Chesed of Flatbush Event - Full Coverage

Jen, you got me that ginger. >> Everybody, >> you need it. >> We need the mic. >> Pick up the sound. >> Like the Olympics. stuff everybody. Thank you very much again. We've been uh connected and has said some 20 some odd years now. I've been in this home multiple multiple times. You've opened the doors to so many organizations and work you've done all those years for the people in need. I think tonight's theme before we get to today should be about the downtrodden, the people in our communities that are in need, those that otherwise are not as fortunate, that need our help. We have to be a nucleus of warriors that go out there Seven days a week obviously we do what we have to do is here saving lives and that's why I said seven days a week seven nights. We don't stop. We're here for the people that need us and need us most. This past summer I'm bad on timing. So you'll have to correct me when you and your partner were >> fasting was a fast I don't know if I was fasting but it was a fasting >> I don't remember that that's why that I met you in Rabbi El Manaw [clears throat] on Lawrence Avenue and we got to talking I was upstairs meeting the great rabbi he's living greatness rubbing my man saw. And then we went downstairs and we started talking and that was the first time I interacted with you and I saw that our community had not yet caught on in the way that they should have and that you needed to. in uh high of flatbush. He told me all about the mission about the building. I even remember that it was two floors stacked with merchandise and when I say merchandise I mean life saving equipment. Uh I was actually in the early years one of your clients. I know that you remember that when I came back from the hospital in April of 2021, Allan and Toby, good friend Toby, the head of Shine, I'm talking soft because I'm around such incredible people in this room, brought me oxygen and they replenished it. And I didn't know that was coming out of your I think it was a basement or if it was a warehouse at the time, but >> it was a sh that was closed >> a closed synagogue. One of the shoes. Anyway, the most important thing is that Isaac, where is Isaac? He was there, too. Remember? >> Mhm. >> They came into my home week after week and replenished the oxy. So, you know, until you need it, you don't know you need it. And I'm looking. Not right now. I was going to step away from video at the the vast amount of equipment that people would need on a daily basis. It's so unbelievable how these volunteers and these people that are working within the system are constantly picking up delivering and bringing and taking and I don't know where if not for your organization that you two men have founded. I don't know where they would be able to get this service. And uh like I said, it could be anybody. It was me. It could be anybody that is in that great need at that moment. And that's what we're all about. You are now ordained into the but safe with salah. And you know, we have to always be careful, right? and every organization that is within our grasp within our community within the needs that we would otherwise don't know we would need until that phone needs to ring in Europe today and you've always been very much a part of it and we want to contribute we want to financially be supporters uh it's like we talked about right when I was a little bit what's wrong with you? You got to get the word out. You got to market this. You got to let people know. You could be doing it, but if they take up the breath that are not aware, it's not fair. So, we're here tonight and uh Joe, nobody does it better than you, Mr. Joe Manso Jr. So, let's roll the video and uh then I think we're going to hear from the man himself who will give us some real deep insight about why he has volunteered his time and his life to do him, his wife and his partner to do this and we're thankful from the bottom of our hearts. Jess [applause] is an amazing organization [music] personally. I had surgery back in April and I came home and the first night was unbearable. I could not sleep at all. I made one phone call within >> That was me. >> Wow. First of all, Miriam, thank you. We have a lot in common. When people ask me to do things, I always said yes. When we asked you if we could open up your home, we didn't even finish the sentence and you said yes. so graciously the way you [applause] did it. I now have the combination to your house, the keys to your car, and I know when you're leaving. But really, this is exactly what she did. She says, "My house is your house." She said in a different language, "My house is your house." But that's what it was. And and thank you all for coming tonight. It's really really appreciated. Um Harry, you guided us. You really guided us in the time that we need the guidance. And very very appreciated. And like I said to you on Friday, um you just said, "Put your head down, keep doing the work, get the word out, and it will catch fire. It will come together." And we're here tonight because we met with you and we follow your guidance and uh you put us in touch with Joe, you put