Chazkeinu Featured with Rabbi Benzion Klatzko on JM in the AM

Monday morning broadcast heading back to school and back to work. One week away from the big holiday of Kanuka, our friends at Kazenu have a um fundraising campaign that's going on as we speak. And even when we are fundraising for our own purposes, which of course uh happens a couple of times during the year, including during the year end. uh we can't ignore some of the important and um and key organizations that are also going through their own fundraising at this point. Khazenu is known as peer and professional support for Jewish women facing the challenges of mental illness and other emotional struggles. And we found out that our good friend Ra Benion Klatskco is more than happy to say a word or two about this organization. We said, "Hey, we're taking advantage of that opportunity." Rabbi Klatskco, a pleasure to welcome you back to JM in the AM. >> Good morning. Good morning, my dear friend. It's a pleasure to be back and thank you to your entire listening audience for being up so early and being willing to listen to so many mitzvah. I appreciate that very much. Yes, they they've got the extra effort of doing all this early in the morning. So, how did you know, look, you seem to be somebody who's associated and affiliated with a lot of amazing work out there in our community. If you actually walked into this studio, we had a chance to sit down for an hour. I'm sure we can go through a litany, an entire list of different things that you're aware of and good causes uh that you recommend supporting. How did you first become aware of the work of Khazenu? >> That's a that's a great question. Well, with the thanks of Hashem, I'm one of the founders of Kasenu. >> Wow. >> And um the the the founding story was very interesting. I was speaking at the Aura convention and I have a pitch when I speak which is you know we're we're here on this world to do the best that we can and there's a gimra that says which essentially means Hashem has given us each a mission and it's up to us to find that mission. So I guess I was speaking about that that topic and I threw out to the audience at that GA convention if anyone has a mission an idea a thought count me in give me a call and let's do it together >> and um the next day I get a call from these two women to have a list was one of them and they said look we have this issue of depression postpartum depression anxiety and it's ripping families apart And we really need some sort of organization that will at least normalize the experience and take away the stigma so that the women can get the help that they need. So we came up with and I said, "Okay, great. I'll build you a website and we'll make an event and let's get this off the ground." So So we built a website. That's why if you look in the kasanu uh the website it'll say in the bottom a projectofshot.com, >> right? So we built a built him a website and um and we did we did a beautiful uh event a shabatone done anonymously because we want to protect privacy and it was off to the races and I don't I don't do much for them anymore because you know the way that I help start projects is I try to launch them and then say go little birdie and fly you know right >> because I got to move on to the next thing but um but tonight we're doing an event in our home for Cascu. So, we're we're still we're still involved. And um I I can't begin to describe the need. I happen to be in Chicago right now. I was running a a singles event in Chicago. So, for me, it's an hour earlier than you. And and I mentioned Cascanu in in the in in the talk that I gave. And you can't imagine how many women in the audience nodded uh knowingly both at the organization and at the need of the organization. Uh and really really the only thing that's left besides uh continuing to support Cascu is to create some sort of male version of it because >> wow we're living >> yeah we need to do this. We're living in the day and age of anxiety and depression and social media that that that feeds into feelings of of hopelessness and low self-esteem. >> Holy cow is with us. Um Kascano, by the way, everybody out there, not only uh are they using this opportunity here at JMA to expand their notoriety, we wouldn't have known it, by the way. We wouldn't have known about this if not for one of our listeners who brought it to our attention. Rabbi Klatskco, I can tell you that much. They're also in the midst of a campaign. They're trying to raise a quarter of a million dollars and they're they're already hovering at the $90,000 mark and they have about a day and a half left. So, if you want to support the work they do and there are details, by the way, on the site about the work they do for women in our community, go to causematch.com/cascanu. again causematch.com/cazkanu25. When you say you have an event in your home tonight, is your is your home BI and her doing well? I'm saying it like that because when we had our fire, you're one of the few people who was able to actually get on the air with us and offer real sympathy because of the different episodes that you had gone through. Is everything Baroo Hashem stable at this point? >> I I remember those days. It wasn't so long ago. Um yeah, you know, I I like to tell uh tell my to that Hashem can do two things at once. >> So he can give us a little a little pot and give us a Yeshua in the same action. on, you know, on one hand, you know, whatever message Hasha wanted to give the Klatskco family and uh, you know, hopefully we got, but