AMIT Update and National Event Preview on JM in the AM

JM and the am on a Monday and our good friend Andy Goldmith is with us live via telephone. I was mentioning earlier knowing that Andy was coming on how amazing our show was in April and we got to meet so many amazing personalities and actually the highlight may have been just actually being in that building in Stay Road that amazing Amit school that they built. We hear about the Amid schools and the network of schools and the activities that are constantly going on and the adjustments that need to be made especially during wartime which we've talked about multiple times on the air. But when you see it, when you just see one of their facilities up close and personal, uh you see just uh how incredible an investment one is making when they're supporting the AMET network of schools. They have an event coming up, by the way, on the 9th of November in New York City. We're going to be talking about that. And this is just uh one of the events that's going on because they have events that are happening in Philadelphia and Boston and Jerusalem, whole host of places. Chicago, Bokeh, whole host of places that are going to be um encouraging people to support the great work of Amit. Executive vice president of Amit is Andy Goldmith. pleasure to welcome you back to JM and the AM. >> No, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I I have to tell you something that this show is such a sense of community I think for all of us or every listener including myself. I'm a regular listener long as a as an occasional guest. >> And I think especially now where everyone is uneasy at best and nervous, you know, our our enemies have been very very successful in making us feel like the other and making us feel like we do not belong uh that that they're the good guys and and we're the bad guys. And I think any way that we can come together as a community, whether it's a virtual community on the radio, um, which is really worldwide, or a smaller community like we have in the MIT world, I think it's, uh, I think it's a wonderful thing. Really a wonderful thing. >> I appreciate that very, very much. I wish all the disunityity was only coming from the outside. I think within our larger community, we also need to um, pay more attention uh, to that very concept. But yes, uh what you're saying is so important, so critical, and now with the atmosphere that we have now in this world, boy oh boy, uh we need community more than ever. That's uh an understatement. You know, I um I was thinking the other day because many of us have friends and relatives in Israel and thank God the school year back at, you know, last month got off to a relatively normal start. But I'm not sure I have all my, you know, dates and uh and um you know, events completely straight to remember whether there had to be any days off from school or not in September. Uh but it must be an amazing feeling for your colleagues in Israel to at least have what seems to be uh a majority of normaly uh school that can function. kids and families that could take advantage of their community schools. Uh teachers that don't have to, you know, essentially that don't have to have, you know, immediate worry about what might be coming around the corner. Am I right about this? Is there a great sigh of relief with the people that you speak to on a regular basis? >> It it's certainly better. I don't think it's 100% there yet. Keep in mind that many many many uh are still serving on Millim. there are many reserves there and and we're still losing soldiers. You know, there's still this this quasi time that we're in. You know, I I I think we all hoped that that hostages coming home would be a national capus, right? >> You know, that we would have this moment of celebration and then it would be over and it would be better and we would be fixed. And the truth is it it was it certainly was a piece of that. God barem, they came home. But we're not there yet. Um, and a couple of things to remember. First of all, there's still this kind of time we're in, which we don't really understand. Let's let's be frank about it. There's still a lot of scary things that are out there. Yeah. >> Um, a lot of people aren't coming home. There are going there are thousands of wounded soldiers and broken families. I think the best thing for us in terms of the schools that yes, we're able to operate almost normally. Um, and also the, like you mentioned, the immediate trauma of having to go to a shelter every night or three times a night or in the middle of a day is less than it was. And and the great thing about that, that allows us to really begin a healing process with our students. I I think we get as about as good as you possibly could have done during the war, during the two period, two years of the war. Um, you know, you saw for yourself, your listeners were there, you saw the programs that we do and we're still doing. Um, but now I think uh when the rubber hits the road is is what's next. And I'll tell you just from personal experience a couple of weeks