Project Inspire Convention 2022 Full Motzai Shabbos Keynote

i want to tell you about a virus no no no no not that virus a virus for good i want to tell you about something that's been spreading for thousands of years something so contagious that it infects everyone in its path but this contagion isn't the problem it doesn't shut down the world rather it illuminates it the good virus i'm referring to is your jewish identity and the host that is spreading your jewish identity throughout the world is project inspired project inspire instills in us all the responsibility to unify the jewish people by sharing the beauty and wisdom of our common heritage with our fellow jews by empowering each one of us as a leader project inspire is unique in that it's about inspiring you to inspire the world this has created a movement which has the ability to reach so many more it's viral to achieve its vision project inspire provides thousands with inspiration and opportunities for shared experiences that bring jews of all backgrounds together as a community to grow learn and share with one another to make this viral we need super spreaders like you it's on us to make our jewish identities go viral spread share connect inspire join the project inspire movement today [Music] ladies and gentlemen what an incredible shabbos this has been it's really really amazing to be back together and truthfully it's hard to believe that just a few months ago this convention seemed to be all but a fantasy we went back and forth and back and forth to decide if we were actually going to have a project inspired convention this year there was pushback both ways but that was before the movement began protests already tonight underway in new york pittsburgh philadelphia denver and elsewhere in this country and here in new york city tonight where tension has been growing in the overnight hours for several days now there is now a curfew in place at 11 pm tonight the nypd is now doubling its force hundreds gather in flatbush brooklyn to show unity with project inspire for the bring it back movement among social justice protests placards were seen in the hands of people yelling bring it back hasidic communities broke block down rules to demonstrate as the bring it back movement gains momentum in israel riots broke out in the neighborhood of maya sharim when news broke that the project inspire convention might be delayed for yet another year in a shocking change of direction democrats walked in support of the bring it back movement elsewhere in europe a member of the never back party was dealt with unkindly by the crowd and thrown into a garbage can the crowd tensions rising as people's patience seems to have finally run out the bring it back bring it back movement is proof that the world is ready and willing to get back to the armored hotel in stanford connecticut the place we all love and know the people want to hear the classes enjoy the food feel the simha it is now time to bring everyone to say together bring it back [Music] ladies and gentlemen thank you all from across the world who pushed to make this shabbos happen we brought it back we did especially those in mayasharam you really made the difference and yes the kiddush is the best the entire weekend has been an incredible journey and the journey continues here we are at the matsushabus program and as i always say buckle up because you never know what you'll get at the project inspire convention ladies and gentlemen shabbos was a blow away thanks to you and thanks to the amazing speakers it started off with rabbi fry emilio shapiro taking that house down friday night urging us to take the right suitcase with yisrael inside with our fellow jew inside followed by jose baruch as he broke down on stage encouraging us all to be like isaac gross and touch another jew and his family forever and boy that midnight panel [Applause] yeah having hundreds of you stay until 4 a.m just seeking the answers that you were looking for and i doubt any of you got any and of course y jacobson rabbi y jacobson's amazing talk today [Applause] to make sure that we don't view our fellow jew as aher but rather as our brother and sister who needs us to share their love with them our love with them ladies and gentlemen this event tonight has been sponsored on the yard site over of altar been joseph halevy by his wife kita leibowitz and children ellie and miriam leibowitz salinas and their families may his neshama have an aliyah we had such khashoggi guests here over the weekend many you already met many you'll still meet we had of course dr stewart and andrea heitmann isaac and edie gross we had rabbi stevenberg the ceo of asia toro and of course we had different our board members and friends were here we also had with us for shabbos rabbi yehuda weinberg in from yerushalayim of course weinberg the son of the legendary of noah weinberg who continues to transmit and teach his torah on a daily basis additionally we will join the shabbos as you heard from today and the israeli government we learned about rajpindras not just being a member of the israeli government for israelis but rather being a voice for us who sit here in stanford connecticut and across the world it's my honor to invite you up here to receive an award from all of us here at project inspire [Applause] pinterest the award reads with deepest appreciation to for being the extension of the arm of diaspora jewelry in eretz isro may hashem continue to guide you and shower you with blessings presented at the project inspired convention 2022. thank you thank you everybody thank you yossi and all the the board members the chairmans and everybody for being inspired at this chavez i hope it's going to be mushby the whole world and the whole the work for the whole world the next year thank you [Applause] thank you ravitzug ladies and gentlemen when you walk outside and when you want to revisit this convention as well as all the speeches throughout the entire shabbos you'll of course go to you got it torandytime.com can we give her a big round of applause to tell her anytime.com [Applause] now i know i know that i mentioned over shabbos that torah anytime was the one who created the corona pandemic they weren't getting enough attention online so they wanted to make sure that 24 7 all we'd be watching was torahanytime.com but of course tore anytime is not only a website of amazing jewish classes but also a tremendous tool for outreach of course seeing people and meeting people and giving them a simple website called toranytime.com is an amazing tool to use and after two and a half years of working on a brand new revolutionary app it's finally out and available they invested almost a million dollars in it just for you and for you to share we encourage everyone to download it spread the word it's an incredible outreach tool ladies and gentlemen you go out today there's a table outside you can sign up in addition we all understand that we came here this weekend not to only listen to talks but to do to go home and to do and so of course we're providing an amazing easy outreach gift for the holiday of purim that's coming up you can purchase them outside have a beautiful card what a no better way to explain to a less affiliated jew what purim and judaism is all about than to share an easy outreach gift ladies and gentlemen you heard about it over shabbos dr heitman spoke about it but a major part of project inspires new strategic plan was to create these three day trips i know there are by jacobson said three-day trips to israel that's asking a lot but in fact the three-day trips are not to israel sometimes israel is not so hard to get less connected it's not so easy to get less connected jews to get on a plane so we created the three-day trip model dr hydeman mentioned that we were in the hamptons in fort myers beach in kentucky recently in austin texas soon very soon our men will be going on a south carolina retreat i believe dr hydeman will be joining us on our three-day journey and of course for the women at the foothills of the appalachian mountains which i believe is in new jersey but it's in new jersey you can look it up ladies and gentlemen we ask that you get a quick before and before i introduce this video i want to thank in this room mrs lovely young writes wolf is here together with mrs devorah buxbam who has been our trip leaders on the men's street on the women's trip and have done a tremendous tremendous job thank you both you ladies and gentlemen a quick glimpse into what the three-day trips actually look like it's almost like a miracle program in as much as you don't have to go to israel you don't have to take a week off in three days the connections that people make with each other is so profound so beautiful the learning we do and the group activities and the discussions that we have where people connect with each other and are ready to move on to help the jewish people is a lot of positive energy a lot of empowering positive energy learning more about myself and my journey and what i want to learn a lot of fun activities a lot of connecting a lot of learning maybe learning something along the way about ourselves this is where we all come together we learn torah we learn the lessons we have fun it doesn't matter anyone's background there's enough that unifies us and everyone grows from the experience if you ask me 20 years ago if i would ever see myself in this program i don't think i would say that i would be here today amazing experience life changing doing western things the studying it's really just a life-changing trip and a great opportunity bond with my brothers project inspire great time the project inspire trip has been the most incredible trip the truth is it's brilliant this has been a very festive togetherness eating drinking swimming bike riding we have jews from all walks of life this place makes you feel like you're one everybody in the room understood they are leaders we had a whole session about how we can share and how we can go back to our communities together with project inspire that we can really make an incredible impact [Music] come on a project inspired trip you will grow you will relax you will become a better you you will learn about yourself and other people so come get on the project inspired treat right now don't even hesitate sign up months ahead be the first one [Applause] ladies and gentlemen you can you won't be the first one as felix was trying to say as already 50 women have applied for the trip and about 35 men so the trip is filling up quickly however ladies and gentlemen either for the foothills of the appalachian mountains or to south carolina if you would like to sign up for this trip it's really easy you can apply for this trip by going to project inspired.com you don't need to do it now you could do it now limited space available see our website