CHAZAQ Torah Talks #116 Rabbi Avrohom Hecht - Voter Engagment

[Music] foreign [Music] key Gardens that's right so uh we're gonna be speaking about voter education which is very important in other rabbis very very absolutely active which is very important we're going to be discussing it but before we get to today's topic we could get a little background of the rabbi and the great work you're involved with so bro Hashem um I'm actually the first person that gets me from David Feinstein I learned under mtj commercial Feinstein but I also learned for many many years in my father also is still involved with Yeshiva for about 70 years more than 70 years so Hashem um we feel very close to the Torah world and I think that's that's the Torah is important to keep our community going on all levels 100 amazing Rabbi uh thank you for all that you've done and continue to do for college over the Jewish people I know many stories of individuals and when they came to this country and the rabbit was always there for them so like was mentioned we're going to discuss voter education and uh you know one that's involved with the community we're always encouraging people to go and register to vote and to go out the vote and many times people tell us Hashem takes care of us you know I vote for Hashem and I get that a lot what is the answer to such so I want to tell you it's true who wants things to happen and Hashem will make sure that it happens but we should be zoha we should be lucky that we are the ones that we are empowered by Hashem that we are able to do and sometimes things fall into our lap and we have an opportunity to make a difference and so if we could be the shlia we could be the messenger to help the Jewish people that is something which is very very important and things um come about I'll I'll just tell you uh like 36 years ago I was learning KOLO and then we started getting a lot of bakari families that were coming coming to Queens and um I had some involvement before I was involved with the jet program and we worked with a lot of kids from the public schools and we started seeing a lot of bihari and youth there as well and it was very very enriching to work with the Bahari families but uh they needed education there was no schools today I have a lot of fun uh I have a lot of satisfaction seeing all the Jewish schools that are there today many more schools in the works and they're working and they're working on expanding and I've helped some of them actually also to look at the capital monies but it's important that a Jewish child has the opportunity to have a Jewish Education makes a very big difference just coming in here I always meet meet young people who I knew from years ago and I was so happy to meet just a young person um I stopped at the gas station to get gas and I met someone who I recognized for many years ago and now he has a daughter who's getting married and she's marrying a bentura and is now another family we invested in these people and look all the families that we're building which which is the fiber of our community when the family is strong then the community is strong so we need to focus on the families as well and on every individual person so there's a lot of talk that now more than ever people need to be active people need to be politically active why is there such a like now now so I could tell you first of all it's very important to be involved and Commercial Feinstein who was the greatest Rabbi who who uh deciding the Jewish law from the previous is a generation 39 years ago he wrote a a response on halacha achuva the importance of voting and he says that we have to have hakaradato we have to have appreciation to the American government that we run away from lands of of Oppression and we have rights and uh we have freedom and that's important why we should vote I think today it's even more important because because the Winds of Change are coming across our community and people don't want us to have the same type of lifestyle that we have more of a uh of a socialist or Progressive type of Lifestyle with many of the people escape from the Soviet Union from oppression did not appreciate the life of Communism or socialism but these ideas are here today and therefore we need to be active to work with candidates that are closer to our understanding and our way of life and representing the rabbi is very much involved with that and it's very very very important and uh many people can I just mention something of course please so in Queens I'm involved with Project Lead yes we have hundreds or hundreds of young people who we work with and we also have hundreds of hundreds of families that we help with food including many many Holocaust Survivors and elderly but besides that and Canarsie I'm also involved in currency in queensis Project Lead in Brooklyn it's Jason of Canarsie I've been there for many many years about 28 years and we have over 6 000 clients wow and we have many members of city council that were very helpful to us but we've had for over 11 years there was a family the baron family husband and wife team that Switched Off back and forth between the assembly and the city council and they did not look up uh very a favorable upon the Jewish Community to say the least but quietly we worked with some of the moderates in the community and we're we're very fortunate that there was a election a primary last week and a moderate member from the African-American Community is now slated to be the next council person starting in January and he's aware that the reason why he won the election with 51 percent was the 400 votes from the small Jewish community so it was um old Russian Jews who lived there and bukharian families who lived there as well and by the way we have a Mikvah now in Starrett cities and we have an heir we have a wonderful Rabbi yes uh Robert Germain who's a very big Sadiq he's a very uh righteous person and now we have a councilman who'll be working with us as well to help people with their need which is important so a small number of votes only 400 votes really made the difference why he was able to win so every exactly every question people always ask me does my vote make a difference what differences I make I'm only one person I'm one family and one individual every single vote counts and um people should also realize that that the elected officials and the people who work with them could look at the voting patterns they know which Ed is so they know which block votes and they could tell the numbers that vote and so when people come later to advocate for things when they realize that this is a politically active Community it makes a big difference we have a lot more clout and a lot more understanding that we could work with them to get the agenda done that's more beneficial to our community whether it's uh whether it's helping people with jobs or after school programming or a daycare or even even services for the uh yeshivas as well is is also involved let me just turn this off yeah sure 100 percent so there was a lot going on with discussions with regards to Yeshiva education if they're Advocate Enlighten us a little bit we know that the Yeshiva education is the the most amazing thing and about Hashem thank God uh many of the Yeshiva