Amudim - Unite To Heal 4

foreign hello um yeah I mean who they gatherer and I'm here with um my good friend rev Maisha yarmesh the famous legendary photographer of great urbanic leaders gedalia estrell and I want to thank you amudim for the great opportunity to be back here at the special amudum event it's great to be back for a second year and if I move them invited us back for a second here then I guess uh it's it's an even more cause for excitement and it's really a privilege to be here together with the photographer Legend Moshi Amish uh for about the segment behind the camera part 2.0 so we had part one last year which was very well received and um it's still archived on the amodium website I believe so if you remembered from last year and liked it or if you're curious about it we had some fantastic stories about these really amazing picture years in the history and the personalities associated with them um and uh we're here for part two it's mostly new material there's a couple of personalities who might be familiar from last year but there's news stories a new angle and mostly new person mostly new good dailies throughout all together uh the stories and history behind these historic pictures of great rabbinical leaders is something that can be seen through pictures the the cliche goes a picture is worth a thousand words and it's not just a cliche it's actually true and it's worth far more than a thousand words so I'm happy to that you'll join us here amihudi geber a story and tour guide and host of the Jewish history sound bites podcast together with um legendary good Island photographer Moshi yarmish and we're all happy that you're here to join us on behalf of as we embark on a photographic and historical exciting journey together so what we're going to do is the the pictures which are worth more than a thousand words because they form a historical record they are able to tell a story they make it more alive more relevant they give it context and the there's all kinds of associations with each picture and it adds so much more color than any text in the world could and that's why it's so it's so much better to tell a story through a picture why so that's the answer why we're doing with pictures instead of just reading a text but why Emoji Amish that's that's the next question because there's many people who have photographed uh great rabbis great Torah leaders great Goodell Israel over the years but there's a certain uniqueness to the images that you have captured especially in the pre-digital age I think that's what's most important about your work um in that it was it was more focused and it was more um you know you you you I remember you describing last year about how you'd go out on specific Journeys to obtain certain pictures at certain moments and therefore your stories more than others perhaps have an even more exciting and fun story to tell so I think uh we're ready to go um and we'll we'll go right ahead with the first picture so let's start with um this picture uh rabba Victor Miller one of the greatest rabbinical leaders rabbis uh uh in the United States scene over the 20th century lived a long and fruitful life and uh he his popularity seems to grow following his passing as so many people listen to his audio uh lectures on every conceivable topic the man was a genius who literally covered every facet of of both Torah and the scientific and general knowledge so what do you what can you tell us about the picture that you took here okay uh Victor Miller um there happened to be a hypnosis safety Torah um I think it was given to his sons Yeshiva shmuel Miller he used to have a son uh who passed away I think during covert recently but um it was written uh they were writing it in the house by somebody by the name Feldman it happened to be uh on right here in Flatbush and he it's interesting because he used to walk a lot um his Yeshiva was I mean he was like I think on the Avenue R in Ocean Parkway and I think he used to walk almost every single day like miles he was like I think the destination was pretty much his son's uh his where his son used to live which was pretty much close to like a mile away and there was many pictures I'm not the only one who took pictures of him on the street there were many people on Avenue J and Flatbush I don't know if these are familiar with people who are listening um you would see him many times just walking the streets he would uh you know he would take a long leisurely walk is picked as a famous picture of him looking at there used to be a um a New York Times uh stands on on one of these corners and he select there's a picture of him like bending down even just to see the latest uh whatever but he he had to take a tremendous amount of a lot a lot of walking it happens to be that he was coming from the sapna cemetery where he rode an ice into the secretary and he was just walking to wherever he he was walking to I captured his uh you know walking on the street he happened to put his hand up it looks like he was like waving to me it wasn't I just happened to capture the moment and uh this picture has been very you know wildly popular for a Victor Miller fans it's just you know it's colorful it's nice he's smiling it's outside it's just uh uh it was so cool one of the best sellers what can I say yeah and I can see why also you know a few things you said um especially the last thing about his smile he was in many ways a very serious individual he took things and topics very seriously and when you hear him speak um he has a very you know a certain intensity to him um and and not to make light of things see everything was a topic was a Sergio was something to dissect and uh and analyze and therefore to get that lightness to him to that smile that warmth which brings out the other side of his personality because he was an incredibly fatherly individual like I emphasized um although he did serve as a Yeshiva in feimbledon for about two decades for close to 20 years for most of his life he was a Pulpit Rabbi he was Rabbi in Chelsea Massachusetts for a couple of years and then for many many years in Brooklyn rugby and then in Flatbush um and he was a leader of of people of families of of and he built them up so this is someone who who definitely had us you know much warmth and much of a smile to him and to be able to get that on on cameras uh that's that's what I like best about the picture also about The Walking the thing the other thing you said also you know it resonated with me was the walking he's someone who was somewhat known for his walks both because he put such an emphasis on a health aspect of it about his exercise and how important it is and be out in the fresh air and he made his life's mission to live the shahina of the looking around the world around us the natural world the physical world the animal kingdom the the you know the astronomy then a place of Iran to look in and see God and and see everything about it the the maraboom Hashem and he saw it in this simplest things so even on his daily walks he talked about sunlight and air and water the things that we really take for granted and you know not just uh how an ant builds a colony on the ground um and and but beyond that he was a student of slovakka he was someone who grew up in Baltimore um went to New York to learn in Yeshiva serbians which became Yeshiva College University at the time he was there and then he gets exposed to her of Isaac's Cher it was the rashivan slavatka and he comes to fundraise in the United States during the interwar period and her original gets enraptured by him and goes on a boat and he's off this American Boy to learn in Lithuania and slavatsuki stays there for six seven years becomes an incredible student there very close to their basic share and he personified the Godless Adam the greatness of man the aristocracy that nobility of character and bearing of sabadka throughout his life and that also comes across in the picture and it's also related to his walks because supposedly this story is true I didn't actually check you know this specific one but it really matches his personality but he was once asked if he was if he had if he one day he he was be brought back to life for one hour after having seen the world of Truth and seeing where what what goes on in the next world he had one hour to be back in this world what would he util how would he utilize his time would he would he study Torah would he Davin would he study Musser like a real Mr Thomas what would he how would he use that hour and supposedly the answer he gave was it really depends if it was uh seven o'clock in the morning I would be dominating if it was eight o'clock in the morning I would be eating breakfast if it would be at this and this time I would be taking my walk and if it would be at this and this time I would be learning in the basement and he basically was conveying that he believed that his life was so in order and so scheduled and he had worked it out that he's doing the right thing at any given moment that everything he was doing was Hashem everything he was doing was the right thing to be done at that moment he never wasted a moment and therefore his walk down Ocean Parkway that you described and captured in this picture is the same Avada sashem as far as he was concerned as his learning in the base measures I think that's uh what's brought out as well in in this picture very true let's move to number two this picture of RAF Palm was taken um Purim 1987. um although the picture looks like he was posing for me for a picture it really wasn't it was as they say I captured the moments um interesting thing about this picture is um many years after I took the picture turbidas in um honored of palm and he was like the guest of honor and this picture was on every single Lamppost in Flappers all over the place and he was like whatever it I I got a lot of grief from it about uh whatever um you know he was he was very very uncomfortable not because he didn't like a picture because it just you know he didn't like you know his picture all over the place play us little over the place uh this picture was uh chuvu uses this picture as you know because she was representative Palm so they they almost like so-called inherited this picture but no I took the picture it was taken on part of 1987 um we I learned by your palm forum uh six or seven years but um when I uh I guess but this was you know in his clay for every poem for his class he would you know they have like a little masiba and uh across the street from the Yeshiva in the basement cotton as it was called uh or the the the the elementary school I'm sorry and um look this picture captures who ref Palm was always with a smile always I mean whoever remembers is the glasses and the smile and and and this was in his good years you know you know later on he was like you know well what happens hey look but this was Palm as they say potato fight was I mean his his Essence his kindness and everything you know comes through in this picture and I'm sure you can you give a little historical uh thing was before the start of the thing he he he was describing it he was essentially your rebbe but uh yeah I learned her upon asked me her Palm I learned by him the size of two or three years that I learned a year there by him I used to go to his homosphere and I recorded for six or seven years I used to drive him all the time so I guess you want to call it I'm over at home yes so beyond this Beyond this as they're taking it as your hobby is taking pictures of everyone every guttle this is much more personal this is someone who felt personally connected with and and to have captured it you know that like you said the essence is is much more powerful in a personal way than just uh in an abstract way of getting another good shot of of a great man yeah so I mean yes I was very closer at Palm um in Yeshiva every single day with him so it's I happen to catch the capture this picture but yes I was very close it wasn't like my other pictures where I happened to be a Paparazzi and I happened to capture the moment this was you know every day I saw a poem you know so you you were still like this was when you were still younger you said you were by his Purim student you were like I mean this before you you were taking because this is probably one of your earliest ones before you're taking it um not the earliest ones I would say I started taking pictures in the era uh in the late 70s with a little camera I was like a little kid um and then and this was like more like around 10 years later when I was like so called an adult this is before I was married but uh I got married in 1991 so this is 1987. I was uh you know I didn't get married very young but I was a good you know 20 something years old amazing now um first of all is that's his full name um he actually was very proud of it that he had a Eucharist as a Canadian he said that um his parents his father had a um the lineage of of of their accurate good family of kahuna all the way back down okay which was lost during World War One unfortunately but we take his word for it so he was he was you know he had that real yes of a kind um he again that radiant face that it's it's it's it's it's really it's an incredible to capture an image like that and and that light on camera because so many people described him like that so many of us tell me to described him like that and here you see it and if I'm not mistaken it wasn't just used for shubu it was also used on his biography it was used on his biography it was used in shuvu it was used Rabbi uh Sean Smith who wrote the bunch of svarum I think uh odd squirrel translated it or someone I translated it and that was on that cover I mean it became like you know as they say it uh got a life on its own let's go but it was originally mine as they say all right you keep on saying originally I hope you didn't lose out because of that you know went into the public domain yeah whatever you know it is what it is you know some people will be very proud that uh this is the picture that if you want to picture a poem this is the picture of her phone so many 99 of his town leave them have this picture on their wall primarily displayed in various sizes this is who reform was and uh as they say I I've sold many over the years of this particular fixture well why did it you said it caused him grief when they used it in the shubu dinner uh because it was on the lamp post and then it was torn off the Lamppost when you know the garbage man came it it just it became like I don't know he was like a little uncomfortable with it but uh you know he did it for the Yeshiva and the Yeshiva needed for you know to raise the money and then you know he he went with a smile and he you know he didn't really say it but I know that it like irked him a little that uh it was there not that it was my fault but uh you know I guess you know he never he didn't put a two together oh I was the one who gave him the picture that was you know all over the streets but uh you know I just know that that was his personal feeling regarding that particular uh event where it was it was really it was all over the place and so whatever but hopefully I didn't cause him any grief too much down there and I'm sure the the dinner was uh you know fabulously successful so I guess I guess the ending to it right it's interesting because I think that that that brings about another Point um the story of the picture about him not being so comfortable that it was all over the place is that uh that's kind of his part of his biography is that he never wanted to be thrust into the Limelight he was very comfortable being a rebby and Tara vidas to tell me them like you and not acting on the world scene as a world Torah leader and he was almost forced into it he described a phone call that he received from reviakov kamenetsky when rebiaco was getting older and he you know Rebecca was was coaxing him to take an a more active leadership role take more initiative and rupam was very reluctant at first and the Rebecca basically didn't take noon for an answer he hung up the phone on him and he like basically forced him into it and and whatever Palm uh you know he didn't Express resentment he took it on with the full responsibility and it was amazing amazing how he emerged as the public leader during the last two or three decades of his life once rabiakov and other other senior Torah leaders were getting older and so he took it on fully but he was he had this reluctance he he had this Simplicity and modesty he never wore a rabbinic frock he didn't want to be in the Limelight but he did it anyway and here the picture itself you're saying becomes part of that story that that here he needs to be in the Limelight his picture needs to be all over Flatbush in order to help raise funds whatever does and he's even willing that like you said the the garbage tearing it down right he's rarely being torn down for taravadas and he's that's also okay at some level because um you know he understands that that's what needs to be done even if it's it's not the most ideal thing to do and what's even more interesting um is his legacy because here's someone who was so modest and quiet on one hand and so reluctant to be in the Limelight on the other hand and correct me if I'm wrong and this is more contemporary than history so I could be wrong I'm never wrong in history but it could be um that um that rivpum has probably more tell me them than anyone else who have taken active roles in communal leadership of organizations of shuls of yeshivas of national organizations of international Orthodox organizations and uh and and and he he like left and right everywhere you look at their almost almost always are very often Terror with us tell me them and specifically students of rapunz so yeah it's it's incredible I mean someone who is he was so he was so beloved it's it's beyond comprehension they loved him it was it was they misloved them and they they would do anything you know to help him and to make him happy whatever it was uh you know those were and there's a certain thing that when you see a talent or a palm you could tell tell by the person what he does that this you know that he's a Talmer of palm it's just a certain amount of um not aloof just um and the nice guys they're just nice each one mentioned and that's what he incorporated into this only though you know right I mean this is many many many examples of it but you know but uh you could tell that Thomas stands out but you know unique as his product yes amazing okay let's move on to number three here we have the blue jevareba um Ruby straw Spira uh the great and holy rabba of belushive and Galicia he himself lived in lave for many years I gotta say and I said this a lot about a lot of your pictures last year and I think this about a lot of your pictures in general but this is one of my favorites and and and just from everything about it and I I want to elaborate and what you know about the blues and all that but first I want to hear what the when you took the picture how you took the picture I'm just curious because it happens to be that I happen to have a friendly with a few blue see them and they go crazy like I like you know I've taken many many pictures but for some reason I I'm not exactly sure I assume every person has what they like about