893 Chairs, 5 Friends, and 1 Life Saved

“I was on Instagram, I saw yet another soldier my age that had fallen for our people, and after a few seconds I was on to the next post. Then I froze. ‘What the hell? A few seconds and another Jewish hero, another devastated family would—poof—be history. My heart sunk. I work and live on Instagram, and in a way, I have become a desensitized victim of my own work.” It was in that epiphanous moment that Moshe Shear, our CMO, decided that we had to do more to keep our heroes alive in our hearts. After all, the organization we founded together is called Let’s DO Something, and our operating motto is, Where Advocacy Meets Action. And so Moshe hatched the idea of a chair for every fallen soldier at Israel’s busiest summer location, the Tel Aviv boardwalk.

This past Monday Moshe’s idea came to life in a way that touched tens of thousands and moved each of us more than we ever imagined. This is why: On the night of October 8^th, Moshe, myself, and a few other friends, were sitting together in a near silent apartment, grieving the murder of our dear friend David Newman at the Nova festival. We felt overwhelmed and helpless, and at the same time understood that we had to do something. A handful of friends in our twenties, we started by procuring sleeping bags for guys rushing into battle. A chaotic day later, we were organizing a mass collection of supplies for soldiers in New York, and just another day later, by the time of David’s funeral on Har Hamenuchot, our first planeload of aid and gear was in the air. Since then, somehow, four of those heartbroken friends went on to become one of the fastest growing Jewish non-profits in the world today. Twenty-two months later, there we were on the Tel Aviv boardwalk, when one encounter stunned us, and reminded us yet again, why we do what we do.

Her name is May and her brother Yahav, just 21 years old, was a fighter in the an Elite Nachal unit and was killed in the north of Gaza in January of 2025

After Yahav’s death, May fell apart, and she had no idea how to put the pieces of her shattered self back together. When she looked in the mirror, she didn’t recognize the eyes staring back. And so, like so many heart, soul and psyche wounded Israelis, she fled the environment where further trauma inducing triggers lurked around every corner, in every headline, and within the most casual of conversations. Following the bewildered footsteps of thousands of others like herself, May left for Thailand. “I went to Thailand one month after my brother was killed in Gaza, I went there to escape my reality. I found David’s Circle, stayed there for two months and it completely changed my life and saved me.”

Four months before May left for Thailand, we had the privilege of launching David’s Circle, the only dedicated healing center in Thailand for Israelis. David’s Circle is completely free, rooted in both clinical and alternative modalities, and offers group therapies inspired by the research of Thomas Hübl. To date, David’s Circle has supported over 700 Israelis mostly between 21-25 years of age; reserve soldiers, Nova survivors, and those most deeply impacted by October 7th  and the war that followed. At David’s Circle, we’ve created a uniquely deep therapeutic space that doesn’t feel like one. The slice-of-Israel atmosphere at our Circle doesn’t have the medical feel and clinic like formality often associated with mental health support centers. Instead, David’s Circle plays the music, creates the vibe, and speaks the language of young Israelis. In tandem with David’s Circle we also have a mentorship program in partnership with the Nova Foundation. Over several months, survivors develop emotional tools, facilitation skills, and the confidence needed to help fellow survivors navigate their healing journey. Once their training is complete, they travel to Thailand to serve as mentors at David’s Circle, playing a critical dual role by offering peer-based support rooted in lived experience, while continuing their own path to healing. This mentorship model has become a cornerstone of our work, turning pain into purpose and creating a ripple effect of recovery. This, and so much more, came together when we met May on the Tel Aviv boardwalk the other day. “Thailand could have been the end for me,” she said, “but I found David’s Circle, and it saved my life.”

That says it all. Every lost life since October 7^th is a lost world, and every healed life is a healed and saved world. Life is confusing, mysterious, I guess. We lost our friend David, and because of that awful moment, David’s Circle is now saving lives. I curse the evil that took my best friend, and I’m forever grateful for the friends I have, and what we strive to do every day, in David’s memory.