0:00 / 0:00
Rabbi Dovid Asher in Conversation with Chuck Lessin
402 views
ou.org/conversations - Live Zoom Meeting Rabbi Dovid Asher of Keneseth Beth Israel in Richmond VA in conversation with Chuck Lessin, vice chairman of the Virginia Israel advisory board, about why he's using Israeli ingenuity to create jobs for economically depressed Americans in coal country. January 23th at PM EST ou.org/conversations In Conversation is a series lead by rabbis of OU shuls on a search to get to uncover the inspiring stories of the strangers we sit next to in shul.
Categories:
Torah
Comments(0)
Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
you have a different mic maybe is your
phone on or is your
your phone's off phone okay i'll turn it
off
you have like a bluetooth headset or
something that you use with your phone
or one of those frankly i'd do this
like twice a day i've never had i think
it's working now i think it's working
now
no no
okay better yep yeah
i think i think that's good okay sounds
good
sounds good to me okay um
i know i used to be the rabbi of a
yakisho so i know about yucky time
i am sephardic i know about sephardic
time tell me about virginia time
virginia like is 8 16 the same thing as
8 15.
i i think 8 816 870 whenever you're
ready is fine you know i
the good news is in virginia the time
moves slower so you're on time but it
happens to move slower anyway
so it's amazing
okay so with that i think it's a it's a
good time to kick off
shavuo tov david pardo
i uh i work at the orthodox union
as pointed out so kindly
uh welcome for those of you who are new
welcome to in conversation
conversations between rabbis and their
congregants um
if this is your first time you can catch
past episodes on our torah
just search for in conversation you can
also sign up for
email alerts mr sham we plan on
continuing this program
through the winter months
winter months until we change the clocks
right before pesach
i'm excited to uh introduce we're
finally breaking out of the tri-state
um our first esteemed
rabbinic host rabbi david asher uh rabbi
asher
is the love of
bethknesseth right nezibeth israel
i'm so sorry i don't have in front of me
look at the flyer
i don't have it in front of me okay i'm
feeling embarrassed already
wait a second i'll fix it
sorry knesset's beth israel i got two
out of three knesses beth israel
in richmond virginia he also sits on the
executive committee of the rca
he's very involved locally in richmond
virginia he's on the executive board of
the virginia holocaust museum he's on
the board of the jewish community
federation of richmond
he is the rabbi of the local catholic
health system
um i'm not sure if you have any official
titles at apac you always seem to be
running the
show at the rabbinic you know lunches
dinners whatever
um and most importantly former caruso of
yours truly
i'd like to introduce everybody to rob
david asher
thank you thank you robert pardo also uh
board member at the the yeshiva here as
well
and uh thank you for all those tuning in
uh near and wide and uh
yes rome pardo is not from the new york
area so there's a special bond there
as well and i did notice that all of the
episodes
so far within this excellent series
that rabbit pardo is hosting have all
been
in the new york new jersey area and for
those who don't know rabbi pardo hails
from california and so we definitely
enjoy being outside the new york area
for this program
and lots of other programs it is my
distinct honor and pleasure
to welcome a congregant a past
president one of the leaders and pillars
of our community here
mr chuck lesson and uh mr lesson wears a
lot of hats
here in richmond area both inside the
jewish community and without
and we look forward to having this
conversation about what is an incredibly
important
topic here in america today it's in the
news pretty
pretty frequently about economically
depressed areas
how as our industries change and
it is uh important for us to think about
how amazing it is
for the ingenuity from the state of
israel to be brought
stateside and through the virginia
israel advisory board we'll talk about
the story of the incredible organization
governmental organization that is the
viab
but that's what we're looking to discuss
tonight
and uh i will ask mr lesson just maybe
introduce yourself briefly tell us a
little bit about
uh how you got to virginia um and i know
the answer to that already it's a trick
question
and how you got involved in the jewish
community here
and uh just briefly about your family
thank you rabbi usher thank you for
inviting me and shivohatov to everybody
um i my parents i i
i often insult my northern family and
friends when i say that
my parents had the good sense to move
south when i was nine months old
so i say it half seriously and and half
kidding but i am a southerner
i've been in richmond since i am uh
nine months old and my parents settled
here
and two of my three siblings are here
one in atlanta now but we grew up uh
not religious uh in richmond
as a matter of fact we were part of the
reform
temple and then in my 20s i began
searching and took the trip to israel
and like many others thank god
found my way back and joined kbi and
have been very active in the community
ever since
um i am a home builder by trade and
um my son and i are youngest son akiva
and i are involved in many other
businesses um
and probably 15 or 20 years ago i began
lobbying bills through the virginia
general assembly
and began to familiarize myself with
virginia government
and from there have been asked to serve
on a couple statewide boards
one of them being the virginia israel
advisory report
so i guess you know we'll we'll get the
ou connection
in a moment but uh yes uh mr lesson was
uh
the past president here at our school
the ou synagogue in central virginia for
those of you who don't know
that israel started in the 1850s we are
the only ou synagogue within about a
hundred mile radius
and um i guess chuck let's let's start
off
helping some individuals understand what
it's like to to be jewish in richmond
you spend some time living in silver
spring which is a larger community
you might be able to contrast it a
little bit with the experience here
and we'll slowly kind of work our way up
to the uh to the viab
operation sure you know it's it's
probably like anything else in life
it's all about how you see it the glass
the glass can easily be
half empty or half full when
many of my friends that live in larger
cities say
you know neva how can you survive you
know living in a place you don't even
have a forget a pizza shop you don't
even have a butcher
you know how do you survive and you know
my answer is
having lived in big cities we lived in
yushalam for two years
and uh and as you said in silver spring
i commuted
but the answer is all the women that
live in richmond
bake their own collars yes we don't go
out and buy them
but everybody bakes and everybody's at
everybody else's house
house uh when it's not uh covered 19.