this picture but they go crazy about this picture tells me he says the way the rabbit's fingers are that's how he has etched in his mind I mean I don't know if you ever saw the blood sugar but this was their memory of him and and the picture it just captures the way they remember him but you're the third person who told me that this is their Fame their their favorite picture um this picture I think was taken in 1986 to 1987 I'm not 100 sure it was taking Hashanah rabba and Hashanah rabba was rather happening for me I would run from one place to another because not everybody was on the same schedule [Music] apparently it was the time that they were uh either it was a shinistan you know going around I don't remember exactly what time was but he was sitting there he was open and I just took the picture and I just it was this one picture that I took and then that was it um I mean I guess you could see I guess from historically I'm sure the yamaka that he's wearing is probably from the banay sauce somebody from his I'm not exactly sure who is from I'm not sure either but it's one of those that you said yeah yeah it's probably one of those um and it's a Chandra Abba as you know as holy of a time as as it is I mean I guess he was taking Kipper but I guess I couldn't actually even Dipper and this as I said before captures who I guess who he was and uh and more than that I can't say like you said it's a great picture and I have to be there to remove it yeah it's really amazing and this is like I'm not even familiar with the whole world Park scene there's like a blues River stable that's where he ran 57th streets or 58th Street between uh 13th and 14th between 14th Avenue a little small stable over there um I mean there's people in my mind is famous because if you remember there's a famous picture of the sapner Rebel black and white pictures somewhere walking down the stairs in Borough Park that was coming out of the blush vegetable it happened to be the Blues [Music] grandsons Pig in haben and the Sam Rebel was there and the famous Harry trained a picture of him walking down the stairs so that was the pleasure of stable I'm not even sure if they're still there maybe they just threw it down and they built something else over there I don't know there's a few blush Barabbas today uh grandchildren whether it's the rivetich or blush if I don't know what they call themselves but that's the shebel that I took the picture in and it was never a big huge one it was never well they have it and they had blissed them whatever they had a hundred people and then it was it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't a very big Jewel and he was happy with that he didn't need he didn't need you know he's happy doing with whatever he was doing he he also was not interested in in you know people running after him whatever he did what he did and not interested in the Fanfare or whatever and uh that's where I captured the picture so it's it's it is amazing I mean he's someone who who passed away at the age of 100 uh two or three years after you took the picture so he lived for a full Century uh the pictures when he's 97 98 something like that and he decides for living through a century he lives through the Jewish 20th century uh which is the most uh momentous and in many ways tragic century and Jewish history and he goes through all that he's someone who probably more than any other famous rabbinic personality went through the war and the Holocaust through six full years he was in Poland he was not in Hungary or any other place so he went in from beginning to end and the Miracle of his life and his rebuilding on a small scale like you said he doesn't make a place of big Meister a lot of his institutions and thousands of us see them in a huge basement but the that rebuilding there's so much to see in that picture itself those sunken eyes and the yarmika of his ancestors or um or whoever it was I always I'll tell you what like personally when I think of this picture is I try to think what is he thinking of what's going through his mind there's something there of this Holiness this concentration what is the you know what's what's what's going through what's going through his mind is his holy mind at this time on ishana rabba uh you know with his Kittle and the Garfield and the talus and it just gives this whole scene he was he was in love at the war's outbreak he goes through the love of ghetto which was a terrible place he's later at the anovska road Camp itoska Road Camp which was you know in in in in Holocaust historiography there are researchers who dislike referring to yanovska as a concentration camp because since so many people were killed there it's not even fair to classify it as a concentration camp they want to reclassify it as a death Center a death camp and not as a gun straight that's how horrible yanovska was and he survives in us he was even on a train to belgius which was a real death camp where no one survived but he was sent back from belgians to sort the clothing of recent victims he was in the furnace of death itself he is then transported to other camps ends up in Bergen Belgium towards the end of the war he went through it from beginning to end not only that he loses his wife and family after the war you mentioned that his children and grandchildren became it was his second marriage he had adopted children he had real children from his second marriage his wife was a Survivor who had lost her husband and her family and and it's like I don't think he had children from a second a second wife it was just the adopted children well yeah it was his wife's children his wife I mean you have to understand I mean he at the wartime you're talking about he was in his 50s right that's another it wasn't a young man yeah most survivors are were either child survivors hidden but most survivors of the games where there are 20s teens 20s maybe 30s and here he was in his mid oldies during the war um and he he somehow survived and uh and some of the greatest uh Holocaust and inspirational Holocaust stories that I relate over to groups in Europe is um is about him um I think yaffa eliaf interviewed him yes yeah the great Holocaust resource Survivor herself she he granted her it was also not a very typical thing a big Hasidic rubber granting Holocaust interviews to a female Holocaust researcher and She interviewed him extensively in other words she sat for several sessions where she went through his whole story with him um she there they are from the most accurate stories and Hasidic tales of the Holocaust which she wrote and some of the other stories in there are a bit questionable but his stories are impeccable they come straight from the blues of Arab his mouth and and of course many many other ones come from his his wife his second Robinson a few in particular that Stand Out by me is when he in yanovska Road Camp he was this sadistic assess one of the things that they did to them there um so at one point they were forced to jump across a ditch and uh and and it was it was it seemed to be physically impossible to jump across us for a healthy man maybe for an Olympic sprinter and here there's people who are starved who are male you know malnutrition diseased beaten tortured broken and they were expected to jump across the Stitch and the they're standing there and anyone who would fall in would be shot and this would there this would be their way of basically carrying out a celexia who's still fit to work because if they're physically able to get across the ditch then then we can keep them for slave labor for a short time longer and the the fellows standing next to the Beluga Redwood before he jumps he says how are we going to make it rather how can we jump we can jump see so they have no idea I don't know how we're going to do it we just have got to try and jump and close our eyes and rely on Hashem and and we'll make it and he like says Shema or he says he says something and he makes the jump the next thing is he opens his eyes and he finds himself on the other side of the ditch he looks around and he sees his partner the one who start off with him also still standing next to him and and and this and this fellow system rabbit how did you do it and he says I closed my eyes and I held on to the coattails of my great ancestors of the two of my father of the tsila Sadiq of the banaya sastra of denim of the night of Legends of all my great sadikum ancestors I held on to their coattails and they schlepped me across and that's how I ended up across correct how did you get across and there's a guy standing next to him says I held on to you that's how I got across yeah and that story is it blows my mind each time because that's Jewish history how do we get across life how do we get across our 2000 year Exile how do we get across the challenges of raising children and of making a living in a collectively as as the Jewish Nation how do we get across history and we did it by holding on to the coattails by we're not letting go of our past not letting go of our ancestors not letting go of our Sadiq as far as his partner is concerned not letting go of of of who are near and dear to us of everything that we come from and we hold so strong onto our past and that gets us across the dish we don't fall into the dish when we hold on so tight and don't let it go well that's a great story there's a um another one it's quite a famous one it was towards the end of the war and when he's in bergen-delsen um and in his in his Barracks a few broken Jews come together they try to light Hanukkah left and Hanukkah candles on the first night of Hanukkah and they they like I think they took either shoe polish or some margarine from their starvation rations and they made a wick out of there out of their sleeve or something and he and and the uh they honor him in lighting this this this wick on the first night of Hanukkah and he recites the first and he recites the second is then he stops and he turns around and he waits a few seconds and he doesn't say anything and then he turns back around and he says the third brother for the first night and they light it and a few minutes later of course they put it out because the SS would come and they're nervous and they and and life goes on and someone approaches the blues of arabis it really is true not affiliated but he knows knows who the rabbit is and he says rabba I respect that you wanted to do a religious act and you wanted to maintain a religious identity because that's preserving our humanity and our identity and our jewishness in these terrible times and the Nazis are trying to dehumanize us and we're showing that we're still alive we can do it so I have no even if I'm irreligious and I don't believe in it I respect that you did it and I'm happy to participate and I even understand how you made those first two blessings you're blessed you're blessing about the Mitzvah you're making Another Blessing about the Nissim the Miracles that were once done to us but how dare you make that third blessing you're happy that we're alive today we're five and a half years into this terrible War we've all lost our families we're gonna get killed we're for sure not gonna survive what are you happy about and the blues whoever tells them I agree with you I did not want to recite this Prophet either I don't think it was appropriate and I turned around and I paused because I knew there was a rabbi of a town in Hungary in our barracks and I wanted to ask him is it even permitted to recite this brother because no one's happy that we're that we're here and alive today just like you said but you know what I saw when I turned around I saw hundreds of pairs of eyes looking at me with anticipation with the historicus with an excitement that even in bergen-belsen even after everything we've been through even after everything we lost we're still waiting to light the Hanukkah candle and I said that's I'm excited to see that the Jewish Spirit has never been crushed and and again that's when I see that I think of this story also um and the last thing is is that you went into a basement borrow Park Boro Park is in New York city in the United States of America he when he grew up and he was in his mid 50s like we said when the war broke out and he grew up in the old world of Galicia the world of the different kind of Sons of the dinner of of of of of the old Galician polish hasidis he never imagined that he would one day be in this Urban American materialistic environment attempting to rebuild the hasidus with a new family he would never have dreamed of it but when he was pulling into a ship New York Harbor in 1946 he was one of the first sort of groups of survivors to arrive as refugees after the war and he comes into New York Harbor and he's standing on the deck alone with just a shirt on his back no money no family no anything as someone who had a community of hasidim before the war someone who had so much and lost everything lost literally everything it can't even be described how much he lost and there's an American sailor a non-jewish sailor who's standing on the deck and he says to him Rabbi you see that's the Statue of Liberty and there's that's a that's that's a welcoming to all immigrants to refugees there's even a poem authored by a Jewish woman Emma Lazarus at the pedestal of of the Statue of Liberty give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to be free and so on and uh you're welcome here Rabbi you can start again with everything you it was destroyed in your life you can start again in the United States and the belugiver starts to cry and he says Thank you Mr Saylor for welcoming there's one place in the world that will allow Jews to come that will welcome Jews in but I have to make one correction huddled masses there are no huddled masses anymore there are a few individuals and it's up to those individuals to go ahead and rebuild what was lost and he saw himself as one of those individuals that here there is no more huddled masses but these individuals are yearning to be free and to rebuild the Yiddish kite and he did he did and he remained it as individuals he didn't build the big masses of them impact was on so many individuals even if well well beyond the world of loser if I see them so many people were touched by his life and his actions and his leadership I believe that the Siam which is till today dedicated to the memory of the Six Million uh creation who were lost or killed in the war is because of his initiative he pushed for that that the cmss should be in their memory this one of many things that that were his impact so he really is is someone special and and I think that uh that hundred years of history that he lived is is written on his face in that picture that you were able to get in that is let's go to number four so here we have the previous scaletta now it's two previous the right the old old skelina Portugal it was the rabbi in scalene in in Romania um so how what's the story of this picture later soon we're going to show a picture of his son who succeeded him as the rabbit Portugal so as the father and son Duo who are the scaletta rabbis leaders of Romanian jury both in Romania and later in the United States what is your connection to skelen and how do you come to take these pictures of the father and the son okay so so first of all this picture was taken by a grandson's wedding in Williamsburg uh what year did he pass away 82 um I remember it was it was in it was in 8283 yeah so this was like 81 whatever um and uh this is under the hopa uh he at the end of his life he was pretty much blind he could not see and usually when I take pictures with the flesh it just happens to be I get a lot of people who are screaming at me whatever and you know for him it didn't really bother him he didn't see it anyway so nobody really said anything um this was by a grandson's wedding and and I was just you know lucky to I took a bunch of pictures over there at that time it was like the first time that I really had a good camera and took you know very nice pictures of him uh my my uh so-called relationship with scalene is really comes from my grandfather Rabbi svi rancino they call him Harry Bronson he was a very big ass you know asking uh he went many times to Russia he had an organization called altidom he was El Mayo but he was very instrumental in taking out the scalena Reba and his son from Romania he was in jail at that time it's very how it came about my grandfather I mean my grandfather used to sell on the Saudis to sell Carmel Wine this may sound the same but um he's still caramel wine and at that time Romania produced um shlivovitz one of these brandies or one of these things and uh at that time okay by the way oh okay so they had something that they produced over there in Romania and at that time Romania was not didn't have a certain status in the United Nations whatever so my my grandfather helped and and they they brought Romania to uh uh uh something status um they gave him a certain status that you were able to import things from Romania so because of that it was very involved with a lot of different things but anyway so he as Glen rebels in Romania and was in jail and my grandfather sent matsus over there there's a whole story how how the sclerareva how he was in jail as a matter of fact the sclerareva every he's every hamisha uh by uh a YouTuber of every year he makes in love malka it's called the suda Saida and every year I'm talking about from the old school in Aruba to the past one who passed away you stole from his son and even this many skeleton Rebels today every Sunday they talk about my grandfather because my grandfather besides the fact that the Reba said he sent matses and sugar it was just something they were like dying for but he felt that the biggest the biggest major nayce that he saw was the same person who was torturing him actually torturing the scholaraba he was forced to give him this matzah and and the sugar so for him it was like a big thing so every student said uh by uh tubaov they would speak about it as a matter of fact by every Seder By pesoph Night by the Seder they all of the rebels they all spoke around my grandfather of Herschel bronstein how he helped them and and they never forget which is amazing as a matter of fact every yard site with my grandfather is the Arts of Judah of Nissan for the last I don't know 20 years after he passed away I would go over the school in red book to get a bracha and he would like talk about my grandfather whatever um I uh it happened to me that my sandik was this my son who's named after my grandfather his Sonic was the pastor of the who passed away so I I will call it that the my grandfather helped the school Under even when he came to America he helped him with his apartment he helped them you know getting you know a new immigrant coming you know he helped them a lot so he that's Glenn has a lot of occurs left to my grandfather and um I guess uh so I felt always a connection to this um so this picture was taken like I said by the hasana and um and of course you'll see the next pictures but uh so we do have a lot of shy first discipline amazing that's beautiful it sounds like a a good close relationship in in to understand what your grandfather did it's worth noting that the skeleton like I mentioned was in Romania so he was a talmud of some of