Leading the Front Lines of Chesed

Hello everyone and welcome to the Oh, you podcast. [Music] Hello everyone and welcome to the Ou podcast. Today we have the great pleasure and honor of having with us Rabbi Etton Katz who has been with the U for over 25 years. More or less. Yes. More or less. I thought we just gave you a 25 year. Okay, good. 25 years. Sure. Who has been with us for over 25 years thereabouts uh who directs and leads all of our relief missions uh here at the at the OU. And we're going to we're going to dive into that. But what we're going to start with uh is what we ask all of our guests to begin with. Tell us your story. Who are you? That is a complicated question. Okay, we have time. Okay. So, I was born like most people at the age of zero in Medford, Massachusetts. At the age of two, when the 67 war broke out, I'm aging myself. I made the decision to move to Israel. For practical reasons, I took my parents with me like diaper changing and stuff like that. That was smart. That was very smart vision. 100%. Lived in Israel from ages 2 to nine from the six- day war to Kapoor. Then married Long Island, Hollywood, Florida, LA and back to Israel. Spent 20 years in Israel where I served in the army for 20 years. I got married. You served in the army for 20 years. Reserve of duty. Yes. Wow. Uh paratroopers of course only the rest. Um after 20 years I came back to New Jersey, moved to Cherry Hill and there was a caner there of the synagogue, Kant Harowitz, who took me under his wing, got me my first mattress, took me to job fairs and one day he says, "Can you chaperone a junior NCSY group to a Shabaton East Brunswick?" And I said, "No." I said, "I don't do kids. I don't do NCSY." No. He twisted my arm and I couldn't say no to him. We go to the shabaton. There's this young guy up there uh who's running the program, a guy named Rabbi Glasser. Okay. Rabbi Jakob Glasser, a former U podcast uh visitor. And he starts saying, "If you sit next to kid in a circle, I have no idea what a circle was. You might start singing. If you sit next to kid doing davining, he goes, "You might start davening." And I said, "You know what? I'm here. might as well go with the program. After the Shabbaton, I drove the kids home. I called up the can and I said, "It was one of the most incredible, amazing experiences of my life." And he goes, "You're hired." I said, "As what?" Goes, "You're the new NCSY advisor." I said, "I had no clue what that meant." I went, "Okay." Lived in Cherry Hill for a number of years. What year was that? It's about 23 24 years ago. 25 years ago, something like that. Yeah. Lived in Cherry Hill for a number of years. Um I brought the chapter there from two to 40 kids in the shathon the first year. Thank god things went very well. Uh some of the participants are now working in the OU full-time basis. Uh get credit from that experience 100%. And then I was moved to Fairon and they made me northern director, district director, assistant director, associate director. Uh moved up the ladder pretty quickly. moved to Bergenfield and became uh the regional director of New Jersey NCSY. Uh during that time we decided after hurricane Katrina 20 years ago to run one admission to New Orleans took a group of KBC students 10 students to New Orleans that's about 2006 20 20 years ago 20 years ago and it was incredible and then me and Glass we sat down and we made the managerial decision of we can run maximum three per year managerial speaking and this was just focused on New Jersey, NCSY. New Jersey, NCSY. Three relief mission trips a year. Yeah, that was the maximum. That's what we could afford. That was the managerial barriers of what we can do. And that was three. I don't know if you know this, but rabbis are not always very good at math. So, we went very quickly from 3 to 12 to 15. And the demand from the schools was growing and growing. And then came the question of well if it's working for New Jersey what about the rest of the country and I made what I call a crucial mistake. I sent an email to Rab Greenland why I thought that other regions were not succeeding in pulling this off. And he responded to me you're right and you're hired. I said as what? He goes you're now the national director of admissions. I said, 'But I love my job. Goes, well, that's great. Goes, well, this is what we need now. So, it became the national director of test admissions for NCSY. And we very quickly got up 25, 30, 40 a year. And then came the question of, well, if it's good for teens, what about colleges? What about adults? What about young professionals? What about retirees? So, we created the OU department. At the time, Rabbi Glazer was coming back to the OU. And he goes, "Come work for me. We're going to have a great time. me, you, Rabbi Taylor, we're going to have a great time. Come work for us and we're going to make this a international organization. Well, that's some story. Uh, how much of that is true? Almost all of it. Almost all of it. 95 plus%. Good. Okay. That's more than most of our guests. So, you're doing you're doing terrific. That's that is some story. And it's interesting all the growth and, you know, uh we're going to get to like what's next after this, but I know you're still in the be in the beginning of this next phase. So, uh, we got we got a lot more in front of us. What about family life? Like at what point did that enter into the sort of NCSYOU [Music] equation? My wife is British and you met her when you were in Israel. I met her when I was in Israel. I mean, she's she came back to America with you? She came back to America with True Love. True love. True love 100%. Um, so my wife has always been very very supportive. My kids have been very supportive throughout the years. I'm not going to say it does not take a family toll. Sure. It 100% takes a family toll. How many kids? Four kids. How old? Uh ranging now from 23 to 34. Okay. One son-in-law, one daughter-in-law. Six grandchildren. Six grandchildren. I know her. And her kenyu. Kenyu. Amen. More