CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #147 Mr Abraham Biderman - No Child Left Behind

so people are thinking like we we have to worry about our own we don't have to worry about these children we have to worry about our own children but but it's not true are all the same as said all the time and so yes it's challenging times but you have to share whatever you can with your own children for sure but also those children that we want is waiting for us to bring back so he can bring the Gula he's waiting for that and always said show me my bring me my children and I'll show you where a great father I could be [Music] and welcome to Torah talks kazak's Tuesday night program with special guests we have with us our very dear friend welcome how are you thank you very much for joining us and we're gonna be discussing no child shall be left behind uh you know our baby is one that does so much and uh we're going to ask you first a little bit back about yourself and the great work you're involved with okay um so I learned inas I grew up actually in Queens right right around here excuse me and then I went to tadas and when I was in the 11th grade R was my RAB and that was in 1964 before Ram was rash before he was rash right and um we I remain very close to him until M literally his dying day for 37 years had tremendous tremendous to have a tremendous cat with him and I had a profound wonderful influence on my on me and my family and then I spent many years in the government in New York I was both the finance commissioner and then the housing commissioner when Ed Kat was the mayor and um when there were a lot of issues that came up I would also always turn to her pal to give me the guidance of what to do and what not to do and how to treat different situations and his guiding influence was uh avoid at all cost wow 100% very important so you took you you very seriously you made for yourself Rabbi you got yourself out of all doubts you had you to ask at all time all the time and in the last 10 years of his life I was likely to be on the side when he started chuu and uh watched him build that from a dream really a dream later it's called was a vision nobody thought that it could be but he made it happen and watch it grow and today we have a MOA with 6,000 children all over at unbeliev all of them from secular backgrounds none of them from from from birth and all of them becoming from from and some of them becoming Mish and light and everything else and everything in the middle but everyone better off every everyone improved and and it's really his vision that made it happen and he was involved the last 10 years of his life he really focused on that every single day believe GMA he would call people he would have parlor meetings he would uh in invite people to come to his house one onone and um he was every week he would we get a report on what happened this week and stories and and schools and everything and just a constant inspiration and a constant motivation for me and all the people that were involved at that time 100% I had the I the Merit I was invited to be on a shuu Mission to Israel and the line that they used all the time was you can't compare in hearing and seeing and it's so true I got to see all the all the different schools all the different areas all the different children it was such a such an inspiration to see these children unfortunately I didn't know much and to get a Jewish Education it's so inspiring and I'm so excited about it because this is what we do in America at kak where we try to place kids from public schools into and uh for your involvement with his holy work and shout out to our dear friend from Queens as well who's your co-chairman in this absolutely right now my partner in everything we do is Jesse hack we've been Partners now for maybe 20 years and uh we consult with each other every day and provide to each other which needed and and he Al also provides very substantial resources to keep the place going even when other people have gotten let's say focus on other good causes y's always there Focus to mostly not only but mostly on yeah so the topic of no child shall be left behind so many people I discussed this topic with and I tell them to get involved there's a famous quote that I always get let me take care of my own children let me take care of them let me focus on their and then I'll take care of the others out there what is your approach always said if you take sh's children he'll take care of your children it's the other way and he said you have to there's no difference between your children and and other children they were all's children and said you know people used to come with him with very dark very very um questions about F really nothing to do with just to be a little nicer a little better and he would say and what about all the children that don't have children at all what are you thinking about them what are you do about them so you know today the is grown is growing dramatically and continues to grow that the majority of Jews both in here and in AR unfortunately are not from and uh no connection to Judaism we see it all the time it's scary none at all and um I I I mentioned the story to you privately that um we gave out for suus we give out and to the children you know not the babies and my mother came in with her little girl um and she wanted to know what to do and to make a br she made a br with the teacher and then she asked the teacher so I eat it now and and this is the lady that was born in there who must have been in her 40s and so we don't have they if they were born in a secular environment they really know almost nothing almost nothing and that's true here of course as well and so we can't be oblivious to to what the B's children and he's and is always has always said is waiting