, so they decided to enter the shelter. It was like a death trap because they were inside like 27 people hiding. He didn't have anything, only his bare hands and his spirit.

He didn't succeed in saving his own life, but he saved others. So he left us his legacy, his heritage. He was a musician, he was a painter, and he wrote more than 60 songs. He wrote, he composed, he sang, he recorded, and he was going to publish his album. And we already published six, but now we will publish the big album and we will continue his heritage, his legacy.

I'm very grateful for him that he left us so much to continue life as we said before. I just end with his poem, which I think is really amazing. In one of his songs, he said, "I'm a man who believes in change. Never mind change, I'm a man who believes. Okay, so I'm a man who believes. Never mind believing, it's enough to be a man, to be a mensch." That's what he said, that's what he did, that's what he gave his life for.

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Laurie Cardoza-Moore: From studying history, it's very clear that what starts with the Jews never ends only with the Jews. We must strongly stand against any antisemitic trends, for if not stopped, they'll cause harm to all of us and we'll witness the downfall of our Judeo-Christian Western culture.

Today many people say there's no longer a need for a Jewish state, that Jews around the world no longer need a place of refuge. But anyone who has heard recent statistics about the worldwide rise in antisemitism would never make such a claim. The reality is that neo-Nazi groups and Nazi sympathizers are increasing around the world.

Surveys show that over one billion people in the world harbor antisemitic attitudes. Close to 50% believe that Jews have too much power in the business world and two-thirds of the world's population has never heard of the Holocaust or believe the historic accounts of it are inaccurate.

Don't let yourself be manipulated by evil people with a wicked agenda. When the self-serving villains are in control, good people from all religions suffer. Muslims, Christians, and all people of conscience should stand proudly and show respect for a country that gives so much to the world in so many ways.

Do your part, do your research, and do what you can to make a difference. Because what happens in Israel does affect us all. This is not just a Jewish or just an Israeli problem. This is a problem for all humanity, for each and every one of us who believe in freedom and human rights. Learn more about what you can do at PJTN.org.

You just heard from Shira, a mother carrying unimaginable grief with extraordinary grace. But Aner's story belongs to his whole family. His father, Moshe Shapira, is an architect whose life's work has been building and preserving the heritage of Jerusalem and who is now channeling that same instinct into preserving the legacy of his son.

Moshe comes from a family with deep roots in the founding of Israel. Aner carried that heritage in his blood. A classical pianist turned hip-hop artist, an elite IDF soldier who chose to serve not because he loved war but because in his own words, he refused to let anyone else risk their life to protect him. In this conversation, Moshe shares who Aner truly was and the remarkable legacy his family is building in his name.

Moshe Shapira: I was born in Israel. My grandparents came to Israel from, at that time it was Palestine, they came from Russia and from Germany. And my grandfather that I'm named after him, Moshe Shapira, he was one of the people that established the State of Israel. He signed the Declaration of Independence. I'm sharing with him the name, but Aner shares with him his birth date, which is in the Jewish calendar, it's 17 Adar.

Me and Shira, we're both architects. I deal a lot with the preservation in Jerusalem and in Israel. And it's another privilege to be one of the builders of Jerusalem. In Judaism, one of the names of God is the builder of Jerusalem, so it makes me very pleased. Aner is our oldest son, we have seven kids. Aner is the oldest one, and as an older kid, he was always a kind of a leader.

He always spoke for his values and stood for them since he was a very small child. In school, if a principal or teacher or somebody bullied a student, so he would always stand fearless. For him, it was very important to stand wherever he saw somebody in a bad position, in stress, so he always stood for him. That's something that he had since he was a small child until the last battle of his life.

What happened on October 7th, two days before Aner came home for a short vacation from the army. It was also the first meal that all the seven kids were gathering. And he was so pleased. He said, "The house is so nice." We all felt like a huge festival there on the roof that we have.

But he said, "After the meal, I have to go with my friend, my friend Hersh Goldberg-Polin." He was his best friend and it was his birthday and he said, "I have to go to the festival, there was a music festival." So they went to the festival. Around 6:30, they started seeing rockets on the sky and we were closing the festival, you should go out from this location.

