Scooter Braun Launches Campaign to Help Both Palestinians in Gaza and Israeli Hostage Families

Scooter Braun is stepping up his efforts to help the people affected by the Oct. 7th terrorist attacks in Israel and Palestinians suffering from the devastating war in Gaza, with the music mogul keen to stress “you can do two things,” by helping both groups.

The HYBE-America CEO posted a lengthy video on Instagram on Wednesday night that outlined his plans to work with humanitarian agency CARE International and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, personally donating a total of $200,000 to get much-needed financial support to the people most acutely impacted by the ongoing conflict.

Braun said he, along with his Palestinian-American friend Nasim and Scott Budnik, will be kicking off the Care Together campaign with Care.org next week and that he would be personally donating $100,000. The campaign, Braun says, “will help 200 Palestinian families with sustainable help in this time of need.”

He also stated that at the same time he will donate $100,000 to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, a group that according to its website says it “offers families holistic medical and emotional support as well as professional assistance, and advances the ongoing efforts locally, regionally and globally, to bring the hostages and the missing back home.”

Braun added, “I’ve always said something, you can do two things. You can say, free the hostages, and also want the Palestinian people who are innocent to be protected from Hamas and this war.”

In the video, Braun began by speaking about his late grandmother Eva, a Holocaust survivor, on the occasion of what would have been her 94th birthday, and how her kindness inspires him to “do what I do next.”

“The world is a crazy place, and I feel like there’s a very big misunderstanding. There’s all this antisemitism, hate, finger-pointing in all directions. But it’s not because I would refute my Judaism, or it’s not because I’m not proud of my Judaism that I do what I do next,” Braun says, seeming to reference the online criticism he has received recently from some sections of the BTS fandom and also perhaps a passing reference to Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar’s speech with the use of the word “refute.”

He adds that he is doing what he is doing “because of my grandmother, because of my grandfather, because of what they endured, because of the lessons that they taught me, and the lessons that my Judaism teaches me that I care.”

Full text of Braun’s video message:

I normally don’t make videos for these type of things, but I felt like this was important. Today would have been the 94th birthday of my grandmother, Ma, Eva. She was a Holocaust survivor, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In her honor, I do what I do next. The world is a crazy place, and I feel like there’s a very big misunderstanding. There’s all this anti-Semitism hate, finger-pointing in all directions. But it’s not because I would refute my Judaism, or it’s not because I’m not proud of my Judaism that I do what I do next. It’s because of my grandmother, because of my grandfather, because of what they endured, because of the lessons that they taught me, and the lessons that my Judaism teaches me that I care.

Because of that, with the help of my friend Nasim, a Palestinian-American who’s also the son of a refugee just like me, and my friend Scott Budnik, we’re starting a campaign next week called Care Together, along with the organization Care.org, which will get aid to Palestinians, innocent Palestinians in need right now. I will personally be donating $100,000 to kick off that campaign, and that will help 200 Palestinian families with sustainable help in this time of need.

But I’ve always said something, you can do two things. You can say, free the hostages, and also want the Palestinian people who are innocent to be protected from Hamas and this war. That is why I’ll also be matching that $100,000 with another $100,000 donation to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel to help those families affected by Oct. 7th, and those families still suffering because those hostages deserve and must come home.

I wanted to do this because you can do two things. You can call for the hostages, and you can call for innocent people in a war to be protected. I want to be clear that it is because of my culture, because of my Judaism, because of the idea of ‘tikun olam,’ which means repair the world, heal the world, which is all Jews are called on to do, that I make these donations, and I ask people to do the same, and I ask people to step up with action. In honor of my grandmother, in honor of her 94th birthday. She saw the absolute worst of humanity. She wasn’t yelling at people on TikTok or Instagram. She lived it. She was 15 years old when they ripped her from her home, and 26 members of her family, including her parents and her sister, were killed. She stayed in that concentration camp for a year until she was liberated, [she was there] every single day.

Even though [my grandmother] saw the worst of humanity, she chose to be kind to all people. That is why, in this moment, while I believe Israel has the right to defend itself and Israelis have the right to protection and safety, I think the same for Palestinians. It is because I am a Jew that I make these donations. I’m grateful to my Palestinian-American friend… Both of us grew up in Connecticut. Both of us love Thundercats. Both of us love our families. If my family would have immigrated to Israel and his family would have stayed in the West Bank, we might be put in a position to fight right now with each other. But because we’re here, we have an opportunity to be friends and try and go towards a future that we all claim we want over there. I know this was long-winded, but Ma, this one was for you. I love you. I miss you. I hope everyone can join in and do the same. Thanks.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

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