YKT Event - Full Coverage

Good morning everybody. Good morning. I want to start by thanking everybody for being here. Really, it's a Sunday morning. Very busy. Some people have to take their kids somewhere. People have leagues. They want to play basketball, volleyball, want to spend time with their kids. And here you are helping us raise the next generation of our community. They say we start with the praise of the of theem. And I want to thank uh Our our host Soul and Ruth Kison. Thank you very much. I always want to say you open your home. Dave come on. You open your home without hesitation. You open your home. I didn't have to ask you twice. You said please come in. The amount of that you do, you leave your house for Shabbat to let other people come. It's an amazing thing. Shall bless you and your wife. So I'm in the business of for 25 years. I got uh married at the age of 20 and right away I went into at 20 and happens to be I didn't know what I was doing. I went I was a rebi. I had no idea no clue what I was doing. All I remember and everybody who ever prays with me knows everything you hear you hear for a reason. want you to hear it was when I was around 17 16 years old a friend of mine came to me and said you know there's three ways that people learn some people learn it's called visual learning these are people that have to see charts have to see diagrams they have to take a look at something that's the way they internalize information there are other people that are auditory learners they could sit not write a thing up just listen they listen they internalize everything they remember everything these guys and they do very And then there are people who are called tactile learners. A tactile learner is a person who has to write things down. He has to do with his hands. He has to mold. He has to build. These are are the mechanics of the world, right? They're the construction people of the world. They're the contractors of the world. That's how they learn. They learn by doing. So my class right away, I knew if you're focused on all three, you'll have a successful student. And we had many over the years. But over the years, I found that there's one ingredient that if you have it, you can accomplish the world. And if you don't have it, you're destined to fail, and that is confidence. Confidence is the primary ingredient in a successful person. Forget about a successful student. A successful person. A successful person is a confident person. A person who has confidence could get up in front of a crowd and and and and talk. He could be a good father. They could be a good husband. And then I realized Rabbi you tell me if you agree. Rabbi here is here please. Thank you. And then I realized something unbelievable. I realized that you have students that throughout school they fail and they falter and they fall out of learning. They don't want to learn because it's not interesting because they're not successful and they go out into the working world and somehow they come back and now they're finishing and they're not learning on their own and they're doing very well and they never did it in high school. What changed? And the answer is confidence because when they went out into the working world, they were they were successful and they built confidence. They were able to realize that they had self-worth. It wasn't just doing, you know, taking tests and not not doing anything. They were confident and therefore once you're confident now you could learn better. Now there's interest in learning and now there's interest in connecting and therefore we decided that we're opening a yeshiva that's not going to wait for a student to graduate to become confident. We're going to foster his confidence in high school. So, we decided we're opening up a high school and coupling with the high school curriculum, vocational training, and we're going to train them in all different types of professions from a barber shop course. You know, during COVID when no one was giving haircuts, why KT boys were going around giving haircuts. Okay? Why? Because they learned that a barber shop course. We have a we have a handiwork course, construction course. Three boys just graduated with their real estate licenses this year from our school. We are offering uh licensing in Hashkah. We have boys that our manager today of of today's catering is a YKT graduate and he did it through our internship program. He started this year and he's managing parties there. You know very successful and we're very proud of him. I just want to tell you two stories very quickly. We had a boy that came to me was a broken child. Broken child came from a from school. Broken child didn't want to see a book. They didn't want to open. didn't want to open up. They didn't want to hear anything. He had no connection to Hashem is a from and he came to YKT and you know I have a hopefully a nice positive disposition to me and I tried to find where that pak is where can I infiltrate where can I inspire so