Cracking the Code to Innovation

Hello everyone and welcome to the Oh, you podcast. Hello everyone and welcome to the wait a second shalom o you podcast and welcome for our first ever recorded podcast in Israel. You get the braha. >> I am a lucky man. Shakid Vero. >> Very excited to have our director of product development. >> Yep. >> Is that the title? >> That is the title. >> Schlommo Dokin, who if you work or live at the OU, everybody knows Schlommo. Uh and it's exciting for us to have uh to have you on the the show on the podcast. We're really excited to get to know you a little bit better and we're excited to do it here uh in Israel with our crack team, our crack squad here. Um but what we we usually start with the hardest question knowing you you've done your research so you know we start with who are you? >> Yep. I definitely did my research. I've been binging. Um I do try to catch them once in a while. So it's um it wasn't a complete uh cold start. You know what's what I didn't even mention this but we ask at the end of every when we when we released them we asked people to recommend who do you think should be on definitely got a lot of people who reached out and said you need to have Slimobkin on. I think everybody on your team suggested it but even beyond. So it's a it's a it's a good get for us to have you uh to have you on. >> Okay. Awesome. I hope I do them proud. Okay. Who is Schlommo Dopkin? Um I grew up in Brooklyn. I'm the oldest of six. Five boys, one girl. Um, poor her. Both my parents were Bali Chuva. Um, both on their own journey, which was interesting. Um, my father worked at the lab in my he ran the Sun computer system. Big room. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> one computer, one room, right? Some >> I don't know if it was one computer. It was a lot of different machinery in there. Um, it was I used to go hang out in the labs there. it fascinating. My grandparents worked there. They ran the bio lab. When my grandfather was sitting Shiva, he decided to start keeping kosher and saying kadesh. And my father tagged along and that's why he became religious. >> Also from Brooklyn. >> Also from Brooklyn. My mom has an interesting story. Um she when she was 17, she had a very bad allergic reaction to chicken. Um she was never supposed to be able to walk again. >> Wow. Um, so she should have never married, had children, but my mother is stubborn. Um, and she likes to >> resilient >> resilient and stubborn because she's Jewish. Um, and she liked to prove everyone wrong. And she also latched on to um the religious life as as part of that and it it really um moved her forward. Um yeah, she she passed a uh bill uh in Congress, the Orphan Act, uh to help because it was a drug that helped her and they took it off the market, so she uh advocated for it. >> Um >> was she a lawyer? She was >> She's not a lawyer. Uh my mother has a genius level IQ. I don't know what happened to me. I'm sorry. Uh >> those who might be willing to disagree with you about that. Okay. >> I don't know. I like to think of it more as street smarts and the books smarts part. >> Okay, I hear you. >> Um, so she's always been a a force. Um, and even now within the community in Brooklyn, she helps a lot of uh ch kids um who need they can't afford evaluations or she fights against the board of ed. She does a lot of community service in that regard. >> Amazing. >> Fantastic. Um, >> so you took the technology background of your dad and the activism uh of caring about people of your mother and you put them together to come work at the OU. >> Pretty much. >> Pretty much. But there were a couple steps on the way, right? >> Yep. Yeah. So, um, schooling wise, I was in Taurus. I was, uh, for high school, I went to Turvadas. Um, >> you look like a Tvidas guy. Well, I I I finished the year early. Uh >> the last year is when they get to the wardrobe part. Is that what is that? >> Yeah. The I I kind of uh decided I want to get into the workforce. I I I really wanted to to just go out there. I was into I wanted to go into video game design. That was my uh passion. So, that combined art um which I was into, and um technology for 3D rendering, modeling. >> My my son just graduated with a master's in what's called interactive media and game development. >> Get out of here. >> So, he is looking for a job now in video game design and development. >> I would love to sit in schmoo with >> Okay, we'll set that up. >> We'll set that up. >> That is amazing. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And if I could think of any contest >> and like you, he has an interesting hobby >> which is >> anime. