Rudy Rochman’s battle on two fronts
The IDF reservist and prominent Israel activist was recently in Australia for a series of JCA NSW events
Rudy Rochman has spent the last 18 months defending Israel on two fronts – the battlefield and university campuses.
The IDF reservist and prominent Israel activist was recently in Australia for a series of JCA NSW events, where he spoke of his determination to fight antisemitism and empower the next generation of Am Yisrael to have the courage to stand up.
On October 7, his unit arrived in Kfar Aza at midday and they spent the next three days fighting against Hamas. Since then he has travelled the world debating university students, he has fought in Lebanon and recently received his call-up for Gaza in July.
“My goal is not to create violence or to fight people for the sake of fighting, but to defend, stand up and create something better,” Rochman told The AJN.
“Sometimes that requires defending yourself ideologically and sometimes that requires defending yourself physically. For me, both of those battles are spiritual battles. Hashem built me in a way where I have the ability to physically defend my people and the war comes at a time where I’m at an age that I can do so, so I feel I have that responsibility.
“Then when I got to college campuses and I realised that there was a growing movement of antisemitism in intellectual spaces, of course I realised I also have a responsibility to defend our people and to make sure that we write the next chapter of Jewish history in the way we would like to experience it, and not in the way others get to dictate it.”
Rochman, 31, believes he has a divine responsibility to defend Israel and the Jewish people, calling himself a ‘Judean Warrior of Light’ on his social media accounts that have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers.
But his awakening, then activism, began long before October 7. When he was just seven years old, he was visiting London with his mother and brother and they were kicked off a bus for being Jewish.
“My mom was wearing a shirt that had some Hebrew on it, so the bus driver could tell we were Jews,” said Rochman.
Rochman said many people who may have been oblivious to antisemitism before October 7, or lost their connection to their Jewish identity, have received a similar awakening in the months that have followed.
But while some have been shocked at the levels of antisemitism on campuses around the world, Rochman said things weren’t so different back when he was a student at Columbia University.
“I had typed, ‘number one most antisemitic university in North America’ and Columbia was number one, so I went there on purpose,” said Rochman.
He wanted to support the Jewish community there and founded the Columbia chapter of Students Supporting Israel, which helped redirect the narrative for a while. He has been back on campus since – he has also spent time debating students at Australian universities – to actively engage with the anti-Israel movement.
“When I’m meeting an antisemite, it might the first time in their life meeting a Jew,” he said.
“In that moment I look at it as we each have a responsibility to elevate the situation and to help the person to heal.
“Every opportunity we have to bring light where there is darkness is an opportunity that we must take.”
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