we're talking to me and he tells me he loves to cook I said you love to cook he said great I said beautiful said tomorrow you're making breakfast for the entire yeshiva he says rabbi really I said the entire yeshiva you're making breakfast he says what do you want to make he says I can make eggs I can Egg. You remember who made eggs? Ninth grade. Huh? A you don't remember? Okay, better make two types of eggs. One with pepper. No pepper. Whatever it is, the guy was psyched today. He's a from a from boy connected to Hashem serving in the IDF. This is a boym who we were able to save. Able to save. Unbelievable. Tell you one more story. We have a boy that came to us for public school. The family decided they were getting a little bit more religious and he decided that you know we send him to yeshiva Dr. Ben, Rabbi's son decided, okay, where's the right place to go? YK, KT, they'll foster his education. They'll build him up. The only problems that this boy is a perpetual stutterer. He cannot get a paragraph out without stuttering. It was a a very very difficult time. He worked on himself. He worked on himself. What happened was at the end of the fourth year, we realized that this boy is going to be the valadictorian. Can you imagine? Both the Judeic studies and secularist studies, this boy was thriving. He was doing phenomenal. The only problem is how's this boy going to give a speech? The boy's a stutterer. How's he going to give a speech? So I I realized that although when he speaks he stutters, when he reads he reads clear. So I told him, "What do you mean?" I said, "You could do this. You could do this." He said, "I don't know, Rabbi. I'm not sure." I said, "You could do it. All you have to do is read your speech. If all you do is read and it comes out clearly, read your speech and you'll persevere." I wish I had a video of his speech was flawless. He got up against all odds. He was able to overcome his fear, his inhibitions. And this boy made that speech. He got he got accepted to many colleges. He's going to learn about yeshiva as you could tell by the door where our boys are. It's so phenomenal. We're so proud of every one of them. We love them. They keep in touch with me. They ask me questions. They look for guidance. We're there for these boys throughout life. We're happy to announce that two of our boys finally got, you know, they they graduated again. We're only two years out of high school. See, he's 20 years old taking us to this rabbi and he graduated. Okay. Hashem and now he's engaged getting married and bing in September. Isn't that amazing? That's a YKT boy. Gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, what you're investing today is not in the school. You're investing in these boys and their families. You know, there's a mitzvah. Yesterday we said there's something called ankit. What's ankit? It says if you keep the God will bless you, your children, you'll have what's says is a mitzvot that people step on. Can I ask you a question, Maurice? Can I ask you a question? Would you ever step on a mitzvah? Does there a mig You step on a mig? No. I know the answer. Thank you. There's a there's a lul. You step on t step on a chauffar. Who steps on a mitzvah? No one steps on the mitzvah. You only step on things that you don't pay attention to. If you don't pay attention to it, that's why you step on you. You don't realize it's there. There's a called means you got to strengthen people, give them confidence, reassurance. YKK does that. That is a mitzvah that is needed. And I'm not going to say that it's avoided, but it's a mitzvah that definitely is an mitzvah. And today, if you help us and we'll talk about what we need. If you help us today, you'll get all this in the you'll get love you plus your kids. It's a blessing. It's a for having kids without. We're asking you today to open up your hearts to open up your your minds sensitivity and help us help these boys should give you all should bless you with all the everything that you need. We should have only together sharing in celebrations. Amen. We have the opportunity to uh Do you mind if we do this first? You want to do it? Okay. We have a video today just to show you a little glimpse of the boys uh where they are a couple of boys. We selected a few. They're all successful without all of them, but just a little bit of a a taste of where our YKT boys are today. [Music] For the last six years, we've been telling the community how YPT is a pioneer in diversified learning. We take the high school curriculum, J studies, be the educational professional training to provide licensing in many many fields with leadership training and we combine all each point in order for these boys to persevere on their own. But I'm glad to announce we just graduated at third place and today we're going to give you where our graduates are in my business. So YKT is more like family, right? He asked the rabbi for advice, speak to them privately about different things and not just learning math or