Inside ArtScroll Season 2 Episode 18: Interview with Rabbi Yitzchok Hisiger

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome to inside art scroll where the books you read and the people who write them come to life. Today we are here to discuss a brand new book powerful moments published by art scroll a book that I was privileged to author and the question was how to go about doing this interview and after extensive discussions with the people at Kam they came up with this idea for us to interview each other for me to interview myself something like that thank you for having me you know what on second thought maybe there's a better way to do this it was a good idea we could have tried tried it. But this is going to get odd. I agree it's going to get a little awkward. So, let's try something else. How about if we have Ripkan Kramer, the president of Kora Media out in Baltimore. He's actually the producer of our inside arts grow program. We worked extensively together. Riban, it's a pleasure to have you here for this conversation. And I must say before we start the conversation that after this book has come out, I must have gotten as many comments from people about who's going to be doing this interview as I have about the book itself. Well, Riak, thank you for having me have you on the show. And I should say that you're in quite illustrious company because we got all types of suggestions as to who should be the interviewer for this program. But no one was masking. No one was willing to do it. I'm not exactly sure. We weren't sure with me. We weren't sure which direction to go in. Some people suggested prior guests, Joey Nukem perhaps, some others. Yeah. Um, but we are privileged. I'm privileged that you agreed to do this and I'm excited to talk about this new book. It is a a big milestone and uh, thank you again. And you're the host, so I guess. Yeah, that's it. So you that's the I'm in charge here, man. Exactly. You're the one doing the talking. Well, this is exciting. Powerful moments, a new book by Rietiser. I need to hear all about you first, though. I need to understand you a little bit before I can ask you a couple questions about this book. All right. The Rabbi Hiser that everyone knows as the host of Inside Art Scroll. Who are you? Tell me a little bit about where you learned, about where your background is, about the family. I need to understand. So, who I am is still to be decided. You know, it's a work in progress, but a little history I'm happy to share. I was born 40 years ago on Tub Bishvat actually in Tua Mammal. My parents are Rabisol and Mrs. Raina Hiziger today of Flatbush Lakewood. I grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn. I'm the youngest of six. I'm actually the Ben Zakunim on both sides of my family, interestingly. So I'm really the baby of the family and um I have four older sisters, one older brother and I'll talk about that because my brother has played a seminal role in my life as a role model, someone to look up to um and I was born on Tubish Taiff not long after Rahutnner was nif and my father had learned in Berlin. In fact, my grandfather ripped Harry. My father's father had a very close relationship with Rahutner. So, I'm named after Rahutner. One of the first babies in Kutzler to be named after Rahutner. Interesting tidbit. My grandfather's Msada Kaducian was Rahutner. My father's sandic was Rahutner. My father's Msada Kaducian was Rahutner. I'm named after Rafner. and my sandic was Rabar Sheh the current Rashiva of Yeshiva's Raben in Berlin. And [Music] um another interesting connection is that uh my grandfather Rhari Hiziger was one of the pioneers in East New York. Pioneers as far as Yiddish is concerned and he was an activist. He didn't get married till age 40 in 1940. And uh he impacted a tremendous number of the youth in East New York, most prominently Lieutenant Burnbound who acknowledged to me when I wrote an article about my grandfather about 10 years ago that he was a shaper of many of the youth in East New York, Remo Swirloff and others. And my grandfather somehow despite being educated only in public school. He had a malam I believe in the afternoon. But like many of the youngsters of his time, he wasn't yeshiva education. But somehow he had a tremendous ability to recognize true tashka and connect himself to gdeladar. And when he heard that Rav Hutner came to America with his rabbits in Masha and was staying at the home of his father-in-law Rav Lipshits in East New York, he made his way over to Rav Hutner into the Lipshit house and as the story goes, he found Rav Hutner reading the dictionary, teaching himself English. Wow. And my grandfather connected himself to Rahutner and was instrumental in getting Rav Hutner his first job here in America. My grandfather was involved in the National Council of Young Israel and through that he had a connection to Irving Buunaman who was the president of RJJ and my grandfather was instrumental in getting Rav Hutner his first job as Minahil of RJ. So they had a quite a connection and uh my grandfather when he married my grandmother Sophie or Shiffra Freedelland they got married in the apartment of and I'm just kind to jog my memory here they got married in the apartment of Rafender Lynchner who was an Adam of Mendelovich and Rav Hutner was offici he officiated the marriage in that apartment if I'm not mistaken recollecting what I wrote um he wasn't officially clergy at the time. So he ended up being a witness on the marriage but he was Msada Gaduchinian and so there was a deep deep connection between my family and my grandfather and Rav Hutner and later Yeshua in Berlin. Um and I was then named after Ravner. So it's a definitely a big There was a serious amount of name dropping you just were were able to pull off just now in into the family history. But that's that's incredible. The did your brothers before you learn in Kayen Berlin did the family maintain that Kayen Berlin connection? So interestingly the answer is no. My brother actually my brother Hershel whose name is he's named after that grandfather Rabb Harry um he actually later went to Alamelik and we both attended yeshiva taratima because my father was the principal there. So I attended Termima. Um I should mention my grandfather that grandfather was Nifter in 1958 when my father was still a teenager. And um just an interesting thing very often in interviews people will ask a guest if you could meet one person you know who would it be? And people give examples, you know, if I could meet Rashi, the Rambam, the vil naggoy, if I could sit with Raf Shak for three hours, you know, what would I give? But I'm not sure that I would be on the level to have a discussion with the with those people. But one person I would really give anything to sit with would be that grandfather, Rabb Harry. I heard so much about him when I wrote the article about him a decade ago. I spoke to many people including Davinskarba whose father had in East New York and my grandfather used to davin there and they all described him as the most charismatic, warm, influential person. He was a powerful ortor. He just had so many interesting things about him. He was a warrior for Shamir Shabas at a time when many people were not keeping Shabas. And um I would give anything to meet him to sit with him as a as a person who was a pioneer of Yiddesh Kite in the early to mid 1900s. Um we were in Zika and I'm sure that my father and his one brotherh my dear uncle and my aunt Mrs. Esther Gwartzman would would surely give anything to sit with their father as well. And before I get into trouble I should mention my mother's parents. You know the way it goes. But my grandparents Reb and uh Bessie Feller who was known as Willie Feller who were also pioneers in Coney Island for battle. They battled for Yiddisheskai. They were macar people. They were tremendous and uh I was to know them although I was younger as the youngster of the family. I was only a child and a teenager when they passed on. I knew three out of my four grandparents I was not to know my my paternal grandfather and uh I would have loved to uh to meet him and hear his insight. How did he know when Rabbi Hanawasaman came to America to connect himself to him? And he has I have letters in my possession from my grandfather writing about issues be really before their time before Rabaron Cutler were was battling against certain movements encroaching on pure orthodoxy. My grandfather wrote letters reflecting those very views. Where did he get that? Where did he get the knowledge? Where did he get the Ashkafa from? I would love to sit with him but uh did some of it though has your father absorbed some of that uh I don't know I guess you know that that focus on the clal making sure