us in touch with a lot of great people and we really appreciate it. Um about six months ago, I'm going to start from the beginning and I'll get into that. how this organization was founded. Some of it you saw, but I'm just going to run through I'm just going to run through the timelines a little bit and explain what happened. Um I had to be one of the coordinators for Flapper Shaman and during co um there wasn't too much crime going on and we were just 60 guys looking to help and we didn't know how to help and what to do and we came up with this idea this concept to help out with oxygen delivering oxygen to people's homes. If there's anything good that came out of CO, it's this organization, we as we went to these homes and we started to realize that there's so many things that these people need. And if we can keep them at home, if we can keep them out of the hospital, the nightmare stories that people had in the hospitals, if we can do that, then you know this is this is our mission. And once co bar ended, um we said we're not done. We have to learn something from this. And we realize that this this community does not this community provides everything everything that it needs. We have we have every single organization. But if somebody needs medical equipment in this organization >> I'm even more humbled now. Um any piece of medical equipment that is needed in this in this community you can't get it. You want a hospital bed, you have to call Lakewood and you have to call this. It there was so many different places to get different equipment that we figured we're going to have this all in one location. Now we're busy people. I mean when it comes to fess I always say just say yes and you'll it'll happen. Just say yes. Just say yes. The desay that we've had. So we said yes. It took us about a year and a half after the yes to actually get going. We started off just a few volunteers. We bought some equipment. We got a few donations and we rented the basement uh of a building. Very inconvenient. We were taking hospital beds and scratching the elevator and the owner wasn't happy with us and like we apologized. We quickly realized that okay, we started we're not we're not stopping that. Every every organization has obstacles. We ended up um getting growing and growing. We moved upstairs in that building to the second floor to the first floor which was nice big area. We got 80 volunteers, 80 people in this community uh that just said, "Hey, we want to help. We want to be part of this." Um, we also have in the organization, we have 38 nurse practitioners, PAs, and doctors as a team that discusses it. How's that possible? How if you went out right now to try to get that, you would never get it. But during CO, these people were home. uh doctor's offices were closed, hospitals were on on on a short staff. These people were home looking for help. So we used them during co to go to homes. So we created a relationship with these people and because of that we were able to continue and have them part of us. We outgrew this area that we had on the first floor very quickly. Um and then we had the basement and the first floor. The building itself was zoned for a daycare and the owner who was really nice to us gave us a decent deal um told us that it's time to move. He said I really but I found a daycare that's going to take it for four times the rent that we were paying. Um and at that point I could have said well when we're out we're out. You know it was right was a couple of months before Passover and I said no he was good to us. We're going to be good to him. We're going to do the right thing. We moved everything out into five different locations. It was a nightmare, but we do what's right. He was good to us. He had an opportunity to make make some, you know, to have the right tenants there. We took a storage locker, a big storage locker on Avenue I. We took someone's office on Forster Avenue in East 8. We took a garage on Quentyn Avenue. We took we took several different location. We took back we took back the basement of that location. And it was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. We said, "Hashem guided us till now. We're gonna we're gonna make it. We ended up finding this location on Avenue I, which I don't know how. This place was vacant for 20 years. So many people saw this place and walked past it. It was actually perfect for us. Absolutely perfect. We did some crazy renovation over there because the place was not touched in 50 years. Um, but we were stuck. We had a hund couple hundred,000 nuts. And who are we going to? What are we doing? Rabbi Natan introduced us to two wonderful people who Hashem sent them, Michael Towel and Elliot Azer and he brought them by. He brought them by and they took a look around and they were just in awe and they helped us get through a very tough time. It was a financial burden that we had and they called some friends and like Harry, I update them constantly with what's going on with the organization. We're at a point right now where we our budget is close to $600,000 a year. We have some old vehicles that we want to replace because when we