science. You learn about life. >> Whenever you need anything, you could call one of their room and they're always there for you. It was a very close small grade. You just felt like like a big family. >> This is the empty grade of the random friends. >> You can have a much closer relationship to your rabbis and you can see that they're really there for you. They care what's going on in their lives. It >> was a lot of fun. It was it was action. Every day was action. We came inside. The rabbis were like, "How are you? How was everything? How was how was your night?" One time I had a question for my birthday to me at literally 2:00 a.m. on a Friday night. I walked over, knocked on his door and I asked him and he was like, "Thank you for getting this off your chest." I saw how Amazon just sells every single product and people buy from Amazon because they trusted and I just thought like why is there not a company people could go on to buy wholesale just like how they buy retail and make it fast, simple, reliable? help me with the business life. He's helped me with different art questions, different just normal questions. Do I do this? Do I do that? >> And I really feel that connection with all the veterans. In um 11th grade, we had Rabbi Sion Salem come teach us checking vegetables. And ever since then, I wanted to learn more and I got certified as an MKF and I loved it. That's what I do today. >> What they told me was a lot of confidence. Before I was a little bit shy. Now like I'm just out and they feel like I'm talking to tenants. I'm talking on the floor. I'm dealing with inspectors. >> Today I manage parties. They tell me how to take control of situations when there wasn't someone always there to help you. >> So I work in marketing for a home care agency. My KP gave me the tools and the confidence to go out uh explain what my company does to help these different doctors and nurses. >> Almost done myself. I'm on the last three and like I I thought in the beginning when I came back from I'm not going to finish this and look where I am today. I'm almost done. My love for learning has come from YKT cuz I thought I was able to learn and I've been learning. >> Yeah, that was coming and satisfa [Music] I came with the flame still before. >> I want to thank all of the rebellion faculty for really always being there for me. >> From start to finish, they've been there for me. >> I'm really proud of all the skills that you gave me, all the confidence you gave me to be a better person. >> Thank hero. You've done everything for me. I can't thank you enough. You've seen a great glimpse into what we've been doing with our students. What we got to do here today to ask you to become a partner with us in expanding my team to the next level. We want to buy you laptops voice to teach them Microsoft Office quick. We want to buy instruments to teach them how to play music. Each person according to what he needs. We want to program which is fun. You find good food every night to make sure that you invest in YK. You're investing in future help. Not only their education, but their brain, their abilities, their confidence, their goal comes back from the community. >> Now I can implement everything I learned in why gave to me in my dayto-day life. >> And there's a lot of things that they taught me that I my working life with my family. It's something I'm going to do for the rest of my life. [Music] [Applause] Okay, >> without any further ado, it's our pleasure and our honor to invite Rabbi Joim. >> Thank you, Rabbi, very much. It's very much an honor to be here. And you know, you hear Abetuni talk about confidence and you think everybody does it. The reality about our community is that we are very much a bottom line community. And what happens is to many kids, many is they go through the high school system and they don't connect to it at all. They're sitting in attached classrooms that are talking trigonometry, things like that. They're like, "Is that going to make me money? Why am I in this class? is that why do I need to know about monsoons in China 2,000 years ago? Is that going to help me today? And the beauty of YKT is it changes them. And Rabbi, as you were talking before, I want to share with you a source to your idea. Where's the source to know how to relate to a kid this way? Where's a source to know how to make the boys that you just watched on that video feel the way they feel? The answer is one of the greatest fathers and most underrated father in the history of our people was a incredible father. And most people say he didn't even pick the right son. That's a misunderstanding of the story. Au understood understood so well that he loved. He loved because he made meat. You think cares about meat? The answer is he knows cares about meat. And if you care about meat, that's what I care about. When was going to bless his son, he said, "Go get meat." I need meat. Did you ever go to a rabbi and you said you ask him for a he? He says, "Only if you bring me