um but it it's it has its challenges
living in a smaller town
but i would argue that while we don't
have all of the amenities
it really encourages the community to
pull together
we've built our own mikvah under the
leadership of rabbi usher
it's beautiful and it was a community
effort
and the list just goes on and on so i
think while there it's
lovely to live in any beautiful
community of any size
um i like the advantages of small town
life there's no traffic
and it's just a very pleasant place to
live so i wouldn't trade it
so i i think we should give some credit
to the ou here before we get in deep in
our conversation
ncsy is uh certainly a part of my life
i know it's a it was a part of rabbi
pardo's life as well
and i know that ncsy made an impact on
you as well not necessarily in high
school
but it had a role in your family and
i'll let you tell the story a little bit
about how
ncsy eventually came around to influence
you
you as well well thank god for ncsy
because i never would have found my way
back in that
i married the lovely judy lesson
who went through the ncsy program here
through richmond
and led her region and
really developed into a serious
and committed uh jewish woman
and you know when i
met judy and i was sort of looking for
my way back
and trying to figure things out and um
she was my coach she was in many ways my
rebbe i can remember
uh traveling together and she was
literally
you know reciting kiddush for me um and
all of this you know all of the zamiro
that i know
everything from the back of the venture
uh came from my wife through her ncsy
training so
while i didn't have the merit to go
through ncsy
i developed a little bit later in life
took me a little bit longer to cook
um judy was and thank god for that
so let's get into the virginia israel
advisory board you've been very
politically active now
for how long how many years have you
been involved in politics here in
virginia
probably about 20 years about 20 years
and uh
how old is the via be and where did this
idea come from in terms of the
incubation period
and then we'll get into some of the
impressive data that uh that we're
dealing with now here in virginia
because of the viab
so the virginia israel advisory board
was
really the brainchild of a young
up-and-coming local richmond
delegate who became very famous to us
all and that's eric cantor
there were iterations of it before but
they were unfunded and really ideas
but under eric cantor's leadership
in 1996 i think the viab was launched
by virginia government it started in the
executive branch of government
and is and is and remains an agency of
virginia government its mission
really from the beginning was to develop
primarily business relationships
between israeli companies and virginia
companies now there are cultural ties
and there are cultural programs that we
do sponsor and that we are involved in
but the bulk of our work is to
introduce israeli companies that want to
expand their market share west
uh we would never ever encourage an
israeli company to close up shop in
israel and come here
but those that are growing there there
is a limited market in a very small
geographic area there
so if they're growing and they want to
come west if they choose the us
they're 50 states and we start out by
saying that the most business friendly
state
and the only state with a really active
viab type
board is ours and we encourage those
companies even if they're going to shop
and they all do
they'll shop all over the country
we i think do a superb job
of convincing and hand-holding and
making them really take a good look at
virginia
now what was the opposition like because
it's kind of strange to have
a state link with a foreign country
to such a great extent and the fact that
virginia is linked to israel in this way
for
sure as a jew living in virginia is a
beautiful
and it's it's a good source of pride but
what was the opposition like if any as
this was developing
and they were lobbying for it to take
for it to kind of take hold and to
continue it because we know it
um very often if not on an annual basis
it requires some upkeep in terms of uh
reminding people the impact that it's at
we'll get to that impact in a moment
i you know if you'll allow me rabbi i
i'll i'll jump forward to today
and then maybe in a second tell you
about the original opposition but
i can tell you that i received a text
about a week and a half ago so for those
of you who may not know virginia
has the shortest general assembly
session in the nation
we meet somewhere between 30 and 45 days
every year and that's it
it's been modified because of the covet
19 virus
you can have special session but
generally it's
45 days is the session um so we had our
first day of session this year
um the 13th i think
um and i got a phone call the very first
day of session excuse me a text
from a colleague who said oh my goodness
are you watching the joint senate and
house finance committee meeting
uh because now everything of course is
zoomed and i wasn't
and i turned it on and there was
a palestinian woman woman speaking
before these joint committees
senate finance and house appropriations
um
the opening day of testimony uh there
are 3 000 bills every year that gets
get introduced to the virginia general
assembly it's busy cramming all
of that in 45 days this woman she was
the third speaker of the year
and she said that she was calling for
the defunding of the virginia israel
advisory board
and the absolute abolition of it um
it is a racist idea um
this there is a a group that um
is comprised of palestinians of
uh certain jews uh and and others
who feel like uh there should not be a
virginia israel advisory board so
you had political opposition then from
the same groups
and we have that political opposition
now
it's it's worse now than ever but i'll
tell you another very quick
funny anecdote there were politicians
who were
supremely supportive of the idea from
the very beginning
and as the viab gained traction
and it became popular and people wanted
to know about all of our projects and
many many meetings there were other
