Pascucci Caps Israel Trip At International Human Rights Organization with Founder Rabbi Marvin Hier
LOS ANGELES, CA – This week, Christina Pascucci, broadcast journalist, war correspondent, and candidate for U.S. Senate traveled throughout Israel as part of a humanitarian mission. During the trip, she discussed the war with officials from the Israeli government, comforted the families of Israeli hostages, brought gifts to injured children in the country’s biggest hospital, toured military facilities and the sites of massacres. Amidst the scars of trauma, she arranged a meeting between a major Jewish faith leader and a Palestinian organization that had been teaching math and science to children in Gaza before the war.
On Friday morning, Christina Pascucci will cap her mission with a private meeting in Los Angeles on her work in Israel with Rabbi Marvin Hier, a world renowned Jewish faith leader and founder of the Museum of Tolerance and of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organization.
“I witnessed firsthand the brutality perpetuated by terrorists and saw how innocent lives have been destroyed in response,” said Christina Pascucci, candidate for the U.S. Senate.
Christina, whose own grandmother had to hide her Judaism to survive the Holocaust, has worked in refugee camps and reported from war zones around the world. Pascucci (D-Calif) was invited by a group of 30 Rabbis from across California and the world who provided solace to those in pain and funds for damaged towns to rebuild.
“Drawing from her own family story, Christina Pascucci brought critical insight to our humanitarian mission in Israel,” said Rabbi Chaim Mentz, Chabad of Bel Air. “We saw Christina’s courage, compassion, and ability to connect with people in full force as she brought comfort to the families of Israeli hostages.”
220 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas, and the victims’ loved ones are agonizing for their safe return. Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian lives have been lost since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and the Israeli officials vowed to rid Gaza of Hamas in response.
Pascucci’s training as a war correspondent allowed her to connect with the innocent Israeli and Palestinian families forever scarred by the ongoing war. Her conversations with Palestinians during her trip shined a light on their experience and what they believe would be the eventual path to lasting peace.
Among them was with a Palestinian group of educators who had taught STEM to children in Gaza so that they may find economic opportunity, which the group sees as a path toward lasting peace.
“The consequences of disenfranchisement and joblessness are evident – a vulnerability that terrorist groups like Hamas exploit,” said Pascucci. “To ensure lasting peace, once this war ends, we must empower Palestinian children, steering them towards a future of economic prosperity and opportunity.”
38-year-old Pascucci, who launched her candidacy to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) on October 18, is no stranger to war zones. The veteran former journalist has reported from the frontlines of the Ukrainian War, she traveled to Armenia in 2022 just as violence broke out on the border region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and has also reported from refugee camps where asylum seekers gathered in Mexico.