the original branches in Romania uh something Gary wasn't really in Romania but he was and then was you know really in Romania a real Romanian casidis and he's the rabbi of school in he was not from you know he wasn't a Hasidic Dynasty he was a husted of big rabbits and then he was the rabbi in Scotland and he emerges as a redmus he's I guess we would call it an authentic Rebel he didn't inherit it he he really really becomes this leader of hasida and and he's he's one of the only people the red minister of also not many very many people who are Hasidic rubbers Who Remain behind under a Communist Regime after surviving the Holocaust going through the Holocaust as a Survivor and then staying in Eastern Europe in the place where the Holocaust took place but more so under a Communist Regime an atheist anti-religious communist right where preaching religion and teaching it to the youth can be a crime um and he says and he and he he's the inspiration for Romanian survivors who stayed behind in Romania he has an active-based measures and I know about children and grandchildren of other Romanian survivors who stayed in Romania after the war who though their only way of continuing any form of Yiddish guide of any Judaism behind the Iron Curtain it wasn't technically in the Soviet Union but it was behind the Iron Curtain in the Communist sense was their affiliation with the scalenarama during the hurricane he adopted he only had this one son who was the last one who passed away but he adopted many children he was like their father as a matter of fact many years later when it was there they married themselves and they married of children's to come to all their weddings and because they were like children amazing they were his father's children yeah and the um very uh very very beautiful songs were composed by both of the last drummers and uh one of them he composed during the Holocaust um about about you know a whole long thing which I of course don't even know the words and and and definitely would not sing because people are supposed to be enjoying the ahmudum event not the not being you know upset at it so but it was it was a very haunting song very haunting tune very powerful words um and the uh and and included the The Cry of the imprisoned the End cast us here um in during the Holocaust and that then in the 1950s at one point he was Romania was Romanian government allowed a Jewish delegation to visit uh Romania to to see that Jews are not being prosecuted there's no oppression of religious life there's no suppression of of Jewish life in Romania and was all a sham because any meaning of this American delegation was with with local Romanian Jews was with communist officials in the room right and they knew they would get punished if they said everything was censored and the scalenaretta is one of the leading one of the leaders of of Romanian jury in the 1950s was chosen as a member of the Romanian delegation and he was racking his brains how am I going to convey to the Free World this is a one-time chance we're going to have this meeting how can I convey to the Free World that things are really really bad and what he decided to do is he asked the Communist officials if he can sing them a song in Hebrew that he had composed under Nazi oppression during the Holocaust okay Nazis are bad right you know so you're singing it no problem see sings that song but he changes one part of the song the words encas asir he changed into this cry and Castle series he like screamed it almost until today when they sing the song of the sclerareva it's again I'm not going to sing it because I'm just going to mess it up but it's it's screamed and casasir the Cry of the oppressed and the American delegation understood right away that there's an encasus there that he's screaming out for help because it's not easy to live as a Jew in communist Romania and that leads this chain of events leads to your grandfather eventually after he's arrested after he's in jail actually later in 1960 getting him out and here we have his son so the father of Lazar zusha Portugal we saw before and here we have our Bistro of Ron Portugal the Mexican who takes over his father and he takes his father's Legacy in the hasid law of ram organization which his father established to help the needy to help the downtrodden the children from dysfunctional homes from abusive homes from you know with parents in jail in other words the ones that society would have neglected he took those as his that's that's the people he's taken care of and he builds homes for them and got you know got them helped married them off them all paid for their weddings and and respond around Portugal uh used to uh it used to go around fundraising for it in fact um I I grew up in in Muncie so you know of course I remember the vision at survey and the square rabba but one of the first encounters that I remember was the Hasidic rabba was it the scalenara because he came for a fundraiser and the way it was marketed to us was come to see the scolanarama of course he's also going to ask for money but you're coming to see this big side of this color ever and I'm the seven-year-old kid in four Shea and he says to me yeah what's this sure you need to cut that off that was the that was the I was just painless thing if somebody had like a TV in their house so that was he was but he was consistent it's not as if when he came to a rich person's house he would not say anything no if the kid was the the rich person who's giving them who knows how much money his kid has a big job he would say you know you have to take off the choke it's not good the calipers or whatever he had all very interesting uh it happens to be that this picture yes it is a sclerable but this picture believe it or not was taken by the by the hanakas Evan hapina of yeshiva's Terra tamima wow yeah so this was an Ocean Parkway with the territory building was built many years later uh and um and he had to you know he was there it happens to be that this picture it's interesting because if you look at the picture you could tell that that is when he was much younger because after um when he was older he would let his pay is down and here he has to pay you know the pace around the Zia so I guess people skelandas know exactly there what time it was taken but this was classic picture you know beautiful picture of uh I took many many pictures glenoruba I used to take pictures by all the dinners I mean they would hire me whatever I was many times in the rabbit's house that since I knew of hesho brunchstein's grandson so you know they were like so-called more uh uh free with me more access more access yeah and uh I knew him I knew the rabbits in whatever but I was like very close over there it's amazing and he looks so Regal he had this had respawn and his you know beautiful yeah and he he also used to compose many many songs a lot of times I used to see him and he would sit there with a tape recorder always near him just in case he thought of a song and he would tape it and play it back and you know improve on it like uh very wow I didn't know that and he had this bench was in Borough Park yeah Park on 54th Street between 13th and 14th Avenue for many many years um not a big uh not a big base magic in the later years they expanded a little whatever but he's the diamond very late and and sometimes they would be standing on the street perhaps somebody who didn't down shackles yet and we're talking about later in the day whatever he didn't really have a many many people later years of course you know then he had you know a lot more people but in the beginning even his father used to live in Crown Heights and many times he he'd be diving in 770 in uh because you know just to them to get a minion because he really didn't know he had nothing he didn't have anything in chronics wow so 770 was home to school and also well he he was a rabbi under communism so that would fit well with libavish you know the uh fighting for Yiddish yes I'm just saying because not because of the bombage but more but great because he didn't have a million yeah wow so I also like it because especially this picture because he he looks very rubbish which is like a classic Reba look and those I didn't know what they're called those uh sleeves where you have the Velvet on the sleeves that's also a very ravished thing yeah and the beard and the past the whole thing it looks and therefore if it's in color you could say wow this is 20th century classic Rama and if it would have been in black and white it would have said 19th century classic rubber right and under communism there's no such thing as a classic rattle because he couldn't have looked like that I guarantee you that he or his father didn't have a silver cane and velvet Becca walking through the streets in Romania in the 1950s you probably couldn't afford it and he probably would have been dangerous too and I'm just I'm just imagining here I'm not stating anything that I know right now I'm sure not he definitely wasn't in the open you know you had to do everything hidden over there was a different world even though that was it was a lot late it was until 19th and so behind the facade of this Regal bearing is lies all those Romanian years where he was the same exact rubber the same exact leader the same exact camera to see them but without the external trappings and therefore the external trappings is not what makes the rebel it's who he is is what makes Nevada yes yes that's we was a special person very special person now yeah okay I think I think we'll wrap it up for now this was a a pleasure as close I really enjoyed it thank you for again another wonderful session your pictures are lighting up the world uh giving us so much uh knowledge so much inspiration so many stories so many things to light up our lives with what you were able to I don't know if you imagine that when you were taking these pictures back then that that uh it would have such an impact on the wider Society at that time yeah definitely didn't at that time and I'm happy to see that many Jewish homes have my pictures hanging yeah and people are enjoying it yes and uh thank you amudim for giving us this platform for the special event of behind the camera part two and wishing you all the best thank you thank you [Music] foreign hello everybody this is Danielle karapkin I'm speaking to you from Toronto Ontario I'm the rabbi at the buy it of Thornhill and it's wonderful to be able to engage with you once again for a very worthy organization amudim which is doing such important work throughout North America and beyond for Claud Israel especially helping the most vulnerable of our population it is a tremendous honor to be able to engage in a conversation with Dr David pelkovitz who was no stranger to ahmudim nor is he a stranger to anyone most likely listening or watching this presentation Dr pelkovitz is the Strauss chair in Psychology and education at Yeshiva University he is usually one of those go-to voices that our community goes to when we are facing issues of crisis or tragedy God forbid we typically turn to our Health Care Professionals and Dr pelkovitz really represents uh the cloud that seabor and helping us heal and helping us uh cope and come to terms with some of the very very difficult issues facing our community and Society in general Dr pelkovitz welcome it's really an honor to have you here with us for amudim thank you it's an honor to be here and especially an honor to be here with you given how much I've always learned from your role uh and Leadership and then addressing all the concerns that we'll be talking about in this program thank you um I uh we are going to be discussing a topic that I believe is dear to your heart uh which is uh putting things in a pers in perspective in a polarized world going from fomo to Jomo could you Dr pelkovitz please uh elaborate on this on this theme please yeah sure um there's um been a real shift in the world um in recent years it's been going on for a while um but um it's it's basically a feeling that um social media has become especially in in younger kids has become such an incredible um Force she shaping everything from self-concept to anxiety levels to one's core sense of identity and more and more I've had parents and adolescents and kids even you know approach me and ask um I feel that I'm too dependent on on Facebook I'm too dependent on Instagram on um on Tick Tock and yet I can't seem to get off of it it makes me sad it makes me anxious and yet I feel pulled into it can you give me some strategies for trying to uh to uh get better better control over this all right and and what are the um besides besides the addictive behavior what what are some of the what is some of the negative Fallout that we're seeing when people become When people's realities are defined by what they perceive themselves to be and others to be on social media well it's it's it can often be a false superficial um kind of identity that's um based on everything that we know is um is is is is superficial and cannot be associated with an enduring sense of of well-being as an example uh even going to the point of what what do adolescents or even younger kids fantasize about nowadays they often fantasize about being famous they often fantasize not necessarily about being good and giving people but about um you know what do I need to do in order to um in order to get the most possible likes on um you know my various social media accounts and it's not surprising that um you know in in studies that have been really getting much more publicity just in recent months um you know we're finding increases in um serious kinds of emotional disorders especially given covet you know so you have that as well um so there's a rise in um in depression arise and anxiety uh rise in kids um especially girls having poor self-concepts um and um even to the point of increases in suicidal ideation and even suicidal attempts all right so um how do you as a as a therapist as a guide um you know the type the topic is going from fomo to Jomo going from fear of missing out right this this need for a celebrity this need for being part of this the popular group um and you you say Joma which is going from Joy of missing out and uh especially with young people how do how do we change that perspective given that so many of our kids are using social media and many of our adults as well yeah so so for both because adults you know I I these these programs are designed to maximize getting that dopamine hit they're designed to addict us um so what we need to do is is we need to come up with some strategies for uh mindfully disconnecting for increasing awareness and I have some specific recommendations that I think it probably makes sense for us to um um you know uh talk about some of the strategies I'll I'll start with uh just as an example um let's talk about um strategies for um uninterrupted socializing so strategies for uninterrupted socializing what some of the authors on this here's a wonderful book um call the distracted Mind by gazali g-a-z-z-a-l-e-y and Rosen and what they break down which others since then have um have talked about also is just as an example uh the following approaches okay so number one is the goal you need you need to know what what's what's your goal if your goal is to be able to talk to people in uninterrupted way you know with our eyes bouncing off of our our the person you're looking at size our hearts bouncing off each other you know um so the the goal in this case might be to keep your phone in the pocket when when in one-on-one conversation with another person um kids and parents tell me that this is something that they would love to be able to um to focus on and to and and to work on having that goal go from the unconscious to the conscious um makes a big difference it says in Proverbs it says initially the aim has Zone euphora on without that Vision thing you kind of Fall Apart and um that's that's number one okay it says to put it on and in fact when certain communities have had programs to to Foster um getting better control over this topic of um use of uh of phones and social media um uh this was one of the main things that kids very much appreciated and wanted more of when when whole communities made up their mind to make this into something that's front and center the second area would be as an example is Clarity um which is basically it's called metacognition which is um the need to to which is a fancy way of saying why why is this important you have to get to the emotional get into the into your heart why is this important to you to recognize that these uh devices can reduce our own empathy um it it according to research it not only reduces our empathy for others it reduces our perception of how empathic others are to us which is an incredibly important kind of um thing to keep in mind social media tends to sort of objectify other people does it not yes and and it it does um it does that in a way that is really uh very very alarming you know it tends to polarize things so we see the other as being evil and horrible and somehow uh you know there's um some very recent research that shows that that tracks things over time and they find that families are now spending less time at Thanksgiving dinner than they used to because there's so much tension over differing political views so you're bound in any typical family to have Democrats and Republicans in the case of the United States um dining together and it's fascinating they've actually tracked it and show a pretty significant dropping in the amount of time so that the meals kind of end earlier than um that than one would expect and it's amazing that they have this data now so that's just one one simple uh example of it well if I could if I could just follow up with that for a moment before you get to the next point you know recently Facebook was accused by a number of people who came forward and said that they were creating deliberately polarized communities on social media because their their marketing data told them that when people get an emotional rise off of reading something on social media they tend to become more engaged will stay on longer and may even buy things that they see in the ads because they're so emotionally riled up uh this is a this is very uh disconcerting of course if it's true We're Not Gonna convict Facebook in this discussion but um this is certainly something that we have to be careful about if people are deliberately manipulating me emotionally to get a rise out of me and to start hating or disliking somebody else that's probably bringing out the worst in me is it not yeah look all all of these um you know social media sites their financial model as I understand it it's partly based on maximizing hits maximizing time on the site and maximizing in many ways the negativity and the polarization that keeps things going it's it's it's it's part of what um you know it's like and I'm sure any Rabbi somebody in your position what do you you how would you maximize the likelihood that you're gonna grow your membership and grow The Passion of people attending your soul half it's probably going to be by really reaching them in their hearts you know and giving those kind of classes and having those kind of programs and those kind of speeches that's that's what they do and