delegates and senators
who came to us and said hey the viab
is so successful would you help us
form a south korea virginia advisory
board a great britain virginia israel
so on and so forth now we thought that
we wanted to be generous and we said
sure you know well there are no secrets
we'll have we are very happy to tell you
how we do it um we do think there is a
secret sauce to the way we do it versus
other states
um and they were thrilled and bills were
introduced and very slowly all those
bills were killed
and it seemed that a number of people
high up in government felt like
there is only one state that we want to
have this special relationship with and
we really
we we have other economic development
drivers in the state that can do
business with south korea
and great britain and all the other
nations of the world but this one
uniqueness we want to preserve
so every opportunity has been shot down
well
you know maybe you can speak to that too
because i do think unlike
in major metropolitan areas that people
might be more familiar with
there is a certain love for the state of
israel in various communities here in
the south
and especially in virginia and i wonder
if you can kind of speak to those
sentiments that you maybe experienced
on the positive side in terms of people
in terms of people's love for israel
and maybe even uh one or two stories
that might come to mind along those
lines
well you know in my mind i said i'm a
southerner virginia's the southern state
and um so i think and it is a
it is a state that is home to many
evangelical christians
i think just in the normal course of a
day
many people that you come in contact
with in richmond and many other parts of
the state
and i do get to travel in this economic
development that i do
um maybe it's even more prominent in the
southwest
section of virginia where people are
just devoutly
loyal to the jewish people and the
jewish land
and you know we've all come in contact
with folks like this before
but it is prominent in virginia and um
it was in virginia very much like
at the national level for many years it
was sort of a bipartisan love
and like nationally it's changing a
little bit
we have a different makeup in the
general assembly now and
there is a different a little bit of a
different vibe
but for the most part most of our
delegates and senators
uh are super supportive of what we're
doing now
you lobby probably more than uh anybody
else i know
during session here in virginia
especially more than any summer shabbos
person i know
um and uh i know a lot of it is
israel-related
um and you know maybe you can talk about
what's what it's like because i know i
think you wear a kippah and
and uh you don't have any issue wearing
a keeper on capitol hill
our capitol hill hill here in richmond
have you ever
received any comments or stories because
of that in terms of your
shimmer shabbos persona that is now um
present on our capitol hill here in
richmond
well it's sometimes a bit
you know i i want to make a little
explanation and that you know
people will often come up to me who have
not
come in contact with people wearing a
yarmulke and you know they greet me as
rabbi
and you know for a while you quickly try
to say oh i'm not a rabbi
actually but thank you very much and you
know whatever at this point i sort of
give it up
a quick funny note a number of years ago
one of the more prominent
senators um walter stosh was head of
senate finance
and through a friend i said to him i've
got a young son
akiva and he began interning for senator
stosh and then became an assistant to
him
and so that was the second yamaka and
the truth is it took a lot of pressure
off of me
because i'm down there lobbying for
three hours a day six hour days but
akiva was there all day every day
so this spotlight came off of my yamaki
and onto his but um
uh then then instead of people calling
me rabbi oh you're a kiva's father so
that's besides senator stosh before we
get into
uh the nitty-gritty of uh the amazing
statistics of the viab what
any special relationships that kind of
come to your mind with
uh within the senate or within the house
of delegates here in virginia
in terms of people that you've have a
real kinship with or friendship with
over the years
well we certainly would be remiss if we
didn't start with our speaker of the
house who was a jewish woman eileen
filler corn
that's right and for a number of years
speaker filler corn
served on the viab perhaps we should
have started the board consists of about
30 people
25 are citizens that are appointed by
either the governor
the speaker of the house or the head of
the senate
um but five of the
um of the representatives are
elected state officials and so generally
we have the speak the secretary of
commerce and trade serve
and usually the secretary of agriculture
and consumer services
um eileen was as a sitting delegate at
the time before she was elected as
speaker
served on our board so she's obviously
been very prominent and very helpful
through the years
um you know there are
as you could imagine there's some you
know super support on both sides of the
aisle
um our former speaker bill howell was
if we walked into the office it was like
before we said hello it was like what
does the via be
need um because i'm here if you want me
to meet people bring people
and that that really has become very key
so many of the senators and many of the
delegates who are so committed to the
programs the projects and to
and and let's face it also to a growth
in jobs in virginia because that's what
the viab really helps with
they are available to us whenever
so we call and we say we speak to a
legislative aide
can the speaker sit with us can you have
senator norman
meet with us in the capitol so that we
can do a press release right
and everybody is available and excited
very rewarding
very cool now let's move into some of
the projects here
and uh i just for full disclosure my
wife used to work for the viav
so there's some more familiarity and
inside information
if you will but most ou orthodox union
synagogues do not have