at the same time, he allowed us to rebuild in a way that would be even more appropriate for these kind of events. Wow. >> And the house is back up and running. And you know, I think we arrived back home at 3 3:30 in the afternoon from Chicago and 2 hours later we will be full of people looking for >> 100% and you know how to give that I can tell you that much. Uh Rabbi Klatskco reminds us that uh has a lot of different things. Shabbaton you heard about that was their first event actually. Shabbat tones, Zoom and phone support groups, retreats, live events, daily emails, support hotlines, uh even a non-emergency support hotline, WhatsApp groups, texting, a dominating group, Instagram live care packages, a partner program. I mean, you're talking about a lot of different tentacles that this organization has and they reach out to women in our community in a lot of different ways. And I don't know exactly what the numbers are in terms of number of women, but can I assume by Klatskco that it just keeps increasing that more and more women in our community are discovering the work of Kuskano? >> Yeah, very much so. It's in the thousands. >> In the thousands. People >> Yeah, in the thousands. No question about it. Um it's it's it's the largest of its kind at what it does. And I think I mean I would just speak as a man where we sometimes you know the men are from Mars, women are from Venus model that we don't always understand the the fair the agenda what's going on in their minds. So to understand how uh you know a a um a moodiness or a sadness uh or when they seem off especially with um with postpartum, right, which which happens so so frequently and it could it could it could it could unfortunately uh break families apart and it's a mystery. It's like a ghost in in in the in the machine that people are wondering like what is going on with you? Why can't you just be normal? And it took a long time for I think civilization as a whole and certainly our community to say no mental illness or mental struggles deserve the same kind of care and concern that physical struggles do and and if not more so. So um we are hitting a lot of people and and there there there's a lot more that needs to be done and uh this resource needs to get out there. >> And by the way and and when you use I mean loneliness obviously is a major factor very often. Uh but even in the context of family when you use the word depression you're not always using it clinically right you're sometimes just saying a sadness a you know a malaise that that someone suffers from that is inexplainable sometimes and and where one can snap out of it you know at the snap of a finger uh and they're just you know and they're going through that again whether it's clinical and very serious or not it's a I mean it's all serious but you get my point uh all of this is uh you know are different levels let's put it of the way people are suffering through these things and Kaskkanu is there to give the Kizuk uh that is necessary. All right, folks. Right, Klatskco and I recommend uh a donation to Khazanu. You heard what he has to say about it. You can go to the website causematch.com/cascanu25. Again, that's causematch.com/cascanu25. They're at about 90,000 just under $90,000 of their quarter of a million dollar goal. They have about a day and a half left and they very much would love uh to get to their goal. So, if you want to help with the campaign and help against loneliness and helping to turn loneliness into light and helping to turn uh battles that people are going through uh into things of the past, then you can join them right now by going to that website or just go to kazkanu.org. You'll get all the information there at khaskanu.org about how it offers professional support for Jewish women facing the challenges of mental illness and other emotional struggles. And of course, there's a donate button right there on the page for you to support the organization as well. Rabi Klatskco, anything else you'd like to add about Kazkanu? Yeah, I would say if if you're a listener and you've ever been in that dark place and you know what it's like and you know how isolating it is uh to open your heart and say, you know what, people don't need to suffer in silence and being able to help out an organization like this is our way of saying that this is a this is a real thing and it it when it gets supported u it it allows it to see the light of day and there's nothing that uh cleanses and there's nothing that uh that that normalizes the experience and helps people get out uh than than having those kind of resources. So, if you've been there before, then you know how bad it is and help out this organization because they're going to help a lot of people uh see the daylight. >> Amazing. Good luck tonight and I really hope that you'll visit us at one point because we could spend a lot of time talking about the list of causes that you're involved with. >> Absolutely. >> I hope I hope I hope it's not a sensitive point to the Klatskco family, but I think it's pretty remarkable everything you and your family does. So hopefully we'll have a chance to do that one day. >> Thank you. >> I should give give you energy. >> Amazine. Thank you so much and best regards to our friends in Chicago. Amazing. Absolutely. Be well, my friend. >> Pleasure. Right. But see Klatskco, everybody go to kascadu.org. Plenty of information there about their current campaign and about the work that they do. More coming up. You're listening to a Monday morning edition of JM in the A.M.