um I don't think it's coming necessarily from an evil place um but it's often coming from a place of um really not necessarily um you know um prioritizing what's best what's best for um their their their customers and again I don't want to you know I certainly have no right to and no expertise to but certainly what that whistleblower has shown in those um Congressional hearings um has made that uh very clear let me just uh just because I didn't um I I didn't talk about it a second ago let me just take a second to review with you some of this stuff um here's just a quick summary of some of this stuff is um is that the echo chamber on various social uh media platforms it it it's designed in a way that it empowers status seeking extremists so that um you know people who aren't extremists people who are just talking in a very um sort of um in much more moderate kind of way their voice tends to be drowned out and they tend to become quiet because if you become too vocal on these sites people come after you yeah and they may threaten your safety so there's a tremendous tendency for the discourse to become not only not only filled with personal attacks but sometimes real threats on the safety of the person listen to this those who deactivate their Facebook accounts a report feeling happier okay that's great okay not surprising but in the case of Millennials in the case of people who were born into a world where they already had their iPhones they typically reopen their social media accounts very soon after they find they just can't they can't do it they can't they can't do it it's so much support of their identity and how they deal with um with with with their their emotions and how they get their news that it becomes something that there's a true addiction to so you know when it becomes woven into the fabric of their identity and is their main news source um and and to just expand at a drop um there's evidence that our political discussion networks have been shrieking shrinking in recent decades this is before you know the the you know some of the elections the recent elections in the United States but it's been shrinking and um which means that um you know there's uh there's all of this sense of polarization but um there's a fascinating new study there it's a book it just came out a couple weeks ago that um is amazing because he makes a very strong case that much polarization is false social media exaggerates the polarization and people when they sit down and really talk to each other and hear each other out um are much more likely to be able to maybe change their views and be open to others views the name of the book and again I can't emphasize enough how um it's totally changed my perspective on these things because it's a it's a a man by the name of Dr Chris bail b-a-i-l and it's called breaking the um social media prism and what he shows with very very well done research and all kinds of you know a large team and um you know very respected kind of um ways of getting to his uh you know getting to his conclusions is he comes up with a specific ways of trying to help us see things through the eyes of others um without letting the false polarization that happens with the extremists online uh takeover so that's that's great for a person who's going to read that book but you know getting back to the you know getting back to how we solve the problem and you you you correctly identify this this idea of fomo that the Millennials who uh uh sign on sign out of their account can't they're polishing they have to get back on so how do we how do we address this with you know you and I remember what life was like before the internet but so many of our who are our children's age grandchildren's ages how do we uh how do we get them to unplug so you had mentioned the importance of keeping the the phone in your pocket and things like that what else what what else can we do sure sure so um so we already talked about the power of goals the power of uh Clarity um the uh the next thing is a very simple um behavioral intervention you know there's nothing quite like it you know the talmud tells us that if somebody has a gambling problem sometimes um the best thing you could do for it is break the dice this is going back over the Millennia break the dice amazing how how topical you know that kind of a wisdom is so uh here on the accessibility end it's um it's removing all funds from areas of interactions so you could set Tech breaks for checking your phone every 15 minutes you families can have Tech free zones um and I know this is this is tripe but it's it's it works you know so you have you have a very clear rule in at home that parents and kids recharge their phones every night in a public part of their house and if there's an emergency that comes in which is what kids are very worried about um you know that they'll be able to check it you know at another time but they have to once they keep it in a public place they're going to start to get a lot more sleep and they're not going to be so hooked on to uh you know what what um becomes this overarching need to check um over and over again the next thing has to do you have to have a strategy for dealing with boredom Sherry turkel psychologist that um at MIT a brilliant brilliant woman she um wrote a book called reclaiming conversations and what she found is that nowadays the kids who came of age after the iPhone was developed they have a very hard time um um with their anxiety about simple conversations there's a high level of social discomfort in adolescence and young adults um and she calls it a flight from conversation and she says sometimes in extreme cases you know parents could really help their kids just to the just to review the basics of social skills training how do you start a conversation how do you continue a conversation how do you show me you're really listening and paying attention you have to build up that muscle you know many kids who um came of age um after kovid was already in full force um never even developed if you look at preschoolers the ability to have the give and take of conversation um here many kids who were born um you know who were you know Millennials they um they have to in a conscious way develop and I you don't have to turn into a social skills training expert but it might be helpful to be able to just talk to your kid about it model for them you know how to do it model for them by talking to your other family members about this stuff and that could be helpful and then the final thing is anxiety which is um you know there's a tremendous amount of anxiety over how are others going to see me if I shut off my account for a couple of hours a day let's say I'm driving if you have a kid who's old enough to be driving they get very nervous that if their friends are texting them or in a crisis so that they don't answer them right away that they're going to be viewed as not being present so they are simple strategies for the cultural change that can educate kids to know that you're you don't have to always be on call you don't have to answer texts immediately I find that um that you have to really teach kids that you know I'm available you know I I you know and you could put it on your away message and it can make a difference and I think I'm finding the kids are beginning to be more and more open to that because they're exhausted from always being on call at a modem we give people hope we help people [Music] at a mudim we don't judge Adam we give people a helping hand Adam we listen we're going to care about you and help you get the best treatment you can [Music] we strive to make others lead a healthier life Adam mudum you truly understand [Music] we adapt to the ever-changing needs of our community [Music] the light that guides you through your darkest times [Music] let's unite to heal let's unite to heal let's unite to heal them we save lives and build Futures let's unite to heal let's unite to heal let's unite to heal we make a difference every single day let's unite to heal let's unite to heal [Music] let's unite to heal [Music] uh I want to get back to that anxiety issue in just a moment but I I guess I have an overarching question that I've noticed of late um my upbringing uh uh is very different from the way and the way that I brought up my children is very different from the way that I see some younger parents bringing up their children today and I'm wondering if if all of these strategies you know assume that a parent takes into consideration the fact that I am the parent you are the child and I will guide you and show you what is best for you um and I hope this is not too far off topic but it's certainly something that's denying at me I see so many parents today who show so much Derek merits to their children that they feel that their children should be in control of their emotions of their behaviors and uh put their child on such a pedestal that they don't feel that they can or should interfere in their in their children's behavioral patterns let me just give you one example um there was a parent who brought over one of their children to my house the other day and I was taught that when someone comes into your a guest comes into your home the guest is supposed to look you you as a guest are supposed to look at the host in the eye shake their hand say hello make eye contact all of these things that I was taught as a child and today it seems like some parents feel that no we have to uh be considerate of a child's feelings and if the child doesn't feel like making eye contact because they're moody or they're in a bad mood we have to respect that in the child and let the child go off into the corner and when the child is ready to come and make eye contact and to be engaging we allow the child to do that and and and so part of part of me is is concerned that if if these solutions that you're advocating Dr pelkovitz um they sound like wonderful Solutions but they assume that a parent is going to be uh sort of laying down the law for their children and saying this is what is necessary and this is what you should be doing and this is what you shouldn't be doing and part of the concern that I have in part I believe perhaps part of the anxiety that children have today is that they haven't been given specific parameters or sufficient parameters to know the difference between right and wrong am I crazy or no I'm not crazy at all I think it's actually it's the challenge of Our Generation you know kids um you know what my understanding of healthy parenting is about it's exactly what natalma tells us you find the balance between the left hand pushing away while the right hand brings closer right between you know you need you need the balance between love and limits and that's exactly what modern psychological research tells us and what the wisdom you know the ancient Jewish wisdom tells us um and kids can Thrive without that balance so all love and no limits kids grow up to be totally spoiled and over indulge and you could a kid like that they're not going to be ready to function in the world if you have an extreme like that all limits no love rules without relationships equals Rebellion okay so you need to find the balance and that's the art of parenting and it's going to be different for every one of your children because every kid has a different temperament and um parents um I think um you see the the part of the challenge is many of the parents that I believe you're referring to they're already um they were raised this way so so they hadn't necessarily had the role models that you know that people who grew up you know in a less complicated World um you know had is a matter of course and um and it's interesting if I could just stay with this for a minute um I think that um there is um um something I hear often from people who I saw in my practice 30 years ago 40 years ago I've been doing this for a long time and now they're parents you know sometimes even grandparents and they come to my office and they'll turn to their parents and say why did you let me do this when I was a teenager why did you let me go into Manhattan um when you knew that there was a crazy uh club scene there why did you let me um basically you know have uh you know uh a limitless American Express card why do you do all of this and they get angry about it and you know there's a beautiful thought in the medrish that says the following it says this is from Michelin from Proverbs yeah put limits on your kids there's always hope and don't pay attention to their yelling and screaming and going crazy when you do the limit putting on them so listen to this ancient wisdom it says I love it the more a parent puts limits on his or her child the more that child will love the parent and that's so true but parents you know there needs to be a real by the way one more thing I find that when there's a massive Community effort to address this parents are open to it because they they themselves recognize that something has to be fixed you know something that there's something off here and I think I think they're they're nervous about it and yet you know we can we can quote mamore hazal to demonstrate that parenting requires us to place limits on our children and and show them where the lines are and yet a lot of a lot of very from the young adults who are parents are not going to the age-old wisdom of hazal to derive knowledge about how to parents they're going to the conventional wisdom that they're watching on social media and then the books that they're reading about how you have to validate your child's feelings and give them the emotional freedom to be able to learn about themselves and to appreciate themselves um and to me there's this represents a major disconnect because we look at the Torah for guidance for all areas of our life except for the parts where we don't look for guidance for those things which we feel we've Advanced beyond the Torah and this just it's sometimes quite um quite frustrating for someone in my position as a spiritual leader who sees people sort of cherry picking the lessons that we can draw from the Torah and then the parts of the Torah that we've moved past perhaps um I mean obviously there are certain things that are anachronistic about the book of mishlay which talks about not sparing the rod and we don't we don't exercise corporal punishment anymore we recognize that that's not uh helpful and not a not uh not the best way to parent so we've learned to reinterpret it and to to reframe it as not literally a rod but rather as a as a way of disciplining sometimes sometimes harshly disciplining when necessary but but how would how would you and I perhaps I'm putting you in an unfair position this is really more a rabbinical question than a psychological question but how do we impress Upon Our Young The Young members of our community that the Torah is a holistic guide for how we're supposed to live our lives yeah um yes it's an alarming uh development to hear what you're what you're saying in the front lines over there um you know um I I think that um that um it's let me tell you about a program that took place in um Cleveland and in Chicago and since then it's been replicated in different parts of the world it was on this topic the rabbinic leadership who were behind the Citibank I'm sorry Citi Field of sifa in the Mets stadium a number of years ago where they say we have to ban the internet being very much to their credit recognized we blew it we blew it that's a big mistake you can't this is here to stay we we have to find the balance like reverse said between isolation and inoculation so the community got together they had some generous funding and had in the case of Chicago which was the first community that they brought in the two leaders behind the the original internet asifa and they brought them into Chicago they invited the whole spectrum of the community from you know the more modern to the most uh yeshivish and concedes Etc and um they put up a massive massive site just for that day and um it it had um an incredible response because what they talked about was small steps very small steps you know you're talking to somebody put your phone in the pocket um you're having dinner find you know x amount of uh Interruption free time you're you know just simple simple things but they made it a community effort and it was a community effort where um not only do they bring mental health people to come in to speak but they bought rabbis to come in and speak who had you know some deep insights of their own and were known to be open to the realities of the outside world and a totally unexpected thing happened the kids who were there um loved it so much that they asked for another meeting and they wanted more they said you know something we've been dying for this we've been dying for this now to get to your specific question okay but what do we do about the fact that people are are sometimes um you know even people more to the Yeshiva shend or sometimes sing sing um the world is um changed in a way that uh you don't necessarily have to pay attention to uh you know to um rabbinic wisdom instead of pay attention to um you know people who were coming more from a scientific or parenting experts or whatever I think the best way to um to change perceptions is it needs to be done I think in in a massive Community level so here you had um the whole Community involved a tremendous amount of work went into it they did follow-ups they um they they were still doing things that are tied to this and from the last I heard it may change that really lasted but it was partly because what it came with was respect for the Viewpoint of everybody they didn't go and criticize the people who did the internet asifa okay in in City Field instead they came and they showed like wow these these men have a tremendous amount to offer you know you know these are the leaders of the Yeshiva World the leaders of the hasidisha world and um it was there's nothing like modeling modeling and showing people that things are more complicated than you think you know and the world isn't in black and white the world is in Gray and the truth lies in the gray and I think my I know this is sounding a little bit not directly responsive to your question but it was a cultural change that took place with all of that effort that I I think is that a little bit address it yes I look I think it does I don't think we're going to be able to fully uh to fully resolve this issue about the steady erosion of what we call dostoa or the erosion of rabbinic authority and people who look to rub on and for guidance um based on Timeless Torah wisdom um and and you say you said something very profound that we hear all again and again especially in today's very post post post-modern Society is that we live in the grave and it's a very uncomfortable position for so many younger people to be living in because there's a craving as you had started saying earlier in this conversation for younger people to have uh parameters and boundaries and to know what's what's okay and what's not okay and to live in the gray is something that we learn to do as we get older and older and and you also had talked a bit a little bit about anxiety and I and I want to try and bring this all together if I can is you know one of the things that um we are perceiving is that