a steak." Why is saying I need meat? The answer is he knows that's what is good at. So he says, "I want from you what you are good at so that you feel good going into the That's how YKT is built. They understand each individual boys. There are a lot of schools in our community and a lot of them are big and big might feel cool from the outside, but in many cases it's very difficult as a student on the inside. You feel like you're not really noticed. You feel like if you're not the best student in the world, no one really cares that focus on you. They're just putting you from grade to grade to grade. And why KT doesn't work that way? Harry F. >> In YKKT, >> in YKT, each individual boy is focused on very much in his own way. The rabbi mentioned the kid who stutters. I want to tell share with you an email and I don't have it in front of me but that I got about a month ago. A man sending me an email some Ashkanaz man. I don't know who he is. He says, "Rabbi, I want to share with you my story." He says, "When I was in sixth grade, I raised my hand in the classroom and I had a stutter." He says, "I raised my hand in the classroom and the ra and I was stuttering as I was raising, stuttering, stuttering four or five seconds." He says, "And the rabbi in the classroom said to me, if you don't have something to say or you don't know how to talk, don't raise your hand." >> He says, "I feel the pain for 40 years." He says, "I have eight children, 11 grandchildren, and I'm still in pain from that one comment. There are plenty of teachers in schools that don't understand students, that don't know how to talk to them, that don't know how to love them. There's a lot of grown men in this room who've had kids who've went through the system and you pay tuition. Sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, 9th, 10, 11, 12, and you're like, "What did I get for my tuition?" I guess I'm happy he's not on the street, but what else did I get for my tuition? I just got that he went to another grade. And then he went to another grade. YKKT is a whole different environment. YKKT, each student is a diamond. Each student is polished. Each student is loved. Each student is elevated. Each student is strengthened. Each student is believed in. And each student believes as they're going through the school that they have a future. I'll end with one line in the Gim says in San if a person if someone doesn't teach some holds back teaching a student the baby in his mother's womb curses that rabbi. What does that mean? If he holds back teaching from a student, the baby the baby's in my womb. What does that mean? What it means is this. What it means is there are some rabbis or some schools that believe that I teach some students or I focus on some students and I don't focus that much on other students. Maybe they're not educational type enough. Maybe they're not smart enough or maybe they're not cool enough from the families they come from. And so they don't get the same focus. Says the gimar the baby in his mother's womb curses that teacher. Why? Because the baby says, "One second, I'm going to be born into a a world that it depends. When I'm born, if I'm one way, I'll be cared for, and if I'm another way, I'm going to be cast aside." That means I better be born right because if I'm not born right, I'm in trouble. YKKT doesn't care how you're born. Doesn't care what family you come from. Doesn't care what your background is. Doesn't care what your IQ is. Are you trying to learn? Do you have dreams and aspirations? Then they are here to teach you. and they're students and their graduates are proof in the pudding of how much when you invest into a student and you give them a vocation and you teach them how to do construction or music or whatever areas they teach or business or real estate. When you teach these students, you give them something that they relate to, that they feel a part of, that feels real. There's no way in the world that a Syrian kid is ever going to feel that chemistry is real. But a Syrian kid will feel you teach them how to build, you teach them how to work, you teach them how to work at computers, you teach them whatever different things of how to code, you that kid feels, this is real, I can make money from this, I can build a life out of this and so this changes my future. So this school is a blessing to all the other schools in our community because this school makes sure that every kid has a chance. And this school ensures that there's not one kid in our community that's just going to go from system to system to system and then graduate 18, 19 years old and have no idea where he is because that kid could come to YKT and that kid could get loved and that kid could get cared for. That kid could get focused on that kid has dreams. That kid has a future and because of Rabbi Zatuni, that kid has a tremendous amount of hope. Thank you. [Applause] So amazing. >> Amazing. Amazing. >> Um spoke beautifully about the proof in the pudding. Today we have