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> What's his favorite one? >> So, both my boys are into it. I'm gonna maybe One Piece. >> Yes. >> All right. >> Okay. There we go. Okay. >> I don't even know what I'm talking about. >> I'm gonna I'm g I'm going to become like best friends with her. >> Okay, great. We're gonna set it up. Okay. I'm very excited. Very excited. Okay. But but you know, you decided to not only graduate high school early, but then in your senior year basically to finish all four years of college in one year. >> It was so ah so I went to Katherine Gibbs uh associates degree. Um I'm not a school. I like to do I don't like to sit. Um so I took I went for uh visual communications which they were supposed to have the 3D courses and they did not at the end. >> So I went into uh I graduated in 18 month um and I came out of the workforce in the marketing uh world marketing advertising world uh what right after September 11th. So it was not a great uh job market out there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So >> and where did you end up? >> I had a few connections. I was doing uh some freelance gigs. I don't Did you ever hear of Perm fever? >> Perm fever. >> Yep. It's a CD old like >> I have a whole group of friends back uh in my sh Thank you Hashem guys who they had perm fever pretty much you know 247 365. >> So So there was a uh it was a prank calling they did I put it on there were three discs at the end. So I helped uh remaster those. I >> was that the supervisor? >> Yes. Yep. >> Kabra that that that uh prank calls changed my life. >> So I I set up the audio studio because it was computers and then I did the artwork for the CD covers. >> Wow. >> Shy Kapitnikov from our HR department just sent out an email >> yesterday >> uh called supervisor which is a play off of that. So you're you're having impact. Yeah, you should you should get some kind of uh you should have trademarked that or something, copyrighted it. >> Yeah. Um so I got I got introduced to a company, a Madison Avenue design firm. Um and everyone was downsizing at that time and they're like, "Hey, some uh cheap young guy who wants work. Let's uh give it to him." So I ended up taking over big accounts, Polaroid, Ag, I don't know if they're still around or not. Um, but I they loved me because I was cheap labor. Um, and I knew what to do. >> Um, and at that point in life, you didn't know the difference between what work life balance, right? >> Do I know that now? >> I Well, I I'm not also not an expert on it, but but you would sleep in the office. There was there was a one night where there was a trade show for Paul Medical and we had to render out these 10 foot by 10 foot um vinyl panels the graphics and in those days Photoshop it took about a couple of hours to save the file and then burn it burn it to a disc. Um so I had to I had to sleep there and wait for the delivery guy. >> Yeah. Well, I hope uh now at least you you know you don't sleep at the office, but the office does sleep in your house right now that you have some remote work opportunities. >> Yes, there's >> so there's a question people do ask whether you sleep. >> People have asked um I try to I try to get a little bit in. >> Okay. And then one day you were driving, you had moved, you got married. >> Got married. We met on Fster before it was paid. >> Wow. >> My wife asked me, and we'll get to this later. My wife asked me on our first date, "Why did you write in the profile that you would never make aliyah?" I said, "Because I'm now moving out of Brooklyn." And I said, "Why'd you write maybe?" She goes, "Because you never know. We'll come back to that." >> Yeah, it's good. >> Um, >> she was right. >> So, I we moved a couple we moved to Payek. And by the way, moving from Brooklyn to Payic was harder than moving to Payic to Israel. >> Wow. >> That was a big change. um >> culturally or just uh >> Brooklyn is special. >> Brooklyn is special. Yes, we know >> that's that's it. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um so I I I moved jobs a couple of times. Um I was working in Westchester for Towers Parin, large consulting firm. >> Got good experience there. >> Um we had a long drive. Uh I used to listen to the Us uh Dafyomi with Rabbi Elephant and the Nakomi which has various different uh authors >> and one day we were listen I was listening to it was Yerahu memb right after Gdalia got killed >> and I usually ask do you know what happened after Gdalia got killed and most people do not >> what happened they came to Yeryahu they said we're sorry we're going to believe you Now, whatever you tell us, we'll do we'll go down to Matri or we'll stay here. Just let us know. It took Yimahu 10 days to get the Nva. The Nva was Hashem basically said he had karat for destroying the Bikdash >> and then stay here and I'll grow you out. And the people said, uh, >> yeah, >> we're not going to listen to you. Yeah, >> some people never uh learn. That's right. >> And they roped him off and brought him down to Matrine where the rest of the story happened. And it was bothering me because I always try to take something out of Nak. Um I came home and I said I I think we should make aliyah. I can't why. We don't learn from our experiences. We've had so many chances. I can't think of a reason why not. My job is transferable. My wife said when we were engaged when we first met, you said that you didn't want to. I said but you said maybe. >> And you came to Israel. And we came. >> You had how many kids at that time? >> We had two kids. Um, our oldest was six and a Huva was four. >> And then you had another one here. >> We had a Sabra here and she speaks at least Hebrew after me. I