there does seem to be a greater level of anxiety part of it has to do with this fomo the fear of missing out uh the the feeling that I need to respond right away as you had mentioned before part of the anxiety is due to covid and the the fact that because we're social animals and we haven't been able to interact um we've there's been some there's been some damage to the our Collective psyche because we haven't had the social interaction that we actually crave that's hardwired to our to our very being um this anxiety has manifested itself in a number of very unhealthy ways and I'm wondering if you could just talk about um you know part of this anxiety manifests itself in this polarized vociferous yelling at each other on social media like we talked about before but it also has to do with social interactions at the marketplace where everyone is who's I don't know is a stranger and an enemy potentially um and um and and the fear of the unknown because we don't know what's just around the corner with covid what the next strain or the next iteration or the next shutdown uh when that's going to be God forbid um what do we do when we have anxiety and how do how do we deal with anxiety um uh is there a way is there an easy um pill that we can take to help us when we're dealing with anxiety what you know we're not advocating escapism we're not advocating taking a drink or uh smoking a joint is this what can we do that's natural to help take a little bit of the edge off of Our Lives yeah um so um if I could just give a simplistic answer but it's I think um you know we start um the way mental health people try to address anxiety is um on three channels okay one channel is the cognitive you try to get a hold of the thoughts that are feeding the anxiety both in the case of anxiety around covid it might be uh you know an awfulizing feeling like you know this is a horrible things will never go back to normal how am I ever going to get used to it um and a lot of self-statements that we're saying on the cognitive level that are either awfulizing or paternity of the shoulds you know it shouldn't be like this you know why can't I have a normal life what happened to the you know things that um that that I always took for granted so that's the cognitive that's um the balchem toes um you want to know where the person is look at where his or her thoughts are so that's on the cognitive channel on a physiological and the physiologic channel which is you know what happens to our bodies when we're anxious our hearts will will race a little faster we different people feel in different parts of their body you may feel in your GI system you might feel a tightening in your neck you might get a headache or whatever but the physiologic is basically the natural response of the body to perceive threats and there um you know this is where smartphones are you know incredibly helpful because there are amazing devices now that really teach you mindfulness there are two wonderful books on Jewish perspectives on mindfulness which are amazing written by psychologists who are also rabbis and there's um there's uh um but a number of apps so you go on to commonsensemedia.com which is non-commercial site and you just put in for the age group let's say you want to have anxiety management techniques for your kids you can do it that way you could um uh um find some basic mindfulness exercises for yourself you know the most popular one has been calm c-a-l-m which has a relatively small fee attached to it but is excellent you know and gives you specific um mindfulness techniques for the specific issue that you're having you know what's your it's your problem with sleep is your problem with worry about work circus or problem with parenting or whatever and it gives you mindfulness and it's a skill it takes a while but if you're just doing a little bit at a time simple breathing normal breath in slow breath out can make an enormous difference and then the final channel is the behavioral Channel you know where you actually [Music] respond to the anxiety by avoiding avoidance you face what you're afraid of you're nervous about going to show because you've been away from it for so long you push yourself to go back or you're nervous about getting together with friends or even if you're nervous about your anxiety about being too tough on your kids um you you do that behavioral kind of intervention and that that that could be extremely helpful at all two other quick points so could you just could you just review those three once again yes yes so number one is cognitive you think you think in a way you catch the thoughts that are making you anxious and you hold it up to the light of day in a rational in a rational kind of way and that that could really make a big difference um physiologic is in terms of the um normal breath in slow breath out mindfulness techniques and there are all kinds of uh wonderful apps out there on it um that make it more doable but recognize it's not going to work right away it's a skill that you have to do with time and then the final is behavioral which is to uh push yourself is to push yourself to avoid avoidance Etc and then the other um uh two points that have been found to really help with anxiety during covid are ancient wisdom and this is this is in every religion has us um one is the power of gratitude to figure out a way to focus on what we have and to be thankful for what we have and anytime we're able to be grateful that way um and this is consistent with the total readings we have around now um you know it's the essence of being Jewish Hashem right thank you know to be thankful it helps us um and it helps us in a very basic way with our anxiety you know so because you may not have control over you know what new variant of the of the um of covetous coming but you always have control over um you know being thankful for what you have in terms of your community in terms of your family in terms of friends or whatever you have and when you have that focus it literally helps with your immune functioning but helps mainly with anxiety and another assessment is to be able acts of loving kindness for others makes such an enormous difference to be able to respond to everything that's going on with um you know with with lesson it's the antidote to the negativity of social media is you know social media by the way can be a wonderful source for doing you know we now know about the suffering of people who may never have known about in the past right right yeah yeah and that um those last two items are so powerful the ability to count your blessings and to recognize um I always try to tell my wife as often as I can we are so blessed um even when we're going through perhaps challenging times but we are so blessed and that you just reminding oneself about all of the brackets of Life are is just so um so uplifting and of course emulating Hashem is to emulate the ribana Shalom by helping others is extremely empowering and uh this idea of imitating God as being a way of lifting ourselves up and alleviating anxiety uh I can't think of of a more powerful method than that um we we are coming up close to the end of our discussion but I I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about one more issue that I think does contribute to some of the anxiety that especially our young people are experiencing today it's no secret that from time to time and I'm Rabbi palkovitz the amount of years that you've been in this line of uh of profession you've seen so many iterations unfortunately of uh communal scandals having to do with people in leadership positions uh abusing that privilege religion exploiting others and because of their position and this of course has created a significant amount of anxiety as well especially among our youth could you just share with us a few thoughts on on this topic and and how we can uh restore the the sense of joy in in our lives yeah um so you're talking about like when leadership fails that that that yeah so again without um you know um without in any way identifying a specific person because this is something that um something that we're sometimes faced with what how do we talk to ourselves how do we talk to our kids when there's um um when when our leaders who should be our moral leaders disappoint us pretty much just make a couple a couple of points um the most important one in terms of talking to our kids is um to be understood first understand you go to your child and you ask him or her you know um you know what have you heard especially if you're in a neighborhood where um you know there's been some kind of a scandal and unfortunately there are multiple scandals and different parts of the world and if you're struggling with that now you just ask them what have you heard you know um and again we don't necessarily know anything for sure um in any sometimes there are situations where a person has been actually convicted and it's still something that communities might be struggling with but you ask your child help me here and very often they'll answer you in a way that'll give you will lead you towards what you need to uh what you need to talk about you know what you need to understand so that's um that's that's number one um number two is um is the idea as a general rule of thumb to help them um uh have have permission to talk about what's on their minds don't automatically reassure them this is along the lines of what we talked about before you know there's the uh again the thought of um another moment we can't master anything in life without struggle and this is something that um you know may bring with its struggle because people who um we've looked up to are supposed to be the source of protection now maybe in a very different kind of place so um we just need to let them know that um it's okay to talk and it's not it's it's not disrespectful to talk uh you know the Hebrew word ashrae which is the highest level of happiness is tied to the Hebrew word is sure to validate you know to validate what somebody's saying we do that for our children it makes it makes sense and to name the monster to talk you know to the extent that you could allow them to talk about it and to talk about whatever anger and also to to talk about um how imperfection in general is something that is very much part of um part of what we um are sometimes faced with nobody's perfect and I'm not saying this in any way to be an apologist for anybody who might later fam be found to be abusive but just the the the idea of being able to to give voice to values and to allow it if people underestimate uh the power of that I have a colleague Dr Bessel vandercult who wrote a book that's been a best-selling non-fiction book over the last year called um the body keeps the score one of the things he once showed me is um he showed me the picture of the brain of one of his um patients who was caught on the stairwell of the World Trade Center on 911. and he had an fmri a picture of that man's brain as he was reliving the worst moment of his life he was being crushed by the World Trade Center miraculously managed to survive what he showed me is that the part of the brain that shuts off when people are faced with overwhelming kinds of stress is Broca's area the longer centers of the brain but then what he showed me in subsequent scans over the coming months that as he gave this patient words for his pain as he helped him light up the language centers of the brain he helped him name the monster that's where he was able to eventually come to a place where he was able to digest the meaning of what happened that's using an extreme example but I see it all the time you know how much good we do for ourselves and our children when we allow ourselves to name the monster and to see the area of growth that can come from these kind of struggles and I'll just end with the following beautiful words of hazal which I often quote because it just makes me feel great from the majors to kill them it says like this it says if I never fell down I never would have gotten up early and I never sat in the darkness I never would have appreciated the light hmm those are those are beautiful words um I I think there's always going to be attention between the importance of having Heroes and role models in our lives and at the same time recognizing that even those heroic figures in our lives um are are human beings with flaws I remember that one of the difficulties that I had as a as a bucker in Yeshiva was having a rebbe who I held in great esteem and I thought he was like the person that I wanted to be and then I saw him do something that I that sort of shattered my faith in him it wasn't something so horrible but it was just the flaw in his personality and it was difficult for me as a young man to learn how to process that and put it in its proper context and as we get older I think we we learn to live in that gray of recognizing that everyone is complex and no one is perfect it's very difficult I think when were younger when we're teenagers or perhaps even younger than that to know how to deal with people who were held in such high esteem Who provided us with such either inspiration entertainment Torah education and then to learn that these people are are not only deeply flawed but perhaps uh possess a degree of evil that we could never see in ourselves um and we won't be able to resolve that issue but as as you say the importance is uh the important thing is to open that discussion with our children allow them to know that their voice is being heard that it's okay to be disappointed but that they should their their belief in Heroes should not be shattered because of one particular individual that we should try to hold people that we feel are admirable that their behavior is virtuous we should use them as role models with the caveat that even the greatest of people the greatest of godola Israel will sometimes have flaws and foibles just like any other human being yeah all right well I I just wanna I I I'm always I I learn so much more uh in any time I spend with you Dr pelkovitz and I know that this has been very very helpful to so many people who might be watching or listening um thank you for being so generous with your time thank you for uh everything that amudim is doing is including offering these special video seminars for people during a perhaps a very challenging time uh for the Jewish people and for the world as a whole uh as we begin to see the light emerge at the end of the tunnel uh let's hope that talks like this will help us emerge as more healthy individuals and please Dr pelkovitz please take the last words well just uh thank you for um for helping me think and helping me clarify I always learn so much from um your your depth and your ability to talk about this and thank you is um an organization that um I have um I just keep getting more and more involved with samudan because um it's um it's an organization that's involved in Saving Lives on on a regular basis in a very real way uh saving lives and they're always there and um there's an ability to uh to to somehow uh keep keep growing and keep serving more and more people and um uh so that people don't have to feel alone um uh in in their struggles so um so thank thank you thank you and thank you amudim goodbye everybody [Music] foreign as we all know is one of the Premier providers of Health mental health and otherwise to our Jewish Community they also last year figured out the best way to raise money from Yin is to make sure they're having a great time and last year on the first unite to heal they put out an incredible array of speeches and lectures and music and incredible interviews and they're doing it again this year back and better than ever so welcome to the amudim United heal I very rarely get the opportunity actually no no I never ever get the opportunity to interview such incredible luminaries as I'm interviewing today I'm deeply appreciative Tom mood and for giving me the opportunity I have been a talmud who has been zoca to learn both in the Torah of Rabbi Simon as well as Rabbi Jacobson and I believe that I'm not alone in that at this point pretty much the Jewish World whether you're a Yeshiva bucker in Muncie whether you're a secular Jew in California you've probably been learning and listening to the Torah of one of these two great brothers and we have an incredible opportunity today to talk to them on behalf of our mudim so we're going to start with a very simple question and uh it's more a little bit about your upbringing uh The Jacobson household must have been an incredible place to bring up people who are so dedicated to spreading Torah and hasidus to the whole world what do you think your parents got right what inspired you to do what you are do today and if you can try to break it down to something that your parents did but we can all do on a more a lower level as an air on a pin a miniature biteable doable thing that we can all do like your parents did with our dear hosts and with my dear brother we are blood flesh and blood and yes we grew up in a very unique and special home I uh it's always humbling to hear such accolades but I will say in the Spirit of My Father Allah and my mother may she be well many healthy years one of the things that jumps out at me this is completely a knee-jerk reaction to your question was my father particularly as well as my mother which I'll speak about in a moment was absolutely comfortable in his own skin he was extremely didn't have that self-consciousness and extremely know why he's here in this world and what is his purpose and even though it was not stated in words but it was stated in actions and that was what exuded that was the spirit that was the environment that exuded from him I remember him sitting Shabbos at the table he could speak quiet for hours even though he was a conversationalist and a very charismatic figure but he had that inner peace and I think when you have that it just uh translates into bringing up children that are also comfortable in their own skin and are focused not on trying to necessarily impress or entertain but really living up to what their mission is now I want to say it very clearly a big disclaimer I'm not saying I'm on that level but I definitely was exposed to it and my mother as well completely committed to the cause you know you know everybody has their egos everybody has their stuff they have their phobias their neurosis and uh by no means is anyone perfect but I think when you have as a parent a mission-centric life that your life is not driven by ego and by conquests and by money and by control and by power and influence that you know you're here for a reason and that is not just taught but actually fed and nourishes children from the youngest of age to me that is one of the most critical elements that all of us can learn for Success because then your children grow up having that same type of attitude I'm here to serve I'm here to bring something to the world in our case we grew up in uh I speak we grew up in a obviously very observant Jewish Home and of course Shabbat hasidis emphasizes this idea of serving Illuminating to be flames that illuminate and warm everyone around us so it all fitted in in that context that's one of the ingredients at least by no means is it the only one but that's what comes to mind based on that what