that uh that people should mitzvah that passion it's interesting that you mentioned that there is a component of it where my grandfather was very knowledgeable in the field of kashras and even though he was an engineer by trade he had tremendous knowledge in the sciences and that's something that my father perhaps inherited because my father has worked worked in cautious for many years totally on a uh not on a I I don't know if the word is professional but he didn't do it as a career my father did it almost as a hobby as a passion my father's been involved in cautious for for decades so uh perhaps that's one area shabas is not something that we baram grapple with today um but there's no question we speak in our family about my grandparents with tremendous reverence and I don't know who's the one who said that in order to know where you're You have to know where you come from. Something to that effect. So, um I I I still glean tremendous inspiration from my grandparents and uh we're here today. So, I went on just to talk about yeshiva education. I went on to learn yeshivaim uh and I was there from kindergarten all the way till post base medish till the ship and um I don't know if it's a bigger kesh that I made it throughima for 17 years or that they put up with me all those years but be that I'm sure you were a model student. Of course of course absolutely. So you I went to where for a little over two years uh tremendous and grow going to the dream was was always to reach that plateau you know um and following in my brother's footsteps then I went to learn where I learned by Kaplan Rebna is the youngest son of Rabar and Rabbitna Kaplan famed pioneers of the bayakov in America and um that was a interesting seems like a little more of a unique path. Was it or did you have a that went with you for the No, I actually went by myself. Most of my friends went to Brisk. Um and it is a kachima had a kachum oriented yeshiva. We learned kachchim and is a son-in-law of David Salvetic. Um and that was he's an Americanborn rashiva. So it was a unique combination. Americans were in the yeshiva with you, wasn't it? Yes, it was it's a it was an American yeshiva and uh I made tremendous relationships over there with it was a unique of 3540 bakim with yungalite and it was it was a kind of change of pace. I came from Taratima which is a large yeshiva and here I was in a smaller yeshiva where I knew no one. Um but uh I I greatly greatly benefited from that and I learned by two people and Kaplan who are two of the most humble self- aacing some of the warmest people you could ever meet. and um and I'm I'm grateful that guided me the way he did to where I ended up you know so no regrets I was in Aritus from sukus after 911 till the following pes so it was for about a year and a half okay and then to from there at BMG and then I went to lakewood yeah y now here's a question that you may have not seen coming during that kufa when you're in Israel very often talid will have some kind of a picture of where they're going to want to end up, right? Raonus professional, you know, did you at that point kind of have a picture of where you wanted to go? So I did have a a notion that I would go to Lakewood and that I would eventually either end up in the field of cautious because as I mentioned my father's in Kash and I always had a great interest in it or that I would become a rebi of some sort. Um I I have a certain soft spot in my heart for Bakim. I always thought I would work with Baham. Now I should mention I will get into it. I was always doing writing. I was always writing as a bacher as a youngster later on. Interestingly when I was in Artisel every m shabas I would write a letter home following in my brother's footsteps. My brother when he learned in he would write letters home every week recounting the things that happened in the week the interesting people he met and so on and so forth. And uh I kind of did the same thing. When you say writing, you're talking about like with a pen and a piece of paper. With a pen and a paper. You don't have to turn on the pen. It just works. Literally sit I would sit at a table. And um after a while, I started looking out for things to write, stories, interesting people. I met the people I would go to for Shabas meals and so on. And my mother began taking those letters, making photo copies and giving them out to the whole family. It became a thing. Yets's letters from Israel. So I was doing quite a bit of writing then. Um obviously not on a professional level, but um that was just an interesting tidbit. Yeah. Did you can you attribute your great education at Turretima with some writing skills? That's a good question. Definitely. We definitely really we we got my father was the English principal. So, you know, great English department there. Great. Full disclaimer, my father was my father ran an excellent department and he was actually consulted by many other yeshivists on how to do it. There's no question that I got an excellent education in Mima both in Liu Kadesh and Lum. But as far as writing is concerned, um, a lot of credit goes to my mother. During my mifty years, I went every summer to camp so every day, virtually every day, every other day, I would write a postcard home to my parents. Again, just a short synopsis of what was going on in camp. I was probably the only kid in camp writing postcards home at that frequency. And my mother would actually send the postcards back to me with my grammatical and spelling mistakes circled in red like a RS. Yeah, exactly. I mean, today I don't know if that would fly, but um that's really where it started. And uh I was always writing. I really was. I was always into writing. I must give credit as well to a friend of mine Ellie Bomb who when we were both in Mifa and then in B medish started pulling putting out a weekly at the beginning it was weekly then it was bi-weekly newsletter he was very into and he would write a summary of on different topics and he gave me the job of editing actually a few times he gave me this of writing so I wrote on topics of kashras I wrote articles on on kalivakum on Vinasakum on Yosan on Bishakum and Pasakum. These were in English, right? In English, very clearly written, reviewed at the time by Rabis Bellski and we were mailing them out to shs all over the United States. You imagine two Baham and Mifa/Base Medish. And that helped me hone a lot of my writing and editing skills. That's really where it started. I was 17, 18 years old and we were doing this. It was a project we we undertook together and u I'm very grateful to him for that opportunity. So if I getting back to what I asked you about being able to see al baker you know the kind of work that you would be doing well maybe you didn't see it as a profession but certainly you were you were actually laying the groundwork. So I I was and if you would have asked me then if I would have viewed myself to become a writer or editor I would have said I would love to do this. I'm just not sure if I have the requisite skills to do it. Mhm. So, you know, I I was still kind kind of getting my feet wet. If you would tell me, oh, you could work for art scroll, I would have said, uh, where where could I sign on the dotted line, but art scrolls, art scroll, you know, and at that time, um, I was just being honest about where I was as far as career is concerned. So, all right. So, before we get into the professional thing, so there was a tuf of Kyle, I'm assuming, right? Yes, assuming just you know I'm assuming in in Bishkaya I was learning uh for a few years and shortly not that long after my marriage Rabbi Lipchitz from the Yat who was my wife's uncle and I should mention that when I came back from I went into the freezer and then I was introduced to my wife she was actually the first girl that I went out with and um my wife is Braha, a daughter of Ramosa and Bashi Morgan Stern of Mie and a granddaughter of Ribak of Lipshitz and Ribers Morgan Stern, both very very early pioneers in Muny. Um, and she's the actually the great granddaughter of Reblaza Lavine RV of Detroit. and she's named after her grandmother, a daughter of Rabbles Lavine Rabbita, an Isisha Kashua in her own right. Um, and my wife's uncle, Rabbi Lipchitz, editor of Yated, um, knew that I did writing and he asked me if I could help him out. At the time, he was kind of running a one-man show doing a tremendous amount of work in publishing the Yat. We're going back how many years now? We're talking about now 2005. Okay. So I was at the time 24 plus years old. I was fairly young. Um and I started doing editing for the Yat and I loved it. I loved the responsibility and I'm truly grateful to Rabbi Lipchitz for giving me an opportunity. If there's one person within the