18 Years of CHAZAQ | The Story Behind Chazaq

how did kazak start kazak was started by my younger brother Yaniv when he was just a 15-year-old boy in high school he was basically a oneman show running from place to place trying to see how he could Inspire as many men and women of all Jewish [Music] backgrounds so what was the beginning it all started in the Year 2005 with a simple one page weekly partial paper with many many many many spelling mistakes a year later in 2006 Yaniv decided to start putting together lectures for the community at large and never forget that first lecture I ran Rush sh of 2006 you know we were expecting 20 30 40 maybe 50 people but approximately 500 people came in to be inspired at the next lecture and the next sh again four five 600 people every single week two three times a week people were coming in unbelievable numbers as they were thirsty to hear the truth then in 2007 j-wave our ath school program for public school teenagers was started thanks to a major Push by some young vibrant activists in the community who were looking to keep the youth off the streets and bring them into a safe and educational environment indeed slowly but surely the kazak lectures were expanding Beyond Queen's attracting people from all different communities and J was expanding and attracting so many teenage boys and girls on a daily basis we saw a tremendous thirst for growth people wanted more and more and more and pushing us to do even greater things but a turning point in kazak was in the 2016 year at that point we realized you know we're dealing with so many public school teenagers why wait for them to become teenagers why not Inspire them while they children and we started a shaping lives and Yu program for public school kids at that time we also started the PST division a unique division that dedicated just for guiding and assisting parents a toz of how to transfer their kids in public schools to Yas this is all started by organizing several huge events with many prominent rabim speaking about the importance of giving the children a Jewish education to know who they are and where they came from I heard that 10,000 children here in tens don't get Jewish Education 10,000 children learn wow indeed hundreds of parents show up these events and we put together Open House events where we had dozens of yot coming to one location to showcase the great educational and academics both in secular and Torah topics and hundreds express interest and transfering to the isas from that very start and at that time period That's when kazak also started teaming up withi a renamed organization that works with hundreds of organizations across the world we teamed up with them to take our J R division to the next level from that point on an absolute revolution has taken place when it comes to public school Outreach here in the United States what kak has accomplished in these few years it's something we never would have imagined to do in 10 20 or 30 years but since the 2017 school year kazak has touched their lives of approximately 5,000 different public school students and we have transferred over 1,500 to Yeshiva from New York to New Jersey to Florida and Canada Atlanta Arizona Los Angeles unbelievable accomplishments so many generations of Jewish children are going to know who they are and going to Value the Jewish Traditions but things didn't stop there later on in 2017 kazak started a new midash and col here in Queens New York that was targeting primarily young aspiring rabbis and businessmen that were looking for a place to learn for a place where they could grow all all the hard work they put in and their family life they were learning and we open up a whole division targeting them and giving them that taste of yiva Life while they were in the business world now as we celebrate our 18th year we are proud to say that we work hand inand with over 100 community centers and shws to organize lectures and events and inspiring men and women of all ages plus we are proud to say that we have over 20 after school program locations for children and teenagers here in the east coast along with two more locations in the west coast and we have our own unique Youth Center that's very beautiful and spacious in the heart of Queens New York but to quote our late Riva of Aron wkins at this is just the beginning there's so much more work to be done and we want to go further we want to do even more to assure that they have the foundations to live a successful life we're now holding our annual charity campaign to help us take our programs to the next level every donation you give is being doubled you give us one we get two so this is a great opportunity for all of us to get involved get your family and friends involved let everybody know about kazak's lifechanging work so as we look back at these 18 years of tremendous accomplishments we must look forward to even greater things in the future so I ask all of you let's get together let's be United cuz when we're United we're kak we're so much stronger and we could do things that we never imagined we could do