you're describing what would be like in a photo like something people would want to work on to be able to achieve that sort of sense of mission and sense of inner peace and comfortability with their own skin what types of things could people do if they want to be able to get to that level so they could experience that and of course give that over to their children as well what is like something that a person could work on themselves on a regular basis to do something measurable like a real avoda I think it really comes down to how you look at the standards you know a business cannot function without a mission statement every business no matter what for-profit not profit organization schools every entity must have a mission statement the first question you have to ask yourself is what is your personal mission statement and it can't just be a platitude like I want to be happy I want to have make a lot of money I want to bring up a healthy Jewish Family those are General generic and general they're beautiful things but a mission statement means to put it specifically how are you going to use your life and the unique skills and tools that you were given your unique opportunities to somewhat improve better and beautify the corner of your world so that's the first question you have to ask if you're not asking that question which means that you're basically just running your life either as a product or victim of circumstances then you're never going to get to that place so obviously as children if you can pick that up from a young age great but wherever you are in your life that has to be a pause that we all have to take if not on a daily basis at least on a weekly basis a monthly basis or an annual basis and we actually have you say foreign what are we saying think about the words thank you God for returning oh you're not saving the word god thank you for returning my soul to me for making me indispensable for giving me a mission for renewing my contract and my mandate and that I absolutely need to fulfill that mission that you have given me and renewed every morning so that would be my opinion one of the first things that you begin the journey in that sense right and it's true because so many people are living life without having a sense of mission statement right well life happens to them as opposed to them creating the life they want so just even setting for yourself a mission statement is Step number one to it's getting there okay beautiful rally why why in addition to the beautiful eloquent words of my dear brother I would add very briefly maybe three things that I felt in my home uh I don't know always consciously but now looking back I think they're all really part of our the reality of our family number one my father was an extremely colorful human being very Universal he had like this Universal Consciousness first of all nobody knew geography like him right Simon I mean he knew I don't know every river in Russia yeah every river in Russia exactly and he really knew it he knew how long it was he knew how hot wide it was and he had a real interest I once saw him reading my father used to read approximately he was a subscriber to around 30 magazines and newspapers and he would read about the economy in Japan and I asked him does this interest you because I don't have an interest about the economy in Japan it's just doesn't fit into my brain and he says yeah it's the world it's part of God's world you have to know what's happening in Japan it was very interesting so it was really there was no tunnel vision there was no narrowness there was no judging people based on the community they come from based on their lifestyle he actually allowed himself and he taught us to celebrate the world for what it is because if you have tunnel vision you reduce God's reality into your own stereotypes and preconceived notions you know into your own issues instead of really breathing the world the way it is and enjoying the full variety of God's creation that was one thing I think very powerful until today you know I meet Jews from all backgrounds Jews and Andrews just a certain freshness like really be open to to tune into where people are not where you want them to be or what you think about that the second thing was the Vanessa writes that moshirabenu had to grow up among non-jews in a palace why didn't the first Jewish leader grow up in a Jewish environment and he says that Vanessa writes this it's incredible that if Maisha would have grown up among Jews he would have developed a slave mentality he could have never staged a revolution he had to grow up in an Ambiance of aristocracy of royalty that's how he can overthrow Egypt and Liberate the Jewish slaves my father grew up in stalinism stalinist Russia his father was tortured and almost killed he had a very very difficult life very as a youth like like so many of that generation but he had a vision of royalty he was uh and he taught us to us he was broad he had a fearlessness to him he was a warrior he was a fighter he wouldn't allow himself to become a victim in circumstances so that was very very refreshing and empowering the last thing I would say something I once heard from him we were walking to Salon Shabbos when he told me that he once asked them why he's getting involved in a very controversial issue that was just controversial and it's basically taking away supporters from him people who would support him it was something to do about the future of Israel and he said what do you need it for just stay focused on humanitarian good things you know spreading Mitzvahs and what do you need this for so he told me that they never told him and it says by myself when he saw the Egyptian beating the Jews Maisha looked everywhere and he saw there's no man and he killed the Egyptian and he saved the Jew and everybody asked there was somebody there because the next day the informers informed on Maisha so there was somebody there said one interpretation is not that there was nobody physically present he saw by archae Nish that there's nobody who's going to stand up to the tyranny in ish there's no man there's nobody who's gonna make this this course everybody was just looking around and saying the river says he had to make a choice will he join everybody else and say there's nothing to do we're in Egypt we're in Exile or he's going to take a stand and that's what turned them into the Eternal Jewish leader and then my father told me that but continually says and this is what my father-in-law embodied he attributed to his father-in-law this is how he was explaining his involvement what I learned from my father at that moment was that in life you know you have to be able to make that choice constantly whether you're just going to be a bystander maybe write a check you know give a sigh give a cracked or to say no God put me here and he gave me my unique purpose as my brother just said and it's my opportunity to make the difference that I was chosen to make beautiful it's interesting the first thing that you said is basically you're describing your father as a cohalis he was like an average Gator of information all around the world and there's that gemara that talks about some of the the early tanayam and how they they recognize they knew the language of foxes and the language of trees and the language of birth and you're like where does it make a difference there are tonight and they're sitting and learning you know uh hello and and inshallah the answer is when you have that that breathness and that ability to just take it all in you also have the ability to put out something that's just so much more comprehensive than when you're living with tunnel vision so that's a definitely beautiful and uh a very special household that we get a little bit of a feel where the The Jacobson Brothers come from so my next question is you know amudim deals with with mental health dysfunctional elements that's gonna be that's gonna be the bonus material at the end and then you got to donate a little a couple extra hundred dollars and you get all the dysfunction from The Jacobson home too so um I moved them really is known for their work with with mental health and the Jewish people and you guys are both such incredible eloquent speakers you you command such large audiences wherever you go and you go and people sit and raptured when you speak and there's sometimes you know when when people are in the crowd and I look at a speaker it just Nails it and they really understand and they get everything just right and there's almost like a halo effect you know so there's but the reality is we're all people and you are all people as well and obviously you too have your own struggles at times and there's the mental stresses that we all go through and what weighs heavily on all of us sometimes it's helpful for the audience to be able to recognize that the speakers are humans and they go through their own strength stresses so my question to you would be what grinds you down what really wears you down and how do you find like where you need to like save your own mental health sanity and keep yourself on the straight and narrow what grinds you down and how do you respond to it how do you deal with it to keep yourself above of it okay so we're already entering into the dysfunctional zone now which is uh the things that get to us and cause as you said grind us down or stress and so on it's a it's a great question excellent question I appreciate it because I'm usually not asked this question either because of the halo effect or uh I don't know a respect but I think it's an a a very powerful question um I will just again speak what comes to me I mean I have been blessed and I say this with all humility I have been blessed not through work not through avoid this Hashem and not through your gear and efforts I guess by part of genetic makeup and DNA as well as that we discussed the environment of my father to have a certain intercom even among the storms so even when there's a tornado there's the eye of the tornado but there's an intercom I actually to be honest I'm just speaking openly here I become I'm at my best when there's stress because for us some reason I'm able to enter into that zone that just gives you a certain I guess like almost like an oasis you're like you're like buffered all right now I'm sorry is that the Halo is getting brighter right now no no God forbid no no no no no that's a Halos are are actually quite dangerous um so does that inner sense of Peace which really arises when there's a lot of tension around me and that is what I do I'm starting from the second half of the question but as far as the things that grind you down I'll be honest sometimes for me um even though I think I'm a royal Optimist I always like to look at to see the positive and things the light at the end of the tunnel and um but at the same time sometimes you feel that as much as you do are you really making an impact yes you can make a momentary impact and there's a certain uh apathy and even mediocrity that surrounds when you see people who get cynical or Petty you sometimes see people fighting over nonsense but they fight like it's world war three and that can get to you you know um and sometimes feel that am I really making a difference say I get depressed by it but I definitely am impacted by it another thing is and this is a very personal note when you see a lot of pain and people share with you you know things that have broken them tragedies mental health issues suicide you know the list goes on unfortunately and you're the person of empathy there's no way you can just immunize yourself and be indifferent I remember when I was younger it was very difficult because I always felt as my brother earlier said that you have to rise to the occasion but more come Shane ish you have to do something I always felt like a certain they're coming to me as I must do something it took me a long time to discover I can't solve every problem and there's some things that maybe has to lead someone elsewhere but I would really I remember the first time I heard about abuse you know real abuse serious abuse I couldn't even believe it I thought it was the I thought the person was making it up because I never experienced it in my life you know a father beating a child with a with a baseball bat I mean if you want to repeat some of these things and it gets worse it it like will overwhelm me and I remember I was saying to myself why am I being told this like what and I'll tell you the truth the only way to go is to dig deeper I had to dig deeper and I said to myself if Hashem created this world and he gave us a title and he gave us a scissors he also Magnum the full amaka he gave us the healing before the illness there has to be an answer even for the most horrendous and horrible things in this world and it was years ago I remember his disciple read and try to understand you know it's very hard to go into the kishkis of a person who's suffering something I never suffered and I have to say it it took a real toll on me I mean emotionally it took a serious toll and then you start saying it's so unfair children innocent defenseless people who did nothing and they're being hurt and you have to you have also an extent existential crisis crisis of Faith you know what does God want we all know we don't understand God's ways these things have always taken a very strong effect on me even till this day and ultimately it comes back to the eye of the tornado that you have to say light at the end of the day is stronger than darkens and that hope is stronger than any type of despair and as a as a person in my position I cannot afford to become part of the problem so I have to rise to the occasion to do the best that doesn't mean you have answers you know like one Rebel once said I don't have answers for you he told someone who suffered a tragedy but I can cry with you I could hold your hand I can walk with you and that's a strength that gives strength that consoles that Comforts of soul so that is uh The Human Condition can be quite beautiful but also quite painful you see things that are you know I've I've I'm fortunately unfortunately witnessed and experienced and heard things I never wanted to hear and it takes a toll but you know what at the end of the day you have to become stronger because it says as the as the as the Jews were oppressed it says they that in direct proportion to that they Thrive then they're flourished I like to believe that our challenges my own and the ones that I've heard and the ones that I've absorbed have only caused us to be to be a catapult us and be a springboard for me personally to become a greater person and to realize how more important it is that we need God more than ever as Holocaust Survivors say when they're asked where where was God in the Holocaust so the how do you believe in God after the Holocaust and they'll say who else do I have to believe in after the Holocaust not humans look what humans did how they betrayed their own Humanity so we have nothing but God and that becomes our greatest strength of all that when you're bound above you don't fall below and that's the eye of the Storm at the end of the day the runners home yeah okay Rabbi y 'all it's interesting I was just thinking as my brother was talking you know Jews suffer from guilt they say that if you're a Jew if a Jew doesn't feel guilty he blames himself and correct me Simon if I'm wrong I never felt that my father had any guilt is that true I agree I never saw it you know what our mother didn't didn't always like that my father it's interesting all Jews that I've ever met have deep guilt in them sometimes stronger sometimes weaker my father I never saw good and I was surprised how that happened you know especially Jews are stressed out how about you how about you and actually I think my brother Simon also doesn't have guilt I don't know you'll have to correct me never seem that way I was not blessed with that I have I also have anxiety from a young age and I also have I struggle with self-consciousness so when I speak or lecture these are some of the struggles that I have to work through in the past and also in the present and um there is uh I started to speak very very young age so in a way it's always a struggle for me like who am I you know not to make sure that the eye is not the eye that gets projected but there is a deeper eye there's a beautiful teaching from the market or the magnetism is Rich that I think is for me it's very relevant personally he says that it's Alicia Alicia wanted to prophesize but he felt he's not in the mood of prophecies he said bring me a singer a composer a musician as the Nagin started to be managing when he started to sing so he felt the spirit of God and he asks what does it mean can not gain ham and nagging it's a strange sequence and he says when the men again became the Negan when the when the singer becomes one with the song with the melody that's when the Divine energy can flow through him like a violin doesn't have an ego violin doesn't have insecurity violin is just a channel for the musics he says when the menaging becomes the naked we become one with the music for me that's always a challenge you know when I speak when I lecture when I communicate to people either individually or collectively in larger groups for the managing to be able to transcend my own fear my own insecurity my own traumas my own wounds and become a channel for the niggan and when that happens the Miracles occur around me and inside of me I'm asking each and every one of you to please take a few seconds to hear what I'm about to say I'm coming to you on behalf of an organization that means a great deal to me personally and should also mean a great deal to each and every member of our community amudim is an organization as so many of you are aware that responds to all kinds of Crisis whether it's personal familial communal whether it's in your own Community whether it's in your own state or across the world once a year we have an annual campaign in which the proceeds from this campaign comprise the overwhelming vast majority of our budget the entire year every single one of the services that we provide and every drop of assistance that we provide to those that are struggling or facing a crisis is we don't charge a single penny for this is the time that once a year we're coming to you to please open your minds open your hearts and open your pockets as much and as generously as you can because if you believe as I do that the issues we're dealing with are critical and need to be worked on further and that we need these resources readily available for when people do face a struggle or a crisis then please contribute to this campaign and please partner with us so together we can unite to heal [Music] beautiful okay so we're going to switch it up now we're going to actually give her a y opportunity answer first um both of you speak a lot and engage with a very broad audience however your audiences are a little bit different at times obviously there's there's like the Venn diagram there's some crossover over there but for the most part Rabbi YY is speaking to a Yeshiva World crowd uh across the board facetish blood fish yeshivish modern but more within the folds of a the Torah confine so to speak you already are already involved in Torah learning and Torah