at projectinspired.com for more details ladies and gentlemen this past tuesday project inspire received a check in the mail which is always a good thing this check was for nine thousand two hundred and fifty seven dollars why the funny number you ask the reason is because there's a man sitting in the audience today whose name is dr jonathan donath who created something called dailygiving.org dailygiving.org is an organization that impressed upon the jewish world and said you can't buy a slice of pizza for a dollar today but yet you could support dozens and soon hundreds of organizations with just a dollar a day the reason we received nine thousand two hundred and fifty seven dollars is because tuesday was project inspires day as a beneficiary of dailygiving.org and 9257 is the number of people who give one dollar a day on dailygiving.org and as dr donath will tell you it is just the beginning ladies and gentlemen i'd like to invite dr jonathan donath to receive an award for from us here tonight at project inspire [Applause] no surprise here dr donath this is eight stuck a box silver stuck a box and it's presented to dr jonathan donath co-founder of dailygiving.org for his vision and support of the needs of the jewish people presented at the project inspired convention 2022 thank you [Applause] thank you raviasi uh it's really an honor to be here with all you um i know there's a lot of speakers and i'm not a professional speaker i'm just a regular guy but i had this idea that no matter how much seduct i give every single time put a dollar and stuck a box i still get a mitzvah and i thought how can i guarantee myself to mitsubs every single day for a dollar and i went home and i googled it and i could not find anyone doing it and we meet a couple of my friends we started dailygiving.org and we're just over three years later we just handed out our four millionth dollar this week and we're now on [Applause] we're we're now on pace uh to give over 3.3 million dollars this year even if no one else signs up but hopefully you're all going to sign up and um the way it works is every single day like raviosi says a different organization gets incredible organizations like project inspire and aish 247 and you can go on our website and lots of organizations you support and there's lots of reasons you can say well i already i already support all these organizations but the best part about daily giving is the access we're creating we have people from over 30 countries all giving a dollar a day jews from all different types left to right and it is the greatest feeling in the world what more can hashem want that all his children coming together to give one dollar a day together to those less fortunate so as rabbi why i said this morning we don't count jews we count their um what did the word he said the contributions we count their contributions and one dollar alone is so little but if we all come together and give together it really has a massive massive impact and as rav gov said just a few minutes ago seize the moment so i ask you take out your phones right now take literally 30 seconds go to dailygiving.org dailygiving.org and sign up right now for a dollar a day i promise you when when three years five years from now and you're giving a dollar a day and you get those 365 extra missiles a day and you won't even feel it you will love being a part of it thank you so much all it takes is a dollar and a dream that right am i dating myself thank you dr jonathan donath it takes a dollar and it takes a dream we just spoke about the dollar now let's speak about the dream i mentioned on shabbos that were of no start in asia torah and when samson got kicking with project inspire it was all a dream but yet here we are today ladies and gentlemen it's my great honor to reintroduce to you the founding director of project inspire rabbi hyam samson it's hard to see you from here i could talk to you all and what a wonderful shabbos it was thank you so much it was such a pleasure to be with you we're one family it felt like one family and i welcome all the new the new guests for tonight who are part of our family thank you for being here tonight i also wanted to thank rabbi foyer who also was we were i i don't know if he's in there audience tonight but it was an honor covered it has been to have you and the rabbits and with us for the shabbos and for the rest of the program thank you so much for joining us you know when i was a barca at asia torah thursday evenings were a very exciting time because seven o'clock thursday evening we knew most weeks the russia shiva would come in and he's going to give us a musha shmooze on the pasha and it was exciting it would give us clarity would fire us up i remember one time he came in and he looked at us and he said something was a little unusual he said i can't for the life of me understand why it's still raining why what why it's still raining though maybe someone should tell the rest of us the winter you know rains in the winter you know he she said if you're looking at me incredulously this is something you should all know yourselves that we all read the shema every day the first paragraph is talking to us as individuals the second paragraph is talking to us as an arm and we read in the second paragraph of the shema that if we do the wrote on hashem as an arm it will reign but he shall rule him penitent hashem is going to close the heavens and there's not going to be any rain because how can it be if ninety percent of our brothers and sisters don't even understand they're part of am israel they don't even understand that the almighty gave us a torah on harassinai how can it be that we're doing his with his will how can it be that it's still reigning such is the rachelman of the cottage borough i mentioned before with zoho tavr of yehuda here if you heard of weinberg shiva's son and every book people may well know that is at his bris the sundeck who came and asiator in the basement which was rav shark and rav shah looked around the base madras and he saw the different people and he said to have noah that guy over there he's a bald shooter and ronald said yeah that guy who's striking away over there is about choice he said yeah and that guy at the back who like you know he said yeah and in praise of the of noah he said if one man can kill six million jews meditova is marooba hashem's acid is so much greater how much more so one man can save six million jews and that compliment of noah that one man can save the world and bring back the jewish people which he was with seeing with his eyes but it's not just true of noah it's true of every single one of us because the mishna tells us in in in sanhedrin that everybody's obligated to say bishvili nivra olam the world was created for me it's my world it's my will because hashem thinks i'm harsh of enough to create the whole world for me and it's my world because the whole world is just teeming with pleasure for me he wants to just give me the greatest goodness in this world and in the next but it's my world because i'm responsible for that world me alone and we understand that we from jews understand that we as a people made a brace a covenant with the creator of the universe to represent him in this world to be a mamleka's kohanim the kardash we made that commitment and we made it as an arm and we understand that if 90 percent of our brothers and sisters are not part of that we're not doing the job and we understand that it's our responsibility to bring them back and we understand that if the almighty asks us to bring them back the job can be done and we understand if the almighty is going to help us if he will help us we can surely do it and for sure he's ready to help us so what is it so what's needed to bring back the so many yidden that are so far away we have to show the almighty that we want it and that we want it bad enough and more than that but if we do it together we can't fail if we have actus and we know from ghazal that king david who was a great leader lost his battles and hazal tell us king archive who was a terrible russia an evil person was successful why because king david and him and the generation of king david they spoke los angeles whereas the generation of ahav they did not such is the power of unity that when we love each other and we care about each other we have the power of the almighty behind us and more than that that rashi explains in vayikra that he says that five people can chase a hundred but a hundred will take will chase ten thousand and rasheed it says the math doesn't add up if five will chase a hundred then the one then then what was that then a hundred should chase two thousand but what does that what does altura say all right a fat a hundred would taste twenty we'll taste ten thousand why right as rashi explains it's not similar a few people who try to do the term if it's a a lot of people doing it together that's has exponential effect and more than that that it the the pashas in paris is nowhere by the doha vlogger we know that the the the people built a mcdonald bubble they were united nothing's going to stop them from carrying out their will because they're united and if that's the case ladies and gentlemen for something that's bad that they wanted to fight the rabona shalom how much more so if we together want to do the rocks and hashem to bring bran out our brothers and sisters if we do it together with arctus how much more so there's going to be nothing that can stop us this is what the turtle is saying to us it's not a nice thing it's not a nice thought it's the ms it's the truth our brothers and sisters are waiting for all of us here together tonight to work together with actors to reach out but how you ask me so you heard what my dear friend and colleague and role model yassi friedman said which is there are three things that we're offering here minimally you can do your own thing but do one of these everybody here learn one-on-one with someone you're gonna speak more about that soon or join a trip with us you're going to have a lot of fun anyway so enjoy it be a part of it or minimally give us shalakh manos they're outside how many shark manas do you give to people who who have had shalakhmanas before give someone to to someone to someone who may never have had and i'm saying to you all my staff said rabbi sampson tell them every single person here should take a shallot manas and give it to someone who's less affiliated come on isn't wouldn't that be arctis if we all did that if we all did these things so i'm saying to you my dear dear friends it's been a very inspiring shabbos the closeness the unity we feel we have it we just have to do something we just have to care enough caring means caring enough to do so i'm asking you please do something yeah learn with someone come on a trip but minimally take a shout out make a commitment