started we didn't have money. We have a we have a a handicapped vehicle. If I tell you the handicapped vehicle does it's insane. We've had calls at 2:00 in the morning from a woman who was her flight was delayed. She ended up in New York airport. She wanted an Uber to get home. She had ordered the Uber for 9:30 or 10:00. She was stuck in the airport in New York airport. By a quarter to 4, she was home in her house. They called, we sent the van, we did it. We we don't say no. We just don't say no. My wife said, you know, sometimes you have to say no. I said no. So, but you know, it's it's just the organization, Yehuda, and myself, and everybody that got involved and everyone that's here, it's a tremendous um we just we do need the financial help. There's nothing to talk about. And that's what it's about tonight. It's about all you showing, you know, just being here and and we hope to we're going to continue no matter what because it's the we have and we see it every single day. I mean, sometimes we buy a piece of equipment or we get a piece of equipment donated and we're like, are we ever going to use this? And I can tell you that within 24 hours, someone calls and needs it. We had someone who donated to us a a a $40,000 chair for for But look, someone was paralyzed and a young girl called and she said, "I've called a billion organizations. Do you have this list?" I said, "Yes, we [clears throat] do." And she says, "My father is broke. He's in bed for 10 days already. It's not going to be fixed for a few weeks. Can I come pick it up?" You have to come pick it up. We're going to bring it to you. >> Beautiful. >> Couple hours later, it was stories. Stories like this had been told us about a crazy piece of equipment that they needed to bring a baby back from strolls. I don't know how we had it. I don't know how but we had a piece of equipment. Brand new famil [applause] organization was to fill a void. We don't want to do something that's being done already. If it's not being done, we will do it. And I I just thank everybody here for coming. Um I I do want to say the rabbi just showed up over here. It's a huge huge cover for the to come. The rabbi come um was I'll just say quick story here not to be a rabbi but you know there was a rabbi who had two congregants who were having an argument. So the first one comes to the rabbi's house and rabbi listens to his story and the rabbi says wow I hear you. You know you're you're right. rabbit flies in the kitchen. She's listening to everything and and then he leaves and the next guy comes he was arguing with says his story and the rabbit goes you know you're right. I hear that. The wife, please. The wife comes in and she goes, "I understand. How could they both be right?" You're right. >> What a rabbi has to do these days is this. It's the [clears throat] commitment that a rabbi has to the community. What people think are big problems, what what people actually have big problems from the smallest to the biggest. A rabbi does not sleep. And aside from all the Torah that they teach and they learn and lectures and everything, they deal with every single person community's issues and we know there's plenty and it's just a honor to have such a rabbi here and I think at this point I just like to ask you out there. Thanks for that warm introduction. I think you're talking about my colleagues. I don't work that hard and sleep every night, but my colleagues definitely work hard. They teach a lot of Torah and they're much better than me. But I'm glad to be part of that group. You remind me of a story of a uh mother came into the room and told her son, you got to get up to sh I don't like sh. He said, "Whether you like it or not, you have to go." So, everybody picks on me on sh and they make fun of me. He says, "It doesn't matter." He said, "I have to go to shu, but I hate shu. Give me one reason why I have to go to sh cuz you're the rabbi." [laughter] That's my story. Not as glamorous as the way you make it. [laughter] Anyway, um I did meet actually uh with Flatbush. I think we met with Harry in my office in Lawrence Avenue synagogue in the summer. Maybe on a fast day even we met one of those days and uh I just remember I was hungry during the meeting [laughter] and it was a good meeting. I [clears throat] was impressed. Were you the guys that >> wow I said that's enough. And I think somebody said on the video that was worth it just to open up this organization just it was you. So I saw that video. That was a very good line. It was worth it just to open this organization to take the Gad of our community from Quentin Road in East 9 to his house a couple of blocks away. And that's I guess the special car that's uh that you're talking about. Anyway, I'm a big fan, but I didn't come really for I must be honest with you. I did a video for them. I did all the Everybody knows my opinion. I only came for one reason for Miriam who's a close friend of mine from the Saba family. because my connection [applause] to that and uh I have a uh personal vow that I will never tell her no for any request that she has. So that's something that uh and she doesn't say no either. So