speak no Hebrew. >> Really? Okay. So, I'm glad we're doing this interview in uh in English. >> Yes. >> Um, and now your oldest is married. >> Thank God. My oldest uh got married two years ago and changed and >> she just had a couple of kids >> and she had twins. Uh that is a handful, but Barashem it's it's been beautiful. Um we've had the chance to uh bring them in for Pesak when they were about a month old. Uh so my mother could meet her great grandchildren. Something no one would have ever imagined. You know, when we when we first got married and had Mira, it was like wow. Like my mother was able to see a grandchild and this is just like a whole new level. It's just it's unbelievable. What uh fulfillment and uh I guess thanks to your mahu uh and maybe learning from other people's uh wrong turns. Uh you've taken some really some really great turns and that brought you to us, right? >> It was a very small um web department at that time. U but we've been able to to really grow something out of it. Um and it's it's been nice to grow it in Israel. We had um when we first started I had a mobile developer who was not religious and he was working with our group. He said you know Schlommo I always had this like view about and religious people but you guys work so hard like you like it just changed his perception about um religious folk. >> Amazing. >> Amazing. Now, it hasn't always been as smooth as we made it sound uh here. And you know, there there's just an incredible some incredible stories here. I hope once the podcast is out, you'll start thinking about writing it down and write the book that'll inspire lots of generations. But there have been a number of situations that you've been in in life where you've had challenges >> and invite you to to reflect on those. So, so when I was uh 18, my father was diagnosed with cancer. Um, it was very aggressive. Uh, we thought that uh he had a chance to beat it. Uh, we made a a small kittish and unfortunately it came uh it came back very very aggressively to his spine. Um, very painful, very he was in the hospice for from September till perm time. >> Wow. Um, you know, being the oldest, it takes it takes a large toll. Think my the my youngest sibling was what, like seven. >> Um, what is everyone going to do? How's every how are we going to function? Um, the community was great and um yeah, so he he passed away right on Shushampurum. I believe it was on Sunday. Um, and yeah, it was a really difficult period of time for my mom who's already went through so much and you know, like the joke not joke was like she wasn't supposed you know, he wasn't supposed to go first, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Um, and yeah, he was he was a very kind uh funny man. He had a really good work ethic. That's that's where I get it from. Um so it's and it's always sad thinking about like my children how would they interact with him um just at every juncture of of life. So yeah, it was if difficult. Um, yeah. >> So, Hashem should continue to bless you with uh easier times than that and less challenges and and opportunities, >> although you you you've demonstrated remarkable resilience uh throughout your life and into your career, right? It's it's you've it's not always been an easy um an easy role even here uh at OU. What do you do? I >> I build everything. So, we started out um as the the web group um where we were doing anything web related sites. Uh we had the Zmanum API at that point. We had the Jewish calendar, some Torah data. um NCSY came to us and they asked they they hired an outside consultant to come in and build a system for them which we sort of took over Midstream and that became Iceberg the tracking system for NCSY and slowly um we were we were asked to build out systems for tracking all our participants JC Yahad um we started in 2013 when the iPad um was released I said Hey, let's put Torah on there. That wasn't um didn't come from everyone. I said, we have a developer. Let's let's get a proof of concept out. Um which >> precursor to Al Torah and all that. >> That's what everything is built on. Yeah. So, thank God, you know, we we try to keep future proofing in mind. Sometimes we have to make bigger leaps, but anything web, anything back-end systems, small integrations, um we've been playing with AI now. technology technology at its core is is what we do. Um but again, we're doing it to enable the business to run. That's what we're here to do. >> Yeah. Enable is one word, but but you're also growing us in in new directions that you know in terms of AI and thinking not just websites to apps, but I don't know what's next. I'm not I'm not even sure. Maybe you have a you have a sense where are we going >> right now? Uh AI is the the big uh buzzword. So we're we're doing work with uh course generation for Torah um helping inter helping users interact learn um be their partner um we're doing translation for the all apps to get that in there um help people uh chat with the data uh we're looking to see how we could help the the programmatic departments um be more efficient. Now you you're also doing that not just on the technology side but with personnel. Couple