Chani Gotlieb - Unsung Heroines, Timeless Courage Revealed - Project Inspire Convention 2025

um my name is Han glib I uh was born and bred in ER Israel I have lived in New York I think for now over 15 years um I teach in high schools Manhattan High School yde High School taught in Prospect Park High School and I give uh lectures to women in the community we have a regular uh partial share in our community and um I have here my uh what should we say I my student Mel so I guided um a historical tour which is the hat that I wear uh that of a historian to Spain Portugal and gibralta this past summer with L tours selectors um so I think we can get started just intro um and you're teaching reiton yeah and I started teaching rebon reiton curriculum so we started doing this as well um okay so I think we can start I want to ask you something before I play a few minutes of this documentary I want to ask you if you have heard the name Judy Feld car yes wow that's the first yes I'm getting anyone else okay so we're talking about one of the great hearings of our Nations a contemporary he still alive and most of us haven't heard about right except for you and you'll have to tell us how did you hear about her once we uh introduce her we'll maybe not priv okay so let's meet Judy Feld Carr hope that technology is going to a man from Damascus came to Toronto and left me his son and went back to Damascus and the kid was crying in my backyard he didn't know if he would see his son a year later he came back with another son and left me his son and went back to Syria because his wife and his other children were left left behind [Music] B [Music] the Israel Consul whose name was Jack MZ said to us shal yell a lot yell a lot about what where are the Jews is there a rabbi is there a Shu where what is it we had no knowledge for for we decided to call somebody in Damascus who in Damascus we don't know maybe it was the whole thing was Misha what are we doing we don't even know what we're doing the operator in Damascus puts us through to a woman Jewish woman in Damascus we found out she wasn't home and again Bashar she wasn't home but her husband was home this woman worked for the mukhabarat a Jewish woman who worked for the secret police her husband was home and I swear we must have given this man a heart attack he gave us the name of the rabbi the name of the school the phone number of the school and the lines went dead a week later the telegram company calls me up and says I have a telegram for you from Damascus oh my God I said read it to me on the phone and she reads it to me the rabbi sent the first shopping list of books we need the following books in Damascus and he signed it and that was the first Contact into Syria since 1948 for okay so now that we know the lady I met her this year and I am not not in person I met the woman behind the story as in her name for the first time and the fact that we sitting in this room mostly ashkan woman I believe uh never heard of here is less surprising yeah syrians anyone from Syria okay but I think that when I mentioned her name to a group of Syrian women and there was only one woman in the audience who heard the name that I realized how great the woman is that she was able to conceal her greatness now we're not going to watch the entire um documentary um you are welcome to uh watch it at your own time at the end she explains why such an operation that she took upon herself one woman risking her life is unknown to us is unknown to most of the individuals that she saved I had one student who told me yes my grandfather is in America because of that lady but most of the people that she saved never heard her name and she says I did not want to impose that obligation and disc comfort of gratitude on those that I saved so she remained behind the scenes unless you watch the documentary the role of a woman in times of Crisis is going to be the focus of our next yum puim and we all talk about this EST who saved the Jewish people and I think it's fascinating to to see that those ests live with us and sometimes under the radar because no one wrote their story as of now and I want to tap into this unique role model that can help us follow in her footsteps you know that famous um slogan if you see something say something a Jewish heroine lives by the Mantra if you see something do something and for me this is the unbelievable message of that woman the story starts not with a rabbitson the story starts with a woman who reads the newspaper like all of us do and she sees a disturbing headline in that headline there is a report of 12 Jews from Syria who tried to escape Syria which has become a prison for Jews smuggled themselves across the border were caught and all of them were shut to death many people read the headline but when Judy read the headline she turned to her husband and said we got to do something about it now how do you do something about it here you are she is a a a teacher of music in a university she's a young woman a mother of three children what does that mean I'm going to do something about it so she tries she goes to the culate and those of us who made it to the beginning of the film she gets nowhere says okay do your best shal end and then she goes to the safarik Sho in Toronto and I think it's Moroccan if I'm not mistaken she speaks to the rabbi they try to make a phone call a random woman to to a random number in Syria and she gets through and she receives the name and address of the rabbi and she sends a telegram to the rabbi now this is Syria under the Assad regime so the only thing that the rabbi telegrams back is a list of books that he wants that woman that Jewish unknown woman to send her and she does and what she does when she sends the book book she also puts money inside she doesn't know if the box is actually going to reach its destination but just in case and a code and from that start of a woman who is not connected to the authorities who is not connected to any organization the next 30 years of a rescue operation a secret rescue operation of hundreds of Syrian Jews started she she continues with the interview she describes her agent she couldn't call she couldn't write letters but there were people who left Syria to visit they were given a Visa for a visit but the cruelty of the authorities was