ago a week ago in my show I lost a very good friend. His name is Arthur Fischer. He sat next to me in Shaw for 27 years. Um, and just out of the blue he had a heart attack and passed away. Lovely person really salted earth kind of person. And you see people's reaction when there's a sudden loss. You know immediately people everyone wants to help. Everybody wants to do something. But then as time goes on, you know, that shock wears off and the people who want to help kind of disappear into the background and there are fewer and fewer people there. I I think what's different about our mission certainly in the communities that you see that we are um a part of is that we were there before the war. We were there during the war and we are going to be there until until forever. You know, it doesn't end with us. when you're raising children like we do, you raise them until adulthood and then you enjoy uh the fruits of your labor. That's kind of where we are right now with the students. >> Well, um first of all, I'm glad that you took my tremendous optimism and gave it a little bit of a reality because I think you're right. I think it's a mixed bag. Uh all the the the the good things, the sigh of relief to getting back to normaly exists. Thank God. But at the same time, as you point out, there's so many families that are continue to be broken, so many soldiers and others that are continuing to be injured and in rehab and um and both families and communities continue to suffer for those reasons and others in Israel. So, I think you're right, it's a mixed bag and it's important to keep that in mind. Um you have gone ahead and announced many many major events are going to be happening over the next few weeks including Sunday November the 9th something called extraordinary times extraordinary leaders am meets 2025 national event again it's happening on November the 9th it's going to be at the Museum of Jewish Heritage downtown New York City and why don't you tell us about this tell us about why this is such an important event and tell us about some of the people you're going to be recognizing that evening >> well I'll tell you I I was utterly wrong about this. I thought that after co you know people were done with events. Um you know people had people were doing virtual events. No one was going to come out again. And what I what I've seen is actually the exact opposite. Um you know November we we don't have time to to have a cup of coffee in November. We've got events happening all over the place. Um and I think the important part of it is people want to come and they want to get together. They want to be with other Zionists and they want to feel good about it. You know, they want to feel good and that's what we do. Um really at the events that we're having um uh you know years ago and probably still today there there are some organizations that have dinners that really border on cruel and unusual punishments. You know, you charge people a lot of money. You put them in a room and you make them listen to, you know, 40 or 50 speeches that nobody wants to hear. Um and it's it's just mean. I mean, it's really mean. Um so so we don't do that at all. um our our program programs are are totally different. They're like the the way we try to educate our students. You want the student to want to learn the lesson. We want our people to want to be in the room. Um so we design our programs entirely differently. They become um shows and moments where people can come together and celebrate that that what we've done. Um so we have we we we have five events major events coming up. first begin um in New York and Philadelphia uh at Twin Cities on November 9th. um really extraordinary extraordinary evening and and the reason it is is you know as I mentioned we've been made to feel like the other here and I felt it was important to bring in someone uh who wasn't typical um from the United States who was able to say that no Israel are the good guys here you know you're right um so we were able through a really happy happy circumstance to make a connection with General Michael Krill now that's not a name people are going most people are not going to recognize He was the commander of US Central Command. Now, if you remember in April and in June and October that when the Iranians launched their hundreds of missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, it was a very absolutely frightening time. I think it was the first time someone in the audience may may correct me on this where US forces actually actively defended um Israel. Israel actively defended not I'm not talking about diplomatically or economically. Um and you know under his command they shot down something like 300 incoming projectiles many many times and he just retired a month ago. He's a four-star general. He's going to come he's going to he's going to be with our people. He's going to speak. Um we also also bringing in you know wonderful kids. One of the films that we created uh talks about the Israeli Air Force's reaction during the war and we're bringing in our