it's it's mutual and therefore I just came to show respect to the hostess who is very very dear to my heart and to our to our family. Our families are like uh we're not relatives but we're more than relatives. So I came here tonight in honor of the hostess. Anyway, one word that I must tell you as the rabbi about the importance of and I'm going to quote you a you should all know anyway. Uh it's in on page 21. So the comes along and says that in surah surah is in Babylonian city and there was the David [clears throat] I'll make it easy for you. there was a pandemic and people were dying and it was very contagious and the Gar says and uh in the neighborhood where live is like the big grand so for some reason the pandemic did not hit that neighborhood now all the surrounding neighborhoods death toll was very high in neighborhood it was zero and everybody figured of course neighborhood so it's the great rabbi that obviously is uh warding off the pandemic The says actually not not to say that not he didn't need there was somebody else in the neighborhood was a regular guy and somehow he was able to save off the plague and the says they thought it was but says it wasn't. Anyway, they came in a dream and they came and they said that because there was a guy there was a certain fellow that opened up what we call and what did he lend? It wasn't so sophisticated with all the different items that you guys do. He had two items. He had a a shovel and a hole and he used to lend it out to the when they needed to bury the dead. So it's a very unsophisticated I don't know if it did not have your budget that he talk about a parliament for this guy. He had basically in his garage a shovel two two items and whenever the would need to bury somebody and if their equipment wasn't available they would go to this guy. What do you see from over here? Because this man was involved in alleviating people who died. So measure for measure, God said, "Nobody in this city where this man lives is going to die." >> And you didn't need Rav's merit who was learning Torah all day long. And I would have guessed this Torah protected the city. No, it's was one guy was lending the community to its now that story does not make an effect. The G goes to the next story is another city to be precise. So there was fires and those things when the fires would hit there were row houses and there was no fire and everything would burn down. God forbid. And in the neighborhood of we go again sorry in his neighborhood there was no fire. So everybody said he's already to all day long to protect the city says no. They came to him in a dream and they said you know who it was was [snorts] a lady and what did she do the she would have an oven and basically in the olden days that we use communal ovens and not everybody can afford the fuel [clears throat] or the wood in order to heat up their food. So she would put a sign up free oven whoever needs to warm up their halal or their whatever it may be and she would let out the oven and the coming to say that since she alleviated people that needed fire. So as a result of she alleviated people that needed fire the fire did not reach that city. I want to tell you personal story. When I read this I was so amazed. [clears throat] I said look how much Hashem loves people that let out stuff. It protects cities from fire. It protects cities from pandemic and that's doing nothing. Lending out an oven. It's a small item relative to what what these guys are doing. I want to tell you how I took this so literally. I went home and I always tell my wife what I learned in you know in when I got married to the reb was unbelievable. I told her I'm an unfinished person and every day I go to the Quran I learned new stuff. So I don't want you to tell me oh you never said that before we married you. I don't know nothing. I learn every day new stuff and therefore we're we're a work in progress. every day I come home and teach you new stuff and she always was hold now what you learned today and when I came home I told her it's so she said we have to do something because we need protection and we need we need I said okay what what can we do what do you want to lend out so she sent out the rabbi we'll lend out you no community property people just bar they don't return me that's the problem anyway she said I have a good idea She said, "You know, when you go to a bris, so the baby boys, they wear this uh special dress and the kipa that they have. Where do you get these items from? Where do [clears throat] you find these items from?" It's funny thing. So, she said, "The people struggle to find." I'm going to buy six or seven of these items, different kinds of kot, and I'm going to open up a gamma to lend out the dress that very very simple and budget is zero. I paid for the six outfits and she pays for the cleaning and everything. And guess what? There's not a day that passes. My friend Morris Aver is my best friend who's the biggest boy in the community. So I partnered up with him and said, "Morris, you got to let me know anytime you have a brisk and they need the uh the gown. I'm the guy." Sure enough, every day somebody