graduates are lawyers and doctors and many different fields rabbit could touch upon that what will happen and uh and uh a little bit of a shed some light on that topic that's a very uh unfortunate a situation I I'd rather not comment too much a lot of yeshivas had their uh Das Torah there was probably ways that we could have worked at it for example instead of teaching some of the Sciences they could have taught uh students about the hardware of computers and math Theory how it applies to computers and and technology and that's something which I think would have been very helpful but uh uh it's not my place to tell the yeshivas what to do I do want to tell you though because um some of the Democrats did not get full support or very little support from the Jewish Community there is there's there's not such of a feeling that they would like to work with us and we have to work harder to repair our another half does a great job building those bridges and all these events and all these programs and also behind the scenes setting up leadership meetings within with different elected officials and meeting with them to give them advice and whatever so behind the scenes were very accessible to a lot of the elected officials uh and many of them I've learned known for many years when they were members of the staff of different electives staff members who are involved with with with other not-for-profits and that relationship which spans many years is helpful that we have a good relationship that some other staffers and the electeds we could call all the time behind the scenes and speak to them I think uh that's very careful and that and then and that's also helpful as well so for sure the average person listening and watching this they're thinking so okay fine you know you convinced me I'll go uh on Election Day I'll do my vote and that's it uh is there a need or an interest I just say someone is interested is there anything they could do more than just voting should they be active should they be put a little bit there's more interest and in fact a good idea I think if uh it's if it's the right type of uh environment maybe we should be working on uh internships if if young people want to work in certain government offices I think that they will learn a lot and uh anyways I think working out for for government is very good the benefits are are are excellent as long as you have a a professional environment which is not uh uh against our morals I think that people should look into those options as well 100 and once they're inside those offices many times I've seen that they were a staff friend the rabbit touched upon this before and they worked their way up and they became elected officials as well and that helps the community 100 ways just one name comes to mind over here locally was Danny or Rosenthal yes he worked for the council member and then eventually unfortunately the scenario was that their dear friend uh Michael samanowitz passed away yes and uh he was a big Michael Samantha was he called me almost every day about every issue whether it was Arab or cautious or whatever it was he was always involved but Dan Rosenthal has been wonderful he's actually stepping down soon but uh there's someone from who's a religious uh from the Jewish Community who's taking his place and Dan is not going away because he'll be working with the government Affairs department and the public affairs at ug Federation so it's good to have someone who's sensitive to our needs working at a major agencies such as uh huge Federation so we're excited for all the gems and insights and explaining the whole process we have a mini haga custom on Torah talks which is a final message for our broad audience so I want to just say a message this week I know people will this will be aired later but this week uh is parshus Pinterest so moshebenu towards the end of his life spoke to karishbarahu to know about the leadership that will take over for him afterwards and uh he said he's so he said that Hashem who is the goddess spirits of All Flesh should appoint the man over the over the congregation and Rashi tells us that roshabenu wanted someone who could relate to each person on their individual level as a leader sometimes it's difficult to understand people on different levels people have different understandings but when you care about someone and you look into their heart into their shama and their soul you understand their individual needs and a leader has to take the time to care about every individual and that's that's something which we have to do they care about every individual in our community in the Jewish Community people's needs people have have needs with family people have these with their jobs whatever it is that we can help people each of us should be able to help and understand the needs before they even have to come to us you go to some and say I heard you're having a hard time maybe I heard about a job in my office or there's a scholarship for school or or whatever it is we have to look at each individual person because the strength of our community is each individual and we should all be proud that we have this badge of honor to be part of Claudia shirelle to be part of the Jewish people 100 thank you very much you're wonderful work your family does does so much for the Jewish people we have to do more the Gula hasn't come yet and taking it easy especially right now in the summer this is a time to give a very very important announce soon that uh we're working around the clock uh for the September school year to transfer kids from public schools to issue of rocks from over 1500 kids in the last few years alone if you have a family member friend a neighbor that has kids in public schools kazaka is there we'll hold your hand throughout the process work with many different organizations that will do tuition assistance we work with all these she wrote all the Jewish Day schools make sure to reach out to the organization we want to remind everyone Tuesday night to 8 30 p.m Eastern Standard Time because October talks with a special guest we had on voter education people always ask me uh you know why are you involved what's the reason you know what's the idea what do you need this for and it's very important for people to hear and understand the importance of you that's right everything individual going out there going and voting going and being active it makes a very very big difference and we have to do is your effort you can just say Hashem will take care of it we have to you know try we have to do whatever we can that's what we're doing if anybody wants to be politically active there's a lot of events there's a lot of meetings there's a lot going on with each other will get you involved with different things going on in the community and other communities and uh suggestions for future Tower guests are always welcome dedication is always welcome info cichu shout out to all of our platforms for holding this amazing Outcast the touring times as well daily giving a dollar day goes are very far away and not on an entire team Robbie and and Izzy and everyone else at Hazard entire amazing staff in the Boardman business staff members really appreciate it until next time thank you you're welcome [Music] thank you