October 7 Filmmaker Advocating for Israel

Rob Mor is familiar with loss. His wife, Noel, got cancer and died in 2019, when she was only 31 years old. At the time, their daughter, Leia, was just two.

When October 7 happened, Rob, who lives in Los Angeles, understood what Israelis were going through, especially if they had lost friends and family in the attack. While he quickly started sharing pro-Israel content on his social media accounts, including his Instagram, it wasn’t enough.

“It wasn’t quite quenching my storytelling need,” he said.

Rob, an award-winning filmmaker, had previously made “Ghosted,” a movie about a widower who magically matches with his deceased wife on a dating app and gets to go on a first date with her again. He decided that this time around, he was going to make a documentary about Israel; he’d go there and film his experience.

Rob with his wife Noel and baby daughter

That movie, “Echoes of Loss: Eight Days in Israel,” features Rob interviewing Israelis grieving the loss of their spouses, children, family, and friends. During it, Rob goes through his own healing process.

“The reaction has been extremely positive to the film and has helped viewers understand grief on a more profound basis as well as help viewers empathize with the Israeli people better,” he said.

Rob is now running as a World Zionist Congress candidate on the Aish Ha’Am slate; he’s motivated to continue his work and make an impact in the Jewish world and beyond.

Advocating for Israel

For six months post-Oct. 7, Rob said he felt “somewhat paralyzed. I was saddened and still am saddened to see how little the general public knows or cares about the conflict. I am not surprised though.”

Rather than sitting back and letting the world dictate our story, Rob took matters into his own hands by creating “Echoes of Loss,” which shows the strength of the Israeli people during their darkest hour. Witnessing this firsthand inspired Rob to keep going and not be silent.

“I have started proudly wearing a Star of David necklace and hosting Shabbat dinners as often as I can,” he said. “There have been weeks and even months where I was fully absorbed in the conflict, and other weeks where I had to shut it all off to save my mental health.”

Zionist Is Not a Dirty Word

For Rob, advocating for Israel is personal. His parents divorced when he was a child, and his mother remarried an Israeli man. Rob loved Israeli culture and his new Israeli family members.

So, when anti-Israel activists showed up to his hometown of Pasadena, California right after Oct. 7 and demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, he knew he had to speak up.

“When I went up to introduce myself in front of 200 or so anti-Israel residents as a ‘Zionist,’ the gasps I heard were alarming, but also comical,” he said. “I hate that this word Zionist has become a dirty word. I have been a proud Zionist since I was 10 years old, so all the more reason to stand proudly behind Israel and this election.”

He wanted to run on the Aish Ha’Am slate, he said, because “Aish reconnected me to my Judaism along with the help of Chabad when I was a freshman at NYU. There is power in this slate that blends spirituality and creativity that I haven’t seen amongst other slates.”

Moving Forward as a People

When it comes to the younger generation of Jews, Rob advises them to engage in Jewish traditions.

The filmmaker goes back and forth on how he believes the Jewish people should respond to antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

“I often feel there is a duality to being Jewish,” he said. “On one hand, we should be proud of our customs, our beliefs and our long history of survival. And on the other, I just want the world to accept our existence, leave us alone and allow us to be who we are. The Jew has been demonized for millennia. It’s not new. I find it easier though to hide and assimilate. I find it easier to not speak up rather than speaking up. And I think that’s the battle the Jewish people face. Action or inaction?”

For Rob, the former strategy has worked out well, and he’s going to continue to focus on taking action however he can. He wants people to watch “Echoes of Loss,” which he said offers “a different face of Zionism. As a filmmaker, single father, and tall white boy, I don’t see many World Zionist Congress members looking or sounding the way I do. Diversifying the movement is paramount to reach a broader audience. Diversifying the assumed look of proud Jews and proud Zionists is important.”

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