with us a boy going into the 12th grade who through our internship program and a lot of hard work but Hashem decided that he's opening up his own business. See he's a 12th grader full-time student >> maybe I'll talk to you later and has a story how he got to YKT and what he did with it. Let's listen. [Applause] Good morning. Before I begin, I want to say a special thank you to the Keys on family, to Rabbi Zetuni and the YKT staff, uh, and for everything you've guys done, not just for me, for all the students. I want to share a story, not just about me, but about what happens when the right people, the right support, and the right school come all together at the right time. Back in ninth grade, I was in a school and it didn't feel right. I wasn't connecting. I wasn't growing. I felt stuck. I started looking for a way out. That's when my cousin told me about a school called YKT. >> He told me how much he loved it, how the energy was different, how much they cared about their students, and how much support he felt there. And I thought that's exactly what I needed. My parents and I had a plan. We try to get into YD first and if that didn't work, we'd consider YKT. But I couldn't wait. One day during lunch, I borrowed a kid's scooter and I rode straight to YKT. At the time, it was on East 7th in Avenue S. No phone call, no appointment, just me and a little bit of hope. I walked in, went to the front desk, and I asked Mrs. Nah. I said, "Can I speak to the principal?" She told me he's usually not here at this time. At that time, he used to go around and try to fund raise for the school, try to help our school. And guess what? He was there. Not only was he there, not only was he there, Moshe Cohen, who is the assistant principal at the time, was there as well. And he also used to leave early. That's not a coincidence. That's something bigger. They called me up and I sat down in front of both of them. I said, "Rabbi, I need to be in your school." Without hesitation, Rabet Tuni handed me an application. That day, I told my parents, "I'm going to YKT." My parents were a little bit hesitant, but they allowed me to go. Two weeks later, the longest two weeks of my life, that's when I started. From day one, everything changed. I learned, I grew, I started to figure out who I really was. That summer I worked at Rabbi Moshe Cohen's camp, JDSA. I got fired. I tried another camp. I got fired. Then out of nowhere, I got a job offer on Wall Street. I called up my rabbi. I asked him, "Rabbi, do I take the job?" He told me, "Do it." And that's where I discovered my passion for business and sales. All through 10th grade, I asked my rabbi question after question about investing, selling, and business as a whole. At first, I thought I built something on Amazon. That didn't work out, but it planted a seed. Later, I worked in another sales office, working with different manufacturers and working with pretty big companies. And I learned something over there. Sales isn't about trying to sell something to someone, trying to sell something that people don't need. It's about helping them realize what they do need. When summer ended, I was supposed to go back to do part-time through our work study program, but I couldn't. I didn't want a boss anymore. I wanted to build something meaningful. I looked into real estate. I found that section 8 was probably the cheapest way to get into real estate as as an investor, but I had no money. That's when I remember when my rabbis told me, "Why do you want the money? Is it is it for the watches? Is it for the cars? Or is it to help people?" So, from that message, I knew I had to find a way. My father, Hhabib Datada, spent his whole life helping people with generosity and heart. my mother, Reena Gada, who's in the back right there, help people with care and wisdom. I wanted to do both. That weekend, before my sister's bris, Rabbi Danny Grand was at my house. I told him my my dream to one day donate to Ishubot and uh help this community. A couple days later at the bris it was in deal New Jersey and Rabbi Rabbi Zatuni I went up for from the sand I was a third in line Rabbi Danny blessed me not just to make money but that Hashem should help me give me the path to make money so I could give it away. Not even an hour later, I was talking to someone about my dream to make make a real estate investment company. I told him I needed $25,000 to start. He told me done. And not only that, gave me $250,000. Things were finally moving. A reality hit. One deal fell through. Then another deal fell through, and another and another. I felt like a failure. I went to my rabbi and I asked him, "What do I do?" He told he told me something I'll never forget. If you're not willing to fail, this game isn't for you. That hit hard. It stuck. But real estate was great, but it wasn't enough. I wanted to hustle. I wanted to build. I remembered the Amazon idea. How so many businesses fail because they can't get the product they need and they just couldn't trust