Touring group aims to use VR to address antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment

LANSING Mich. (WLNS) – Caught in the chaos of the horrific attack on October 7th in Israel, a group is using virtual reality to show students what they witnessed to spark change.

A touring program stopped at Michigan State University Tuesday night with the purpose of addressing anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism. It’s called “Survived To Tell,” and it is a virtual reality viewing of the October 7th attacks.

6 News spoke with 2 sisters, Sapir and Shir Golan, who were at the Nova Peace Festival when Hamas invaded the event.

“All I can see is dead bodies, burned bodies, burned cars, burned fields,” Sapir said.

Shir said she couldn’t believe she survived. She buried herself in the ground under bushes, but many people around her who were hiding the same way did not make it.

“I just started to pray to God, I just told him ‘Please God, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die,'” Shir said.

The sisters told 6 News people were dying left and right.

“While we run there is shots, so people get hurt and fall while we are running,” Shir said.

Shir said she lost her friends in the chaos and never saw them again. She showed pictures of the ones she lost.

“It’s really important to me that people know them because I think that’s all I have left. Just people to know them, and that they were great people,” Shir said.

Sapir said as she was running through the woods that day she tried to help a woman who was out of breath, but…

“As I give her the bottle of water her hand touches mine, and she got shot in the head and just fell on the ground,” Shir said.

The 2 said since that day it feels like people are more open to sharing hate towards Israel online.

The group Israel-Is created “Survived to Tell—Be the Witness” to show people that day and start a conversation. Israel-Is global coordinator, Aviv Kurnas, explained what the event at MSU will look like.

“It gives you an immersive experience of 5 different testimonies of October 7th—where you actually feel like you’re walking with the heroes of that day with their story,” Kurnas said.

The virtual reality brings you into the scene, abandoned cars, rockets, people hiding. Those involved with the project say they want students to see that the people in Israel are just like everyone else—human.

“We see on college campuses in the last 11 months, rallies and anti-Israel statements. And we understand that Israel is not perfect, but obviously we want to go back to that day and say ‘Why are we in this in the first place?’ And what did the people who went through this suffered,” Kurnas said.

The virtual reality was at MSU for one night. It’s a tour that will end up covering 40 college campuses across 25 states.

“No one wants to die, no one wants the war here,” Shir said.

“You can’t take a position by hearing one side. Hear both sides, listen, and then decide,” Sapir said.

The tour will head to the University of Michigan next.

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