Rabbi Benji Levy, CEO of Mosaic United at the Olami Impact Leaders Forum

[Applause] Puckett's all of me I said bucket of all of me I can't even begin to tell you what it means to be in this room with languages from around the world with people from all around the world dedicated to taking on the mantle of leadership for the Jewish people as part of this incredible organization give it up for the amazing educators and organizers and people that made all of me possible now at the end of the day I think the message is so clear that they've given us such an incredible opportunity to be part of this legacy but it's up to each and every one of us to bring that back to our communities and I represent mosaic United which is a partnership between the Jewish people and Israel something that could have never been thought of before the incredible advancement of the state and we connect together to think about one thing to focus on every single one of you and the Jews around the world to have a stronger connection to their Jewish identity to have a stronger connection to Israel think about it people that are living into mana in starett in Jerusalem in February Asst tax payers money are partnering together to care not just about the streets and the education in Israel but every single one of us around the world and hopefully that gives you a sense of entitlement empowerment and understanding of what it means to be part of this incredible people and I thought I'll share a very short story as we start this incredible day of an amazing individual called it Scott Perlman and he's scott Perlman who is a maestro he's one of the greatest virtuosos of our time he plays the violin incredibly and packs out auditoriums and opera houses around the world and at the age of four he contracted polio and unfortunately he wasn't able to walk like all these friends and those around so he wasn't able to go and play football and soccer like his friends in the playground and he started to develop and said what can I apply my abilities to rather than focusing on my abilities and he discovered the violin and he discovered music and he became absolutely incredible and he dedicated his life to it and so the story goes on your mouths mode not too many years ago he stood on an incredible amphitheater in an incredible building with a huge Orchestra in tel-aviv and he gets up he comes out on his crutches and he puts his crutches on the side and he picks up his violin and he starts to tune the first string and the whole Orchestra Tunes it with him and he Tunes the second string and they tune her with him and then the third string with an audible crack it snaps and the conductor said go change the violin get another string everyone came to hear you and therefore it's okay we'll wait ten minutes we'll change it and he said no and he starts tuning the fourth string and he Tunes that and the conductor then him have a bit of a kerfuffle he says get off the stage there's no I'm playing and he stands up to play now those of you that are musicians at piano is eight octaves a guitarist Extremes a violin only has four strings to play an entire controller on fourth Street on three out of the fourth strings is extremely difficult and so the story goes he played it incredibly and he played it one of the best it's ever been played on three strings alone with this entire Orchestra and everyone was engulfed by the emotion of the moment standing there on your mats mode to think about what it means to have this music this incredible manicott truck to polio at the age of four and still managed to take himself and to do such incredible things in this world would be such an ambassador of our people and as the as the music finished with tears in their eyes with a standing ovation everyone clapped and clapped and kept going and going and going and they signaled for him to speak and he wouldn't speak and they signaled again for him to speak and he came forward and he said one sentence which is one of the most powerful sentences I've ever heard he said life is the music we make with what remains life is the music we make with what remains that was more than just a comment on a broken violin string there was a comment on everything that was broken in his life and all of our life and you think about the fact this man standing here only 70 years prior we stared eyeball-to-eyeball the Angel of Death in Auschwitz never even dreaming that we would have an orchestra that we would have a stadium that we were the people more people learning today in Israel than ever before to have an incredible thriving state to be connected with organizations like all I mean caring about Jews all around the world and you think about what that means to just the three strings play this incredible concerto and the way I took the message is that every single one of us thank God have more than three strings and the question is how do we use it how do we use the instrument of our lives to have the ability to respond to a responsibility how do we use the instrument of our lives to make an impact we're coming here from Spain as we just heard in 1492 there was a terrible expulsion and we have brought more Druze back than ever before at this moment to learn together to grow together and the question is what is the impact not just that all Army is having on us but we are carrying forward to have in the rest of the world and therefore I invite every single one of you and we start this incredible day of learning of growing to think about what is the music you make with what remains because we have so much with so much to be proud of we are so much to be part of and every single one of us has that capacity two weeks ago I had the privilege of officiating at my brother's wedding on your marks board a few years after this to an incredible girl from Israel he came from Australia went to to have divine in the army he plays international rugby for Israel standing opposite incredible girl from Tel Aviv they grew up doing a arm she's doing a PhD in economics and her grandfather fled the night before Kristallnacht and they're staying in Australian and in Israeli with 500 people in Caesarea this incredible picturesque moment and that encapsulates the entire Jewish people and therefore as we move forward I invite every single one of us to make that impact truly count to connect our Judaism not just to go through life but to grow through life to find comfort outside of our comfort zone so we can truly do that and as we move toward Shabbat this incredible moment introspect think why were you chosen to be here what's the difference that you can make I know that every single one of you are here for a reason I know that every single one of us are here for a reason and we need to truly make that count have an incredible day and thank you so much [Applause] you