lifestyle and Rabbi Simmons is a little bit more engaged with the broader biolumines a beautiful a beautiful expression of your futsuma that's a very big thing get it out there and put it out there to everyone who can hear and everyone who can listen um there's there's obviously things that and both of you are deeply involved in the Chabad Community as well so the Chabad Community is to a certain degree to everybody outside of it it's such a powerful Community you know you have the Kenneth with thousands and thousands of people sitting in one ballroom and everyone obviously looks at it with an incredible amount of admiration Russian wherever I travel in the world the first thing I always do whenever I go anywhere is look up the Chabad house and engage with them so my question is going to be is like where can there be some cultural diffusion and where should there be so we'll start with with everybody why why uh what is the most important thing that the Yeshiva World needs to learn from Chabad and what should Chabad be learning from the Yeshiva World so you know it's it's it sounds like a great question and to make for an exciting answer but the truth is I think that today we live in a generation we're uh Jews are so much exposed to each other that to put it frankly somebody who may be called a Yeshiva a Yeshiva type of guy is often saturated with a lot of the energy and the wisdom of Chabad and sometimes somebody who grew up and calls themselves Chabad may actually still have to learn what the essence of Chabad is so you know I don't see it as color where there's two teams they stand for this they stand for this and I'll let them learn for each other from each other I think when you're dealing with deep psychological spiritual and emotional truths when you're dealing with avoidance Hashem things are very very intimate and very very personal and as Hashem told hanavi don't look at external appearances you know there's the guy who's maybe a lit for I don't know 30 Generations but uh his entire Persona and behavior day to day is a living embodiment of some of the great ideas of the balshev and sometimes conversely so I I really would not address one Community versus another Community I think in any community and in every individual and Collective there are great virtues and there are great flaws I would rather talk more about ideas and I think some of the ideas of Chabad hasidis that uh are really ideas that I think deserve to become the passion of every single Jew in order to really help us become the nation and the people that we need to become and and bring a Google of Consciousness to the world is I would say two of the foundational teachings of the balsham and of the balatanya number one this was on the deathbed of the balshamtov's father he was five years old and he told his son he said yes Relic don't fear anybody or anything but Hashem and number two love every Jew with every fiber of your being and it became the two fundamental teachings of the balsham number one meaning there is no division no real division in the world no real division between people if the doors of perception are cleansed everything appears as is a flow of divine Infinity to be able to transcend fragmentation and dichotomy to be able to realize that all the wisdoms of the world is all part of Oneness part of integrated Divinity and infinity and that includes science and physics and psychology and Mathematics and biology and Medicine there never would always say the Torah desire says that Madrid says is a blueprint for the world the whole universe is a manifestation of Terror spiritual Oneness is everywhere and therefore you don't have to be afraid of anybody or anything because within every reality you could find a Divine and number two is that ability to really see the souls and people to really be able to love every single drone by extension that means loving Humanity it's never using God as a crutch for our own religious insecurities and turning God into an excuse for judgmentalism dismissiveness OCD anger religious sense of superiority sometimes my religion could become the greatest obstacle to experience God because in the name of religion I can become judgmental I become full of hate and anger and Vengeance and it's all blamed on God and I think the balship were a real embodiments of showing people that it's not about you know how religious or not religious you are it's really when you live with Hashem in the deepest way so then whoever you meet you know you have one mission to help them find the godliness and Holiness within them and I think this these are two very powerful ideals that when we live with them all of us those who call themselves habotniks those who don't call themselves habadniks I think when we live with them we change ourselves and we create so much light in our environment among our children among our students and uh you know I think that today we live in a world of cross-pollination and what does the world of gula look like it's a world where you don't look at this Jew and say oh you're above you're a vision and say you're a lit you're a lubavitcher you're a breast liver you're a maranorthodox you're this and right away I'm stereotype you and that's not the real world that's not the real world of of yadishka the real world is a world in which of our souls shine when our souls shine we realize that we are all one Collective Soul a manifestation of divine Infinity whether I wish I wear a baseball cap I wear a barcelino Chicago hat or I wear a different type of yamuka and uh you know there may be some differences of No Such and distinctions and this emphasis or that emphasis but in that ultimate Oneness of Hashem for all part of Hashem you know stop chopping up God into so many different groups and pieces all right okay there are obviously I think I'll give an example of something for example where I believe like the element Shiva so to speak can learn from ability to really just share whatever is valuable in terms of teaching other people like if if you open up a Chabad house in in any any City I'm not sure what cities there are not yet a Chabad house so let's just call if you open up one on the moon you could have immediately like all your educational components and you have like all the beautiful Graphics there's an enormous amount of sharing of that information that that's the kind of things I was referring to more or certain um things but obviously you're you're going way deeper than that you're going to the the levels of like the the nishama level where we all come back to contribution my brother and I my brother even more than I because he's older I've heard this following statement by the lab I don't know I heard it maybe 200 times you probably heard it 900 times he quoted his great great grandfather the altareba the balotanya who would always say these words I said this is nishkan maflega which means never allow hasidis to become Party politics don't turn it into a political party color War where the red team there the green team we're gonna win we want color look at the king oh but look at this event but look at that event you lost the plot you now went into a color War ego insecurity place which we all have we're human we're human we all have it what do you call yourself this type of true that type of Truth his point was if you're really tuning in to the elocus to the godliness of yudhiska today every person you see every Jew you meet when you could cleanse yourself from external perceptions you realize that there is a deeper spiritual truth that really really unites us and that we are all part of okay so I'm going to I'm going to take that answer and that answer is basically saying we're not we're not going to go into that divisions we're just going to go into the other coast to the root level I really appreciate that I'm going to ask Rob Simmons one one question then we'll conclude with a final sort of a last remark from both of you so uh I want to talk to you a little bit more we're going to delve into the mental health area mental health challenges are on the rise prior to Cova the CDC reported that in 2019 about 20 of Americans were receiving mental health treatment and at least 16 of them were using medications to help with their challenges obviously after a year of being isolated people literally having almost no outside human contact uh having the media on all sides trying to Hype up the fear and the sense that large powerful groups are trying to harm you the mental health crisis today is far greater than it was before and while the numbers are better in The Firm world and indeed my friend Dr David Ross Marin who's a psychiatrist and a professor at Harvard Medical School has published many articles showing that living a religious life having a belief in a boring a Creator and living a more community-based life as we do brings down the incidence of mental health crises in significantly but we don't get a free pass and as a mood in can well describe we have a lot of real challenges to mental health in our community the rates of anxiety clinical depression OCD even suicidal ideations that would shock most viewers who are tuning in so on behalf of all those who are suffering how does the person react with debilitating depression to the point that it's a massive struggle to get out of bed how does the person with such great social anxiety that they can never eat in public and can barely muster the courage to utter a word at a simcha how does the Yeshiva boy battling OCD who's washing his hands 40 times a day to the point where his hands are raw when he goes back from seder to check that he didn't leave his jacket on his heater in his room 12 times a Seder how does that person connect to Hashem who obviously gave them these challenges challenges that they can't speak about to almost anybody because of all the stigma challenges they're afraid to talk about because of the of the ruining their own children with their families how does this person relate to the rabono Shalom creator of OCD and creator of generalized anxiety disorder I I can't control myself from asking how how much time do I have for this answer I would say that I don't know asking you should ask him you're asking me or you're asking us to answer a question that really would resolve every possible problem on Earth I mean we have eight billion people and some people say eight billion neurotics or or other forms of uh dealing with whether you're describing some of the conditions there are many others that you could include into the lot so to avoid getting into uh the generalities and really try to focus on a few key points let me pose the question a bit differently now you say God is the creator of OCD he's the creator of I guess schizophrenia of bipolar of uh of depression all the other types of disorders let's pose the question this way since God did create the human race and every human being and that's a a cloud that's what you said what does he expect of us he created us imperfect with the possibility of having different illnesses both physical emotional and mental so what does God expect of us you know to put it back or back to the idea that the terror is the blueprint for life it's not just a blueprint whether the chicken is kosher or not Kosher or what time Shabbos begins or this is it's a blueprint for every aspect of our lives and perhaps more relevant than anything is our personal well-being so how does a Jew look at this if you ask a secular person they'll say okay that's why we have therapy and we have medication and you know what the world is imperfect and that's it people are not well and God bless them whatever but Taylor either Skype says we have answers we have healing was a healthy world and mashir comes and the golu comes will be a completely healthy world so how do we integrate that I can tell you I've always asked asked this question to myself if they tell you that has answers it shouldn't just have answers like I said in one of the Llama test malachas or other technicalities in halach the answers to the biggest issues that plague us I just talking to our parents who just had a Down syndrome child and they can't get off what should we do this is a lifetime sentence so we're dealing with something that affects us all some in some ways more severe than others so the answer briefly is that the same Ambush that created the human being with all these challenges also created answers and solutions this doesn't mean that we can heal everything there are illnesses you can't physically here deal but this doesn't mean we can't do anything about it we're not victims so the data provides us with elaborate instructions let's just start with just eliminate one element says teaches us the commodity says maybe we can't heal if God causes someone to be sick who are we to intervene there's a there is a have a minute like that so Taylor says no but not be it up I've God says I've given permission which means I've given strength I've given medical wisdom my wisdom God is the Healer I'm the Healer but I've given the ability to human beings to figure out some medicine to figure out Solutions whether it's Physical Medicine whether it's psychological medicine so that's one thing if a person is in a situation you don't go and say if God forbid a person is suffering from very severe anxiety you don't just say go learn Taylor or do a Mitzvah yes in addition to that you have to go to a doctor they must have said so so that's critical to remember that going to a doctor is part of God's mandate it's not like saying that Taylor doesn't have an answer that's the Taylor's answer the Taylor is saying that abused gave power just like he gave strength to a person you go to a mum in any given area on the other end let's be honest like the rambam says there are things that are indeed spiritual maladies that medical medicine alone and doctors alone and surgery and therapy is not enough you do need an element of godliness because remember the most important principle is that that when a person is aligned with their physical lives are aligned with their spiritual lives that's how you draw down energy what is health health is seamlessness a flow an Aveda come is come from the word Avera means removed it moves away means connection when a person does a Mitzvah you're aligning your very physical life when a person is loving when a person is kind it's not just you're doing another person a favor you're doing yourself a favor because you're feeding the khesad and the other within your nishama aligning it to the way the able to created you you become a healthier person when a person has sinner in their heart it's not just an Aveda they're removing they're misaligning themselves so Taylor and Mitzvahs and the whole Jewish approach is also about healing Tata it says so coupled with any any of the medical interventions that are necessary we cannot ignore them we also look to create healthier children and healthier adults by being spiritually healthy my brother mentioned some of the elements I'll mention a few more the idea of Hashem is not just a nice concept of monotheism that there's one God it means there's one reality that when you align yourself with that Oneness within you you what do you do you counter fragmentation you counter all the different voices that drag you in many different ways so though that alone may not be the total solution to a mental health issue but it's definitely a big part of it so if you if you combine when necessary medical interventions psychological intervention with Terror intervention it's really a holistic picture that creates a a healthier person you know I'm taken by the name what does mean pillars so of course we talk about the three pillars three things that the world stands on what are the three pillars so most people say okay nice the hotel because the basis holds up the world it's a lot deeper than that I'll translate it now into simple English which often is necessary to appreciate it think of it as cognitive emotional and behavioral conditioning the data aligns your mind to think healthy you think Transcendent you think about things that are beyond the material what's what's available prayer it's emotional conditioning work in getting emotional intelligence becoming more empathetic to God and to others and what's in Behavior actions it's not enough just the mind and the heart you have to act in a healthier way I have an expression I use this you have to immerse yourself in a spiritual Spa just like a body gets comforted and soothed through a physical spot what's what's a spiritual Spa study prayer action SBA okay so we have all that we need to address the issues now let's be honest I wanted to say this and a final note that past the bottom line is we can't always say we have the answer to all problems we are given the tools to try our best but we learn how to navigate and we learn how to grow and frankly if we did what we had to do many problems would disappear and many would definitely be alleviated but the abuses decides to do even after our efforts is up to God but the fact is there's no question in my mind and this is what I find valuable about a mudiman about all our efforts is we can bring a lot more healing to this world than we can imagine and definitely that we shouldn't be part of the problem but be part of the solution wow that was that was beautiful and especially the way you broke that down cognitive emotional behavioral and how we really we have the whole picture here we have the whole picture here quite beautiful okay so we are now down to our final question it's going to be a quick one uh so the the total answer time for this one is 60 seconds so in Pierre que avos often it says which of course means he used to say but also they say his his in essence would tell you this I mean you watched him have you watched the way he lived it would scream out to you this message so we're now uh in our final question and we want to ask that you would want to be to be known for God willing which I'm like you know what what is that not what should be when someone's Tombstone someone asked me yesterday what do you want they should say about you in your funeral is it I'd rather just say I'm the guy who wouldn't quit Wouldn't Die wouldn't give up somehow Breaking All the medical Miracles but I'm saying what is the who are you I am Rabbi Simon what is the who are you aimer of Rabbi YY Jacobson in 60 seconds or less because we do have to fit it somewhere okay shiman paris's son said at his funeral president of Israel Paris that he asked his son what do you want me to run on your Tombstone and he said here's the man who died prematurely he was 94 years old uh I don't know is uh very uh very intense description but I'll tell you one message that I find when I communicated to myself and to audiences and to people both individually and in groups it has I find a very very transformative impact and that is really you know as my brother just said every single one of us has challenges many people who call them suffer very severe challenges whether it's mental illness mental anguish whether it's serious abuse or not serious abuse but sometimes you know benign abuse can have the same horrible impacts and I can't always go back and you know replay the scenes of my life certain things are just facts but I think one of the profoundest ideas that