cats is a good thing. More cats. 100%. Did you ever take any of them with you on any of these on any of the missions? So, two of my kids have been on missions with me. That's been phenomenal. Uh yes, it's it's been great. It's been great. Great. That's great. So, walk us through a a classic mission. How long? Where to? What do you do? How do you choose where to go and what to do? Well, that's a lot of questions. Okay. That's a lot of questions. Okay. So, first we'll start off with where we choose where to go and what to do. We receive phone calls all the time from organizations saying, "When are the Jews coming down? Can we rely upon the Jews? We need we need your crew." Uh, so there's a few things that go into equation. One is where the need is greatest. Uh second of all is where there's the most things that we can do. We try to balance every mission not to have one type of we try to at least have three different types maybe four or five sometimes on a mission so people can get a taste of different types of volunteer opportunities because our ultimate goal is for our participants to understand that everything in the Jewish world is run by volunteers. If you look at any major Jewish organization, the framework is volunteers. every committee, every shabis, every mikvah, every au it's done by volunteers, presidents of schools, president of schuls, but there are limit limits and limitations to what a volunteer can do. So you mentioned one of the places that you grew up in was Los Angeles, right? So recently you had the devastating fires in LA. Is that something that your network of of missions can be helpful with? 100%. fires is a very different mindset, a very different ballgame than hurricanes and flooding. But so an average mission, let's take New Orleans for example, we do one day of either disaster relief work, depending upon the hurricane, gutting out homes, tearing out drywall, going through all the household belongings and trying to salvage something and everything else everything else you're talking about recently. Yes, you did. But Katrina was 20 years ago and Ida was three years ago. Um we we follow all the hurricanes. Okay. But there are a number of different groups that do volunteering and do missions. What sets you and your team and your missions apart from some of the other groups? So the OU, the Union of Orthodox Congregation, is the number one organization nationwide that sends teen volunteers to volunteer. Wow. We're the number one organization. How many do we send a year? We send out 50 groups a year. About a thousand participants. Wow. No other organization of any religious denomination is sending the amount that the OU is sending. Amazing. We have a reputation for excellence uh when it comes to disaster relief work. And we could have at any given week three or four different missions going on. This past week we had four going on simultaneously in different locations. Um and we're heavily sought after because everyone knows this is what the Jews do. We go out and we volunteer. What's the wildest place you've ever taken a group to? Willington, North Carolina. Really? Yeah. Okay. That this is a story we got to hear. Only because in the middle of the workday, the foreman took me aside and he goes, "I don't want to scare you, but rumor has it there's an alligator very close to us. Let's keep an eye out on everybody and keep everyone in the house." Mhm. Until we get the okay that the area is cleared. I said, "Sure." It won't sign waiverss, but okay. Yeah, an alligator got me a little bit nervous. When you say keep an eye out for an alligator, what does that mean? What do you do when you see an alligator? Like say stop. So that was uh But aside from that, we've been to we've been to a lot of interesting places. Yeah. Like how how far away have you have you made it? Well, we have a trip now going on as we speak in India from Tel Aviv University. Oh, wow. Uh we connected to JLIC. Yeah, it is JIC as you remember Ethan Phillips who's the JC coordinator there. Uh so they arrived in India two days ago. Uh we just had another trip there from from university a few weeks ago. Uh we went to Rwanda. We do a lot of programs in Romania with Pikva Jewish orphans and refugees post you know the war in Ukraine. Uh so that's definitely the furthest places we've gone to. Uh but we're we're very heavily active now in New Orleans still Puerto Rico, Houston, Florida. We've already received Ukress for the fall to be in Savannah, Georgia and Augusta. So, uh there's there's a lot of work coming up. Uh unfortunately, uh lots of uh lots of work to get done, right? Because it's all coming, as you said, after something devastating happens, but uh that should end. But I imagine that there'll still be a lot of work, a lot of work for you guys to do going forward. What's the biggest lesson you've learned while working on a relief mission? um for you personally or that you've seen some of the teens or others who you know the lesson that they learn from from one of the trips that most people are inherently good. Really? Yes. That most people actually want to help other people and do good in this world. We work with a lot of community leaders anywhere from New Orleans to Atlantic Beach and all across the country. So we have sometimes community dinners in New Orleans with a Reverend Calhoun and Bernell Coloulton with community leaders. We only do kosher food obviously. Um and we sit down and we discuss what we have in common. We discuss community issues and we all have basically the same opportunities and challenges in our communities. We aren't that much different once you get to know people. There's a lot of people out there who just like want to do good. One of the questions I've been meaning to ask you, you know, I love your LOL niggan. How did you get into music? Okay. So, you know, I suffer from a tremendous low of self-esteem. Really tremendous self. It doesn't come across really. Wherever I go, people say cats is coming. Oh, it's you. Eighton cats