Friend of The Fellowship and Growing Wings CEO Max Long discusses the impact of this year’s Flags of Fellowship and how Jews continue to share their stories of October 7, 2023, with non-Jewish communities around the world in an op-ed with the Washington Examiner. This includes his own story as an IDF reservist and lone soldier:
I served as a lone soldier in Israel, began supporting other lone soldiers in 2018, and founded Growing Wings in 2019. Since Oct. 7, I have served in the reserves in places now being debated and lied about. I saw it with my own eyes. In 2024, two people in ski masks ambushed me at DePaul University in Chicago and attacked another Jewish student. The hatred we face in Israel is not confined to Israel.
These experiences have made bearing witness a responsibility I cannot ignore.
The world needs to hear from those who lived through Oct. 7 and its aftermath. Their testimonies carry the voices of those who can no longer speak for themselves. We owe them the truth about what happened and the care to remember who they were before their lives became part of a tragedy. Bearing witness means carrying their memory as a responsibility to bring hope and light into the world.
Strong Voices for Israel, an initiative of Growing Wings, creates opportunities for Jews and Israelis to share their firsthand experiences with non-Jewish communities. Our partnership with the Fellowship brought those testimonies into churches across the United States for Flags of Fellowship.