Aner's girlfriend called us and she asked us if we heard anything from him. We said, "No, we didn't hear from him." We tried to phone him, but there was no answer. And from that moment, we started worrying. Monday, we just got a call from a young girl, and she was frightened in her voice.

She said, "I was with your son, Aner, in the migunit." It's a small shelter. "Thanks to him, I'm alive. He managed everything." There were already 23 people inside and they were four that came with Aner, so 27 people. The space of this small shelter is something for eight people.

Aner entered and he said, "Hi, my name is Aner Shapira. I'm a soldier in this elite unit of Nahal. I must tell you, the Hamas have penetrated Israel. The terrorists are inside our land. But don't be afraid. We are next to a very big base. The army is on its way, I phoned them. Everything will be okay."

And one of the survivors told us that she shouted to him, "Aner, I'm so pleased you came. We're now relaxed." So the first thing, he calmed them down. He went out and saw the cars and saw the terrorists heading, fully armed with machine guns, with RPG. People were afraid, so Aner told them, "I will stand at the entrance."

But the terrorists were afraid because they saw him standing, so they were afraid of entering. So they started shooting, but they didn't succeed in hitting him by shootings. And Aner told them, "I believe it won't last for long. They will start throwing grenades. If they're afraid of entering, so that's what they're going to do."

But he said, "If they will throw the grenades inside, what I will try to do, I will try to pick the grenade and throw them back on them. If I miss or something happens to me, you have to continue." And as he visioned in his mind, a few minutes after that, the first grenade was thrown inside. Second grenade, and Aner each time picks the grenades and throws them back.

And you hear in the recording of the journalist, Ayelet Arnin, you hear them saying, "What a hero, what a man. He's throwing all the grenades." So he threw eight grenades. And then you hear in the recording Aner saying, "No, no," and a big explosion because what happened is that they launched an RPG missile.

His best friend, Hersh Goldberg, lost his hand in this explosion. The terrorists entered, they took out five people from the shelter and they started shooting the people in order to make it clear that nobody will stay alive. But because of this battle that was over than half an hour, they were short in time.

So they, thanks to God, they didn't complete the mission. It's a huge pain for the family, for the brothers and sisters. The fact that he saved people, he rescued people. And we have 10 survivors thanks to him. And the fact that he showed the world that even when you see cruelty, you have to stand against it.

And even if you think you don't have anything, but you still have your values. And you can stand even against 20 fully armed terrorists with values, with moral values. And you can beat them. He didn't rescue his life, but he succeeded in saving many, many other lives. So he had a meaningful life and his death was also meaningful.

And this is something that he left us and we cherish it. And beside, we have all his art and his songs and music. And because all his art, mainly his music, deals with moral issues and values, so we have a mission of spreading his art. So we opened a non-profit organization. In this case, we have to remember what happened in the 7th of October.

They killed Israelis, Hindus, people from Thailand, they killed Muslims. A Bedouin girl, she was a young Muslim girl. She was not connected to the festival, but they killed her because they came with one mission, and the mission was to kill everybody that they see. Jews, Muslims, unarmed, what do you want from them? But they wanted to kill them.

And as I was saying before, in this clash between moral values and evil, I think that the legacy of Aner is almost a biblical legacy. If you stand for the right, if you stand for the values, you can beat evil even if evil stands with all the ammunition that he wants.

And although we live in a postmodern society where people are confused and people believe that there isn't any black and white in the world, on the 7th of October we all visualized what is black and what is white. So it's anershapira.com, that's the website. And you can hear the music, you can see his art, and you can see all the merchandise there. And it's all donations for the non-profit organization and it will all go to the kids of Jerusalem from all religions. And that's hopefully will make a better future here in Jerusalem.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore: As a mother, I wonder if I could face the death of my son. Would I have the strength to move forward and make that loss matter? We should also stand up to make the loss of these two brave men not be in vain. The time for you to take a stand is now. Be a leader in your community and in your church.

One person can make a difference. Get involved with and support pro-Israel organizations such as PJTN. Call your senators, congressmen. Let your elected leaders hear from you. Visit our website to learn more and sign up to be a PJTN watchman to receive action alerts and order our films to share with family and friends.

Please encourage everyone you know to tune in and become informed. God bless you and thank you for all you do on behalf of our Jewish brethren and all Israel. We'll see you next time on Focus on Israel.