if we all did that together there's no stopping us i believe if we all did that together this will be the change in claudia israel and bazar hashem will see the whole jewish people coming back to the show bonus amen you may have seen the film on friday showing about our honoree that we have for the for for this event for this project inspire convention and that this convention we're honoring dr larry and anne newman larry it's always a great pleasure to see you in your office where you're a busy doctor and you make time for me in between patients to learn some torah together i think we've recalled your office the base madrish and i want to say i don't just come and give you a few div torah but i love your divrei torah and and it's incredible to see how a photographic memory works together with torah to produce kadushi torah that i've never heard of before it's amazing but not only that you and anne that the warmth and care that you have for everybody for every jew and every cause and also the covered and the derek area you show for all peoples of the world is absolutely amazing and goes beyond and i thank you for being such special people and for being supporters of project inspire we'd like you therefore to come up and receive a reward from us and rabbi trump is going to read the inscription on the ward thank you everybody [Applause] faces okay i have to read it i have larry and anne presented with the steam admiration and affection to dr larry and anne newman refused hanefesh refusal for 40 years of dedicated service and support to the medically underserved community and to the spiritually underserved jewish community in memory of beloved parents morris and regina newman holocaust survivors who rose up in the ashes of auschwitz to raise three generations committed to torah emmett's vote project inspire convention february 26 25 audrey shown mazel tove [Applause] dr larry and anne it's a pleasure having you here thank you and mazel dove [Applause] we were so eager to get back into business especially after the protest in mayasharam and in yugoslavia that we were going to make sure to get all the best presenters from around the world here in one shabbos and barak hashem we did we started off this shabbos by hearing from a refi emilio shapiro who again as a rub of a shula it's not easy to get away for shabbos rabbi shapiro is not only a rav and not only a speaker but there are staff members on our project inspired team for which robert shapiro is the love of their families and of their shul it is really a sus to have had robert shapiro here an entire shabbos and his son who we brought from yeshiva to spend shabbos together with him i'd like to introduce to you to address us here this evening at the matashabas program of the 13th annual project inspire convention harav freya melio shapiro [Applause] decades ago the kapishna sareba went a number of weeks before pesach to be involved in the baking of matzah kedarko bakladesh the helicopter took with him a number of hasidim and people to go along for the baking of the matzah when they finished the baking of the matzah the kapishan sireba had envelopes filled with money with cash he wanted to thank those that helped and that were there and facilitated the baking of the matzo so he took out an envelope and gave each one some of the money some of the envelopes as a way of hakora satov that's our trademark to say thank you and he handed it to the different people a number of weeks later it was heir of pesach some have the minhog that they bake matzah specifically deliberately on air of pesach because it's an unusual merit and the kapitian cerebral went back to the same matzah baking to the same people but now as arab paisak and of course is the busiest day of the jewish year and he wanted to bake matzah again and when he finished the baking of the matzah once again with envelopes filled with cash he went ahead and he started handing them to the people to say hi thank you anakora satova once again one of the yidan who was about to take the envelope he was one that helped a few weeks prior so he hesitated to take the envelope and he pushed it back to kapishan sure and he said rebbe you already gave me you were already yaitze and the cerebra took the envelope and put it back in the man's hands and said rabiid i didn't come to this world just to be yaitze i didn't come to this world just to fulfill my basic obligation if a person thinks about the shabbos that we spent together for project inspire the last 25 hours i'll shred them to the eleven hundred of us because we're living with the words of the kapishmitsurabe no one in this room came to this world just to be yeah we learned from looking at rebecca i'm samson and from rib yussi friedman and for mordechai trap and former biakov ginegar and the rest of the staff none of them came to this world just to be yeah because if you came just to fulfill your obligation and just to get by with the bare minimum of helping a fellow jew we wouldn't be here this shabbos and there wouldn't be a project inspired there wouldn't be a global fulfillment of rebellion taught us we're not here just to be i'd say god allowed you to survive the pandemic god has allowed us it's not just to be yeah but it's to help project inspire and be there for all of claudius row project inspire and the names that i have mentioned have taught us that our sojourn in this world is not just to be you'd say and to get by but every day to ask ourselves what are we doing to help a fellow yid perhaps one of the most powerful shot them i've heard in my life from the lubliner russia shiva the founder of the dafhayami red mayor shapiro we know in the beginning tells avraham avinu go outside and count the stars and after attempting to count the stars hashem says to avraham avinu kauyasa so shall your children be literally it means we the jews will be like stars just like stars are numerous and are scintillating and brilliant that illuminate so does every jew do the same but mayor shapiro says no listen to a game-changing vart that's not what it means kauyasa it also means hashem told avraham go out and count the stars why did he attempt to do it you can't count stars it's impossible nobody but nobody can count stars yet he tried he made the attempt as insurmountable and as impossible as it was he made the effort when hashem saw that he tried the impossible he said to avraham that's the jewish trait that is entrenched and enseared in our dna koi that meda that quality and trait to attempt the impossible and try the insurmountable that is who we are it's in our dna it's in the very fabric of who our our very being that says rob mayor shapiro is what we have to remember as claudius throw the nation we attempt the impossible you heard thereof told her of naya then one person could bring back six million but it seems impossible it seems insurmountable you heard earlier about one dollar and another dollar and another red mayor shapiro is telling us kai that trait of going out believing believing we just saw the most extraordinary video about how a doctor took to heart to belief and helped save thousands upon thousands we can make the attempt it is who we are it seems so hard so funeral so insurmountable so difficult but that is who we are that's what project inspire is they attempt they persevere and they're successful you must believe don't let nobody tell you no a friend of mine shared with me that he went to los angeles he's from new york a very well-known person went from new york to l.a to city of hope hospital because he needed a bone marrow transplant and he had to remain near city of hope hospital in la for a hundred days in case they needed him to come back in so my friend from new york went with another cross country they flew to visit and do beaker hilum see how he was in middle of their visit the one who underwent the bone marrow transplant turned to the two and said you know there's a yid from your shallow from jerusalem who's having a bone marrow transplant let's go to city of hope hospital and give him words of encouragement make him feel good and be positive the three got into the car they drove there unfortunately much to their chagrin they were too late the procedure already took place half an hour earlier so the three of them were dejected they just wanted to give kizok words of encouragement and they turn to leave then they hear somebody calling orthodox jews well one second they turn around and they see the head nurse it's a male nurse he's been there for decades and he says hey you three i see your religious jews can you do me a favor i've been the head nurse here for about 40 years this procedure's happened thousands of times i always let the patient know beforehand what they can anticipate they won't have any strength for about 48 to 72 hours they'll literally lie there they'll think they're dead listless lifeless no strength but don't worry they'll be okay i couldn't tell it to the man because he only speaks hebrew i only speak english so because of the language barrier i couldn't convey that message his wife is there do you three mind in your language hebrew telling the wife not to worry when she sees he looks dead listless and lifeless it's okay don't worry the three of them are staring past the nurse through a glass wall and they're white like a ghost he turns to see what they're looking at and there was the jew from jerusalem half an hour prior had the procedure he got out of his bed albeit slowly he grabbed onto the iv pole he walked methodically to his cabinet where his clothing was he put on his bieber hat what he wore in through jerusalem he walked over to the sink he came back he washed in the telescoding he washed his hands three times and then got back into bed and the male nurse started to shriek it's not possible it's not possible it's just not possible he was going to pass out what my friend turned to the male nurse and said mister there are two possible explanations for what just happened number one it's a medical miracle we witness the one in 10 million or possibility number two this was the first time because of a language barrier you couldn't convey to the patient what they wouldn't be able to do maybe because you didn't tell the patient what they couldn't do they were able to do it because if you don't tell somebody what you can't do and it's impossible and it's insurmountable they'll be able to do it he broke down crying he never meant to be malicious he meant to tell them that they'd be okay but he admitted i'll never do it again because of the language barrier was the first time that he couldn't convey but if you always tell the patient you won't you can't you won't you can't it's impossible it's a self-fulfilling prophecy but if you don't tell somebody their limitations if you don't tell them what they can't that won't be able to do they can do it