realm of publishing who I owe my career to, it's Rabbi Lipshits. when you when you have a passion for something when you want to do something and you know this from film making all you want is an opportunity give me a chance to show that I could do what I think I could do and Rabbi Lipchitz allowed me to do that I'm sure you learned from him also I learned a tremendous amount from him not only in writing just in the in dealing with issues um and one particular thing that I'm very grateful to him for is that he allowed me to develop on my own. He didn't micromanage the way I wrote and write it like that. No, he let me do my thing. And that's a big compliment in the field of writing and editing. Some editors and publishers are very very particular and they'll say, you know, my way or the highway. And Rabbi Lipchitz allowed me to develop and he and he gave me great responsibility at a fairly young age at 25 years old. He was basically telling me, I trust you to make this editorial decision. Can you tell me the kind of work you were doing at the ATE? What was it? He was he was sending me articles that were coming in from columnists. Uh he was assigning me writing jobs. People would pass on and he would give me the responsibility of writing an obituary. Um the letters to the editor of the paper. He would giving he would give me manuscripts, you know, to decide on whether we should publish them or shouldn't publish them. Um and more than anything else I would say there were probably three or four seinal events from which I gained tremendously working for the Yat number one would be the Rubashkin saga when Shorai Rubashkin story broke at the time back in we're talking about h what was it 2008 2007 I don't remember the exact here. Um, people were reporting on it, but Rabbi Lipchitz was the first one to say that there's an injustice here and I'm willing to put my newspaper, my career, my parnosa on the line to fight for the truth. And that's not an overstatement. It's very easy to look back now is free. people came to realize the injustice, especially when very prominent people, governmental officials, prominent attorneys came on board. And it's very easy to look back now and say, "Oh, of course, you know, the Rabbashkin campaign, why wouldn't the Yat fight for a man who deserves to be defended?" At the time, it was really not a simple matter. Uh, in fact, I remember one of the editorials at the I wrote the page three editorial after a a pretty significant development in the case. I don't remember what it was. And someone came over to me and gave it to me over the head. Why' you write this? Why'd you write that? Who said who said that the Yat should be defending? Um, and so it wasn't a black and white matter at all. Were you nervous? I was not nervous because I I was following Rabbi Lipchitz's lead. He was so confident and he had the courage of his convictions and I just really we all followed his lead as a group at the Yat. Um we knew that what he was doing was right and then we saw gradually we saw media and then akconum come on board organizations it became Israel's project to stand up for sham but it was not like that from the beginning uh and just to add to that at the time that was incarcerated and Rabbi Lipchitz became his you know prominent defender so to week they began learning every week on the phone and it was Tuesday night and we were at the making the paper and everything would stop because the phone call was coming in from Sha Morai and it was it was surreal. We would sit, when I say we, myself, other editors, staff members, and we would watch as this man who was facing a 27-year sentence ultimately was sitting on learning with Rabbi Lipshitz. It it was like out of a story book, a really unbelievable thing. And um it was very very inspiring to live through that. We really live through it. And um a lot of this was documented in the YAD and ultimately now a book came out about the Rabashkan saga. Um and I I I just learned a lot from from Rabbi Lipshits and uh he knew which battle to take on. I I would say that in in knowing who to fight for, how to fight for them. I should mention also that he it wasn't only in the newspaper. He was devoting a tremendous amount of time privately meeting with Askanim, raising funds, dealing with lawyers and so on and so forth. And uh ultimately it was a an effort of many people but Rabbi Lipchitz's role in that can never be overstated and uh that was one thing. Another seminal moment I would say saga was when a very prominent moy was being targeted by New York state and the yat took on their campaign and I remember being on conference calls and writing articles editing articles standing up for brisma. Rabbi Lip, Rabbi Lipchitz realized that when New York State was going after Matsita Beep, they were really going after Brismila as a whole. And uh again, he led the fight for a an age-old mitzvah and min um I mean you'd think that the purpose of the newspaper is to report the news, not to be advocating or fighting for cause. So true. So true. He, Rabbi Lipchitz, really redefined what a Tyra newspaper accomplishes. It's not just about reporting the news. And perhaps this is part of the mission he was given by Raf Shaf when he started the paper. And and hopefully this is something that I learned a little bit from. Um I doubt I would have had the courage to do what he what he did. I really uh took a tremendous amount of of conviction, but but I I stood on the side and watched and tried to learn from it. And uh and then finally, more recently, open orthodoxy, the battle for the purity of orthodoxy and to call out those who are diluting orthodoxy, calling what they're doing orthodoxy when it's truly not orthodox. Um and that also that's something that he led the charge and uh so these were I would say three pivotal periods of time that I learned a lot from him um and I'm very grateful to him for that. But then came Art Scroll. We got to hear about Art Scroll. You know the opportunity to join Art Scroll is something that I cannot put into words for someone like me. I grew up writing. I grew up reading. I was a tremendous reader. And Art Scroll was I I really don't have words. Art scroll was everything. Art scroll was was and is the pinnacle. And I'll give you a a mundane analogy and I hope you'll forgive me for it. Imagine a kid grows up as a an avid Yankee fan and he gets a phone call one day from the Steinbrunners who say that, you know, we would love for you to join our team or we want to hire you. So, this lifelong Yankee van will say, "Sign me up. I mean, I I'll be a ball boy. I'll clean the field. I'll clean the dugout. Just give me the opportunity." And that's how I felt when an opportunity came my way. And the thanks is to Mrs. Kyle Lalfman who I've done a lot of writing and marketing work with. Um, and she knew that arts school was looking for someone. She was really the shin and she asked me if she should place a phone call to Abigalia Lawitz. I said of course like this is a great opportunity. So what do you do for art scroll? So, that's a a complicated question because we do a lot of things. I knew that was coming, but I I do writing, we do tons of marketing. We'll get into the inside Arch idea, which kind of uh came into being shortly after I joined Art Scroll. Um, in a nutshell, I would say that it's brainstorming and creatively implementing ideas to grow the Art Scroll brand. that that's how I would synopsize it and it involves so many different things and I'm fortunate in a very unique way to sit in on all the editorial meetings on all the marketing meetings, brainstorming meetings. It's an unbelievable opportunity I to sit down the hall from Rabbi Zlatitz Rebdalia who is carrying on the legacy of his father Ray Mayor's Ladawitz who I did know on some level because I published two books with Arts Girl before I was working for Arts Scroll and Rib Mayor was so kind and generous to me um really in a in a tremendous way and obviously I I idolized Ray Mayor he what he accomplished by founding art scroll is unparalleled and RGalia is doing an unbelievable job. I I've already learned so much from him from his creativity, from his determination, from his clarity. Um he has a tremendous and ability to know what's going to sell, what's not going to sell, how we should do things. So to sit down the hall from Reb Gadalia Lanowitz just feet away from the office of Rabbi Nusen Sherman and down the hall the other way from Rebia Brander a legend in his own right and then the rest of the staff here which Rabbi Sherman always reminds us Mayor Lawitz called this a genius cluster as you know from Rab Elli Corona graphics to all the other people and I know I'm going to get myself into trouble if I mention certain people and