Bill Ackman Honors Bondi Hero Ahmed Al Ahmed at the Colel Chabad International Awards Gala 2025

So, thank you uh so much. Uh actually, Rich Richard uh texted me a couple days ago and he said, "Bill Akmed Akmed is coming to the United States. Uh would you give us the honor of honoring him?" And of course, um, and then Lauren, uh, who's an amazing lawyer and she won a great case on behalf of the Persian Square Foundation. Thank you, Lauren. Um, also texted me and said, "Bill." [laughter] And so, two very important people to me called and extremely important people to our community, uh, needed an honor. And I thought, what should I speak about tonight? And I thought kind of an opportunity to talk about heroism. Um, you know, we're fortunate in the world to have heroes and heroes are really amazing people. Um, but even among heroes, there's a hierarchy of heroism, right? If someone breaks into your home uh, and it's going to harm your family, you know, member of the family gets up to fight, that person's a hero. They're stepping in to protect their family. Um, but it's a very different thing. Um, when someone, you know, there's a a famous very sad story. 61 years ago in Queens, woman named Kitty Genevesei uh was being murdered and she screamed and there was a fight. 38 people were witnessed uh the screams and no one stepped in uh to save her. Uh you very important story, a very unfortunate story in the history of our of our city. But it talks about what people call the bystander effect. you know, when there are a lot of people around, you know, the willingness to step forward and put yourself in danger, very few people are willing to do so. Uh, I first learned about the Bondi massacre uh on Twitter. I started to see videos of the shootings and they just seem to go on and on and on. And then a video appeared of a man unarmed, of a similar size to the shooter, but the shooter had a a gun and he snuck, you know, he snuck up and tackled him. Now, how do I have a video of Ahmad? Because someone else was a witness, but they sat there with their phone recording uh the events. what he chose to do is step into the fight. He was not a target of the shooter. He could have minded his own business. No one would ever know that he chose not to uh intervene. So I think that in the hierarchy of heroes, the person that is willing to risk his own life for the benefit of people that he does not know where he takes on someone who is armed with a weapon and he has none, right? who is prepared to give up his life is an amazing person. So, you know, think about the decision to risk your own life for people you don't know and for people for whom you're not a target. And I think you know why is this this man this hero uh why was there such an outpouring to support him? I think that was an important part of it. But if you bringing kind of back to this evening, you know, it's been more challenging to be a member of the Jewish community since October 7th. You know, I grew up really without any there was social anti-semitism when I grew up. you know, the the country club across the street did not have Jewish members. That was the extent of the anti-semitism that I experienced. Uh we started the foundation about 20 years ago. My father at every board meeting would say, "Bill, we're not doing enough for the Jews. We're not doing enough about anti-semitism." And I would say, "Dad, the Jews are doing great, and I'm not I don't see any anti-semitism." My dad was so concerned about the issue that when he passed away and wrote me letters of instruction in advance of a a surgery that he thought could could cost him his life, he wrote me letters saying, you know, Bill, this is how I want you to handle my funeral arrangements. You know, there was a letter from him about what I how I should call my mom every day, which I have not yet done. So, I'm gonna have to call mom today. Uh and uh and Bill, I'm very concerned about anti-semitism. You need to do more about anti-semitism. I think, you know, the October 7th was one of the most horrible days in the world, a very horrendous day for the Jewish people. But in some ways, October 8th was asbad. And because we saw a response on university campuses, on the campus uh school I attended which was not about supporting the Jews, but in fact was supportive of the of the terrorists. And that made I think the last couple of years has been more challenging for Jewish people because, you know, uh uh that uh a reminder that we're 02% of the world and that you know you've so I think you know seeing someone step forward on behalf of people he didn't know to risk his own life and you know the calculus of going after a guy with a gun uh of you know I mean he's a he's a strong man but but he was taking on a man of similar size um is really one of the great great acts of heroism and I think it was very reaffirming uh to the Jewish community to have someone stand up on behalf of our community in in the most profound uh life affirming way you can. So that that's why we're here. So thank you so much and uh a very very appropriate uh oops about the most beautiful uh such honorarium I've seen. If you think about the manora, it represents uh endurance, represents courage, represents persistence, and most of all represents light and light in the darkness. And and this man deserves this incredible award. [music] >> [music] >> And even if you say goodbye, you'll never go away. You are the rainbow in my side. [music] My colors are the [singing] gray. My only wish upon a star. Sunshine in the day. The only [singing] song [music] that my piano ever plays. So lastly, I I actually was not familiar with Kohal's Kabad, uh but I thought uh in honor of the victims, in honor of the men, uh thought to make a $180,000 donation towards Thank you.