coal country in their backyard we here
do have coal country in virginia and
maybe
uh chuck if you could describe for
people uh what
what uh what communities are like that
are kind of uh focused around coal in
terms of economy and what they're
experiencing now
so people can try to relate to it in
terms of understanding where things are
at as we speak
well southwest virginia is part of
appalachia
it is a very depressed area
of the country for many many years it
was
largely dependent on coal
and back and forth through
the different administrations both at
the national level and at the state
level
the coal is up and coal is down but
the community realizes that it needs to
diversify
and they are looking for anything and
everything and so
when i joined the board about eight
years ago
um our then director ralph robbins we
now have a new director uh dove hoke
we have been blessed by the way with two
aaa plus
directors it's pretty unbelievable um
but ralph's focus and dove has picked up
this focus
is let's go to areas that are depressed
if we're trying to
get israeli companies to take a look at
virginia
and partner in some cases with virginia
companies or start out on their own
why not take them to depressed areas
where we can buy land cheaper buildings
cheaper
there is trained workforce and if not we
can work on that there are many
different
state programs that help to train up
workforce
um but we really made um
southwest virginia sort of a target of
many of the companies that we brought in
over the past
i would say eight to ten years and uh
some of them have been successful and
some not just
as you would imagine but we've had some
fascinating companies and
and tremendous support i mean it's like
they literally say you know it's the
gift from god you know
we come into town in our yamakas you
know richmond's one thing but
you drive to bristol or withville or
you know buckingham that sounds right oh
my goodness i mean they've never seen
they've never met jewish people let
alone somebody wearing a yamaha so what
what is the most inspiring israeli
innovation
what are what are some companies and
what are some of the technologies that
kind of
blow you away and blew virginians away
in terms of being able to
uh create jobs and parnassa and give
sustenance to families in these
southwest
towns here in virginia um
i the first company that comes to mind
now again uh
it's not it's not directly southwest um
but is oron safety glass auron safety
glass
is a company uh on kibbutz
outside of usual i am um and they make
this very thick glass that goes into
humvee vehicles and they
came to virginia actually southern
virginia
and they um and it's very similar in
that
not really coal and you'll forgive me
for taking you geographically a little
bit off base but
the same idea that it was a it was
tobacco country
and tobacco's gone just like coal is
gone
and over on safety glass came in to
emporia
and and bought a building and fit it up
and
employed 100 people and they build this
to see the glass is pretty unbelievable
it's i don't know the thickness but
you can imagine you can you know it will
take fire
from a machine gun um they were actually
going to move away from virginia part of
what we do is not just bring companies
but we have to retain them
they were going to move away because the
actual
humvee vehicles were made in oshkosh in
wisconsin
and that company contracted with our on
safety glass and said hey
why are you sending this fabulously
heavy glass
you know halfway across the country move
up here and of course we got wind of
that and said
we don't want that to happen and we
convinced them and
it was in their best interest and it
worked out um but
it's a it's an amazing company um they
now
are producing as you might expect
they are not just in one thing so they
went from this fabulous safety glass
that's used in most humvees that the
americans make
and the israelis as well and now they're
making
um the equivalent of oled
technology organic light emitting diode
so if you go on a train
or a subway car and you have this thick
glass
in between the glass you can have um
this what is really like a television
but it's as thin as a sheet of paper
and you can advertise on it you can show
movies on it you can do whatever so
they're negotiating for that so it's so
let's uh so let's talk
numbers how many jobs let's say this
company how many jobs
if sacha call all of the companies that
you've been able to work with
what is the net gain economically in
terms of numbers of jobs for virginians
based on what israeli companies are
doing right now
here in our backyard because of the viab
so
it's it's a little bit hard to measure
and it's also
um there are people
so it doesn't operate in a vacuum maybe
this is the best way to say it the viab
um identifies the company brings the
companies
and then there are many times state
incentives
the governor's opportunity fund their
coal field authority grants there are
tobacco commission opportunity grants
there are jobs training grant many
different grants
that come from different pieces of state
government
and while our board is
aware of and in touch with the folks
that run those agencies
we oftentimes rely heavily on the vedp
the virginia economic development
partnership as a for instance
so we don't like to take all of the
credit is i guess what i'm saying we
really do this in conjunction with
a lot but the magic i talked about the
secret sauce
when you have an israeli ceo come to
town and he's met from somebody at vedp
who could be the nicest person in the
world
that's one thing and when he's met from
a guy wearing a yamaka
whether the ceo from israel is religious
or not religious
you know we we host them at our homes
you know
on a regular basis um so
it's that's part of the secret sauce in
terms of jobs
um you know since our inception and i
don't have the number off the top of my
head but we've created in the thousands
of jobs
the the if you measure if you
so the amount of money the state spends
on the viab is tiny
it's about a quarter of a million
dollars a year you pay an executive
director and travel