not others. It's an unbelievable. I I almost can't believe that I'm here. I I really It's uh It's a dream come true. No question about it. For someone like me growing up writing and editing and and appreciating the beauty, the magnificence to precision of art scroll and now to be here a little cog in the wheel. Just the fact that they let me into the building each day. They let you in. Are you able to now see? Are you appreciating more um some of the attention to detail or some of thema that goes into the process? Absolutely. So, a few people asked me, "What's the difference between publishing books with Art Scroll before you worked for Art Scroll and now that you're working for Art Scroll?" And I'll give you an example. Two nights before this book, Powerful Moments, came uh went to the press, Rabbi Shia Brander was sitting on the manuscript analyzing it. he noticed that something was off with some of the fonts. No one would have ever noticed. But to have someone with Ripshia's um perfection, his eye for perfection, his eye for beauty working on the book was the biggest compliment. And I should thank Mrs. Finkelman who edited the book with Mrs. Firestein and Mrs. Dicker did an amazing job pageionating all the people who who made this book come into being. Being here and seeing it happen was was unbelievable. I I I owe a tom. He's taken me on a magnificent path from being a young younger man given a chance to write for a newspaper to now being given a chance to be part of art scroll is is really phenomenal. A dream come true. and and I I I thank her abundance for allowing me to to do it and I dab that you should continue to give me the ability to contribute in some way to the Arts Girl brand. I have no doubt you will. Prior to going to joining Art School, I got the opportunity to kind of collaborate with you a little bit when we were working together from the CMA Shas. Yes. That was shortly before your stint here before your job at Art Scroll. Shouldn't call it stint. So, you know, but the um so I of course was working on the videos and you were working on the Him magazine, right? That's correct. It is uh something that I'm very proud of um and ultimately something that came out of being in the field of publishing our mutual friend Rip Schmully Rosenberg who actually was a a roommate of mine when we were both learning in Bishavaya in the V. I think it was room 278 where we were roommates. Who would have ever thought that years later Rip Schmolley would the be the marketing what was the official title the marketing officer grand puba wizard I don't know who knows yeah what ribbully did for the recent CMA shas at melife stadium and that he would coordinate for me to have the opportunity ribbal freeder gave me the opportunity to direct the publishing of the hia magazine which we have here this is the magazine that we put together um 330 plus pages of content articles about the camas about Dafi in general. There's a good article in there about the guy who made the videos I think. Yeah, there is a pretty nice piece on Oh yeah, that's what it was about. Yeah, right. And it it was it was a once in a-lifetime opportunity. I don't know who will do the next one, but this was a very very unique opportunity. I will say you also were very helpful in the actual video production themselves. had many many meetings together with Schmolley to discuss strategies and try to make these films for arguably the biggest live audience in Kal Israel's history. It was an amazing experience. The script writing if you remember we were sitting in summer hotel not far from Stadium. That's right. Brainstorming held in Metal Lands or something. Uh writing script for the videos that were shown to the to the audience. Um, I remember also being given the job of coming up with the quotes that they put on the all the billboards or those jumbotrons, the jumbotrons outside of the stadium. Um, just being part of the production of this was an unbelievable experience. Yeah, there's some things are legit historical. You know, this it's it's it's epic in the real sense. It really it really is. There's another thing here. I brought it just because it's interesting. This is a book that probably no one ever heard of. It was a labor of love that I undertook in 2007. You show it to our audience over here. Yeah. Right here. It was a book that was put together in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Yat. And as an employee of the Yatad, I I felt that, you know, this is something interesting. I wanted to commemorate 20 years of a Tyra newspaper. And the idea was to collect letters of approbation hamas from 100 raon and then articles from lay leaders and then pictures of covers of past newspapers and we put together a book. Is this Ben Nimsa? Can someone get this book? Probably if you contacted the Ted office whoever sees it is amazed by it because it's it's really an interesting Is it on the Higer coffee table at home? I mean if I had a coffee table maybe but not really. It sits on this farm shrunk collecting dust and I I don't know, you know, I don't know how many people have seen it cuz we kind of did it internally. We printed a couple of thousand copies. Um, but it really is an interesting book and it took a tremendous amount of effort and time. Um, and at the time I was just very very driven to do it. So that was also an interesting uh an interesting project that we worked on and um and here we are. Well and here we tak here in the art school studio. I remember um when I was uh the first time you and I got to have a meeting here in your art school capacity. So you shared with me this idea to do a series of shows. At the time I had already been talking about the idea of doing more studio kind of work at Art Scroll, but to be honest it was so premature the concept. All we knew is that I can have been doing work with Art Scroll for well over a decade and um a lot of 15 years now. So the the idea of being able to instead of shleing up the gear and setting up the green screen, why don't we just dedicate some space? But space is a premium until we moved from Second Avenue, Second Avenue and to here in Rawway, New Jersey to this magnificent and huge facility. So the idea was let's let's dedicate some space for a studio. Now when I was talking about dedicated space for a stu studio, just find me a corner of a room where I could paint the wall green. But it really didn't have a whole lot of uh you know beyond just that. Where would it be and what would be the reason for it? How often do we actually need Rabbi Sherman does do his weekly um devartra his moments of inspiration which can we're now in year number five every week he does not miss a devart on that week etc and uh we you know in the past I would come up bring the green screen or Sherman would you know knock out a few different terra and we would just so it would be great if we could do it here so in talking with you you had this idea for a show so one of the ideas that I had a pitched to Reb Gadalia when I first joined Art Scroll was to do interviews with writers as a means of kind of you know my intro to the show we say bringing the hello again welcome to inside arts scroll the books you read books you read and the people who write them life and that was really the idea the idea was we have writers talented writers or the protagonists of the stories in the case of let's say Rabuk Gman uh that book was written by Ribbn Seltzer, but I interviewed Riby and the idea was to kind of give it a different dimension and ribbad loved the idea and when I heard that there is an existing studio at Art Scroll at the time it wasn't this beautiful room which by the way we could talk about the green screen in a moment but it was a room that was suited for filming and I hear that Repan Kramer is the one who films Rabbi Sherman every week. I said, "We have it all here. Everything we needed was right here." And Ribdala, I'm grateful to him, not only for accepting the idea, but for allowing us in working together to kind of launch it in our own style. Again, not micromanaging how to do it, what to do it, kind of let it develop. That's right. By the way, I learned that now. I I've I've referenced that a few times. I learned that great leaders empower people to do creative things and let them fly, not micromanage. If you believe someone has the ability, let them do it. Yeah, sometimes you have to make suggestions, but that I'm very grateful for to him for allowing us to develop the show um or program or whatever it is. I I thought of the name Inside Art Scroll. Everyone thought it was great and uh I don't remember you. What was the next step? Uh we just started doing it. I mean it wasn't it wasn't a uh who's our first guest? I think our first guest was Rabbi