Ralph Herzka

it is great to have you on the show is about being an ambassador and how every single jew has that in them you know you started your career as a businessman and as your career developed you got more and more opportunity to really represent the jewish people share with us a little bit through your career how you realized just how important was not only what you do for a living but what you stand for as a jew i think very early on um going into the mortgage business in the real estate business in new york city and just coming across so many people from so many different walks of life and having the opportunity to really stand out and show that you can act in a certain way and really just enhance the relationship in so many different ways so i was really young when i started out on real estate 19 20 years old just partially in yeshiva and i realized how people sometimes you know could have a wrong impression and you can really change that just by being nice being polite and just embracing so many different aspects of people's life and some of their issues and i think that's one of the things that i continue to do and and and talk to all my people at meridian on a daily basis about doing yeah you know it's it's it's not that you said that i think people need to appreciate you know views are stereotyped whether we like it or not whether we admit it or not we are you've experienced it i've experienced it somebody thinks they know jews because of an experience they had with a particular jew do you feel and and especially to what you said how the way you act really is sending a message much bigger than anybody thinks at what point did you start to realize that your actions are being watched and really being connected to the larger jewish people so very early on in my career you know growing up in brooklyn and working in new york city we're a little bit you know insulated from the real world um but the minute i started traveling and going to conferences and meeting people it was just it was very obvious that you know i was on high alert you know just the elevator doors opened and they expected me to just run in or run out and being polite and laying someone else out first was oh thank you and then just starting a nice dialogue so i remember going to a conference in san diego and going up you know standing at the bottom of the escalator and standing there a religious kid with a yamaka and you know letting two people go ahead of me well that was so thoughtful that's so nice and it triggered a conversation of a story that they had in an airport where they had a different experience and i think as as you go through life and you meet people and you have these experiences they really do start defining to you how we have the ability and as we think there's just a couple weeks ago we got together as a small group and in a hotel and very sensitive to covid and i made sure just to remind all the people that were together how important domestics are hung on social distancing and when the elevator opens up and there's three people on it just remember that we're limited to four people when to step back so i think it's something that we're constantly working on and it's it's made a big difference do you find um that you were ever in a situation where you had to stand up for something where you could have bowed out you could have um just ignored or moved away but you felt the responsibility to to say something or do something on behalf of our people i've had a lot of situations but i don't like to you know just to say to stand up because i think that when you go through life you know and you meet so many people and people inherently are good and they're looking for the good people that's the way i've always approached it so if you see you know i've had situations where you see people a little bit surprised and you can just have it have an open eye like have a conversation and it'll trigger a discussion but i can't really say that i've had some unique situation where i have to stand up for the for the jewish rights i mean i think we're we're always on god and i think it's the right thing to do and um you know especially as you travel the world i mean now we're all not traveling but you know you know we were in spain together charlie remember that yeah and what what an amazing this the staff in that hotel came up with us and said they've never been remember how excited they were seeing all the all the singing and all the way people were treating them so i think i think it's it's if you work in it it becomes the second nature i think um it becomes really part of you yeah and i mean last quest i mean there's so many questions that i have for you but i just sort of i know your time is is limited and valuable how important is it for you to be who you are you know sometimes in life when you go out into the world we have this feeling that in order to be accepted i have to be like everybody else how important was it for you in your career to to of course you treat people with respect but to always be proud of who you are so i think it's like anything else um thank god i'm being successful and i'll never forget you know talking to a bank once and the banker's saying to me ralph it's 3 30 and kendall lighting is 4 15. why are you still in the office um and i said really how do you know that he said so to cover the new times i see it every single day every single friday and i always admire so i think that you know once people know who you are and they respect you for where you are in every single aspect it's an integrity in the way you approach them and i think now through the last few months just starting a conversation with someone and just saying is how's your family how are you how are you doing in this thing just makes the whole conversation a different conversation and it's just the human element of it um you know i don't know if that really answers the question that you you would particularly but listen i am extremely sensitive i'm in the finance world i meet people from all different walks of life i've traveled the world and traveled the country and i have company with several hundred people and i make it a real point to just always try to say to myself if i was someone outside looking in how would i want to be perceived and i think if there's one message that i can tell everyone that's listening to this always look at yourself and say how do i want to be perceived whether it's in business whether it's in a personal life or whatever it is and i think at the end of the day if you do that you will just always come out feeling good about yourself amazing well ralph thank you so much for the time you spent with us you know just you know it's interesting just now even when you walk into buildings and there's the extra security people and they have to take your temperature they fill out the forms and you just thank them extra they feel good about themselves i think it's just always being conscious for sure it's great it's great to see you i can't wait to see you live soon keep on doing uh amazing work on behalf of the jewish people thank you you as well and keep on shining your light in this world thank you thanks ralph thanks so much for watching for more content like and subscribe and be sure to tune in live every thursday at 8 pm eastern at the shabbato.com or right here on youtube