and some expenses of course all the
board members are serving as volunteers
so the amount of money that is spent is
tiny
but when you bring a company in i just
talked about or on safety glass
and you just let's say 100 employees now
they're almost 200 employees
but take 100 employees and they're now
paying
state tax local taxes and you begin to
measure all of this
and you can see that the amount of the
state's investment the roi
the return on investment is just
astronomical um
the the the viab's efforts along with
other state agencies by bringing these
companies here
has brought in millions and millions of
dollars compared to the fraction
of a quarter of a million dollars a year
that's been now i hope my information is
correct because the company the next
company i like to highlight here
is a company that from israel obviously
where they allow people to harvest fish
away from the ocean and you can create
these pools
of ocean quality fish i guess if i if my
information is correct
you can set it up in a landlocked area
like southwest virginia and you can
essentially have
a whole fish industry that otherwise
wouldn't exist because of israeli
innovation can you talk to
to that company i think that one's my
favorite yes
uh that company is awkward oath and they
have since
merged with other companies um the
technology is spectacular it is israeli
technology um the the primary piece to
that business model
is the filters that go into these
massive concrete tanks
um that grow the fish as it were
and um but yes it is amazing and
another piece to this that i don't want
to leave out we've been working on that
project for eight years
and it is just about ready to come to
fruition this is not for the faint of
heart you can't
if you're hoping to hit the step up to
the plate and hit the home run
this is not the business for you and
what's the projection on jobs you hope
just roughly just block
400 jobs 400 jobs in southwest virginia
they'll grow
um thousands of ton of salmon they
they bring them in and they can't they
put the hatchlings in these tanks
they create the flow of water they take
all the debris out
zero discharge and there's there's less
of an environmental impact because you
don't have to run a ship you don't have
to run gasoline enough to
all of that stuff and it's really
incredible to be able to take an
industry which you would think is
geographically sensitive
and to be able to kind of put it there
in southwest virginia and that's
400 jobs that's 400 families now we
could talk about sabre hummus i'm sure
everybody wants to
but i want to go to a one other company
that i thought was really interesting
there's a company where you share you
shared with me in the past
about muslim jewish relations not all of
the companies are fully 100 jewish
and some of them have uh non-jewish
israelis as well of course
and i think it's important for
virginians to know that and for
americans to know that and you've gotten
to know
some muslim business leaders because of
the viab as well
so if you can kind of speak to that and
uh
maybe if you if you would indulge this
request to
maybe share that story about uh two
different perspectives on the binding of
isaac that's that's one of my favorite
stories from your travels
so this company is called transbiodiesel
i'm sorry to say that
we have not made the final connection
but
again i just told you the story of
oklahoma oath
many times these things happen quickly
and many times it takes a year but
you're building that you're building
religious tolerance
we are building what company comes to
fruition that is very very true so this
is a company
based in haifa um founded by
uh israeli arabs and
um they opened the company up for
investment
and jews began investing in this company
those of you that know anything about
biodiesel
might know that biodiesel is
is difficult to make under very high
temperatures
and there's a very specific way that you
take
high fatty acid foods and convert it
into biodiesel
clean burning fuel much cleaner by the
way than
ethanol and gasoline etc this company
has developed an enzyme
that is a catalyst to the process that
greatly
reduces the expense
of bringing in all of these um
fats as it were food fats and converting
it into thousands and thousands of
gallons of biodiesel
i think there's still some more work to
do but i am confident that it will
happen
the story that the rabbi is talking
about is um
so i met these folks and before i
actually met their jewish partners
i was in israel and i drove to haifa
actually my son dovid drove
up with me um i think maybe adam adam
was with him both of my friends
all of them were people trying to put
the map in front of them from harnessing
and from harnoff i'm pretty sure both of
them went with me um
and we went up and we had this meeting
and
they took me through their sort of
antiquated factory
um but they were committed to the
process and the project
and very warm and receptive um and
anyway on the way out they said we'd
like to send
a couple of our representatives to you
um
and i said great they wanted us to show
them around i said fine
and and i said you know can i ask you
know who are you gonna be sending did i
meet them today
well you met ahmed and you met muhammad
they're going to be coming but we're
also going to be sending usama
um and i was like you know just the name
i was like wow
it was a culture shock right and i'm
thinking okay we are ready
we picked them up a couple weeks later
at the airport
and we picked him up in roanoke and we
drove from roanoke to deep southwest it
was about another three or four hour
drive
and um i'm not shy and i said listen
you know we could be working together
for a long time let's get to know each
other
um everything you're not supposed to
talk about those are all the things i
love talking about let's talk about
politics and
and let's talk about religion and they
they laughed and they said okay fine
we talked a little bit about israeli
politics and what their view
of what it was like to be an israeli
arab it was
eye-opening for me i certainly was
disappointed in some of the comment but
