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Ollie Anisfeld from J-TV receiving an award at the Olami Impact Leaders Forum
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Categories:Torah
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one amazing amazing event you guys have
put on incredible sometimes all it takes
is a single moment for the course of
your life to change and that moment for
me was in October 2011 when I was 17
years old I was on an hola me trip to
Poland with hu K in the years prior to
that I've become increasingly engaged in
my Jewish heritage and in the beauty and
the wisdom of our Torah but I still
hadn't really figured out who I was or
what my goals were in life I was 17
gimme a break and we went to a train
station in a town called Lodge and we
stood on the tracks where hundreds of
thousands of Jews many of whom were
children were sent to their deaths we
went inside one of the one of the cattle
trucks and I thought about my
grandfather who had also been put on a
cattle truck for six weeks and then we
walked into a memorial building which
still stands today it was a long dark
tunnel and I was at the back of the line
as we all walked inside and on either
side of the walls of the tunnel were
lists of names with red lines through
them these were the lists that the Nazis
had which contained all the Jews in the
town and the red lines over their name
crossed out meant that they had been
sent on their trains to their deaths and
I looked closer at these lists and I saw
surnames I recognized Goldstein
Leibovich Wolfman and then as I walked
to the end of the tunnel standing at the
back of the line all the Jews in our
group decided to hold hands to start
gathering in a circle and start singing
the words of King David gunky Alif
bagasse al mother's lawyer our archaea
Tamar D singing even though I may walk
in the valley of the shadow
the death we will fear no evil for God
is with us and I looked back at all
those Jewish names that had been crossed
off the list sent to their deaths
annihilated and then I looked forward to
see a group of young Jewish people still
alive still bursting with life aware and
pained by our history and yet still
clinging to our values and our faith and
I realized that that specific moment I
am part of a miraculous people a people
that have regularly stared death in the
face and continuously responded by
choosing life a people that nation after
nation Empire after Empire have tried to
do away with and not only have we
survived but now the majority of the
world believes in the God of Abraham and
adopts many of our values like the value
of human life world peace as an ideal
justice in equality before the law
family values social responsibility to
the poor and the needy and we are a
people that can get wiped out of a town
like Toledo during the Spanish
Inquisition and yet centuries later
hundreds of us can return here to
declare a mistrial hi and other veenu hi
at that precious moment in Poland I
realize that not only does the world
need the Jewish people but I need to
play my role in this people I need to
play my role in getting a new generation
of Jews inspired and energized by our
incredible and unique history but also
by the work we still have to do in
bringing the world to its perfection and
so I decided to dedicate my life to
Jewish education Jewish outreach and
perhaps most importantly of all Jewish
unity if the Jewish people can be united
in their divine mission then that is how
we together can change the world for
good and so after that I decided to
spend some time in ear Sheva in Israel
didn't even know what your Shiva was
when I was 18 but I decided that's what
I'm gonna do and then I came back to
London and I realized that the most
common way in which young people consume
information is through these things
social media and videos on social media
have the power to change hearts and
minds and so I decided to create a
social media Jewish platform there would
be accessible to anyone around the world
that provided short high-quality dynamic
content on Jewish wisdom current affairs
and light entertainment I won't pretend
for a second that it's been easy
starting something is tough if you want
to start something it's like trying to
lift a car off the ground it's hard work
but it's hard work there has taken us
now to reaching a quarter of a million
views every month with our biggest
audience aged between 16 to 30 and we
have viewers on every single continent
and I've and I've had support from
tremendous people within our amazing
Jewish family including support from
Allah me this organization thank you
thank you all Amir and I want to give a
special shout out to Rabbi Daniel Rowe
from AC UK and rabbi dr. Akiva tats
these guys feature I Drive the mad they
featuring regularly on J TV I always get
them on and they provided so much wisdom
to our viewers all around the world it's
incredible I'm still only in the initial
stages of my journey and what I say to
all of you guys is I encourage you all
to do whatever you feel passionate about
and then take it to be of service to the
Jewish people because when the Jewish
people are strengthened we change the
entire world as rabbi sacks says your
purpose will come where what you want to
do meets what needs to be done and what
needs to be done is for the Jewish
people to rededicate themselves to our
mission the mission for which there is
no higher honor to be ambassadors for
God in the world and to bring the world
to holiness and to peace thank you