Zlatawitz himself with RIB Besser. That's right. It was the Rabbi Tran book which ended up going going on to be one of the best sellers perhaps of all time. Um for sure one of our favorite books. That's right. And that that interview was actually a challenging one because it was we're interviewing two people at once, figuring out how to do it on the fly. But the actual product looks like very similar to the ones we're doing now, which I guess, you know, no one can really appreciate how the fact that, you know, the the technology evolved around us as we continue the process. So, be able to hold on to our first episode. No, it's pretty impressive. I I've gone back to watch some of them. Um, and we should talk about the fact that I hosted the show alto together. I want to uh you know full disclaimer when I presented the idea to Reb Gdalia let's do interviews it wasn't a means of me getting a stellar I didn't come in and say I want to do a show I should be the host by no means um I was I just thought it was a great idea and if they would have suggested that someone else be the host no problem I just thought it was a good idea and I don't remember who it was maybe it was you who said you know Yity why don't you give it a shot um And interestingly enough, it's something that I've studied over the years. The art of interviewing, public speaking, these are things that I'm I'm I take an interest in. When someone gets up to speak publicly, I'm immediately subconsciously analyzing their vocabulary, their cadence. Wow. I do not want you in the audience. Next time I got to speak, but okay. Listen, when you speaks, he's okay, you know. Yeah, Rabbi Pes Cron is his father-in-law, you know, one of my favorite uh people. So um it is something that I had I imagine has and and now that you've been doing this can I for like a year and a half you've been doing inside article episodes. Sure. You've gotten feedback right and this has been like a lot of feedback. I got a lot of feedback to the style of interviewing. Um I do have a method in my interviewing. I know there are different styles. Some hosts are more combative. I'm a little more easygoing about it. I I've watched, you know, the famous people like Larry King and others who were were and are considered master interviewers and and I picked up different uh you know nuances of how to interview and the main key and my and I'm by no means I'm not trying to come off as some kind of you know professional interviewer but but I have studied it and I I think the main key as simple as it sounds is to let the people talk. You ask a question. So, I shouldn't interrupt. I'm just kidding. I'm trying to interrupt. Okay. Thanks. And by the way, sometimes sometimes I'll watch myself and I'll interrupt the person and I'll cringe. Why did I interrupt the person? Why didn't I let the person talk? But kind of you're a facilitator. So ask the question and get out of the way. The way I look at it, because I don't have to interview in the same way you do, but I also in my own capacity as doing documentary video, I find that I'm always representing the audience. So if there's a question that's on your mind and you think it's going to be on the audience's mind, I think it's okay to sometimes interrupt because they're like they're Why is he not addressing that point? Let let me clarify. It's in the flow of conversation. So if and again I'm just talking off the top of my head. This is just uh you know a little banter about interviewing. If we just edit this part out anyway. If I ask a question, I'll try most of the time Yeah. not to ask a follow-up 3 seconds later. Let the person get the thought out and then follow up. Like you said, a very good point. The audience is gonna have questions. You want to ask the questions that the audience member would ask if they could, right? No question about it. I think that's integral to the success of an interview. Um, but just there is a psychology in the whole thing because you have to watch your interviewe as we continue to move about interviewing. You know, if they get into the zone and they're thinking about things, you need to stay on their wavelength. So this way they I find whenever we do when we have to do work on tributes about people who've passed on and there's an emotional component to it. I find that there's a certain point in any conversation if it's working well they get into that zone and they're there and you don't want to pull them out. That's when you ask the question something like um what do you miss most about not having that person in your life anymore? Right. Right. And then you get the water works and I know that this is like vicious but at the same time it's good makes for good videos. I'll tell you another theory of mine and I would love to hear from people who are watching this if they agree. I believe that if the guests are at ease and comfortable, then the people at home watching are also at ease. If you make a guest squirm, besides that, they probably won't come back again, which may be fine, but the people at home might be squirming also. You're not into gotcha journalism. No, not not not in my not not on Inside Arts, you know, maybe for that day. Inside art school is more of a a friendly confines where we're here to discuss, you know, books that come out. I love getting into the details of the lives of the people. That's the thing. Most of your in inside art school, they're not really about the books. I mean, you do cover them, but it's the people. It's about the people. And I And the truth is, I think I was born with a certain inquisitiveness. I love to know about people. I could probably interview anyone here at Arts Girl. Seriously, anyone in the binder here. I could probably pull out any employee, sit them down, and have a a great conversation about where they come from, what inspired them, who inspired them, um what makes them tick, what That's why Inside Art Scroll episodes are not four minutes long, right? They're longer because, by the way, you're you're touching on something that we we've discussed. I know this is people in the audience might think like, why do they make it so long? Well, it's been thought about a lot. It's been thought about kind of seems like it has a different purpose. I have a proclivity, if that's the word, to go long. I could probably do most interviews for an hour in length, but the decision and the consensus is that an hour is a long time and try to keep it as short and to the point as possible. So, we try to find a happy medium because I I like to get to the kishka, so to speak, of of each guest. I seem like it's working though. I mean, saying, you know, we're the feedback seems to be that you're doing it right. Yeah. No, the feedback is very positive and I'm grateful to you and your team at Kam for uh we have Tim here who's uh shout out to Tim engineering and Cullen and the rest of the of the really do a wonderful job helping us through and what people don't may not know or they don't know is that we actually do very minimal editing. what they watch at home of Inside Artical episodes are almost verbatim the way it takes place, right? I mean, maybe here or there someone says the wrong thing or we once had a guest who forgot to thank his wife. So, I think we I think we allowed him to come back and we Thank you, dear. Really, thank you. This is But other than that, really, the way we do the interviews is uh is the way the way people see them. And I I like that because it's authentic. Yeah. There's nothing fake about these interviews at all. Oh, excuse me. Yeah, we everything is completely legit, including this beautiful rumor in you got to love this this this the you know, take a moment making a joke out of it. Yeah. Well, no, you Well, let's explain this cuz I think this is actually Explain what a green screen is. Explain. You know what I'm going to do? Actually, I'm going to take out my phone. Okay, here is Rebiger right here. Right. See his green wall? And if you turn around, you can see the cameras and then we can see ourselves up there on the screen. But this area is completely green without any seams, even the walls curved over there. But the idea is that when the computer can take out the green and replace it with a background, what we discovered and what we've kind of been working on here at Art School Studio in particular is that uh in that um more an immersive 3D environment. So whereas this is not just simply a flat background, you can't just find an image like this on Google and throw it behind people. But Tim and Colin and and my very creative graphics team was able to create an environment with multiple angles to look at. So when the camera's on me and I'm talking, it's one background. When on you, it's on a different