you described teaches in such an incredible fashion as how I frame my experiences it's all about framing you know you can have the same piece of art but if you use a different frame it looks very different we call it reframing and the first one who taught us to do that was my original namesake Joseph and David one of the most difficult lives in history on so many levels and through people who were supposed to love him and yet instead of falling into despair he became one of the most charming and enjoyable and beloved figures in the tamach he saved the world from famine and he told his brothers how he did it he said you did not sell me and what he was telling all of us is that any circumstances any mental pain mental illness challenges from within a from without and I'm confronting I could look at them in two ways one is I was sold I'm just a victim of other people's horrible choices a victim of my nature or my nurture my genes my epigenetics trauma of 2000 years or trauma or I could say I was sent God sent me into this place I am an ambassador of the Divine I'm ambassador of infinity charged to bring light into places that nobody else can but only me by the power of my infinite Soul which is a manifestation of Hashem in this world it doesn't take away the pain but the reframing of it transforms everything wow beautiful okay and Rabbi Simmons for the final word it's hard to Define your own but I'll say this the ableist who created God created each one of us with a unique song within you that you and only you can sing another way of putting it I put it in my book toward a meaning for Life birth is God saying you matter absolutely unconditionally you are indispensable so if I were to say one message that I would want to be remembered for and it's not my message it's a message which is ingrained in the very essence of theta is you were born an original don't become a copy you have songs inside you don't die with your song Still inside you discover your unique mission and discover the courage to express it and you're fully capable of doing that we get too many of us are conformists and we choose the easy path of just following the herd mentality you have a song you have many songs inside you I mean I'll quote Michelangelo even though he wasn't Jewish but he studied by Jewish Scholars when he was asked how do you carve those beautiful angels how do you sculpt them in the marble and his response which I'm sure you heard from the kabbalists in Venice and in Florence in Italy in his time was this I see the Angels trapped in the marble and I carved and carved and set them free we don't need to find beauty out there it's not in a book it's not on a shelf it's not in a product and it's not in Botox it's right here inside you your song your angel your flower but it gets trapped in Marble in concrete and other substances Discover it let it soar spread its wings live up to the unique calling that only you you and only you can accomplish in this world wow okay this has been an incredible incredible discussion first of all to to talk with both of you people who clearly are here on a mission like Rabbi y wise and clearly are not copies of anybody uh and are really bring out your own unique songs in the world so thank you so much for giving your time to ahmudim thank you for everything you do for claustrial and as we rap we just want to say thank you so much to amudim for their incredible and never-ending 24 7 support of Claudia thrall in every way shape and former will give you continued success and and when you should you should be able to thrive until we no longer need you Mr Shem with the coming of the Messiah Rabbi Levy yes say so yeah can I say something absolutely and I just think it's important I wanted to say it before but it slipped my mind and that is you know I think it's so so important for everybody hearing this this session this program or any of the other sessions you may pass it on to others whether you're listening or watching live or replay whatever it is just to realize that we as a community and as individuals we have to eliminate the stigma of not allowing young men and women to feel comfortable to speak about their anguish and suffering and pain if you're suffering from depression if you're suffering from other forms of internal psychological and emotional suffering trust me you can ask my brother you will certainly agree with me all of us in every single family there is dysfunction the only families I know that are perfect other families I don't know the only people I know are perfect are the people don't know each one of us is dealing with a lot a lot of stuff this this myth of the perfect from family is non-existent it never existed it never will exist until there are people you can trust not everybody but there are people you can trust open up because there's a lot of help out there I mean beautifully spoken and I think we still have to go back to I'm here to Sham with Michelle that's how we have to always rap so thank you so much again and we look forward to continued success and and continue learning the wisdom of the Jacobson family thank you thank you thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I hope you consider supporting the Buddhism I reached out to them many years ago for a family member and with all their resources available to me 24 7. it was comforting to know that when I called it was someone there to answer they got involved in my community and we did an outreach program and I know from that outreach program that many people were helped so again please consider It's a Wonderful type organization 24 7 dedicated people to help all who are in need for a family member or for themselves thank you [Music] hello this is Howard SV Friedman I'm here to tell you about the good work of amudim I am just a guy in Baltimore but when I need help I call amudim when people call me on how to get someone into the country for an emergency basis for someone who's sick I call ahmudum when someone calls me because someone dies in Israel and they need to bring the body to Israel I call amudum when someone calls me because it's a mental health issue and they need to get someone into a long-term care facility for for teenagers or young adults who are on alcohol or drug abuse I call them speaklock and David Kushner and their team are there to help every Jew no matter what no matter where they come from I'm honored to be a friend of our mudum hi my name is debaira Hellman nizax and I'm the founder of Abus class at USA and an expediter at higher medical resource during covid we had so many crisis with patients that needed to travel and so many last minute scenarios and David Kushner and Rabbi svigloc were instrumental in making magic happen literally and opening boundaries and opening locked doors that no one was able to open and we have so much akarastatova and the patients have so much leviath emergency transplants emergency transfers Israel America England um our gratitude and their gratitude knows no bounds so thank you [Music] you almost can have a conversation anymore today without somebody talking about the horrors that are facing Christ throughout our community and we used to think we're immune from and every single conversation you'll have with anybody of substance is going to come up horrific stories about abuse about trauma about addictions and everyone has the same feeling about it that they must be somebody who's dealing with it there's got to be somebody there are people out there who deal with it who are those people we have to we have to call the people that deal with this who are those people who are the ones that deal with it and what's scary to me is that is an organization called amudum and what they do all over the world you talk about investing millions and millions of dollars in research creating programs and creating awareness treatment plans treatment centers the things they're doing is incredible and so many people when they hear of it they're like oh those are those people that's the that situation they're the ones that are doing them a lot they're the ones that are doing the work that really every one of us should be doing everyone else has to be doing we have to be involved but we can't we can't the service that is going on the level of Crisis and Trauma and abuse and addiction is so it's so blown out of it's not blown out of proportion and spoken about it it's just ridiculous how how large of a problem has become and they are the ones that are there in the Forefront dealing with it and anyone that has the ability to help them you owe it you owe it to them to help them because really we should all be doing their work they're doing it for us they're doing the uncomfortable work that we don't want to do they're dealing with the cases that we don't want to deal with or we can't deal with and anyone who helps them anyone that that actually rolls up their sleeves to help them not just for what they do for others boy you should be doing yourself [Music] my name is Avi Feinstein and I just want to say that I am in awe of the wonderful work that ahmudum does and how they handle everything that they do with such incredible sensitivity it's the number one call for many people who are facing crises and I urge anyone who can support them to do so at this time thank you [Music] imagine if you had a family member that was in a far away City in a far away country I don't know in Norway somewhere and they had a tremendous amount of health and emotional problems and they were all alone and then suddenly somebody came and helped them how much would you have for those people the revolution sent some shamas down to this world that have terrible terrible problems and amudum is the organization that loves them and cares about them and makes them whole again so I just want to say from my own perspective supporting a mudim is something that makes Hashem happy and brings great healing to the world and something that that will bring mashiach [Music] I would like to thank amudan for being an organization that has filled some gaps in the Jewish Community where previously if people had troubles in various areas there was no address there was no phone number to call there was no people that could help people had to suffer in silence and today Hashem we have this organization that covers all sorts of areas from Mental Health to travel to assist people in every which way and for that reason I think deserves that support in every way that we can help the impact on medium has on people is both personal and Global a mood of stands to instill hope recognizes the survive from the victim and it helps Empower people through their journey of healing and growth and freedom gives people a chance at Living amidum also brings tremendous awareness regarding the most important and at least talked about topics in our community whether it be sexual abuse addiction or mental health and wisdom does not shy away when it comes to the most difficult situations that no one really ever imagines being young and Voodoo gives people a chance at living life thank you everyone for all that you do [Music] hi zombie cone here we're living in unprecedented times for organizations such as a moodum is stepping forward and helping so many of us here in South Florida and all over the world I call upon you to step up step forward to help us in this much needed campaign thank you [Music] hi this is Costco Bennett and I'm reaching out to you on behalf of the great organization amudim letter to my dear friend Rabbi SRI Glock we all know we're living in unprecedented times unprecedented times calls for unprecedented action through thick and thin for the highs and the lows of Life certain organizations really step forward and are there for everyone has established itself as one of those organizations they are embarking on their annual fundraising campaign times are so tough but the need for ahmudim has never been more important please as they step forward we must step forward too reach deep down and help support amudim as they continue their incredible tireless really below the radar work so many people hundreds and hundreds are being helped by the counselors by the professionals and by the tremendous heart of those who run and work for amudum a modem is there for us let's be there for them thanks [Music] I would like to say that a mudim has helped our community our Chabad house specifically there was a Russian woman whose mother passed away in Israel a year ago and there was no way for her as the only daughter to go to Israel but when I called you you were there you were busy with this for hours and hours and hours to get all the papers make sure everything worked so she could be in Israel for the lavaya I can't even imagine that this was only one story and one thing you did how many many hundreds and hundreds and thousands of things you do to help the Jewish Community to help the Yiddish people all of you are involved thank you very very much [Music] why I feel a mood in place in Integra Park in our community a moodum has filled a gap within the Jewish community that was lacking for years to move topics to our communities such as sexual abuse substance abuse and suicide with often the suicide resulting from not having anywhere to go to deal with being abused or a substance abuse that was never dealt with either due to shame or the community as a whole not being educated a mudum has tackled these issues from many different angles such as insurfacing the school system on abuse and what signs to look out for yearly Dramatical videos released to the public with various dramatization of the issues at hand and each and every one of them had a powerful influence to make the person watching understand the issue and have to deal with it should they face it themselves they offer various therapies when canceling to drug and alcohol rehabilitation in addition they are a distribution center for Narcan to help combat overdose in an emergency setting because of a modem parents now have the material and education they need in order to discuss important issues with the children about abuse drugs and alcohol I couldn't imagine how bad the statistics they would post weekly if a wooden didn't exist augustral owes them a debt of gratitude for all that they do so thank you to all the people involved Adam foreign Israel someone recently asked me in an interview what's it like living in these unprecedented times and I told him I'd prefer to be living in precedent at times but we don't get to make that choice and over the past few months we've been fortunate to help thousands during this crisis with issues governmental issues bureaucratic issues and unfortunately deaths and tragedies and the like and I can tell you that we would not be able to do what we do without the constant almost daily support of amudim they support us they give us the ability to do what we have to do you've got to support them thank you I would like to say a few special words about a modem an essential organization in our community has brought a lot of healing to many people in pain under the leadership of speak luck who's been a tremendous manifested for the Jewish Community for many many years and my special friend David Kushner we did some workout in Houston after Hurricane Harvey we were chasing Sparks as we called it a modem really is uh an organization that you can support fully and know that you're literally saving lives with the money you donate to them I'm looking we should go from strength to strength continue to do good things I'm in Kenny that zone [Music] hello my name is Daniel Brown I'm the director of La shmira the local showroom organization amudim is a unbelievable organization invaluable to the community uh we should all support amudan and we really appreciate this support that amudum gives us [Music] okay for the past over 20 years being in this field we always have the biggest problem of where is there a central place where every single person could go and get the help they need that doesn't mean that that place offers all the help that just means one central place that can literally deal with every situation with love and care and be able to send them to where they need to go and help along the way as they go amudim personas they did an incredible job doing something that I thought may have been impossible of literally being able to help every single Jew that I've ever sent so many times people call me I don't know what to do with them and I'm able to just say call out mudum and I'm proud to be a good friend of mammuda thank you [Music] hello everyone my name is Jaco Horowitz and we are delighted delighted to participate in this very special event to support amodim and does such extraordinary work in so many areas of Jewish life and as far as the two of us are concerned it's it's a the educational component helping children function in school and those who cannot make it in school and find it difficult to be part of our community when they're having challenges of of one one sort of the other so you know I had the great privilege to be around when uh men declined Allah of blessed memory uh started and I've been extraordinarily grateful for their contribution to Jewish life um is a dear friend of mine and uh I'm so incredibly impressed with all the work they're doing back is a is a just a superstar educator uh human being he doesn't do labels he just sees people um he has a remarkable School in Israel that I was very uh pleased to be able to observe firsthand he has a an orthodox school that has full bhagrut which are the high school graduation tests uh in the in America we would you know they considered region scholarship tests at the end of high school and he's just an amazing human being I think you'll all find him to be just a breath of fresh air and you you don't just won't want to miss the minute of the interviewer thank you so much for joining thank you so much Rabbi Horowitz and it's really a huge an amazing pleasure for me just to meet you again we met once at this school in Israel uh it was I I can tell you that the fact that you speak with my staff it was very powerful and very inspirational that's why they said not what I said just meeting you and if you you remember I'm not sure if you remember but I met you the first time for maybe for 10 years ago and you came this back to a very especially unique room in Israel that was in a leadership uh program and you came you came with your books and with your explanation and it was fascinating and I I just remember how I look at you and I said wow maybe one one day I will be yakovirovitz so it's just fascinating to fact that we can meet together again and speak about um Mutual issues it thinks what bothers us and and others yes I I I actually do remember Ravi schmolezagoda asked me to come yeah I believe in herza college right in Hebrew University I believe yeah and for those who aren't familiar they they got a grant to to educate 35 or 40 Orthodox Educators and to broaden their Horizons and teach them all sorts of of things in terms of Education and Leadership qualities and it was amazing it was an incredible experience lecturing to them that's when we met he said when they beat rabbit Harvest you didn't realize that so quickly you'd be way better than Robert Horowitz I've been watching your career with great pride<03:22:05.3