Amit students who were pilots during the Iran war. our AMIT students who were the mechanics for the planes during the Iran war. Our Amit students who were the cooks of the air bases in the war really to show the breadth of the Amit network. Um so those kids are coming in and they're not kids but to me they're kids but they're not kids. They're in their low 20s. Um and and we made a film about them about what they did and how they did and how the amid values that they learned um really were put forward in in the greatest test possible which is which is combat. So that's going to be an extraordinary moment for us. We have some great people that we're honoring. Uh Norma Holtzer, who many in the audience know, uh Norma is the first lady of Amit. She was our uh 17th president. Um uh and and she really is just an extraordinary person. I'm sure many people in the audience know who she is. Um I I call her our first lady. She is the president's president. So, she's going to be one of the honores. Daniel and Alana Miller are going to be joining us as a as honores as well. really wonderful people. Daniel introduced us to the idea of Bitcoin. We had no idea what it was until he called us up one day and said, "Hey, you guys should be taking this uh" and really got in our faces in the best way about it and really changed the way we do business. Um and then finally, we're going to be recognizing Shellisra. Um as you know, we're building this incredible campus on Karbacha. It's the biggest project that we've ever ever done, the Gable and Strauss family campus on Clarbacha. It's a $70 million project and the Sakra Foundation is dedicating the athletic center. So, we're going to recognize them that night. So, it's going to be a great night, but it's not going to be boring. It's going to be fun. It's going to be meaningful. It's going to be moving. Um, and that's just in New York. Then, we've got events going on uh following um we have Chicago on November 12th. We're honoring the Galiva chapter there. On Sunday, November 16th, uh we have our Boston chapter honoring Lindy and Brian Lieberman. And then finally, and this is a new one on the board for us. We never had this before. On Thanksgiving Day, November 27th, we're actually having an event in USA. >> Wow. >> We're having a Thanksgiving Day event. Yeah, this is amazing. Honoring Yafi Schmidman, who's our former one of our former Yoshvet Ro. I think I got the grammar wrong on that, but someone will correct me on that. Um, and that's amazing because a lot of AMIT alumni, people who are involved with us in America, I don't mean student alumni, I mean our supporter alumni, they make aliyah, you know, it's it's a very common thing. And for me, it's very mixed emotions when they do that because on one hand, yes, they're realizing their dream, but on the other hand, I lose a really good supporter. You know, it's really a problem. It's a problem. You know, it's like it's like like it's like when people's kids make aliyah, you're like proud of them because they've adopted your values. On the other hand, wait a minute, you're taking my grandchildren to Israel. I don't like that. All right. >> The the old the old we wanted them to be Zionist, but not this much Zionist. >> Yes. Exactly. Like march in the Israel Day parade, but but you know, go for go for Russashana, but don't go forever. But okay, I get it. Um, so but some of our supporters there said, "Hey, we want to come together and even though we live in Israel and we're paying these taxes and and we're doing, you know, we're living we're living it, we want to be supportive of the organization." So, you know, we're going to have actually in the invol on Thanksgiving Day, uh, we're going to have an event. I I was trying to explain to the to the chef at the invol American Thanksgiving looks like. Um, you know, I think we're going to end up with like tina flavored stuffing and the like, but it it might be it's going to be interesting. There's no way he's making turkey. >> He's making turkey. They're making turkey, but you know, the side dishes weren't so easy. We wanted like classic American side. Tell >> him to open up a can of cranberry sauce. All right. >> That's what I did. I was like, you know, pumpkin. And he was like, what do you mean? So, I think he was making like an eggplant hummus thing. I don't know. We're going to find out. Um but but it's it's really this opportunity for people around the country to come together to be with people who love Israel to learn about it in a different way. Um but also to be supportive and and it's like you said um a few moments ago, you know, we we hear the success stories. Those are the things that are the little videos, you know, where the soldiers dancing and the you know, and those moments of real heroism where people's spirit overcomes the worst conditions. But what we don't see because it's not on LinkedIn are the stories of of broken families. This was a horrible horrible war, okay, with people have lost careers. They have lost marriages have been broken. Families have been broken. We're going to be there. Amid is going to be there for every single one of our 42,000 students. We were there during the war. We're going to be there long after. But it's going to take years and years for us to recover. There's no question about it. >> Is that the number? 