background. Because the computer sees it as a full 3D environment. So because of that, we're able to create spaces like this where the art scroll books, we're able to put whatever books we want back there. And those are actually legit books. Those are not, you know, those when I say literature books are actual 3D representations of actual real farm, you know, kind over the years of working with art scroll, we have a very large library of art scroll digital assets, if you will, you know, but I've gotten a lot of comments from people about this rug right here, right? You want to know where do you get the art scroll? Where can I get an art scroll rug like that from my house? And I try to explain that the rug doesn't actually exist and that these beautiful storms ranks don't actually exist. uh you know I don't want to burst anyone's ah yes the mad dimmian that we live in but but it is a beautiful background that you've created and the fact that we have a studio here at art scroll has allowed you wellkah is incredible so many projects I'll tell you because of this brainchild of this show thanks to you and the fact that ribbadalia and the whole team of arts school was willing to let us expand the studio here is not just the painted green wall but we have this the soundproof room and the fact that we have the control room and a place for people to wait. It's a very comfortable place. Um we were able to let lots of organizations come to art scroll right and then when COVID hit and we needed to create all this virtual dinner opportunity. So all these muses now had a place to come that was not so far away. I used to shle people to crazy for in the studios in the middle of nowhere. here you come to art scroll and if you're coming with uh people then they get to potentially get a tour and see what's going on where all their favorites from or how they're being made. So this has been such hashga. It's been great for us. It's been great for Kalisurel and the fact that I can um spend my hours here when I'm my office away from Baltimore. It's been a realus for me. No, no question about it. It's been a and and the show has been a a unique part of marketing arts scroll and she it should continue. I see like more than just marketing arts scroll. It's a window into the I've spoken to people who enjoy the show that they get to understand that you know the challenges and this and the successes of these different authors. It's enriching. There is a spin of marketing. It's like a really understanding. No, really. Man, people enjoy it and I I've gotten emails, phone calls, messages from people literally around the globe who are who watch this program. This is marketing for the show. But yeah, no, that's okay. But um no, really people people really enjoy it. Um whether it's from entertainment as kosher. Yeah. Great conversation, great guests. We've had some very special people come down. The truth is I'm grateful to every single guest who has come down. the people who made long tracks the Boston Rebu was here. Uh we did do the Rabit Grossman interview virtually because he's an I hope to do that kind of work with you more you know. So we we've done all different types and I'm grateful to everyone for making it possible. I will I do want to mention because I don't want to forget there's another project that I undertook when I joined Art Scroll. Another idea I don't remember whose idea it was. It was probably bandied about even before I was here, but I was happy to kind of bring it to fruition. And that was creating a weekly Shabas newsletter where I adapt material from existing art school titles, which there's plenty to choose from, both from new titles and old titles. And um by now we're printing thousands of copies of this newsletter every week. It's going out to hundreds of shooles throughout the United States. If I didn't get in my shell, how do I get it? You could email me yhisigerartscroll.com and we'd be happy to add your shul to the list. Um it's gratus. We we you don't charge for this. We don't charge for it. And the feedback is uh there's something people say over the table. They yeah beautiful stories something for children and again I want to thank Radalia because when I when the idea was discussed Radalia said go for it and the Mrs. Aviva Cohen here at Art Scroll designs it and we print it on site and Rebar Zawitz who helps me with so many things here at Art Scroll really is my right hand in terms of getting it out and making sure that it's uh done in a timely manner. And I'm very grateful to Rebahim and Bina Bronstein who are the sponsors week in and week out. They enable us to provide this for free to the community and right now we're reaching hundreds of shooles. I have a dream of reaching a thousand 2,000 shooles. Eventually, virtually not a day goes by that I don't get some kind of request. Yeah. From a shul. Beautiful. We start off with 10 copies. If someone needs a little more, we're happy to accommodate. And I I hear about it. Uh I hear about it all the time. Uh I took a trip to Florida a couple months ago on behalf of art school. We met with some sh there and it was amazing to see the newsletter sitting there, you know, in the shel people picking them up and reading them. So look at this. It's it's it's a it's a special feeling again just to be able to have the opportunity to do that to take the art school material and get it out there to a wider audience. We allow people to uh to feel uplifted to have something to say at the shabas table. Rebeccer, I heard you wrote a book, right? I did write a book or or a new book, I should say. Powerful moments, short stories. Okay. Which is an there there is an interesting history to my short story writing, which is kind of instrumental in understanding how this book came about, how my two prior books, food forthought one and two were published. It was at some point uh I don't know how many years ago where I just had a feeling inside of me that I wanted to use my writing to empower people to uplift people to give them positivity. You look in the media online elsewhere there's a lot of negativity. I just felt like everything negative about cholesterol you'll find not enough positivity. I know it sounds like so basic but that was the feeling I had and I started a column called food for thought in the yat a weekly column just writing short stories in fact I had a friend who told me Yity I read your column when it's three paragraphs if it's anything more I will not read it like the idea was for it to be short true sweet to the point and with a posit with a message it has to have a message something to take away. And I just started writing and I would look for stories. I would look for them in inarim and kaidesh. I would look for them in in books. And then what happened was in short order people started sending me stories. I wasn't even soliciting stories at that point. But people were sending me stories and people would say you know what I have a good food forthought story. Like when people would tell me that I was like okay so you you understand what I'm trying to craft. it was a brand. Um, and that meant a lot to me when people started calling me and telling me that they have a story for me. That was a validation. I said, "Okay, I think we're on to something." And the way it appears in the paper every week is as a short story in a box. And some weeks I'd have two stories, three stories, four stories. And people would ask me, "Why don't you just make a full page of the stories?" And I said, "No, there's a method to the madness. It's short and it's in a box. people don't feel overwhelmed by it. Even if they don't have time to read anything else, because people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, they're gonna have time to read this. Um, and this went on until I decided to compile them and add new stories into one book and then another book and then this book. And I believe that over the years, the stories have only gotten better and better because I've become more selective about what type of stories I'm going to publish. stylistically it's similar to the food forthought series. Yes. I think that though the selectiveness as far as the stories are concerned like I said I just became more picky. A lot of gulam stories start sounding similar. So if I have one story about a god and then another story that's very similar in nature about a different god I probably won't publish it. I want something fresh. I want something new. You mentioned also truthful and authentic and I think it's a big thing today. 