Moishe Bane: Lessons Learned as OU President

there are many benefits that i have enjoyed in being involved in community activism for the last 40 years one of them is relationship building and having the opportunity to work with people that i would otherwise not have had the the access to i don't know if you are familiar with one of the uh very popular folk singers of the 1970s his name was harry chapin when i was in yeshiva harry chapin was the secular singer that all the yeshiva guys were listening to and harry chapin happened to have also been an incredible activist he was very very committed to world hunger and one of the questions they asked him was harry do you really think you're going to move the needle on world hunger come on you really you're not going to make a difference and harry said you know it's very interesting you say that because there was a great activist in the 1960s who they asked that question to they said come on you're really going to make a difference in all of these social justice marches that you're involved in and all the causes and the person answered you're right i don't know if i'm going to make a difference but you know what the result is when you're involved like i am you hang out with the good guys and when you get involved in organizations like the ou and the myriad other orthodox organizations that are all dedicated to be makade shame shamayim and to grow the needs of the community to be addressed properly you hang out with the good guys and that's been a tremendous benefit of being involved but there are many many other benefits as well you know by being involved in the community for the for the last many years i i was able to present my children with an educational platform that they should see the values that we believe in not just pontificating that i care about torah study but rather get involved in teaching and making sure that people are learning i'm not only involved in worrying about people's social needs mental health needs other kinds of things but getting involved in projects that address them because we all know that when you tell your children when you teach your family values just talking about them doesn't work you have to be involved in them and by being involved in the community you're able to give that model and that example another benefit of being involved in the community is that you develop your own sensitivities you develop your own personal traits i would think that perhaps the greatest benefit i've had particularly as president of the of the ou has been developing the sense of patience and openness to people's ideas and the ability to control yourself which was a difficult challenge and still is but not as difficult as it was five years ago to restrain from criticizing restrained from pushing back but rather listening well and incorporating other people's ideas even if they began as ideas that you objected to and that you grow because when you're involved in community affairs you have to teach yourself to look at things from the perspective of the community not from your own personal inclinations [Music]