who they were buying it from. Wholesale was broken. It was outdated. One day, driving home with my friend Josh had it. I told him my idea. Let's build a new kind of wholesale. He didn't have a job. He was in college. And I knew he was the right person to do this with. The next day, we started started my mom's closet making fake leads off of yellow pages, calling up different vendors that weren't even real. We failed. We didn't know what to do. Six months went by. We kept failing. We didn't make a dollar. Then we figured it out. We made a few sales. We hired someone. Took over the other side of my mom's basement. Hired more. Got an office. And now we have a team of six, soon to be seven, and we're just getting started. The amount of times the school helped me with my business. Either by speaking to someone to show they could trust me or by giving me advice when I needed it most. I owe it all to them. I'm not telling you this story to say, "Look at me. I'm a 17-year-old who built a business." I'm telling it to you to show you how powerful YKT is. They raised me. They challenged me. They pushed me. They believed in me. Rab Zetuni and so many others. Thank you. You took a clueless ninth grader. You took a clueless ninth grader and shaped him into something with vision, purpose, and values. And I still have one more year left. So, I'll end it with this. One day when YKT becomes one of the biggest yeshivas in the community, ask yourself, will you be able to say you were there from the beginning? Cuz I know I will, and I'll be there till the end. Before I step down, I want to ask you something today. Our goal is $200,000. Let's make it happen. Not for the numbers on the board, but because every do every dollar goes straight into the next generation. More learning, more support, more opportunity. If YKT if YKT could do this for me, imagine what it could do for the students coming after us. Thank you. >> I took my speech. Yours is better than mine. >> Okay, we have a kitchen. Today we're here to honor the person not even from here from Mexico. He's our friend the host brother Ysef Shioem and we want to oh sorry we have let's give him first the an award. Thank you. >> Absolutely beautiful. There we go. Award presented to Yseph recognition for his love, commitment to Toran education. May Hashem continue to bless you and your family. Amen, health, happiness, success. Amen. >> Amen. [Applause] We have one more speaker and then we have our guest of honor also Harry to come and let him help the yeshiva. Um we have over here also president from Mexico is a is a working man but he comes every year to Lakewood for a couple of months just to come and learn to reinvigorate himself and he's very familiar with these types of causes. First of all, thank you to Hashem to be with my brothers. He indeed is a pleasure. A Mexican guy. My English is not the best in the world, but I try to make my best. After the second one was one poor guy went to he said, "Please Rabbi, I am very poor guy. I need you help me. Help me with money. The rabbi he told relax. Don't worry. I help you. Don't worry. Just you need to put your name in the book. What book? I don't want to put nothing in the book. I have two books of the givers and the takers. If you want saka, you need to put your name in the takers. He said, "No, I don't want to put my name. I want to be giver." No, no, no. But if you want now just put now your name in the takers now if is this the point I don't want to be taker I want to be giver so thank you so much don't give me nothing after this this guy pass the time he was the richest guy in Belgium this poor guy because he want to be given and he says If you want to be a giver, you are going to be a giver. If if you want to be a taker, you are going to be a taker. Whatever you want. First of all, please I see the face. Thank you so much. He I love you. Thank you. So what beautiful is to be a giver in everything. No just money in words, in love, in give the hand to the people in smile to be giver. are not to be taken. Why the dead sea? The name is dead sea. Why dead sea? Because the dead sea receives from the kinet. >> The river kinet he receives but it doesn't go to any place just stay over there the water. The people that is receiving from Hashem and giving is alive. The people don't give nothing. It feels like no life. So it's so beautiful to be giver all the time and not to be taken. My brothers, we know something unbelievable. You can have more life than Hashem gives to you. Hashem said said you are going to have 120 years. You can have more years or just 120. Somebody have the answer >> more. >> More. It was a rabbi. His name was Benjamin Chadik. He was Gabby. He was Gabby. He give to the poor people. And one woman she came with him and she tell please give me parasa. Give me money. I need money. He said I'm sorry I don't have money now. I am Gabacha. No money phones. I can not give anything more. She tell please my children. I have seven children. We need