is nothing. Like, oh, it's you. And I say, I can give you a very, very, very boring 45minute drussia on some medieval topic that you have no interest in. And guess what? They're not that excited. They're not that excited. We went to uh India last year and Kabad Rabbi reached out to me. He goes, I'm so excited to have you come. Can you lead a kumit? I said, you really don't want me to. So that mistake happens from time to time often. Yeah, I get that. What's the bucket list? What's a place that you'd want to go or something you'd want to accomplish that you haven't yet? Part of my bucket list was something I've seen success in and I want to make it a lot more successful is bringing nonfirm Jews into understanding what Orthodox Jews are all about. So it's a almost a reverse tunam. Yes. Beautiful. Did people use that term a lot with with the work that you do? People use that term a lot. You don't use it. You haven't used it in in describing what you do. I have not used it to describe what I do. Um, but one thing when I run programs and the education material, I stand in front of the group and I say there happens to be two more words that follow it to repair the world in the name of the kingdom of God. And that is a lot of pressure. Yeah, it's a lot of stress. How am I a 18-year-old, a 22-y old, a 16-year-old supposed to repair the world in the name of the kingdom of God? And the answer is very simple. The moment you show up in the name of God, the moment you show up to a area and say I am a Jew and I want to volunteer, at that moment you made the world a better place in the name of the kingdom of God. Everything after that is is great. Amen. You were a sergeant major in the IDF. True. 20 years of service this past year and a half almost getting more than a half at this point. Um must have been differently challenging for you in ways that somebody like me who hasn't had that experience uh you know with with all of the struggles that we each have personally must have been a little bit of a different experience. It was definitely a different experience. Um but October 7th I came down from my apartment in Ofra uh through what was going on. Wow. And October 7th afternoon when I understood how bad the situation was in in Ofra and how limited manpower we had them at the moment. I said hook me up with a gun. And they basically looked at me and left. I said look me up 3792687. And a few hours later had a gun. The next day they made me re-qualify. Wow. They made me run and shoot. Run and shoot. The shooting part was easy. The running part. We're getting there. Uh, but by October 7th, I was doing on a very regular basis. And every time since I've been going back and forth, I've tried to do as much as I possibly can. Uh, at this age, the army is not taking me back. Right. Uh, but I did inquire. Wow. Um, yes. It's a it's it's been very challenging times. It's well thank you for your service. Is there anything you take from your army experience training that you bring into the missions? Every decision that's made is really based upon an army psychic of seeing a situation, understanding the situation, and coming up to solutions and how to best work through them. Beautiful. I want to ask you a couple of uh sort of rapid fire questions. Okay. You know, off the off the off the topic, Milik or Fleshix? Fleshix. Can you name a cool place that you traveled to to scope out whether there'd be a mission there and then decided in the end that that wasn't place to go to? I actually spent the day in Ethiopia. Okay. We're just talking about that. Exactly. Um and I definitely decided it's a little bit too dangerous. Now we do something called turn the tables where you get to ask me a question. How does the relief department fit in to the grandio vision of the U in a lot of different ways? What's what's the OU about? Right. Well, we talk about the vision for the OU is that we advance communal solutions in order to build a community that is growing, that is religious, religiously vibrant, and that is caring. Okay. What relief missions does is it takes different segments. Maybe it's teens, maybe it's a sh and brings them to situations where they are caring, where they are growing as individuals, doing things that maybe are outside of their comfort zone, right? And maybe helping others to grow in terms of them seeing, as you've told us some great stories, oh, Orthodox Jews, you care, you're invested, you're inclusive, you're involved. And so in that way they're showing a religious vibrance in everything that they do. And so by doing missions by stepping maybe out of their normal communities that they're used to they create this new community of this group right the gibush the bonding in that in that moment and they're also c coming back to their communities having grown having been more caring having a religiously vibrant experience and so I would say the missions are crucial uh as a vehicle for everything that we're trying to do. I love that answer. Obviously. Okay, good. And the follow-up question is when do you get Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph and mission? I know we've tried, right? I was supposed to come few months ago to go to New Orleans. I don't know, maybe I'd go to India. I've never never been there, but uh I would love to and bleed. We're going to make it happen this year. 100%. Okay. The last thing we ask you to do is to give us a brah at the u because ravon cats the biggeron cats um you have had a lot of braha in what you've given to the world so far esim sounds like since it's your passion it will be at least and beyond assuming your wife continues to be supportive 100% and um share us share braha with the u braha is continue to grow and to be in really everything that the OU is doing. There's so much good happening for the OU to just continue to be continue to grow and expand and may we end up needing another floor in this building to to accommodate the growth. Amen. Thank you so much and thank you for being here. Thank you. [Music]