i heard and i listened
and we talked and it was a great
conversation and then we started
talking just about you know judaism and
islam and um
and they said to me you know um
it's you know you know we're cousins and
we share a lot of the um
we share a lot of the same history but
you know you guys have it very mixed up
and confused they say so i was and they
were
sort of giggling and laughing and poking
you're trying to poke the bear
so i said oh yeah what what part do we
have mixed up well you tell us what's
the story of uh
of uh our father abraham um so i start
telling them you know our jewish version
of avraham avinu you know binding
yitzchak
and and you know i go through the whole
thing and they're listening and they're
very respectful and then they said you
know
that story is so close except
it wasn't yitzhak that he bound it was
the smile
that was very interesting and so we
spent the rest of the three
hours talking more about religion but it
was uh but i will tell you doing
business together
really does tear down a lot of barriers
if we had had that conversation in a
coffee shop
it would have been tense and who knows
what but we won't get into geopolitics
but the abraham accords is certainly
something which is fascinating in light
in light of this conversation without
without question but
i i guess you know one more company and
then we'll move on to other topics but
uh i think that we might be on the verge
of revolutionizing
you know the recycling industry because
of this company that's here in virginia
and uh in terms of also the enviro
environmental impact and and
perhaps leading the world to the country
in this uh plastics
uh business and if you could kind of
just share a little bit about that
company
uh i think it's called ub ubq um
and then we'll move on from from from
the companies
ubq from ubiquitous trash is everywhere
the founder of the company is somebody
that we all know and love rabbi yehuda
pearl
who was the founder of sabra hummus the
viab was instrumental in bringing sabre
hummus to south richmond
the plant started with about 150 workers
and now there are almost 500 workers
it is the largest hummus producing plant
in the world
now because of the very excellent
experience that yehuda pearl had
as he helped settle sabra here um
he formed a new business ubq with
partners
and he decided that he would come back
to virginia to see if there was a way
that he could base here we've been
working with yehuda for the past two
years
essentially trash is gathered up
for most of us at the base of our
driveways i assume it's the same
everywhere as it is in richmond
and trash is taken to a transfer station
at transfer stations the trash is then
separated the recyclables
and by the way yes we also in richmond
have separate recycling cans
but nonetheless in the regular garbage
can
there is often recyclables so when it
gets to the transfer station
rather than take plastic and paper etc
that can be recycled
they go through it from there
the garbage is taken to landfills all
over the world not just the united
states and it's buried in landfills
this company has developed a secret
sauce of its own
where they take the non-recyclables
the absolute garbage banana peels and
dirty diapers and
chicken bones and everything else and
they mix it with a
chemical as it were and
they are able to turn it into through
through a prop through a significant
process
they're able to turn it into the
equivalent of plastic
pellets that can then be turned into
anything anything that you can
essentially make with plastic
you can make with this recycled garbage
so we're talking plumbing pipes we're
talk
when i first met them and i i went um
and saw the factory in israel when i
first met them well it was new and they
could only do
outside building type products with it
and maybe trash cans
but they couldn't do food grade product
products they've solved every
possible problem and they now can make
you can make tupperware out of this
and use it for food so again
trash is ubiquitous it is everywhere in
the world everyone struggles
with what to do with their garbage if
this works
and we are very hopeful then
why would any city take trash by the way
it's very costly
to take the trash to the landfill ubq
says
just give it to us you don't have to
spend the money to take it
and pay the tipping fees etc just leave
it let us have it
we dry it we will convert it into these
pellets and then they sell the pellets
to con
to to be converted into whatever product
and did you all have any projections on
job creation with that company at all
yet or is it still too early
it's a little too early for that um but
you know
a a factory that would service a city
the size of richmond
um you're probably talking in the
neighborhood of two to three hundred
jobs but the amazing part there is
every major city in the world is going
to want one of these um
assuming that it happens the way we hope
that's very cool now
do you do you have a favorite story from
uh southwest virginia
or coal country i know just just seeing
the uh
the press conferences with the governor
and
with other elected officials really is
it a tremendous
uh kirish hashem and uh amazing to see
sean richards people israeli companies
down there these communities you can
maybe speak to this point more
intelligently haven't had the level of
investment
that they're getting with these
companies and with these partnerships
do you have a favorite comment a
favorite line a favorite story
from any of these interactions or
rollouts of these companies from uh
coal country i think really the most
obvious is just
they feel this incredible bracha
of people anybody
that would come to their neighborhoods
their neck of the woods
they know who they are they are well
aware that they are thought of as hicks
and uneducated
etc and they're sensitive to that and
many of their children are moving away
when they see one israeli company after
another coming in it is
an amazing kid of cheshire and that's
how they say it
they they they really see it as a
blessing from god
that people are coming and you know