40 42,000 is the number. >> Yeah, this year I think we're I I think it been a little bit more. It's 42,300 and something, but I I just want to round it round it round it down so I don't make a mistake. You know, it always it changes a little bit because students are always moving around. >> Um you know, but that's it's an incredible number of students. The challenges are real, you know, but we've been around a hundred years. It's not our first, second, or third war. This one is just different. This one is just you never had a war like this where the home front was so impacted, where it was so long. Um, you know, we're really in new territory, but we're up to the challenge. >> Yeah. Well, 42,000 is I mean, I was I was making the point of how incredibly large and amazing that number is. uh Amit uh invites everyone to celebrate all of this and to support an amazing cause at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Sunday, November the 9th, where Norma Holtzer, as you mentioned, will be receiving the Keter Shanetove award where General Michael Carrillo is going to be um the guest speaker for that night. And um in addition, as you heard, Elana and Daniel Miller, uh Shala Saffra, all being honored that evening as well. Information on meet.org meetild.org or and um I I assume that's the best place where people can get information, right, Andy? >> Yeah, absolutely. And I'll tell you one more fun thing because, you know, we want it to be enjoyable, too. We're building this huge campus in Farbox to the Gable and Strauss campus, right? And I really wanted to get an architectural model of the campus to display at the dinner, but it was just too much money uh to to create that model. So, we actually one of my staff came up with this great idea. Let's do it cake boss style. All right. So, we actually have Strauss Bakery, I think, is creating a scale model of the campus made out of cake. >> All right. Made out of cake. Look, I mean, that's fun. You know, we need a little bit of fun. You know, we need a little bit of that. So, it's going to be it's going to be a great night. I hope people can come out and be supportive. Normal is worthy of support. Fantastic person. Um, and if you can't join us in New York, join us somewhere else. You know, it's atchildren.org. Come join us for the evening. There'll be some nice surprises along the way. And and really, let's take a moment to to thank ourselves. You know, the the amazing part of this war was how the American Jewish community just didn't stop giving. And I don't just mean giving money. A lot of money was sent to Israel, but to Fila, the events, the the the the learning that was done. I mean, we really stood up to it. And and I think when our kids ask, you know, what did you do during the war? I think we can be really proud of how we answered. We did stuff. We did meaningful things. We didn't just go on. It wasn't business as usual for us. And we want to take that moment to to really thank ourselves, to pat our donors and say thank you for being there. Um and we move forward together. >> National event in New York happens November 9th. A Philly event is November 9th. The um Chicago Gala is November the 12th. New England, Boston, etc. November the 16th. As you heard Andy say, Jerusalem on Thanksgiving Day. And there'll be a lot of our listeners in Urus Lion on Thanksgiving for that weekend. So try to uh coordinate with our friends at Amit. You could be part of a really nice celebration. I'm sure it'll be incredible. I meet.org. I meet.org. And one of the other takeaways from this conversation meet now takes Bitcoin. Right Andy? Amit takes Bitcoin. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Daniel Miller. Call him >> off the air. You'll explain to me or have Daniel explain to me what that means. and and and why it's beneficial, but it sounds like it's a good expansion. It sounds like it's a good idea for an active organization to have. And as I said a million times before, because we've spoken god knows how many times in the last 10 years about a meet and certainly while we were in Israel together, it is not easy, Andy, to make schools and a network of schools an attractive uh an attractive cause to support. Ask anybody who tries to find support for their own day schools and high schools, you know, in the yeshiva league. Not a criticism, just a reality. Uh so what you've done uh incorporating people from all around the world, especially here in the United States, to be supporters of Amit and to take seriously the mission that uh everybody at Amit in Israel is on is pretty remarkable. So Kakode and I hope the event November 9th and all the others go really well. >> Thank you, Malcolm. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> More coming up. If you're listening to JM in the AM,