they'll surprise you like project inspire attempts to change the face of tens of thousands it seems impossible it seems insurmountable don't let anybody tell us the eleven hundred stronger perhaps more tonight who attended this convention that we can't and we won't and it's impossible and insurmountable because if nobody tells us that message then maybe just maybe we'll leave here and we will be able to the pastor tells us in hazinu literally it means that it's a generation of reversals children who didn't follow in my ways listen to an extraordinary explanation the word tapuche is from the word mapeicha means in english a revolution you know what hashem is telling us tonight you could make a revolution you could change the face of clown you saw like your shark said so what gets in the way what is the single biggest impediment amon is from the word because you don't believe in yourselves what stops us from soaring high and changing the face of claudia's role and making that making that positive revolution where we change the face of claudius roll and bring everyone closer to the ribbon of shalom our father in heaven banim leiamon we don't believe in ourselves if we would learn to believe in ourselves if we would learn to believe don't anybody tell me i can't and i won't but i can if we would learn to believe ko ye zerekha it's in the fabric of our dna entrenched and enseared yes we can we will learn from the ways of project inspire we will learn what it means one jew after another after another after another to bring them closer to hashem we must believe in ourselves and in others and in conclusion a number of years ago there was a boy in yeshiva in eretz yisrael who had a question on the gemara he didn't have an answer he went down to the library and he looked it up in a safer but he didn't like the answer that was given in the safer it didn't please him so he went to his rebbe and said rebbe what should i do and the rebbe said well look who wrote the safe for the mecca on the front page's address and go visit him and tell him you didn't like his answer the boy got on a bus the name of the machabir the author of the safer was yeah safe he gets off at the address indicator on the front page and he goes very jolly to tell y's if the author of the safer i didn't like your answer and the door is answered by an elderly woman he says can i speak to yousef and she says solemnly he hasn't lived here for 10 years but here's his new address and she gives him his new address he gets back on a bus and actually took two buses but the perseverance is beautiful after two bus rides he gets off and he comes to the door safer in hand and knocks on the door and it's opened up by a man with long long hair tie dyed clothing multiple body piercings and tattoos off the kazoo you're yousef yeah you're yacif who wrote the safer yeah the boy wanted to run but joseph said what do you want he said i went through your safer and there's something you said that i don't like yahshup said one second he went to his room he put on the yamaka and he came back and he said to the boy what don't you like and the boy told him and all of a sudden joseph was transformed back to that yeshiva boy of 15 20 years prior and he started to defend his answer and he started to fight and argue and tyson and rashi and the rajman the choice and the rambam and the raved he happened to have told the boy what happened to him that he went as off as he did but he argued like his life depended on it tara was his life at least for that moment and then he emotionally turned to the boy and said do you have my safer because i don't he took out the safer and he presented it to yahseif he goes back to yeshiva the next morning and he tells us rebbe what happened and the rebbe says go to a phone you got to call that lady that was obviously his mother tell his mother what happened he runs to the phone he dials the number the elderly woman answers and he says hi i want to introduce myself i'm the boy that came yesterday and you guys she said stop don't talk i don't know exactly who you are but you listen to me young man i want to tell you one thing yousef is my son i have not seen him for ten years he hasn't lived here for ten years yice have called me a bit ago and said ma i'm coming home and my son isa is about to walk through her back walked back to up he's about to walk through the front door and i want to thank you because whatever your interaction was with him yosef is coming home may it be the will of aqua [Applause] that we believe in ourselves and believe in others when we show them the love the validation the acknowledgement the recognition will cause them to come home we'll bring them home one at a time we have to believe in ourselves don't let anybody tell us we can't we're not in this world just to be yeah hashem that we will learn from project inspire inspire ourselves inspire others believe in ourselves believe in others bring them home so that there will be that ultimate message where our father in heaven says my child called and said they're ready to come home [Applause] wow shapiro ladies and gentlemen we've stood here at the project inspired convention over the past bunch of years and we've learned numerous lessons number one was never shop shopping pomegranate number two was never davoner by landau school and this year we wanted to test if it was worthwhile trying to walk the streets of manhattan we got out into the street thanks to yaakov burger who's here with us and his wife thank you jacob burger representing project inspire took to the post covered streets of new york city to test the waters of how ready people were to connect to their own judaism ladies and gentlemen yaakov berger on the streets of manhattan michael do i need to fix pace or anything on my hair is fine my hair with my cap off okay just tell me if i need to fix up anything please i just need to make sure i hear that everything is straight i put a special deputy dude this morning but it's not working are we good no no i'm serious that's the book mensch look mention it yeah here we are in manhattan new york city standing in the shadow of the iconic metlife building wow it's been two years since we've been in the city that never sleeps unfortunately there has been some sleeping due to the unfortunate pandemic but we are back and you know what the goal is today the goal today is that we're going to be handing out many of these hamantaschen and we're going to have an interaction with our fellow brothers and sisters and what better way to engage in the conversation and show our love for our brothers and sisters of the jewish community that the handout rise means hamentashen and we're gonna have a great time see you later [Music] hi good morning i'm sorry to bother you would you like a humantash oh no thank you you're sure that really tasty hi good morning how are you would you would you like a humantash alright good morning would you like a hummus would you like a hummus no thank you okay hey guys good morning are you guys jewish by any chance we're not would you like to be just have a good day thank you would you like a hummington you're good you know it's kosher right so what come on so give it to your your wife or something okay i'll take one [Music] you should give it to my colleagues because they don't know what it is oh please no no are you jewish by the way what do i of course you are is that a question no rhetorical would you like a hell of that i would love it please go ahead why is important for jews to love other jews y'all kind of like come from russian like we're all brothers and sisters and like and like we all have like that special bond and that's why we should all love each other that's beautiful i love it all you know you get another do you like a hamatash i'll take two for my friends that's great excellent perfect would you like a heart attack i'm thinking complaining how about yourself would you like a heart attack why wouldn't i there he goes i grab one you don't mind if i take one would you share one with me i definitely would because as a jew that's what we do we share okay oh this looks great oh boy he's rubbing his hands oh no so which side would you like oh definitely this one this one without a question all right thank you so much making broccoli they know you're [Music] i love every single jew i don't care if they're wearing a yamaka not wearing i literally love every single jew no matter from where they're from from whatever their background is we're trying to reach out to a lot of people they're just giving out hamilton wishing them a happy forum amen amen i want to come to manhattan today with my friends for one reason one reason only to be able to bump into my jewish brothers and sisters who i haven't seen in two years and say one thing that i love you know the reason i'm serious giving at hamentashen is a way basically it's a way of me saying that i love all my brothers about my jewish brothers and sisters can i offer you something i'm serious this is free this is no strings with besides for hamantaschen we're giving out we're giving out three tablets today thank you everyone yeah i kid you not anything that you ever want to know about judaism is loaded onto those tablets my daughter is an archivist at jts she's gonna go crazy we're giving out today free no strings attached this is a tablet we're just giving it out simply for one reason we're just trying to spread the love that's all this nothing nothing more no strings attached it's a regular tablet you can do whatever you want with it but it's our way of saying we love you brother you can access anything that you've ever wanted to know about your heritage about your culture it's preloaded with tons of jewish content simple to remember.com i never heard of that before and then we got project inspire the only one you feel that way and you the people care about each other and they end up we are one we become united i'm being honest this is like crazy amazing wonderful i can't wait to read it now so nice to meet you all the best take care be well so after a long day of filming a very successful day of giving a lots of hummus houston and a few tablets we're going to call it a wrap over and out catch you later [Music] thank you yaakov berger on the streets of manhattan ladies and gentlemen by a quick raise of hands we have a few tablets still is anyone in the room who feels that they can give a tablet filled with content to a less connected jew by a raise of hands by raise of hands here we go a few tablets over here over here on the women's side there's a few tablets given out over here let us know your story know hamantasha needed here we go okay thank you let us let us know what happened ladies and gentlemen we spoke all of shabbos and we met people who were heroes who went out on the limb on behalf of our jewish brothers and sisters there