whatever the stereotypes are
if it's an israeli company they want it
because you know
they will tell you oh of course we want
the israeli companies that are coming
they're going to be the smartest
and they're going to be well financed
etc so um
it is a pleasure to see
the interaction that occurs between the
israelis that are coming
and beginning to develop and uh and the
people there
and maybe if we could kind of pivot now
to talk about
your personal background you grew up
here in the richmond area
uh you went to university of virginia
and uh
that's right and and you lived in a frat
and uh you became a very big zionist
and your kids are very into their
zionism if you could
just take a moment to talk about your
journey
as a zionist going from as you said a
reform
background not known for their zionism
especially here in richmond virginia
and now where zionism is
is part of your professional life and i
know you do this voluntarily but it's a
major part of your
volunteer life and business connections
and talk
if you can talk about your
transformation as a zionist over the
course of this uh
life here mostly in central virginia
it's interesting
uh you know i i mentioned at the
beginning that uh
my parents moved here from philadelphia
both of my parents were born in
philadelphia
and you know both jewish people and grew
up in jewish homes
my father's father was more religious my
mother's
parents were not but when i was growing
up in richmond we had a christmas tree
in the house
now we called it a hanukkah bush
but we had a christmas tree in the house
and we went to sunday school but when we
didn't want to go we didn't have to go
but through all of that you know we all
say that every jew
is at a seder and every jew knows shiman
every jew likes a hanukkah
um but in my world what i was most
familiar with was my father's love for
the jewish land
and so with all of the lack of tradition
in my house growing up
there was a super sensitivity
um to israel to the land of israel
and as i grew up and i began to explore
on my own
and i went to israel as a unaffiliated
unreligious
person i was in graduate school and i
left and spent a month or so
in israel that
was i guess my first real connection i
hadn't been before
um and i came back and i began learning
and um
and then i met my wife and she was
sione herself and um
it was just a sense of pride as i was
learning how to be religious
um i was taught by people
uh to understand that part of that is
the love of the jewish land i remember
one of the first things that i learned
with rabbi lipschitz who uh was the rav
of your shul rabbi um
yes thank you um in that very in that
very spot where you're sitting
um you know not far from it we learned
uh every week um and i remember one of
the things i think we were learning
shimiro talashon i'm
i think and um you know it was the first
time i had ever heard the concept
that you not only can you speak lashing
horror about a jewish person
but also about the jewish land and it
just hit me i was young and
i listened to that and i was like how's
that possible i understand that
you know we can't and shouldn't say bad
things about people but the land and
i learned about early as i was sort of
returning
um the vitality of the land and the
significance
that the country plays in the role of
omisro so
and if you could tell us briefly how did
you get to ephrat
how long did you live in israel for and
is there any similarity between richmond
and a fraud in terms of communities
well let me tell you we lived in israel
for two years in 1992 we just decided
you know what let's go for a year and
i'm a home builder by trade and that's
what i did and i had people that were
competent and i could leave the company
with the first year we went to israel we
lived in harnoff
now we went to harnoff because judy has
a cousin there alan freistadt
who is a famous musician and he lived
there and
you know so judy had cousins so we tried
and we and we lived there and we loved
it
we loved ephrat we came back to richmond
and then three years later we decided
you know what maybe it could be for good
this time let's let's just give it
another shot
and this time we decided we wanted to
try a different place where maybe
our hush guffos might be better suited
and
and we looked into a front um we loved
it
um it was incredibly beautiful uh very
very different experience than living in
harnoff as you can imagine
they're both beautiful um it is a very
um
zionistic place um but you know right
behind me
uh i have a picture so i have two sons
and their wives and
and ten of my twelve grandkids that live
in israel now and if i turn my computer
you'd see a picture
of two of my grandsons who are living in
harnoff
now and they have an israeli flag draped
over them so
it's not necessarily where you are it's
the feeling that you have in your heart
and
thank god all of my kids and all of my
family are married to me
i guess if we could kind of dig a little
bit deeper you talked about
growing up in richmond and studying with
one of our predecessors
rabbi lipschitz eventually as well uh
what it
how has the fact that there's an ou
synagogue in richmond
in richmond impacted your life the fact
that the orthodox union has a school
here the fact that there
is a shul here what level and points of
that
to you to your life and perhaps if you
could speak to this because i know it's
relevant
how you got a little bit more involved
in your judaism
um and uh truth is there's an overlap
there's
there's a connection between the
existence of the shul and your
involvement in judaism whether it's
through your wife or other connections
uh if you could kind of speak to that i
think that you know when you live in a
small place first of all
everybody has to be president of
everything um and that
sort of how it works out in a place like
richmond that's a mild exaggeration but
you know i think stuart cantor and i
were
in our early 30s and we were president
of the school already
because we needed to be um
the so all of the institutions in
richmond we obviously love them all our
our day school and our high schools and