they wanted to make sure that they come back because immigration was forbidden so what they did is they had to leave family members behind um I had in my classroom this week and that's how I uh became became familiar with the story and eventually with uh uh that heroine I had uh a student's father who was 13 years old when he and his married Brothers tried to cross the border illegally and got caught and then I asked him I don't understand what is a 13-year-old doing with his brothers crossing the bord where were your parents so he tells me my parents already Left To America with their daughter who was shot in the previous attempt to run away and there couldn't be treatment for her in America so they got permission to leave Syria parents and wounded daughter living behind the kids because the authorities know that if the kids stay behind then the parents will come back well the plan was for the kids to follow except they were caught and the parents ended up coming back so this is one story of many sto stories in which women rise to the occasion let's go back to Estelle because this is kazal tell us that EST continues a dynasty that excels in which quality she's the third in her family heritage that follows a certain trademark so kelle tell us where where was EST silent previous leader that is marked as the silent where was YF quiet we have Rael the mother and who of rael's son was silent bamin what's the um heavan of bamin this is our para right big dayun what's the gem of bamin in the if you take the word and you divide it into two yes where was bam quiet what did he not reveal when told him don't to my brother they and he never told his father right I know y YF was kidnapped he did not say anything so talk about ra ra she was the one that excelled in this quality of Silence amul so she had descendants who showed that same strengths of character where was Estelle where was Rael quiet like when we talk about Rael you know and we introduce uh uh Rael to very young students what is the story that we elaborate on so then what's the quality that woman that really gave away a husband when we when the Moa introduces that story is she talking about silence what is she talking about vut where is the silence that originally how do we know that so let's follow rael's greatness Rael is the epitome of Silence where was The Silence so the midash tells us that throughout the seven years that Rael was engaged to yov yov did what aan does which is send her gifts and who received the gifts Lavan the father what did Lavan the father do with those gifts gave them to Leah so you have this bride she sees those gifts they belong to ha they were sent to ha and her sister is receiving them instead of ha and for seven years she's quiet now how do we know that she never tipped off Le and told her by the way I am the one who is engaged to Yakov and these gifts are really mine not yours what hint do we have to that in the actual Pim well that's not written in the Pim this is a mid so she gave her the SIM that would be what are those Simon and she told her it's not not so what were the Simon so what she did so what she did she did not tell her you know I am swapping with you she said you know I know the family you know we cousins and in the family we have certain Customs the customs of Jewish Women are the three mitzvot of the woman he's going to ask you about it just make sure that you know the answers she never told her that this was the secret sign on which they agreed when yov suspected that Lavan is going to try to give him the wrong daughter she never said that and one of the strongest Pim that we have comes later on so she Leah is the first wife Rael enters the house house 7 days later and lei is the one who is blessed with children while Rael is Baron and then there is a very difficult mysterious incident with those dudaim that ruen brings from the field supposedly that kind of fruit was good for fertility and Rael asks Leah to give some to her because she doesn't even have one child and what's the response of Leah which is unbelievable isn't it enough that you took that you took my husband who says that so here is the hint that throughout the years of the marriage when Rael watches how Leah is blessed with one child after another Leah still believes that yov was her husband and it was Rael that came into the household and created that tension of one lady that is favored over the other the Great greatness that kazal point out in this very complex situation is the silence because giving the Simon the decision okay under the not I don't want to see my sister embarrassed we can sometimes rise to the occasion you know we have the adrenaline we feel like okay we want to do something great we get inspired and we leap to Heights that are normally not our regular selves but to be able to be quiet year after year seven years of Engagement then in the household and not to say anything this is what kazal point out that Thea of Rael and now let's move on to her descendant bamin was quiet where was yourself quiet I've never met his father again once they were in because he didn't want his brothers to think that in the quiet he's going to tell his father what so that's a mid so y but mid that says the next Ben that the mid points out is bamin and then and then EST sha where was sha quiet what do we know about cha quiet silence right this is this is the quality that is pointed out so sha if you remember there's this famous uh uh um pasuk that has become a phrase in Hebrew sha went to search for the dunkeys he lost the dunke his father lost the dunis and he went to search for them and in those good old days when you can't find somebody who do you go to the navi who is the navi at the time shmuel so he went to find the donkeys and shmoel tells him oh by the way you are going to be the first king of am Israel now what would we have done if we were chosen to such an unprecedented role leadership without any preparation right we're going to Twitter it to the world what does Shaul do he comes back home he went to search for the dunkeys he was coronated to be the king and he's not telling anyone this is the the of sha and then we get to EST Estelle who does not answer the basic questions of which nation are you from and which country are you from now why was it so important to