are many ways that this manifests itself there are many ways in which people decide that they could take something on that might seem insurmountable but because of a life experience decide to take it on and fight the fight on behalf of the jewish people to prevent further assimilation amongst the jewish people ladies and gentlemen here's just another example we have to preach the gospel in hebrew in israel now they've never heard the messiah in a way that shows his jewishness the jewish people reception of jesus is integrally bound his return he is the son of god are you embarrassed of the messiah [Music] into your messiah to your son let them see the beauty somebody who is dressed wearing a kippah or the tzitzi it's just very encouraging we are jews ourselves we are israelis in hebrew they will hear the gospel jews don't have to convert they just have to believe [Music] he is one and we as a jews we have to do what is right and holy in the eyes of hashem what did they prophesy you can yell here on the streets but what you need to do is get back to the original bible can not be that the christian bible is true and the jewish scriptures are false that can't be [Music] [Applause] most of my work does not involve standing in front of audiences as i am right now my life is dedicated to helping jews in the church return back to the truth and the beauty of the jewish faith i've done this for more than 40 years people ask me the question frequently how did a nice jewish boy like you from [Music] borough park brooklyn you [Applause] you heard about it i don't know if it'll make it not make it how did you ever get involved in helping jews in the church return back to the jewish faith so we're going to be spending a little time together this evening and tomorrow morning i want to tell you a little bit about myself i grew up in a very traditional jewish home on mighty shabbos and even like this i remember i was 16 years old and we did a virgin we ended shabbat in a very traditional way it went to maja peking it was after dinner going back to find the car we were crossing fifth avenue and 47th street i could see young men three young men pasting up posters on the lamppost and it said come this tuesday night the jews for jesus and learn more about your jewish messiah and i was shocked it was like a bomb went off inside of me how is it possible and i walked over to them and i began to argue with them i'm sure there are many of you sitting here tonight who've seen these missionaries on the streets of new york engage with them it was a conversation that was going absolutely nowhere very quickly in the middle of this whole thing there was a fellow an elderly man who was watching this spectacle and he walked over to me he grabbed my arm he schlepped me away from them and he said don't you argue with them you don't know enough if you want to do something here tonight too but to combat these missionaries why don't you just follow them around and as they paced up all their posters well you were there you schlepped them down i'm thinking what are you talking about i mean i i went to i learned in the mirror yeshiva we had a whole space station named after yeshiva i don't know enough to argue with these fellows i should be relegated to some kind of work like pulling posters down this would be my big contribution to the jewish people and i was very frustrated walked away from that the following following spring i visited air test for the first time in my life my uncle zachereno lebron lived in the old city of islam first time in earth's trail took a taxi to the parking lot dragging my suitcases through the old city and my uncle greets me in front of his home and he was so excited and he told me by sheer chance the last shop is he had a very unusual guest at his home who did he have my uncles was at a a bookstore stymetsky's bookstore and he met a a swedish minister invited him to spend the entire shabbos at his home when shabbat was over it's time for the minister to go he wanted to show some gratitude for the hospitality that had been extended to him and he gave my uncle a gift this minister gave my uncle a present what present do you think he gave my uncle he gave him again if someone else was there ready yes he gave not just a new testament he gave him a king james bible not any king james bible a red letter edition and he shows this off to me says give a look at this give a look at this like he had the manual from the other team and i told him that's exactly what i wanted to read and i took it from him and i began to study it i remember praying at the western wall a few days later i was dominating at the hotel thinking about my great grandfather after whom i was named who was murdered in the spring of 1944 he couldn't be there i was i'm you know first time there to show first time in the holy land praying at a place so holy and i'm davening i'm just i'm in a very very special place and suddenly i feel a tap on my shoulder i turn around there's a fellow standing there with the yarmulke on his head you know the cardboard one with the staple they give off a free when you go down the ramp that one and he said excuse me do you know the lord what am i doing are you playing campbell what do you do i know the lord i said of course i do he said you mean you know who yeshua is and i said of course i do i went to yeshiva with him he was in my class i was thinking yeshua jacob was right there in front of the western wall began to unravel this cross-cultural communications problem i spent two weeks studying with him hashem inaudible gentleman returned back the truth and the beauty of the jewish faith 22 years ago [Applause] i want to say this to you my dear brothers and sisters to bring the jew home from the church the darkest place imaginable inspire more than two decades ago i was shopping in pathmark in muncie i don't think it's there anymore i had a pathmark on route 59 my wagon was filled with groceries and i was placing them on the belt for the cashier to ring me a lot a lot of stuff was in there and the fellow behind me he's i could see he was a rough clearly at a hat and he's taking groceries out of my wagon and he's putting it on the belt for me and i said you don't have to do that he said rabbi singer you don't remember me i looked at him beard from jew who are you how is that boy from long island i'm a ravier in muncie now our people are coming home people are coming home i remember getting a phone call from a mother hysterically crying she was she was changing the dust ruffle under her door by a daughter's mattress and she discovered a christian bible underneath her daughter's bed and a fight breaks out in the kitchen and only mothers and daughters are capable of she called me karov told me to call me and i explained that in order for me to help your daughter i would need to meet with her and we met in in great neck new york it's a very fancy place i've never been there before very fancy place the house had its own zip code it's a very nice area i sat down across the kitchen table from this young lady she went to boston university she went to boston university because her boyfriend was in medical school you there in the six-year program at bu she told me that when she moved into her room in the dorm room as it turned out her roommate was a born-again christian can tell from her name that she's jewish and gave her a christian bible as a present as a gift she said i didn't really want such a thing i didn't like such a thing made her uncomfortable she took it why she didn't want to start and she stuck with this girl for the whole semester she took it she didn't read it she put it aside she said two weeks into the semester for a reason she does not know she does not understand her boyfriend broke up with her and it shattered her life she said that every dream she had was destroyed when he walked away from her she was laying there in bed crying her brains out her life was over everything was done he said rabbi i decided i remembered that christian bible that i was given by my roommate and i decided maybe there's something in there that could help me at this very desperate moment and i decided to open it and began to read it and he said that i found a verse in the christian bible in the new testament in the gospels she her words those the words in the book of mark touched me so deeply she knew that the new testament had to be the word of god and jesus had to be your messiah she knew it a little surprised to hear that and i asked her what possible i thought i read through it i didn't know what possible new testament was so moving was so transformative that you went she said well i'd love to read it to you so she took the bible with king james and she turns a few pages and she begins to read to me from mark chapter 12 and it goes like this you shall love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul and all your might oh you read the new testament this section here knows the new testament backwards and forwards never this girl didn't know this comes from the sacred creed of our people from the book of deuteronomy that every jew says every single day she never didn't know she asked isn't there anything true in this new testament i said anything true in the new testament is not new and anything new isn't true she was on an ill flight the following tuesday and learning in jerusalem and now lives in silver spring maryland and return back to the truth and the beauty of the jewish people [Applause] that's what project that's what inspire means i remember speaking in fairfax virginia along with this speaking in fairfax virginia for those who don't know this fairfax is a bedroom community for the capital people live in fairfax and work in the capital federal agents met one he works for the secret service of the united states he does not protect the president or his family he trains agents how to detect counterfeit currency met him at a lecture they gave in his synagogue and i asked them how do you train agents you must have a real fantastic collection of fake money that's been confiscated over the years and the agents study it and they can identify it right away he said rabbi that is not the way we train our agents here the way we train our agents how that count for money is we show them real money it's printed on a paper there's no other paper like in the world there are shifting watermarks fine line engravings agents study real money real american currency why because you take an agent with that kind of training and dare dare to put a counselor in his hand he will know it immediately kendall my brothers and sisters what am i saying to you what's the message of inspire am i saying to you that in order to protect yourselves and those that you love against missionaries who want to take your children away from you maybe we should start training our kids in the book