the money. We need to ally with the money. Give. He go to the banks. He moves himself and he gives money to the woman. Okay. Take the money. Enjoy. Enjoy. It pass the time. Benjamin was in his time. It's not a beautiful story. was in the final in his life. He was going to die in his time. Came to the the he came with this guy he give life to one woman and seven children. He's going to go to the to the now he's unbelievable. He give life to the people. Who gives life to one person is who give life to all the world around all the world. He give to seven children and the woman he gives life. What he said this guy is very important in this world. He gives to the poor people give give to him 22 years more because of this. Hashem he wants in his team givers. He said to everybody, "Give your and I going to make you very rich because I need administrations. I I need administrators in my in this beautiful world to help the poor people." So my dear Rabbi Satun, I love you. I met you just last week. You are unbelievable, Rabbi. You have a smile. Unbelievable. What you are making is unbelievable. And everybody, we are with you because we love you. And thank you so much. Thank you everybody. I love you the best of you. [Applause] >> Okay, before we invite Mr. Ami to come up, I just want to tell you, you know, where exactly are your funds going today? So, very quickly, besides for funding this year's budget, which form we have almost under control, we want to expand. We want to expand our services. We don't have computers for the boys. We want to buy computers for the boys. We want to teach them Microsoft Word. We're a business school. We want to teach them Office. We want to teach them Quickbooks. We want to teach them banking. We want to have a whole sports program. We want to cultivate our sports program. Make multiple sports teams. Let these boys feel good for themselves. Recreational and a recreational way. We want to start a night program where these boys have a safe haven at night. They're not hanging out on the street. It's a place where they could go, with a place where they could learn, where they could have food, something that's scrumptious, make incentives for them to go on and to keep going. We want to expand our vocational program this year. We're adding digital marketing. We're adding HVAC with the licensing and HVAC as well. We're adding all different types of, you know, vocations and skills to instill into our boys to make them persevere in every way of life. We need your help. We also want to spoil a little spoil spoiling them a little bit. Take him out for a lunch. The boy's having a hard day. Go buy him a lunch. Boy's having a hard night. He's having problems with his parents. Take him out for dinner. Talk it over. But we can't do that without your help. Now, we know, you know, my boys again, my man guys know that every time an opportunity comes, you wait. Hashem, wants you here. I know why Hashem wants you. I know why Hashem wants me here. But please open your hearts today and let's be able to raise not the next generation of students but the next day generation of fathers of husbands of working men community leaders all in your if we do that will give you good things all thank you so much Mr. [Applause] These are pledges made by some people already announcements. >> Thank you, Rabbi. >> What do you want to say? >> I just find someone to record the new ones. >> Thank you, Rabbi. Thank you, Mr. Sh from coming all the way from Mexico to our community. We hear very good things about your communities also in Mexico City. We know some of the rabbis and we know that there's tremendous growth in Torah and learning in Mexico City. We should be able to continue to expand. >> Amen. Because as the rabbi will tell you, as he tells the boys, as we all know, without Torah, without learning, without teaching, then our young men and our young ladies do not have a good bright future. They just don't. The likelihood of more negative things happening than positive things grows exponentially. But because we have a community of givers and not takers because we all want the best for each other, want the best for our children, our boys. Yes, we're focusing today on the boys, but the girls are equally important that we give them a higher education. And that's why if you notice everybody here that there are not one, not two, not three, there will be a fourth one this year of an after high school program because the girls are just not ready. They're not ready. They finished 12th grade. Now what? Now where do we go? And you see that they're gathering by the hundreds to go to a program whether it be for one year or two years. These are all girls that have grown in demot in their ways of what our beautiful schools are teaching them. And probably I would say I'd venture to say that these will be some if not all the girls that are going to marry your boys. So I will tell you now you have a big responsibility actually a tremendous responsibility. And that's