hide this information key key this woman who we start seeing as a very disciplined obedient woman right morai said not to reveal her identity she follows him but when the crisis arrives she Rises and risks her life so we have here women who do great things and they remain silent unless they are forced to stand in the Limelight and the question is why is is this an admirable quality that kazal point out in that dynasty that starts with Rael and reaches a peak with est in megat you see in the word EST this settle this quiet this concealed Place why is that such a loaded quality to be quiet in a world that we live in Where We Can't Stop talking so I want to read a very interesting piece that made it into the um Wall Street Journal written obviously by uh woman who is very familiar with our community and as such she could um bring the very relevant examples of the other alternative where we don't have the quiet oh this is what I need to do I think yeah okay give me just one second yeah we don't need it on the let me just find it okay Wall Street Journal do I have the date I usually like to write the date and the author okay the um title of the article is Modesty on Instagram is a tough balance the writer is Beva no um the date is March 2018 and again I chose just an exerpt and I gave you the source so you can read the entire essay Orthodox Jewish women trade fashion tips and photos online is it kosher that's the question it isn't unusual for a blogger to publish a petition for prayer followed by a Runway image of the newest Burberry dress one modesty blogger who boast more than 30,000 Instagram followers often post photos with shoes or bags that likely cost more than some of her followers monthly rent the same fashionista in August 27th shared a picture of herself wearing a diamond encrusted Cartier watch while kneading Hal the weekly Jewish ritual meant to invoke cabalistic charm and another blogger who colors her post with more religious messaging once shared a photo of herself at a medieval robbi's grave site Hal Hebrew for Jewish law directly translates as walking the name serves as a reminder Remer that Judaism isn't merely a legal code but an all encompassing lifestyle and I think that when we ask ourself quiet silence or boasting and flaunting every experience and every place that we go to is that Hally correct we are not just asking okay so let's open the classic works and check if there is any SI that tells us what we allowed to share in public and whatnot we ask ourself is that the way that we should walk in our journey in life and the counter examples both from the past and the present suggest otherwise and the question is why so you know I have this because I teach so many different uh students from so many different backgrounds I had this student sister who comes to to the class and says that she has a million followers on Instagram and I and I asked her out of curiosity this young girl what is your claim to fame like what did you do that you have a million followers I'm too embarrassed to share with you the answer definitely when it's recorded you could be a great person and no one heard of you and you could be somebody who has a million followers and ask yourself what is it that they follow and I think this gives brings us to the Crux of the problem and I would not be able to do justice to it in the 10 minutes that we have but if this gives us some food for thought and there is a long shabas where we going to be able to explore things further um then we did something rbe when he talks about this topic of modesty and I just want to say something that occurred to me today you know when I came to America and I introduced myself as an educator and a speaker I remember the first very warm uh uh friends circle where I was told you want to speak that's lovely but don't speak about 15 years ago what should I say speak about what was the topic that if you mentioned it oh enough we heard enough of that don't speak about today you have any problem to hear about anyone talking about s you know what today is the no no don't talk about technology and I was just telling myself so interesting that it's one and the same because when we say as in the of right bamin I met YF is's not sharing the news YF as you said is not sharing the news it's the same modesty that we're talking about modesty is a quality it's a trait and Raa explains what is it what are we talking about it has certain applications in our external appearance but it also has to do with what we say and what we don't say what is is so admirable in and you see from the examples that it's not limited to women right when kazal point out that sha followed in the footsteps of um his ancestor Rael sha is a man they're not talking about the dress they're talking about the ability to have an internal self which is not projected to the outside world let's try to understand why this is so crucial for people who want to walk in the path of Hala and grow we all know the basics we hear because we want to be inspired at the same time I was too nervous to uh really partake in the beautiful um Buffet over there but I will over chabas so you see we we we are pulled in two directions right on the one hand it's very good food out there on the other hand there are sh and as long as we can do both we're quite good and we tell ourself of course on Shabbat and all that we are a very complex composite of physicality and spirituality physicality is loud it's external it's visible it's on Instagram it has a million followers the N cannot be projected on Instagram I remember when Rim kki passed away I remember one of the titles was he had a million followers and he didn't even have a phone but this is completely different because as I tell my students when they ask what's wrong with that okay so this you know you know why it's a problem because the very opposite of the Nish it's taking the human being this girl who has a million followers what is she known for is there anywhere on her I don't know account where the nas speaks what do people follow when they follow a post so what happens is you take the complex human being whose main part is internal and not visible we cannot see the N just like we cannot see Hashem this is spiritual this does not have any way that could be put on a screen or photographed