PIC 2024 Keynote Michoel Barnett-Pray & Say for an Israeli Soldier; See Something; Do Something

we spoke about the concept of seeing something and doing something and the interesting part about that message is that two people could see the same thing and act completely differently I'd like to introduce our next presenter who saw something that we all saw but what he did was something very different than all of us ladies and gentlemen M [Applause] Barnett good everyone it's been such an honor for brooki and I to be here the shabas with all of such amazing people with such outstanding stories I'm really humbled by all the people here in this room it's also a special significance for me the project Inspire convention you see I have the of being a close to the r of nober and as Yi mentioned Friday night the rosh Shiva every year would tell all of us the from Community if we could just get out and reach out we can turn the tide of the similation around and change the destiny of the Jewish people what Nas would have here by seeing all of you every sign that I see in the hallway and all the classrooms his voice cries out to me I wanted to share with you when R would see theim in par when mhu saw the mster hitting the yid beating up the yid and he would say the PK when he got to thek he would tell all of us when you see something you must do something you must act rosasa would Pally say that in the expression when you can see a problem you own a problem have AAS to find and execute the solution now that idea always reverberated in my mind but several months ago it really took on different significance see the events of octo of of October 7th had us all reeling and bombarded us with inspiration and messages and directives on what we could do for clel and the one thing was clear we all understood that Theus of the Jewish people would what would save us from all of our enemies but I'm sure Rak would add that the Aus has to be with our brothers and sisters who are less Affiliated expressing themselves in an authentic Jewish way and that idea was what inspired me to think of a program called pray and say pray and say is a campaign being devoted to get non-affiliated Jews to pray for specific soldiers each and every day for 30 days and say an expression of thanks in the Merit of those soldiers safe return and all of the Jewish people when we embarked on this Mission we thought we get hundreds of people with a Grassroots effort but bem we launched a website we're able to get I'm happy to say thousands of Jews to participate in pray and say that wasn't all that easy I had to do a lot of things to take AAS for the program and many were not in my comfort zone like raising $25,000 within two weeks and Bridging the cash flow to fund the effort but as my family will tell you it was nothing that was going to get in my way the stakes were too high and the cause was just too important you know by taking on such a thing and I don't do that every day but taking on such a thing made me a different person and the owed me to see and act on something else just thereafter many of you are familiar most likely with the video you're about to see all right so I have a confession and I think it's going to be true for a lot of Jews out there and it's it's a big lesson for you Jew haters so I suggest you listen all you anti- zionists growing up my Jewish identity was a completely secondary part of my life I never even thought about it really you know my parents had told me stories about what they went through my mom had to escape Iraq because she was a Jew and my dad sadly most of his family was killed off in the Holocaust but I never personalized it it was never something that was super super real to me and it was just stories of things that they went through but then after October 7th seeing the way the world responded to the attack and the amount of Jew hatred that actually exists kind of woke up my jewi side made me reconnect with it fully and I think people don't realize just how many Jews out there have reconnected with their Jewish identities now you know we were disappearing we were marrying non-jew at exceptional numbers most of us don't follow the religion I mean look at me I'm covered in tats and now so many of us are activated you strengthen us when you attack us we were disappearing so I have to say thank you to everyone who has reminded all of us Jews what it actually means to be Jewish thank you for showing us the true face of anti-Semitism and thank you for uniting us once again because I promise you we're stronger than ever now ladies and gentlemen when I saw this clip of Ilan I was struck by his Clarity and the depth of his nishma and I just felt I had to reach out I had my son AI get his number I was able to send him a lengthy text and in essence the text said you express with Clarity what anti-Semitism is all about what our sages have said it's about for millennium and you understand the question why the Jews so well but perhaps the question why be Jewish more specifically what's so special about being Jewish that one could die for is a worthy topic for you and not to discuss he said great let's discuss so I met Elan on a zoom Epson live in Boon Beach Florida and we had a discussion of that and many things over an hour I said to him at the end of the conversation I so thoroughly enjoyed it would you like to learn some more he said I'd love to but since that time Elan and I have gone through the five levels of pleasure the Rosa's view on on on Pleasure Jewish pleasure he put up a mza the first time in his house he wanted to lay his grandfathers Iraqi grandfathers to fill in we learned through and and most recently we learned through four the first four MOS of peros we have a Seder now every single Sunday night thank you hey project Inspire my name's Elon I made a video after October 7th about finding Judaism again and I think that's so incredibly important right now and I have to give a special thank you to Mitch Mitch reached out to me after I made that video and started teaching me about Judaism and it's opened up an entire world for me it's been really really special and I think that's the point behind all of this is that with a little effort just reaching out to a stranger reaching out to someone you know who's a Jew who who might not be into what you're into right now can actually change their entire world can actually open them up to Judaism and so I think that's incredibly important right now because so many of us Jews are being taught to self-censor being taught to be ashamed being taught to hide and you guys are out there doing the exact opposite you're standing strong for what you believe in and you're teaching other Jews that it's okay to speak up to and I think that's just incredible