why I've been a supporter of yours, your high school, for years since the inception. Why? Because I believe that no boy should ever be left behind. God did not create us equal. I don't know two people here that are the same height, the same weight, that look like each other. Even twins don't look exactly like each other. And that's on purpose. The purpose being that everybody needs their own opportunity. They need their own chance to thrive. And sometimes the boys can't thrive in certain high schools. I'm not going to name them in our community. And along comes on his horse and chariot Rabbi Zatuni. And he said, "Young man, come here. Mr. Father, mom, don't worry because the worst feeling in the world, there could be no worse feeling than a mother who I speak to on occasion that says, "Mr. Ami, I don't know who's going to accept my son. I don't know what school he's going to be able to go to. What's going to be of him? What's he going to become?" And then you come along and you say, "We have the perfect school. Sit them down here. I will educate them. I'll teach them to them on the side of giving them fish and being a taker. And we want to support you and want to continue to give you that strength because I don't know what it's like for you, your teachers, your to go through But I know one thing. You're like a fine tailor. Every single boy comes in one way. This clothes don't fit. Everything looks a little bit off, a little shabby, and they go out with a finely tailored suit. You put them together. You give them an opportunity. You train them and teach them. It's warranted. You must go out at all cost and buy everything that is needed. So you give them that opportunity because I promise you now Rabbi Zu that you will see the fruits of your labor and you will build alumni an alumni and a young man will come along and say rabbi oh I know you I remember you without you I didn't have my chance now I break you believed in me you taught me you showed me you made me afraid whether it was the Amazon or a different opportunity. I failed. I succeeded. Now I want to give back. I want to give you money because I know that I could not be the man that I am if I wasn't the young man that I was when I got there. How I came out. And to this young man and to everybody else that is going through the process of his growth, I will promise you that you look at me today. Wow, Harry Ash me. I was there. I was one of those fellas. We didn't have it easy and times were difficult. But today, the opportunities and the chances in our great country, to become successful, to become wealthy, to marry the gorgeous girl of your dreams. I promise you all here and everybody else that wants to listen, it's all waiting for you. Everything is waiting for you. A great life and children. And to be able to write that check for that yeshiva. So you could be proud and your wife could say, "Thank you. Thank you, my for giving me that chance to build our family." But you can't do it unless you have a good foundation. And you are the foundation. You need to keep going. And like I always say, if there's anybody that's on the side of the road, and anybody that's heard me say this before, and I don't mean on the side of the road, where I was, you pick them up. We have an obligation. We have a responsibility to get them to their destination. And you are doing just that. Keep it up. [Applause] Let's get the day along. It's a gorgeous weather out there. We're so blessed. Community is growing so much. I was telling Charles, my loyal assistant, there were years he would tell me, "Mr. Ame, we're going to go speak on Sunday at an event for Yeshiva, a school, an organization. Today, he could attest that on Friday we spoke at 3 fundraisers in the community. Today I just came from a wonderful school in Israel, Rabbi Ammon. He's taking boys, our boys, and not sending them to any type of other Yeshivot be Ashkanaz otherwise because I'm proud of my heritage. I'm proud that we now have the ability to have our own institutions, teach them our way, our mid, our customs, the way we want them to come home and to give back. And if it be a rabbi, so be it. We need more rabbis. We're going to have more schools. We're going to have more yeshivas. We're going to have more. Actually, everything for you young men is going to multiply in this community right under your eyes because we're getting bigger. We're getting stronger. We're getting wiser. And we're going to be able to do so, so much more with the support of the rabbis of this community. Rabbi Zatuni being one of them that is doing everything he can. And I know as I close, you have the support of every rabbi of our community. I know that as I've been blessed not just to be, as he called me in the previous home that we were in, Rabbi Joey Aba, a giant in our generation, but all the rabbis would show up here for you. You just had to invite them today. So you invited him, but they would all come because they know what you're doing is precious and valuable.