100%. So how do we go about that? What's is there process like what how do you determine the variety a great story okay yeah I can't asker if it really happened he's not here now true so older stories you can't do anything about it you try your best if you know that it's published somewhere in lash and kaides in a safer you'll look it up um but stories that happened to contemporary people I'll always track down the source okay in fact very interesting just recently there was a story that made the rounds it's not important what the story was and quite a few people asked me did you hear the story about so and so I didn't see it in food for thought why didn't you write it and what happened was is that I called 10 different people I even spoke to the person who shared the story on the Kavaser hotline I tracked him down and I asked him who's the source of the story and he himself cannot point me to the source of the story so I never wrote it even though it's a great story and it made the rounds but so be it. I'm going to try my best. And I'm not saying I'm perfect. You know, you know the way stories are. Even the person who it happened to will tell it over differently than someone who's watching the story happen. And you can only try your best. But what I do try when I write stories is to take notes when the person is telling me the story. I'll write it up and then I'll email it to them to review if I can. And this way the stories are are are as accurate as possible. And these stories and powerful moments um are about real people. And what we did was here like I did in food forthought too was put in pictures. If you look in the book you'll see pictures of some of the gdylum and some regular people. Um I have a story in here about Schlleid Dax. We have a picture of him as well. Um, that's actually kind of unique. Most of most of the uh many story books don't books don't help. Yeah. You know, but so the idea is the pictures help make it feel more real, more real. It it it draws people to the story. Tell me who you describe me who you think your audience is here. Who Who's the target? Who would appreciate these stories? Any really anyone. Men, women, children, brim. I hear from everyone. I I'll tell you something interesting. You're talking about audience. The biggest compliment I get is when I I hear from very prominent people, we're talking about leading Russia, Shiva Gdylum, who tell me that they read the books. Sometimes I'm taken aback. Um, one of my biggest fans who's not here with us anymore was Raoa Goldberg. Rao Goldberg was a mag of Toronto. I did not know him at all. One day I got a phone call. uh he had an issue with a story I wrote in the newspaper that is and uh and he gave me some kind muser but then he was mazaki he said the reason I'm calling you is because I read your stories every week now for those who didn't know him and by the way I I never met him but I spoke to him many many times in fact tell you something interesting on my phone which I don't have with me on my phone I have a voicemail that Rabbi Goldberg left me in 2018. I never erased it. He called me to thank me for a a story I wrote that he felt was very very important and he was just calling to give me and I never erased the message. It meant so much to me. Raise Goldberg is a person like Pik Puma. So he learned Tyra the whole you want to hear something interesting about Goldberg and this is a story I once wrote. I don't know if it's still there, but his he lived in Toronto. His address in Toronto, when you typed it into Google Maps, what came up was a picture of his house. I think it was August, whatever year it was, it was Bayman. In the picture, you see Raisha Gorick sitting on his porch with a pile of next to him on Google Maps. And there was something I wrote. It wasn't a story per se, but it was a point. Everyone knew Raise Goldberg Bazman would sit on his porch with his swarim next to him. And I brought out a lesson. I said like this. If Google Maps took a picture of us at any given time, what would Google Maps find us doing? Raisha Goberg, Google Maps found him sitting basim and learning. It was a masahill. You know you say kazal tell us there's an ina there's an isn't what what are we doing at any given moment so that was a lesson that I once brought out but goldberg was a tremendous source of here he is tremendous uh again someone who spent his days learning again those who know him who knew him won't be surprised he had an unbelievable aava I can't describe what it was like and here he is calling me and telling me to keep writing stories. So people like that uh really spurred me to keep on going and the fact that people still send me stories um just a tremendous and I should say that I didn't invent the genre of short stories. It's not you know I didn't reinvent the wheel. There's someone named Rabbi Pesak Cron who I believe you know quite well. I've heard of him. your father-in-law kind of was a pioneer in that. Um, Rabbi Spiro, my good friend Rabin Pzanski, they they write short story books that are bestsellers. Make sure that you have every one of their books. Um, what I do a little differently is that a lot of my stories in this book, not my stories, but stories that people give me are vignettes that maybe would not fit in other books. Some of them are shorter, some of them are more to the point where the lesson is almost as important as the story. And so you could pick up this book, Powerful Moments, and turn to any page and you'll be inspired by a story. You could read it. There's no, you know, you don't have to read it al uh like I called the subtitles, stories to ignite your spiritual flame. will walk away feeling better about yourself, better about your mission, uh better about your clarity of being shay, about using your time wisely, whatever it might be. That's the goal of you organized it according to topic. Yeah, it's organized according if I need to come up with a speech and I need a good vignette, I'll be able to find something to connect to a topic. Hopefully, you'll be able to find something. Um, talking about validation of people reading the stories, every yam nam I get a call from at least one RV. I need a nila story. I need a kidre story. And I always say, how many kidra and stories are there? That's like hard. Um, but people do call me often or email me and say, you know, I'm speaking. Do you have a story on this and this topic? And I try my best to share, you know, what comes to mind. I'm not so I'm not so good at finding stories on topic. Actually, my brother Rab Hershel is much better at it than I am. And I should mention my brother for a second because besides the that he gives me and the fact that he's a a prominent rough today, a magnify knowledge and stories. If I ever run out of stories, I could just pick up the phone and call my brother and he'll probably take care of me for a few weeks till I get new stories. But um my brother's a tremendous role model in my life. And I hope I'm not embarrassing him by saying this because I'm not saying I've lived up to his stature, but having an older brother who who is a and such a with tremendous insight, clarity, just his smarts, his intelligence, it made a tremendous impact on my life. I would I would say that in my formative years having an older brother to look up to. He was probably the most influential figure in my life. So I'm I'm very fortunate to have and I only have one brother. So I'm not worried about any of my other brothers being jealous. And my sisters, I think they're okay with it. They're I look up to them also. But my brothers is we all look up to him. And uh and I'm very grateful to him for his guidance, for his for his stories, for for everything. Rabiger, this has been fun. I I mean, I think this is, you know, it's wonderful. Look, it's such a close to be able to do something professionally where, you know, you're connecting to so many people. You're making a genuine difference, right, everybody? There's no question about it. Um, there are diff very different methods of creativity and reaching people, writing, music, which by the way, we could talk about also. Oh, that's right. You used to be you were on an album, right? You I was. So I know it's we all we're we have to wrap up soon but just tell me a little bit about your musical. It's very interesting. When growing up I had a passion for writing and I also had a passion for music or maybe it was the other way around. I don't know which one was bigger. I love music. I'm I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I love music from when I was a very very young child. And by the way I attribute a lot of that to my brother also. My brother has a great musical ear and he introduced me to to music at a very young age. I grew up listening to probably Morb David a freed reesh which my brother was a huge of um Miami boy choir and the music of AB Ratenberg Journeys Vegas later lean things like that. I was growing up post kalbach you know