coming to the house every day. Now, I know that that's doing something. I can't tell you what it's protecting us from. Maybe it's protecting children and babies, God forbid, from sickness, but I know it's doing something because I trust. Now, I'm not the biggest rabbi in the community. There's big rabbis learning all day long. But guess what? You don't need those big rabbis because our little gabah giving out one little baby dress is doing a lot that the greatest rabbis are not needed to do. So times that by a million what these [clears throat] guys are doing, they're doing it exponentially. So besides the that we see they're affecting directly to the customer, however, they're protecting us. You see, God forbid any none of you should need these equipment, Sophia. If you need this equipment, it means you're in trouble. We shouldn't need these equipments. But I believe that by having such an organization somehow it's bringing us a protection. I mean if if the G would have been written today the G would have said third story in Brooklyn uh >> Cornell Avenue. >> Exactly. All around the neighborhoods they were getting broken into and robbed into it. But Brooklyn couple of zip codes 3229 whatever the zip codes are 230. Nothing was happening to her and said not because the yeshiva and not because it's not because the rabbis is calling it even though I love to take credit for the I believe it's protecting everybody but the would say it wasn't these guys bush that are lending out crutches and these guys that are lending out I don't know what ventilators and all the other type of miserable equipment that they have but the point is that that gamma doesn't only directly help the people but it actually helps the entire community. So I want to thank Hessapush for what you did for me by I never borrowed I would have to borrow anything from you by the way [applause] but nonetheless you're doing a great for the greater community and it's based on the so this is not hyperbole or some exaggerated opinion I brought the source over here but I think you'll be able to convince a lot of people because now it's insurance now it's insurance for us and we need a lot of protection because this this zip code and zip codes are becoming more dangerous and more inhospitable. by the day. You can imagine and therefore we need more the going to come from like to call up [clears throat] Michael and Elliot. Elliot, please come up. You played a big role in Europe. Rabbi, I can't help but do this. I'm also your partner with Morris Abraham. He's great as well because Morris and I are partners in business. And any mornings before 12, 12:30, I never ask where Morris Abraham is because he's doing the greatest duty that anybody has ever done in this community doing. And on that note, you'd be intrigued by this. Statistically, [clears throat] I've been watching the last 2, three years. You know, we're superstitious. We don't count. We don't know. But I know that this community is growing leaps and bounds. And we should all be so proud to know that the Spartic Jewish community here in Brooklyn in deal in Manhattan. We include Manhattan. now with the great rabbis that are in the southwest synagogue by far and everybody else that's working for our community. We're about 85,000 people. I venture to say that our army of Jews and we are all becoming more and more devout religious Jews thanks to people like you Rabbi and that's the truth someh with us and uh I venture to say that my we will probably be protecting as I started off before I came in 100,000 people in the Syrian Jewish community by 2030 in every aspect in every way that we need to and there's nothing that we won't do. So um for a change I'm going to sit there and give my donation said it's been a few months coming. So please, Elliot Azar, we're very proud of you and Michael and what you've done when you were called up not tonight, but when you called up by Yehuda and SV to come in and help them and shore up a shortfall where there was a financial burden and weakness and that's what we do and that's why I'll always stand up here whenever I'm called up. M's front door doesn't have a lock on it for that reason. We are those people in this community. It's all of us, by the way. You just got to meet a few, but it's it's embedded in every single one of us. And they will rise to be leaders of this community because of what I touched on before. You can't become this great of a people if you don't have leaders that rise up day in and day out and look after each other. And as I opened up and said, most importantly, the doubt trials, the people that need us the most, those that I always say are stuck on the side of the road. Like I was taught when I was stuck on the side of the road, it doesn't necessarily mean the side of the road, you always help that person to get to the destination. And you will be the one that's rewarded much more than they are. Take over. >> [applause] >> Okay. So, I didn't know I was being pulled up. I still don't know what I'm doing. But you're doing a fundraiser now. [laughter] >> That's what we came here for. >> So, it's a good thing to take the phone off.