of matthew they should know the the synoptic gospels by heart maybe they should know all the letters of paul know the new testament backwards and forwards you are wasting your time know the real thing train your children those that you love in the turret in the holy terror and then no missionary will ever be able to take a relationship with them from god away from them thank you a good word [Applause] maybe i should just sit in the crowd yeah thank you thank you for coming all the way here from your shalom to join us [Applause] ladies and gentlemen i mentioned friday night in my introduction to raviosa mendelevich that i had the greats close this this week this year for tish above to do a film called iron faith i want to thank gi orman from big productions who did a tremendous job with his team putting this film together it was not an easy project as many tend to be and it would give us a small synopsis as to what the soviet jew soviet jewish heroes did back under the communist regime to keep torah alive in the former soviet union ladies and gentlemen a small tidbit of our film iron faith with the rise of communism they essentially were looking to obliterate everything that was jewish schools yeshivas synagogues shikita mikva you name it my father told me about some of his experiences he said we live 24 hours in fear you can imagine that you go to sleep in fear you wake up in fear they can knock on your door anytime arrest anyone these people who were born after the communists took over they knew nothing religion was a was forbidden there was no such thing it was being drummed out of them nobody told me that there is a god i discovered myself after the six-day war jewish identity in the soviet union skyrocketed it created a renaissance of jewish life in a country that was atheistic and that prohibited religion me and some other friends decided to establish an underground jewish educational movement to prevent assimilation i asked my friends and acquaintances do you want to learn torah they said so what is tour i do want to know tour but what a story i said tour is our life so the first students were 15 young people the network of our studying was about 20 cities in the soviet union under the eyes of kgb i wanted to stress it's not so easy under the eyes of kgb it was a real struggle a small group of people against a massive empire if a regular jewish citizens in servitasia would discover that we are doing that they would tell don't they understand kgb knows everything why they are not afraid hanukkah class of 1980 about 30 40 people were sitting in the room one of my friends was sitting right near me when the bell rang so he came to open the door and there was a big bang like he was like flew to the opposite wall and a second later we saw police storming the room don't move hands on the table you're under arrest it was a scary moment i remember how my soul seemed somewhere i came to understand that educating uh hundreds and maybe thousands will not solve the problem of a complete assimilation so it was obvious to me that the only possible way is to break out to get out from serving russia and open the gates for freedom of immigration even illegally so in riga in fact a certain man called hill goodman out of come up with the idea to hijack a russian airplane and try to escape when we arrested red-handed in the airport we were being sentenced for 15 years of imprisonment of betraying russian motherland in siberia the person who sent me was someone named bernie hirsch he himself had been there it was tossed out and he chanced upon a group of people sitting and learning and that was ss he was dazzled and he came back to the school and he gave a clap and i said there are people showing torments in russia who need our help we must help them the israeli government sent in month by month to people to maintain contact with jews there in a nondescript building we were given our instructions we're going to basket leningrad and kiev we were basically going to teach torah as soon as i walk out of the taxi i have two people grab my arms and they push me into another car i said were you taking me he turned around and he said to me do you think your god is going to help you now and i said i most definitely do one major problem was i had in my pocket booklets about twitter about senses about shabbos about that i was pulling out these pamphlets and burying in between the seats i must have thrown in about 20 pamphlets friday we come to a train station near where we're going to spend showers as we get out we see from other doors young people many of them were in keypad and we're all walking in the same direction starving mink and kabbalah shabbos was done by the whole group word by word everybody darvin together it was a scene humbly and then they started singing and i see these young people their tears they're crying these kids in moscow that friday night that was their lifelong yearning there was a an experience unmatched young people young people these are people that we can be in awe these are people who saw the fire stood before the abyss and stood strong this represents the best of what jews are nations keep coming nations keep going passing like shadows wiped off the earth egypt enslaved thee babylon crushed thee rome led the captive where are those nations mighty and fearsome we were present in the world at the birth of all the great empires and we were also the one who said the hespid at the leviah so iron curtain i think was coined by churchill an iron curtain has descended across the continent behind that line but the talmud says a film basel which means an iron curtain cannot separate the jewish people from god i'm learning so much faith and i learn how to believe in people from my students they really inspire me and the need to reach out to those that otherwise will fade away need to be conveyed again and again people who sacrifice their lives sacrifice their comfort and they do so much to bring other jews back to their destruct and if this feeling of pain and responsibility and commitment will be conveyed and become the spirit of the generation we have so much hope and we can do so much together because together we can overcome anything [Applause] after being arrested in the airport they brought us to kgb prison for interrogation and it became very soon obvious to me that their scheme was to arrest us red-handed also they did know about our preparation for a lot of time they would like to arrest us red-handed and then make us cooperate with them call upon war jury to stop any activities and because of us and then we had to call upon russian jewry sit back and get assimilated so they tried different ways to break my will torture me intimidate but it wouldn't help so i say they known way of deal with people sticking carrot their stick got broken so you used a carrot by the way i don't like carrots anyway what uh their carrot was after all uh interrogations i was escorted to another russian officer and he was very soft he told me you're safe i'm sorry that you arrested no if he is sorry why you arrest me anyway i'm sorry that you arrested is there a carrot and i can understand you you are young man romantic dreams but now he told me believe me i am like your old brother recommend you don't be stubborn you'll not break the wall with your head you will break your head so be clever cooperate and you will get less penalty instead of death penalty maybe only seven years of imprisonment and then he looked at me and he told me you say you are jewish you belong to a jewish nation you work for a jewish nation you don't look jewish at all he told me you like our russian brother you studied in russian high school in russian university you know a lot of uh russian poetry you were russian but all of a sudden you started thinking that you were jewish you know it was obviously a way to find a way to my heart but when the interrogators only yell at you intimidate and torture you all of a sudden you find somebody that speaks talks to you in a human way and he felt that like something is happening with me okay he told the guard take him back in to his cell let him let him sink again so i was there in the cell and i told to myself maybe he is right maybe it is not the time for dreams i have to be realistic to save my life and then i recollected what he told me you don't look jewish you are not jewish with what you are jewish you got a russian education was jewish in you and i got angry how he dared to tell me that i am not jewish and i thought about myself really how are you jewish i look like them speak their language behave like them what makes me different if i would behave as a jew he could understand that i am different what does it mean to behave as a jew to keep this with so being in the underground jewish educational movement i would go from time to time to the show the synagogue i did know something but now i felt it is not enough i have to make the decision to behave jewish mitzvahs it's good to say to be in the empty room in this cell keep me with in what way i don't know anything i have to be have a jew as a jew and i decided i'll build a wall between me and him behaving differently not like them for declaration is not enough say i'm jewish it's not enough you have to behave to do something jewish so i invented a way to be jewish in fact i covered my head and i had a black beret but thrown in the ground in the airport i lost uh the beret bro not my head only the beret so i i need something to cover my head a yarmulke they would laugh at me if i i would ask for a yarmulke so i invented my yarmulke i got it was legally to have a handkerchief so i made notes on my handkerchief like this i'll take your time i made four angles now it will be only two of them and then export it next time to the officer [Applause] you know one of the way to break me they previously sent me to a mental institution telling that if i they told if you wouldn't cooperate we will admit that you are crazy and you will stay in that mental institution for a life so they had to release me now the officer looked at me and he told me yo sir you are completely crazy he told me why not by chance they put me you in the mental institution behave you are an educated man why would you put this piece of clothes on your head i told yes i am educate educated man but i have a jewish education and according our jewish education you have to cover our head so i told him a whole story about mushroom with his mitral saturn saterra i believe it was the first time that he wrote down my report for i wouldn't uh i wouldn't cooperate with them and then he became angry and told me you think you are smart you are stupid for it is the way you are digging your grave think again it doesn't pay you to behave this way and think send me back to myself when back in my cell i told okay i am on the right way the enemy