Today we’d like to introduce you to Boaz Hepner.
Boaz, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m an RN with 2 kids, and I lived through COVID where I observed the world turn science, medicine and vaccines into a dirty game of politics and mistrust. I saw just as much ignorance in my coworkers as I did the general public, because everyone goes to the University of TikTok these days. Yet our patients expected us to have the answers. Having access to publish whatever I’d like for The Jewish Journal (the largest Jewish publication in America) I was motivated to help educate myself and the community at large.
I did an expansive interview with someone from infection control in my hospital, who was former CDC. This interview went viral, and meant many people were contacting me for answers they assumed I’d know:
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/blogs/312890/a-conversation-about-the-pandemic-with-an-epidemiologist-and-infection-control-specialist/
Before long, I was the defacto COVID educator for my hospital in Santa Monica, and interviewed David Agus in another widely read (dare I say viral) article:
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/332055/understanding-the-covid-19-vaccines-an-interview-with-dr-david-agus/
Award-winning LA Times journalist Steve Lopez interviewed me in a wonderful profile, a decade after he did the same thing about my civic efforts:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-08/column-covid-vaccine-la-nurse-answers
And
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jan-19-la-me-lopez20-2010jan20-story.html
Cut to October 7, 2023, I watched as Israel was attacked in the most reprehensible ways by the officially designated terrorist organization Hamas, with civilians targeted, murdered, raped, mutilated, and taken hostage (in no particular order). The Jewish community expected a worldwide outcry, and severe condemnation from all human rights organizations, especially given the violent sexual assaults, but most organizations, and most of the world fell deafeningly silent. I then realized that the same thing I witnessed during COVID – the gross politicization of health, viruses and treatments – was now equally politicized. It hardly seemed to matter that it had been the most violent and deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust. So I wrote this article, about confirmation bias and social media algorithms, demonstrating how the left and right are equally vulnerable to the patterns:
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/blogs/364280/how-social-media-poisons-the-discourse-about-israel-and-so-much-more/
I then decided that I would fix things. And the Jewish Journal created an entire SECTION around my efforts, which David Suissa cleverly named “Chosen Links by Boaz Hepner”
https://jewishjournal.com/tag/chosen-links/
In it, I would gather people who were from both sides of the echo chambers – the left and the right. I would remove the extreme views, and share helpful articles, videos and profiles for people on BOTH sides, to try to break through those social media algorithms. It was working.
An article was written about my efforts by Tabby Refael:
https://jewishjournal.com/community/369900/how-a-set-of-chosen-links-may-offer-more-positive-content-about-israel/
In April of 2024, after many people asked for interviews, and I had to explain that I’m not paid for ANY of my efforts (it’s time I donate as my advocacy), I finally decided to interview not one but SEVERAL people at the same time, in an effort to show people having productive conversations, to the same goal and effect as my section of Chosen Links. To get through the echo chambers and social media algorithms. And this was born:
https://www.youtube.com/@boazhepner
Instagram reels became a huge source of education, often being viewed tens of thousands of times, and attracting people as wide ranging as Tiffany Haddish and the heads of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
I now have focused on my show, gathering 5-14 guests once a month, to focus not on where we diverge, but rather where we agree. It’s been wonderful, and I have episodes planned the next several years, focusing on topics both about health and antisemitism. Always with people from both sides, never with the extremists on either.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t have a huge following, so finding people with no resources other than myself, and with no budget, has been a challenge. People see my profile, and clearly it’s not big. But at this point, when anyone sees me, they see the quality and quantity of my efforts, and they want to join 9/10 times. However, it’s still a challenge reaching the big ones in the first place, and I so appreciate when people hear about me organically.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a Registered Nurse in Santa Monica. I’m very proud of dedicating my life to taking care of my patients week after week. My interest was never in diagnostics, like the incredible doctors of my family, but rather the actual hands-on patient care. That’s where I excel. I may not be the best at inserting IVs (I’m actually quite terrible at that!) but you won’t find a better bedside nurse when it comes to the education and care that the patients are there for. I’ll sometimes work 6 long shifts in a row, if it means I can provide a continuity of care that they so rarely receive.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love that within 20 minutes on a no-traffic Sunday we can get downtown, to hikes in the hills, to the beaches, to the valley, or to the airport. It’s got it all. And I love movies, so this is my town.
The annual fire season is beyond tiring, it’s become devastating. For so many. And it’s simply not affordable to have a family here for most of us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jewishjournal.com/tag/chosen-links/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hepner.boaz/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boazhepner
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boaz-hepner-a6878734/
- Twitter: https://x.com/boazhepner
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@boazhepner
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=itdYtaRdK-ha5nSqC-50Tg
- Other: https://www.threads.net/@hepner.boaz