our mikvah and everything but the shul
is
really the center of the community and
um
it is a really unique and beautiful
place so having lived in or commuted at
least to silver spring for a number of
years for
there were no high schools at the time
and we were there um and having lived in
ephrat and lived in harnoff
um i've never darvened in a shul quite
like the one in richmond
and uh i i am biased because it's my
hometown
but it is the most welcoming warm
loving place um imaginable
and i watch constantly as new people
come in and out
um it doesn't matter if there's a new
member of the shuld or somebody old like
me
somebody's rushing the new person to
greet them and love them and
and get them a sitter or help them and
it is it's just a very very special
place and i think
you know everybody here is important you
know you everybody needs to pitch in and
do their part
but the school has really been integral
to that and whatever the programming is
most of the community wants to be
involved in it because
it is it's our place so
i i think i remember being very inspired
hearing stories about
you know even though when you're
president of the institution that
doesn't mean that you
avoid the grunt work and when president
of the day school
or parents of the day school and coming
in and needing to take care of certain
menial tasks because it's just what you
do you roll up your sleeves and
you you pitch in so i remember hearing
about those stories and they're very
uh powerful stories are there any uh
kind of closing thoughts about
the virginia israel advisory board how
people could learn more
um and uh and then i'm going to after
that make a plug for an upcoming program
that we're doing
but anything that people should know
about the viab or how they can learn
more about it
um whether you're a virginian or you're
outside of virginia
uh if you are so moved if you could
go on to the website of the virginia
general assembly
and pick a senator or a delegate of your
choice
somebody who that we have many jewish
delegates and senators but they don't
have to be jewish
you may say that you have recently
become aware of the virginia israel
advisory board and the work that it does
and you just want to congratulate the
state for continuing to support
economic development in virginia through
israel and
the connection that that the state has
chosen to make and maintain
i'll add one quick thing one of the
companies that we brought a number of
years ago
it was it was actually the fish farm
that you were talking about
we i took a billionaire israeli investor
to washington dc
to meet the then house majority leader
eric cantor and we went into eric's
office and one of the first things that
eric
said is he congratulated me
and ralph robbins who was with me on the
longevity of the board he was very
modest of course
didn't mention that he really formed the
entire thing but
what he he said it's amazing that it's
been able to maintain itself for all
these years so
plugs like that sending an email to a
legislator a senator or delegate saying
thank you for continuing to support
israel and economic development in
virginia
would be helpful sounds good sounds good
so
uh in the chat box this is just a little
advertisement on monday night we have a
program
unrelated to this of international
holocaust remembrance day and there's a
registration link that i put
in the chat box and it's a virtual event
so if you live
outside of virginia you can be a part of
it should be fascinating conversation
of a panel with the german ambassador
talking about
how they approach free speech how they
approach
holocaust education what they're doing
to
own their responsibility and and make
sure they're respectful
of our loved ones and of course it will
be a very interesting conversation we
have a holocaust survivor speaking as
well
and our local congresswoman who's
speaking virginia is one of
16 states talking about politics that
have compulsory
uh holocaust education in their their
curriculum
so please uh uh join us for that and the
link is there in the chat box and click
and paste and
and sign up um chuck i have to thank you
for all of your time here this evening
but more than just the conversation
for all of these projects and being such
an amazing example for all of us working
for the jewish people
and for virginia uh jewish relations
virginia israel relations
and um just to think of this legacy here
whether it's all of your time spent at
shul and
uh your partnership here at the shul
it's very much appreciated and of course
in a small community all of our
institutions are intertwined a little
bit if not with personnel
um then then certainly some some
functions every now and then as well
so we appreciate all of your time with
all of the
institutions um and your your
concentration your focus
on building a stronger richmond jewish
community
so thank you very much and uh rabbi
pardo
i don't know if you have any closing uh
special words of
words of thanks i can't don't want to
compound too much
but uh i did got a couple text messages
just want you guys to know put you on
the spot
uh rabbi this is the best yet so
i feel uh you should feel proud of
yourselves uh i
i really enjoy getting to uh meet
and get to know you chuck thank you for
everything that you're doing for uh
for the local virginia community for
israel claustro
um everybody who's uh here the first
time the nth time
uh please join us next week at 8 15
p.m same time same link we're going to
be with rabbi avraham schmidmann of the
lower marian
synagogue in ballot kenwood pennsylvania
you can get email notifications if you
um mosey on over to the website or to ou
torah
and look for in conversation you should
find a link there in the meantime
um thank you again this is a lot of fun
everyone should have a
thank you this is a program great series
especially during a pandemic connecting
all of us
so thank you rabbit pardon for the great
job that you're doing and when the
pandemic is
welcome to come for a visit sounds good
let's have an in conversation in person
all right all the best be well though
you're watching