is angry with you with anger with the enemies pleased with you your is you have a problem when the enemy is angry with you i am doing the right thing i have to build another liar of of my world what can i invent and i decided i will double i didn't remember certainly shimon israel but i was a underground hebrew teacher so i wrote my prayer saying ebony shalom take care on my nation i miss royal take them from russian slavery take care on my family my father my sisters and don't forget me here in uh the prison i can't withstand any more now i had to find miserable i was aware that we have to govern the direction of israel what to do and i recollected that in underground we had the safer daniel telling about daniel the prophet that was in my situation some two thousand five hundred years before he had to find out where is uh uh where is a your shallam he just opened the wall at the the uh opened the window and directed his heart darling to you shall i when it's in now i checked it's in shock if you don't have a smartphone and if you don't the direction of your shalam is just open the window and what's what is important to direct your your heart so i couldn't uh certainly open the wall at the the window there was a lot of grace of it but at least i stood at the window and i had my piece of my prayer we say as when we govern we have imagined that we are down there and they crying out hashem in my situation i even wouldn't need i didn't need to imagine it was real i was there a dead dev in a russian prison i would cry out anna after a while after this kind of practice the door got opened the girls entered rushed inside grabbed me in the wall and told me we watch you all the time you stand at wall and you you you touch the wall what you try to take out a brick to run away they can't they they check the wall and the grates nothing everything is intake so they check my pocket and they found my my feeling what is that ah we understand it is a secret letter that you try pass over to your friends you know you should be really crazy to imagine that you can pass something without envelope without an address through a locked window with a lot of grace but they had no explanation so they take it away took it away and after several days i was escorted back to the office of this my russian brother i saw on the top of his table my my filler and in the translation he was very angry he told me joseph what's happening with you i got in translation it is that feeling you are darning you became religious you never been religious you got our communist education who influenced you i told it's uh god everyone shalom influenced me you know but he wouldn't believe imagine what happened i had in fact two options to cooperate or not to cooperate with a with interrogation with k2b i had no third option yes i had the third option the third way was just to link the following ribbon and as far as this third decision was completely illogical i know that it was the one shall i himself that ordered me and i am privileged that i accepted his order and followed him how i know [Applause] how i know that that was the only one true way for a simple reason for i'm here with my wife with my children grandchildren it's a victory when even in the court during the trial the judge asked me mendelevic why would you betray your motherland until you know what ribonucleolum it's my motherland their grandchild so i never be tried and i believe i will never betray my real motherland so the prosecutor stood up and told the judge don't you know mandela is a fanatic religious jew you know he thought we cannot understand how the man being educated in our university studying thermodynamics physics the terror etc is devoted devoted only to his god you know fanatic so i'm i'm not fanatic but i am proud when my enemy admits that he cannot win me for i am a religious fanatic jew and then i spent as i told 11 years in the prison and when i was out sent away from soviet russia they cancelled they wouldn't pardon me they told me don't pardon you you don't deserve pardon will you cancel we cancel your russian citizenship for you don't deserve to be a russian citizen and i that day i was aware that already 200 000 jews left soviet russia after we were arrested it means when i was there in the prison i told ribana shalom i know that people start immigrating leaving russia if so i am ready to stay as much as needed in the prison just let them go and it's like my opinion of him you imagine you to release 200 000 jews to make obedience win for 200 pound jews you have to be a millionaire i am the millionaire what i am saying now you used to demonstrate and i met here a lot of people they told they demonstrate and did all kind of efforts to save russian jew it was the slogan save russian jew now now i come here to tell you something different save american jew now save them probably mendeleevich hope to take your message home tonight and to do just a fraction of what you were able to accomplish to free 200 000 jews may it be his will that all of us in this room could bring back 200 000 jews ladies and gentlemen tonight this is the highlight for me for tonight everyone here knows by now that project inspire has a one-on-one learning program and of course you'll get your opportunity momentarily to sign up but during the pandemic many programs were run through project inspire with the sole focus of getting people to learn one on one isn't that right stuart one-on-one learning and so using the shabbat show and using the many online projects that we ran throughout the pandemic we pushed everyone to sign up to learn one-on-one and one such person flew in to be here with us tonight he is a beneficiary of our program of our 101 learning program and the best beneficiary of people very similar to you in this room so especially in from minneapolis minnesota i'd like to ask dr luciano kolodny to share his experience with us today [Applause] thank you very much i wrote some remarks but um i would like to start by saying that i'm truly humbled and honored to be invited to be here and humble to hear the stories of people who change hundreds of thousands of people's lives i've done no such a thing uh my name is luciano kolodny uh my hebrew name is itzhak my grandparents were from pinsk poland and my grandfather was a deeply religious jew very observant but he was the only one in the family my grandmother my parents my uncles no no one of us observant and frankly as a child growing up in brazil i attended the chabad synagogue for shabbat services primarily especially because the rabbi's wife would prepare a really good egg salad and that was very unusual in brazil so that's the reason i attended most of the time when i was 19 i moved to the u.s to continue medical school and i would go to shabbat sometimes go to high holidays in whatever synagogue was nearby then i got married and we decided to become members of a reformed synagogue which we would attend but really we didn't have much knowledge of torah the years went by and about a year ago i read a story about project inspire it was a story about a jewish young man from the western u.s who got involved in in some kind of friendship with some neo-nazis and when they realized he was jewish they they threatened to kill him and he started thinking about gee what am i doing with my life so he started he called project inspire and he got a learning partner a partner to study to learn a few months later he moved to jerusalem and then he became an observant jew in his froome and i was in awe of that story so i immediately called the number or emailed i forget and this lady called danielle hass i don't know if she's here she called me back and she connected me with my study partner and mentor julian leibovitz from thornhill in canada julian is an orthodox jew from south africa a software manager and just the embodiment of loving your fellow jew is a true mensch he immediately opened his arms and his heart to me he was so non-judgmental and taught me with such love we started learning together he started teaching me principles of torah gemara we then started studying the weekly par shot and every week he would start sending me materials he would send me materials on whatsapp or my email and then we learned together on wednesdays and every wednesday i he had other things to show me and he was always so open he allowed me to text him and ask him questions so he would be prepared when when we had our time together i learned about shabbat about purim about pesach about shavuot and about sukkot and the reason i say sukkot is because i only have one son moishe who's 16 years old my son moishe was born on the first day of sukkot and despite that i had never celebrated sukkot before last time last sukkot was the first time ever in my life in 52 years that i built a sukkah and we celebrate it and we ate every meal in the sugar this is one of many firsts i spent the weekend this weekend with shabbat in a wonderful family dr david rasnick and his wife [Applause] and julian and i continue meeting on a weekly basis and frankly we talk several times a week he texted me i don't know six or seven times while i've been here waiting and because of his friendliness because he'd never made me feel embarrassed or ashamed is why i thrived with him and why i look forward to learning with him and there are so many jews like me out there we just don't know where to go and we're too embarrassed or too proud to admit it so what i will ask you is please please please volunteer for project inspire it's a life-changing program for jews like me and there are thousands i'm sure like in around the world or hundreds of thousands like me so please please volunteer you can change the life of a fellow jew thank you very much and i'm just real hi i'm israel hi i'm going to put up on the screen now away for everybody who has a card on their chair you receive the card of the way and you can scan the qr code please use the opportunity to sign up now for a one-on-one 101 student to be a one-on-one mentor i wanted to ask you just if you don't mind i know there's a little bit off the cuff have you ever met julian no as a matter of fact i'm looking forward to meeting julian for the first time in april to meet him and his wonderful family on his son's wedding in april well just one more question you told everybody here about julian and what it meant to you what would you tell julian you're wonderful man i love you stop why don't you tell him yourself julian do you mind coming up here [Applause] the channel that was a very very amazing speech i have to say not because it was my name in it really beautiful i have to just i wrote down a few words it's very emotional this um only project inspire could connect a guy from brazil living in the us with a guy with a guy from south africa living in canada and get them to meet in person