for his children to come back and then he'll bring us what we need for ourselves as well wow so so you're saying just the opposite get involved with hashem's children with the other children and automatically it will be a direct effect a positive effect on your own children and your children will notice it your children no did you care about CL did you care about er do you care about and that that impacts them more than giving them mus or you know actions speak louder than words absolutely and I see with my kids they see my involved with the cloud with the community and it definitely has an effect on them so uh is everyone's mind you know how to take care of children and how to raise them right and you had very close CER with the from tadas uh any uh lessons that you remember that the rash Shiva would give over always to treat do it with always I remember we were we would when I had the first time I was uh 16 year old and we were young active boys and there was one boy in the class who was particularly active you know he's you wouldn't tell that today when you see him but he was um full of energy full of energy maybe you call me my little troublemaker okay and then came parents teachers day and we were all nervous as to um what would tell our parents and his parents happened to be first this boys and we were listening behind the wall you know and praised this kid to the sky You' think it was and then we had a sigh of relief we knew we was safe and so that's the way he treated her he never never scolded always encouraged and loved ra and that's how that's the model we use in his and that's the model we use in Shu as well only with love you get people closer that is our attitude as well at in Hebrew we say being educa our children with a smile with positivity always that's what we do as well and that's what they have to do especially in the world we live in today in today's day of age this generation they they need that extra love and that warmth and that and you know I didn't have theot the Merit to uh to meet Ram Z uh at least I don't think so uh but I was definitely young if that was the case and uh but the pictures and the stories that you hear and we say he wasn't so tall no very small but height-wise but it was huge and and Godless no it was wonderful warm wonderful person that and everybody came into his house into his environment felt it and they still feel it and even though it's over 20 years later it's something that I feel like is so powerful in the sense that you have a g that have passed away and you have many G many Torah Giants that have passed away with the Legacy that he left through shuu and I see it all the time whether it's the dinners that I go to or the events or whatever it is that that emblem of of shuu of palm it's one one and the same and he let see he left all inter that you have to be a men you have to do treat people properly you have to be honest in business you have to do everything but have and and and you can tell it in there's a and all the some them all of them yep yep I know many of them and and we see that 100% so uh No Child Left Behind uh a practical way for one to make sure or to get involved well there are many wonderful Moes that deal with these children obviously you can do it oneon-one if you have a neighbor where it's not easy to do that it doesn't always work if you deal with Professionals in K whether it's in in America or just and you connect to them either by helping them financially which is very very important absolutely or getting involv with some of their specific projects or specific places specific schools then you could um you could really influence people and there is a pin and everybody and we see a lot of it now after October 7th to people who had no shakas I mean there was um I read in one of the articles there was this person who um want to a demonstration in and he took a a bunch of big schum with him and a bunch OFA boys um on the other side of the fence and he took he threw the the schum at the boys and he figured they would run and GB them you know and that was his and they ignored it totally and he became so humiliated that he realized he didn't understand these people at all and now he's become about Chua and you have that time again we see it in Chua we have a tremendous tremend this registration demand well over a thousand new children that want to come into Shu this year we just need the money to to bring them in and they they some of them would never have even considered a Shu school before but they see that um that b runs the world and they need it's so they need that they they need that and they see what what what they fought was infallible is not and they need they realize that they have to turn to Hashem to help them and and that's what's happening throughout the country especially in the South where they were most hit but we're seeing it in the north we're seeing we have schools inra I mean and in all the way down to Bev and all the way North to AKO and all over the country people are saying we're missing something you know they didn't know if it necessar know Shay is they they want to know there's a thirst and I believe it's here as well the thirst after October 7th The Thirst to get closer to Hashem and to to beg for him beg to to help us when we're really in not a very easy time people are thirsty for the truth they're thirsty for Torah and we see it constantly 100% there's there's people lacking and here we are we're looking to provide to these people to give them opportunities to get involved and that's actually how our family became from meaning my parents were traditional but my brothers my older brothers to and they brought Torah home you know all this stuff and parents were traditional they weren't against little by little everything started picking up and