years ago you launched something that maybe at first you didn't even weren't even that excited about which was a summer internship summer fellowship. Tell us a little bit about that. Uh three years ago we we had a couple an influx of um people wanting internships um and Kash uh IT department usually takes one person and they reached out to me and said like are you interested could you help us evaluate the people and I spoke to a couple of them and I said you know what it would be interesting if we put a cohort together and um it was following the fellowship idea that that was started uh that year >> where you know how can we build up um have them work together to to create something bigger and and to learn from each other and um brought them together created a project helped divide up the the responsibilities every week I brought in one of my uh leaders I had u my front-end guys come in and give a talk about about it I had uh Avi who's my my my senior engineer come in and talk about the history of development where we are now. I had a DevOps talk. So, we were just it was they got to learn they had access to to the senior staff but without having to be constantly on top of that and they were able to work together and we had a we had a successful release. The following year we went further. Uh last summer we partnered with Amazon to build out a transcription project. They gave us two interns. They gave us senior people to help manage the project and we had our own set of six interns. Um and we had a write up through Amazon really cool and everyone was excit they loved it. They were so happy um with that experience and uh the interns on our side were like the recommendations the the just the recognition that and with the real world project and working is so important nowadays. >> Um >> and how many interns do you have this summer? This summer we're about 17 um >> 17 interns. Wow. We're going to switch tracks a little bit. Uh at this point we're going to go with some rapid fire questions. Oh boy. Okay. >> What is your go-to shabas food at home? >> For the past five years has to be brisket. Since my son-in-law came in the picture, he's we were not like big meat people. He came in big big meat guy. >> Who makes the brisket? >> Really? Yeah. What's your favorite para in the Torah? >> Why? >> It's my bar mitzvah para. >> Oh, happy bar mitzvah. Okay, good. Hopefully we'll release this uh before before the para. Um, if you could choose any Jewish historical event to witness, which one would be? Although >> we did get a little bit of an inkling, you know. >> May maybe it would be that so I could like maybe knock some sense into some uh people. Are we allowed to interact or is it like time travel rules of uh >> I don't know. I just read an article about how now that there may be a way to do time travel without uh the conundrum of >> Okay. So yeah so maybe I should go back those people. >> We have an opportunity now called turn the tables where you get to ask me any question that you'd like. >> Okay. from technology perspective, what are some holes, gaps that the communities might have that we would be able to fill with technology? You know, it's funny thing. Um, I'm not really a tech talented person. Um but going back to my my previous job at Yeshiva University where I became responsible for it and then I went home and told my family that and prior to that they would not let me touch the modem um because I would mess it up. um I've had to sort of learn and built something of an interest uh in technology. But I think for so many people there's angst, fear, trepidation around use of technology and it could be you know I don't know how to use it. Um, and it could be, you know, uh, what, uh, what do I do with this thing that got lots of stuff on it? Some of it's good and some of it's not so good. And how do I handle it? And so I wonder if there would be a way for us to help people in communities, not just to say it's all bad and let's run away from technology, but what are the ways that we can build our Jewish our religious lives better through technology rather than away from >> next project. >> Yeah, next project. Okay, good. Um, all right. So the last thing we do on the podcast is we ask you to give a braha to the OU and however you want to what do you whatever it is that you want to share. >> Okay. So my braha to the OU is a that we should continue the beautiful expansion that you're doing here in Israel. It's it's really wonderful the programs um the the visit and that that you guys keep coming in. It's great to see you. Um second is that all staff should really feel the impact and and feel the pride and fulfillment for the work that we are doing. Um and the third maybe a little more personal is that the technology should be nice and stable. >> Love that. >> Love that. And so I want to give you back the braha at least the the middle one um which is that you should also see all the brahas that you've brought to the OU and to our participants and people who've benefited from it and understand how far because of your work, your team's work, how far we've come and that should continue to grow. Amazing. >> Thank you.