in stamford connecticut we have to thank daniel hass project inspire and all of the wonderful staff for everything that they do for us and connected us together it's really amazing to meet you in person you know i'm i'm so very proud of you one year ago we were learning about building a sukkah and this last sukkas like you said you built an actual sucker one year ago you used to say to me that you're not sure what the parish of the week is now you've learned the parasha by wednesday every week when when we when we meet up our one hour sessions each week seem like minutes they just fly fly by you ask me such good questions that i have to i have to be honest with you that i have to study the posture each week and make sure that i know it by wednesday how many people in the room have learned posture by wednesday each week but really after we learn and this is you is that you thank me so much each week for learning with you but i really have to say that it's me who should be thanking you more i literally learned parasha in depth better than i ever have ever i've also studied topics that i haven't touched for years and years and years so really a big big thank you for you you are inspiring me to learn better thank you shannon he has a gift [Applause] thank you luciano thank you julian glad that you finally met keep learning and bring others into the fold as well thank you thank you [Applause] part of the surfside florida condominium building came crashing down collapsing into a pile of rubble firefighters risking their own lives searching for possible victims and even now officials fear the rest of this building could come down at any time jewish communities across the state are praying and sending support to everyone impacted by the surf side condo collapse while many of the families affected by the collapse were of jewish faith they say the donations here at the school of bull harbor are for everyone affected tell us what we're seeing here we had truckloads of people bringing so many supplies such an outpour helping out the people that really need anything and that's what we're here for they took this little snack bar at the community center and they turned it into this bistro that eventually delivered three thousand kosher meals a day to families awaiting word of their loved ones and first responders an israeli search team is also on the ground helping miami-dade's urban search and rescue force there is still hope always and i hope that we will succeed it was a deeply emotional ceremony tonight filled with applause and gratitude as the israeli crews prepared to leave and family members had a chance to thank first responders face to face [Music] it's painful you just wish you were in a dream sometimes strong words from martin langsfeld who lost his sister and his brother-in-law in the surf side condo collapse there's hope i really believe miracles do happen [Music] it never gets easier not with time not with anything on june 24th i was out with friends and i arrived home at three in the morning to my mother telling me she received the news notification that a building had collapsed on collins avenue that's the street where my sister lived didn't mention any names it was very brief she never in her right life read a news notification at three in the morning but that night she couldn't sleep she had a mother's instinct that something was wrong what is going on what is she talking about what do you mean a building collapsed i called my beautiful sister nikki voicemail i called my brother-in-law lewis voicemail i called the police for my garage so my parents don't hear the conversation i'm about to have the operator had no idea what building collapsed it was a disaster it was a horror movie by the third operator they said i believe it is champion tower south sir mama wake up dad it's nikki's building the usual 40-minute drive turned into an eternal silent 20-minute drive and we got there to see there was no building people were screaming crying running desperate and confused not one first responder was on the rubble so i tried running on myself to find my family to find myself getting threatened to be arrested many many times at night it was a horror movie one i never thought i'd be playing a character we didn't go home for 15 days we slept on the floor desperately waiting for news for the first few days it was unimaginable unreal we had to cancel two funerals because they couldn't release such a small portion of a body by the third funeral attempt we had to sign a release that we're okay with a percentage of my sister's body i didn't grow up religious and i never thought religion would ever play a crucial role in my life but i was quickly amazed by one thing the jewish community religious community they were the first ones there you were the first ones there you were there the entire time you gave us a shoulder to cry on and a shoulder to smile on when we had hope not the people who lived in miami not all the mayors i met not the governor not the president but the jewish community and not only for the jews but for everyone at any time to be honest i had lost my faith i was mad at god i was mad at the world there was no logic there were no answers there are no answers but the jewish community gave me the support i didn't know i needed and the support i didn't know i had they were there in times of need to bring a sense of unity a sense of community and a sense of helping those who didn't know they needed the help you showed me what judaism stood for what it stands for we suffered together and we hurt together you gave me hope you kept me on my feet and you gave me faith the faith i never thought i would have again because of them because of you the from community my life has taken a different route you inspired me with a desire to spread love and kindness for others who are also in need when they do not know it whether it may be helping politically to change the system so such terrible catastrophes don't occur again or whether it's to simply inspire people the way i felt inspired by all of you i experienced a horrific tragedy in 12 seconds 98 people were crushed in their safest place i came to realize that when you say goodbye it could be the last goodbye and one day the day you don't know it it will be the last goodbye my friends my family we're here one time we need to realize we could not take life for granted money is not the only important thing in this world in fact money caused this we must care for each other we must give we must love and we must enjoy because we are one together and that bond will never be broken the jewish community was there no matter the time of day 4 am 5 a.m where were there whether it was just being there silently to share the pain or a simple request of can i pray for you or come spend shabbat with us in our synagogues we knew you were there for us and many times no words needed to be said i realized i could not be mad at god anymore i could not be mad at the world anymore when i saw the religious community was there for us i knew this faith is what brought us together it's about the from community to be who you are and to do what you do a community that will be there no matter what it takes and that made me realize the power of faith which i could never lose i can't speak up here without mentioning elisa muramusin which i believe is here with us today [Applause] elisa a project inspired leader from queens was one of the heroes who came to serve side one of the many who i opened the doors for in my home because i instantly felt a connection a family she met me she met my family it's only because of elisa that i'm speaking here tonight because of elisa as well as rabbi majeski i attended project inspires three-day trip in austin texas and when i arrived i experienced the same feelings of brotherhood and care they didn't know who i was they did not know what i had experienced but they all accepted me and treated me as a brother and that's the beauty of my experience with project inspire i'd like to say thank you to the leadership team thank you haim yosef and to future relationships with many people i met alan gross many others since surfside i have started with learning with rabbis putting on tefillin going to school i've embraced the judaism i have embraced judaism because you have embraced me and that's what i've learned through this whole experience whether we know each other or not we are all one we are brothers and sisters who need to care for each other and love each other no matter what i thank you for being there for me someone you never knew my friends i lost my sister my 26 year old sister who just became an attorney ready to start her life just married a tragic and painful loss and we lost so many more that night but the loving care i have felt from all of you the jewish community has helped me feel a profound sense of comfort and i look at you all here today and ask you my dear friends please let's continue to share love with each other and with our fellow jews and non-jews across the world by doing so the more goodness and faith we can bring to the world the greater the comfort will be to me and to all the families who lost loved ones on june 24th when i needed you the most you were there for me and there are so many more that need you as well that need the community i need the connection to god himself and before i finish up and say thank you to everyone here for listening to me and say we will never forget surfside these past two days we heard many speakers from all parts of the world with many different professional respectful backgrounds and when they finish speaking everyone in the crowd gets up claps and admires the person speaking that's not the reason i'm here i'm not here so you can clap for me and for my story i'm here because of you so when i finish up now and i say thank you i want you all to clap and look at the person next to you and say thank you to them because you all make a difference and i really mean that you guys are amazing so thank you everyone [Applause] [Music] i look around and try to find you there they say you are you can see and hear at times like this [Music] is [Music] i need you now to hold me close when i'm so far please show me how to make it through bring me close to you now hold me close to find the truth please show me how to see your life and hear your call don't let [Music] help [Music] i need you now to hold me close when i'm so far please show me how to make it through bring me close to you now to hold me closer [Music] please don't let me fall [Music] i need you now to hold me close when i'm so far please show me how to make it through now [Music] please don't let me [Music] when i need you [Music] ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us here this evening thank you thank you thank you malava maka's being served enjoy the rest of your evening