and we make that the one and only thing that is me now I don't know if you follow what happens as a result or you look look now into a certain exertion that you want to take so it's one thing to say okay I was in a very nice place I want to remember it so I'm going to take a picture so the picture is going to remind me of the experience the experience is greater than the picture right because the experience had a lot of other stimulations of my senses that are not in the picture and my feelings and my thoughts this is not going to be in the picture but the picture will Remar remind me of the experience and then I'll access that memory of the experience in my mind but you know what's happening now you choose your exertion for the picture meaning the picture is no longer just a marginalized way to remember something extraordinary what you take the experience and reduce it to the picture and you choose the place that will give you the best picture the experience is gone it's not significant it's only what I can post and what people can see and follow and when we do that we take the physical aspect of any experience and any activity that we engage in and make that into the one and only thing that counts because the the inner self has no place in the Limelight the inner self is hidden and I think we have all experienced to some extent how when we really have a very strong emotional experience when we start sharing it again and again and again it becomes very cheapened it's no longer that transform ative experience we took something that should be internal and we just put it out there for everyone but then we lost it we no longer own the experience the of RA the of EST Thea of sha is the ability to hold on to something transformative to the degree of turning from a simple person to a King and holding it for yourself without having to share it with anyone else and by this you develop that part which is the main part that internal self which is who we are just like is noten the is not seen I just want to end with one more example and that is the exceptions to the rule so we started with this woman who was unknown to us even though she should have received the accolades for her courage to risk a life we saw her reasoning when you tell people they feel grateful they have a certain burden of gratitude she wanted to spare that from them it also allows the action to be real and not for the public doain domain and then you have ulterior motivation aside from the real value there are exceptions when are we allowed to publ publicize good things that we do so we have three individuals in tanak that interestingly enough the midash points out that had they known when they performed the action that they would be written down for posterity they would have done more okay so you tell me who are those uh um individuals that are pointed out okay Aon okay quick review Boaz what did he do that was written down for posterity and that I would have done so much more he gave root six shim as a meal to take away with her after the night she spends in the threshing floor and he said o had I known that this is going to be written down in tanak I would have given her a feast and what does theuk say had I known I would have come with an all an Orchestra to greet MOS and then the third one what diden do took out yourself said had I known I would have done it in so much more flare what's going on if you're doing something good something real once you stop publicizing it you lose it why would you do that what's the exception the only reason why those individuals who never sought the Limelight said that they would have done it in a more public way was because the stories were written in tanak for what purpose to teach us to teach us it's not that they were written there so they would get a million followers it was written as a as a teaching as a lesson for Generations sometimes you compromise your own good by sharing things that you did right because it could Inspire other individuals to follow suit and that's the reason the only reason why it's okay you know when they do the charity not to donate an A A as an an anonymous um donor but to write your name with the amount because somebody else might see and say oh so and so gave that much I must give as well this is the only time and I'll just end with a beautiful story of kki supposed to tell your children for the same reason for the same reason only in order to teach but otherwise quiet it's between me and kki had very interesting question presented to him by RAB bar rosenblau this is where I took it fromen gives phenomenal if you understand Hebrew phenomenal so here is one of the stories that he shared there was a Yeshiva and a donor donated a million dollars so that his father's name would be on the building okay then someone else came along and and donated $4 million on condition that his father's name will be on the building so now what do you do so the question was presented to Rim kvki the individual who was the first one to uh uh donate the money said he has a Dinka he came first so what if he's only giving a million and not four Millions but he came first and the other guy cannot take it away from him so asked the individual one second do you know that you gave a million dollars for the Yeshiva yes does your father up there know that you gave a million dollar for the Yesa yes does a who know that you gave a million dollar for the Yeshiva yes so what is the problem so in your marit the Yeshiva is not only going to get a million dollar it's going to get $5 million so what's problem this is the understanding that when I do something I don't do it so that everyone around can applaud I do it because this isem and I live it within my spiritual component once I start floating around and advertising unless I'm a teacher then it becomes physicality then it's myself and my ego it's no longer the value of the inner self so I hope we enter this um uh Shabbat of inspiration and I hope we'll be able one of the beautiful things that I like about Shabbat even though they didn't put me to speak on Shabbat is that you cannot record it Remains The Day of the N inside internal and I hope we come out of here with the very strong message of that that silent woman of our time the Jewish people needs a lot if we see something do something