This week’s guest on “Wine with Adam” is social-media whiz and Ynet journalist Emily Schrader. Together, they drink the Spring River White Blend from the Gush Etzion winery.
Her journey
Schrader and Bellos discussed her journey from a trained figure skater—a hobby she pursued into college, to social-media activist and then to her current pursuit as a journalist.
Schrader remarked that when she was young, she didn’t take too much interest in Israel. She became involved in Israel advocacy while doing her undergrad at the University of Southern California, when she saw “random white students who mostly were in the Communist club that were obsessing over Israel.”
She added: ” It was the apartheid week and the apartheid wall that really led me to, I guess, be mad enough to do something.”
StandWithUS
Now the CEO of SocialLite Creative, a social-media consulting and strategy company, Schrader first became known by building up the social media of one of the most powerful pro-Israel platforms: StandWithUs.
She also built their Arabic social media, as she was passionate about getting the message across in languages other than English. She continues to pursue this path by publishing stories about Iran in Farsi.
Journalism and human-rights activism
Schrader has recently turned towards journalism and activism again, this time with a focus on human-rights violations being committed by China, Russia and Iran.
Particularly passionate about women’s rights in Iran and Afghanistan, she is critical of Biden’s foreign policy and Democratic support of the Iranian regime. She suspects it has something to do with shady lobbying in Washington being done on behalf of the regime.
Americanization of the Middle East
Unfortunately, she says, “The average American is not aware” of the true evil of the Iranian regime. Speaking of the inability of the West to understand Iran, she notes that “it’s been Americanized. They’re looking at other conflicts through the lens of what the American political debates are. And you can’t do that when it comes to the Middle East. You can’t do that when it comes to Iran. It’s not that simple. It’s not the same as you know, a woman being paid less than a man. It is an entire system of gender apartheid designed to oppress and discriminate against girls and women.”
Currently, Schrader has been making efforts to educate people all over the world regarding the evils of the Iranian regime and how it must be stopped.
Treatment for MS
A little-known fact about Schrader is her harrowing experience of going through an innovative treatment for multiple sclerosis. Emily underwent treatment for a month in Mexico and has seen amazing results, with the disease completely halted.
Asked whether it affected her work during the time, she said that due to Hamas firing rockets at Israel, she needed to work. Working in social media is both good and bad, she said. Good in “that you know what’s going on” and bad in “that sometimes, it’s important to turn off. And I didn’t really have that.”
“Wine with Adam” airs biweekly on JNS TV Youtube Channel, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