pre- today's music I would say those were the five main musical influences um when I was a young boy my brother used to actually take me to the reges kumzen on kalamoid in ribbab's house in flatbush later in ribbl's house and he gave me appreciation for that authentic music of ribmo brazil which till today I I I can't get enough of so I grew up loving music. In fact, you're going to laugh at this. Here's a tidbit probably most people don't know about my career, so to speak, started when I was a four years old. And my mother's very close friend, Cheryl Noble, was producing 613 Torah Avenue with Mrs. Rifka Newman. And there was there was an opportunity presented. How would you like to appear on 613 Torah Avenue? So, at the time we had records in our house and I remember I was very scared because how are they going to squash me to fit into the record? Yeah. I remember having some kind of thought, but then they explained to me that no, it's it's it's fine. And there's a line on 613 Torah Avenue, I think for the album, where a cute little boy says, "If you please some Ellie Delhi, canals made from matselli." And that young child is yours truly. So that was the start. Um, not really music, but I guess that genre. And um, later on another funny story I'm just thinking of. I loved a freed like I mentioned and uh around the year one was the album of the time and I felt that uh I should be singing with Aram freed right I mean it's only right right so I took a cassette tape because that's what we listen to then and I put it into a tape recorder and I think I put tape on top of that little tab in order to allow it to record and I think that album had I think the song that I decided to sing was Yahu And I started singing because I was going to sing with a freed without realizing that no I was singing over a freed. So we had around a year one with a freed and a little yetihizer by. Anyway, to fast forward, when I was a bucker in Camp Sole, a friend of mine, Represki Slamitz and later Rabies Jagger, Represki Gross and some others, we got together and we created uh a nonprofessional album of songs that we composed and we sang and we sold it in Campfort, Sedaka, and we did it for several years. And after the third year, I was always the creative type and thinking big and I I was saying to myself, some of these songs should really be on a professional album and maybe even we should sing on the album. But I took the cop I took the album, I made copies of it, and I mailed it out to basically every Jewish music producer in America. Great. Could you imagine? I was here. I was a bacher in my teens and every producer, every singer who I could think of and before I knew it on my home answering machine, I had some messages. No cell phones in those days. And one of the people who left me a message was Rabendi Werigger. Rameni Wiger of the Wordiger Mishbahame brother of David, son of Ribdavid Wiger, a Balmanagen par excellence in his own right. Mendy is uh fantastic and he calls and says he's Rendi Word from Aderret Music. Uh he loved the album. He would love to speak further. I I couldn't believe it. I was I could not believe it. I thought it was it was a fabrication. Anyway, to make a long long story short, I ended up going down to Rameni and I met him and he told me he loved the sound of the album, which we call Tlas. It wasn't my name. It was uh I think it was Islam what's his name and um he said this is really great it's yeshiva music how about if we produce a professional album I was tickled pink and I remember going back to yeshiva now it's that mendy whiger agreed to produce taklas professionally um I still can't believe he did it by the way and he got schlami zigra as the ranger and this is going back it's not going to happen it's not going to happen it happened in fact we have it right this album right here, Tas. And uh I sang on it with three others. Um two of my compositions appear on here. This is awesome. And what year is this? Like how long ago? This is 2001. So in September 2001, at the time of 911, I recorded the vocals. Um and then the others recorded their vocals and I sat with Schlame Ziger. chose the songs and he wrote the arrangements and we did harmonies. Um I remember Whartiger who today is a a famed Balmanagen and one of our favorites uh actually sang in the choir at the time. I don't remember how how old he was. Um it it was amazing experience. So there we were we an album came out. I I went to learn that sukus and the album came out while I was a bachis. Did you still see this as a as a hobby or did you potentially think this might become a career? So, it's funny. I never really saw it as a career. First of all, I never thought I was really good enough to become whatever it is that you become. I don't know what you become. Number one. Number two, I didn't envision myself as a performer. Um, you know, there's something I like to say. Any bucker growing up today sinking into his deodorant bottle in his dormatory room, you know, belting something out thinks that he's going to be the next Schwacky or the next younger or whoever it is, you know, a freed the Davids of the world and the other young now young singers. How many people wake up in the morning a bacher and say that they dream of being the next Rabbi Pesakron or the next Rabbi Nsen Sherman? How many people wake up in the morning and say I want to be the next Rabbi Nelson German? I don't know how many people. There aren't so so many writers. It's unfortunate. I think in order to have readers which is in the best interest of art scroll I think we need to cultivate a young generation of writers. Good point. Um, it's not a strong point, but you're asking me would did I ever think of going into music? And the answer is really no. But I still I still love music. I love it. I listen and and um came through on your Inside Art School episode with Joey Nuke with Joey. We sang. By the way, can I mention something funny about that? Joey came down for an interview. We discussed nothing beforehand about what we were going to be recording. Right. Certainly not the books he's written for art school because he hasn't. No, we actually interviewed him because he worked on a project with the Rabbi Tran book. He did a video. That was So I sit down in that chair. Joey sits down here. His guitar. Yeah. I told him to bring his guitar, maybe play for us. And you were fiddling around with the cameras. And I said to Joey, "This is like a a baltashkas. You have a c a guitar. Let's sing a little." So he pulls out his guitar. You know Joey, he's the most easygoing, sweetest guy around. And he says, "Of course." So we start singing. And you stop motioning to me from your window that this is really beautiful. Keep singing. And this was totally impromptu. So Joey and I are singing and doing harmony and this and that and you motion that you're starting to film. So you started filming and that's why that episode of Inside Archal starts off with us singing. It was totally unplanned and that's why if you go back and watch it I laugh and I say to Joey, are we really doing this? I meant that sincerely. Where did this even come from? And we ended up going through the whole interview singing and talking. Anyway, it was so much fun. Great. It was it was a lot of fun. So the the medium of writing is definitely something that I've put my heart and soul into and I cherish it and I appreciate the opportunity for Arts Girl to publish this book. And I don't take it for granted I I wrote to Rabbi Brander and Rabbi Sherman and Rabbi Zlowitz. I don't take it for granted that just because I work here that they printed this book. I'm humbled. I'm honored that they agreed to do it. And I hope that people are inspired by it, by the stories. And if people have more stories, I'm always uh open to hearing them. But it's uh it's a great opportunity and I I appreciate the opportunity to speak about it. This has been so nice. It's you should only be to continue to use all your talents, your creativity. Thank you. And to affect so many people in Kalis to inspire them. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you again for everything you do for Kalis. Thank you for inviting me to invite you to be on your show. This is so much fun. We have to see if the next inside art scroll if I just going to take over because yeah, listen. I was going to say that you shouldn't do too good of a job because then I'll be out of a job. Exactly. Well, I I think you did a fantastic job. So, if I'm ever not available, we know we'll see if you send emails to Rebecca about how great the episode was. Make sure to tell them that the host the guest host is Thank you. Thank you for facilitating this conversation and thank you for having me. Thank [Music] you. Heat. [Music]