uh that's how schools all the time every in every school we see that and we see that the children come home and then the parents say that we want to know especially now when the say we have mod seders a lot of the people don't even know what a s there is and all of a sudden they come home they want to have a real seder and they ask we get matah and wine and and very often the little child who might be 10 11 years old is leading the Seder because the parents don't know how to but they want it wow 100% I would like to add to a practical tip that's really really really practical you know everybody listening and everybody that we know they have family members friends neighbors co-workers that have family members in public schools and all you have to do and I've seen this work many many times over here in America through kak and this could easily work in Isel and Israel for all those that have family members over there you notify them that there's organizations that exist that work hand in hand with you to place kids to Yeshiva you'll be shocked Howell they'll be open to it I'll tell you a story over here we have the Yeshiva placement Division and uh we have everything very organized and documented the most amazing staff of amazing re and long story short a certain mother that we called and she said don't call me again uh or or or she hung up the phone sorry she hung up the phone that was so our system is to follow up every so often so let's say 6 months later they call again and uh no not interested but we followed up six months later and then you know what happened oh something happened to the family there's an interest and about six months later they're in Isa never to give up hope no child shall be left behind no every single Jewish child deserves a Jewish Education all we have to do is reach out and by the way many of these children are the the children and great great children great great grandchildren huge rabbis yes I hear it all the time we had one person who works for Shu now he he's already married and everything but he said when he was growing up they told him there was a big Rabbi in the background he didn't want anything about it and turn when now we got from he said he was he a wow wow and we have a great grandmother who came into school after last year and she saw the simonm that she had not seen she said in in since 100 70 80 90 years ago she was a very old lady and she was she's the great granddaughter of the ram wow and and so these I remember ketki told me who had a cat with yeah a wonderful person and he said two people will thank you the grandchildren of his children and the great grandparents of these children those were people will thank you because they see they up there in Shay they're begging somebody to go bring their children back and and you're doing it and we're doing it and I have cases of uh of people telling me don't look at me the way I am you know who my great great grandfather was and they start telling me it was this I'm like okay your great great grandfather is in a great place right now but how about you and they're like oh they thought they're that we're going to be impressed yes it's impressive to have the the lineage but we have to continue it we have to go on the right path of course it's very very important so we have a minhag we have a customer baby a final message for our broad audience well it's a challenging Financial time now and many there's a lot of needs within our communities all our communities and um so people are thinking like we we have to worry about our own we don't have to worry about these children we have to worry about our own children but but it's not true are all the same that's all the time and so yes it's challenging times but you have to share whatever you can with your own children for sure but also those children that we want to was waiting for us to bring back so he can bring the Gula he's waiting for that then always said show me my bring me my children and I'll show you where great father I could be that's what bring me back my children so yes the time is are challenging the needs are great and but we have to do both 100% very very powerful message and this is music tear ears or baby because this is what we do and it's important for everyone to get involved family friends neighbors co-works whoever may be reach out let let say that interested no child shall have behind every single Jew child deserves a Jewish Education you'll see the the the the fruits of your labor it's it's such it's such a Sim when you see you you know many years ago you helped a certain family or a certain child and they grow up and they have families and children it's just the biggest in the world and and I've seen it in when I was there I see it over here all the time we want you to enjoy that as well so uh please get involved and uh don't let it go in one ear and other the other year but get involved and we should only hear want to thank you all that you do baby thank you you do we should only only good news and we want to thank everyone kazak's Tuesday to our talks with special guests 8:30 p.m Eastern Standard Time kazak live chq.org glive special thank you to our friends at Tor anytime and all the other podcast players and platforms that host our amazing Tor talks that we have uh suggestions for future guests and dedications are always available reach out to us at info k.org info cjz q.org especially thanks to our friends at Daily giving a goes are very very far away very appreciative of that as well and to the most amazing staff and team in the world Natan bear behind the camera thank you very much and all the staff members and board members and volunteers and and and donors we're forever grateful wish only here only good news we should be to Redemption should come ideas very very [Music] nice