Rabbi Yossi Katz- Congregation Anshei Chesed, (Linden, NJ)

since October 7th all of us have been in awe at the self-sacrifice of the many soldiers who are standing at the front lines defending our homeland defending the Jewish people tragically we've also read time and time again of the soldiers who have been ripped away from their families at too young of an age the devastation is overwhelming how do we properly memorialize so many people it's too much the Orthodox Union started an initiative called to demonstrate to those in Israel that we are together we are we're with you we're thinking of you and we're going to memorialize these soldiers forever the 3 weeks is a time that we try to rectify the disharmony that broke the Jewish people that ripped us apart and so specifically during this time we're going to be reaching out to different shows to different leaders of the shows to find out from them what they did how they connected to their Soldier how they brought more Unity to the Jewish people and how they're bringing Comfort to the family of their Bev Soldier we are here with RAB yasi C of an of Lindon New Jersey it's really an honor to have you here thank you so much for joining us really appreciate it so I was I was very taken when you shared with me a little bit about the soldier that your should was memorializing I was wondering if you could share with us the Soldier's name and a little bit about the backstory of this Soldier this uh this kadosh this holy individual who who died Al K hasem you could tell us all a little bit about him sure thank you for uh giving me this opportunity to talk about Boris uh I'm want to start even prior to that when I first got the message about this program I was very excited because part of what I view is the mission of at least my mission and mission of our sh has been to connect us here in lynon to what's going on in Earth Israel in Israel and especially as this war has gone on and it's become incredibly emotionally taxing we've also try tried to figure how to navigate our lives with you know living in America with what's going on in the backdrop it's it's been a very it's been a t has been very difficult to really navigate that and to work with you know we have our lives we're living Our Lives we're comfortable we're healthy we're safe and then we have what's going on in Israel and we've run a number of initiatives but this really spoke to me because as this is a real visceral way to connect to Amel as a whole I got the package I opened it up I read the name Russian name his name is Boris D vitki I can't pronounce it which is funny because I think all my great grands are okay and I quickly re did a one Google search and I was actually disappointed because of course everyone is Holy we want to Mor moralize everyone but for me this was this was a way to connect and I had these dreams these Visions we're going to connect with the family we're gonna talk to them they'll tell their story to our show well our show will tell them what we're doing for the soldier and immediately I saw this was a Russian ol who went to Israel when he was 16 17 by himself was aone Soldier had no family in Israel and no family seemingly that was Israeli wow and I was like okay fine look we'll put it up we'll do a big launch but ultimately the vision of connecting to the soldier in the way that I had thought about initially wasn't going to happen so that was what happened and then being I guess a millennial I know how to use Facebook a little bit I think people above me don't know how to use and people below me don't know what Facebook is anymore so we're all good I started going on Facebook and putting in his name putting in names of people I saw at the funeral there was an article online a funeral used Google Translate for Russian I finally found an uncle in Israel and from there stalking all his pictures I found a comment by his uncle's relatives in Russia oh wow good detective work this is very this is very good detective work if anyone wants to hire me to be a personal detective I'm very I'm happy for that eventually I got to a certain individual a Mikel I don't know how to pronounce that and I realized he was some relative of Boris he was either another Uncle the brother I wasn't sure um but I there was again it was all in Russian there was a memorial page there was the Russian transl Facebook's translation which makes half sense and half made no sense I messaged him this is already we got before PES I messaged him I think was already on yikon when I finally found this he responded I'm actually boris's father I just landed in Israel for y zikaron ceremony and I'll talk to you afterwards unbelievable so we had a connection and then we get talk he told me a lot about Boris uh Boris was born on July 9th we'll get back to 2002 he grew up in Russia and then he went to an Israeli school for high school and never came back and it was an Israeli school it's a cultural school where they have certain subjects V around Israeli culture Jewish culture Jewish Heritage uh Boris himself was not a practicing Jew and then when he turned 18 he said he's going to stay in Israel and enlist um he enlisted in the armored cor armored Corp because his great-grandfather helped liberate uh I guess Germany or wherever the the Soviets were during World War II and he was his hero he even met him he passed away or he passed he was 97 so that's what when Boris met him and he's very inspired by his life and said he wanted to fight for the good cause fight for the Jewish people his friends describe him as an incredibly reliable person fun person someone who just enjoyed being with friends loved to cook his fathers did half the picture they have him for him cooking um and he really came into himself is a real mature you know mature you know individual over the time in the Army although he did go back every summer he had a very close connection with his grandparents he loved his family so he wasn't like he went to Israel from Russia and neverone back um and he really just he he loved the Army his father said he was one of the happiest times in his life got the tour of the land had these close friends was cooking playing instruments guitar um he loved mechanics always loved mechanical stuff so he was the loader on on the tank and then on October 7th when the war broke out he was in the north he was an active Soldier and they went down south they went into Gaza I don't remember the exact date and they got hit by an RPG some damage they were all fine oh wow happened again and then on December 17th third time to get by an RPG he that's when he lost his life Wow Wow you know what when I find amazing about this is that I love what you shared about the fact that you didn't recognize this person you couldn't track them down you know we don't even have his his Hebrew name on on the the poster that we sent you I remember when we made that you know we tried to track down Hebrew names not everyone has a Hebrew name or not we didn't necessarily know their Hebrew name and you know some people got what I guess maybe we use a term like celebrities of people who are very famous people that everyone knows and the truth is like you said every single one of these soldiers is is a whole world a whole G onto themselves and thankfully you had the the energy and the and the wisdom to be able to track it down but like the story that you just shared about this individual inspired by a grandfather to go ahead and follow in his footsteps and to leave his family behind and to go it's just unbelievable it's really unbelievable and it just it just really exemplifies the point exactly what we were trying to accomplish in the sense recognizing that every single one of these soldiers every single one of these Kos is really a world onto their own so that's that's that's really well I want to just follow up about just being there you know the hero if you will colistro is the whole of colistro is just the broad Jewish community and it's people that look like us and people that totally don't look like us don't even have as you pointed out a Jewish name and yet these are going to be the heroes that we're going to tell our children about beautiful beautiful unbelievable so tell me a little bit about what your show did to commemorate Boris we launched the um idea actually of Boris it came through Russa we talked that's that D we talked about the idea of kessis idea that cherol is you know is there's a body of cherol it's not just a number of people and we talked about what it means to give a life for clol it means to live for clol and then we launched this idea from the OU put it in the lobby opposite we have a display we already put up went up the first week with the children of the show we really struggled how do you especially the beginning of it how do we Shield our children now I didn't feel comfortable then putting the hostage posters up we have a lot of young kids we don't have a lot of older kids MH and we came up with was to make a display of the hero moments where which in the beginning you know every was every Facebook and Twitter and WhatsApp and everything was flooded with these inundated with these pictures we made a display and then over time we've added to display you know names of soldiers who have been killed pictures of them people who mentioned russes have gone up there so it's there but it it was layered and over time kind of we didn't again that was just the approach of our show in terms of how we wanted to handle with the children and everything very approach yeah he's right there opposite this display you know an Israeli flag um and then we did a couple of things um one is his father reached out to me a few weeks ago and said boris's 22nd birthday is going to be July 9th which already I know you can imagine would be an incredibly difficult day for the family so we did a campaign do a good deed for Boris do a MIT with Boris and I wrote up I think I shared it with you a a little biography of Boris sent it out to the show put it on my WhatsApp status which I know is viewed by the broader Community here in Lyndon which is not just uhod it's also the Thousand families that are here there are a number of non-religious families and I said not only do the Mitzvah but let me know so I can tell a family I ultimately I sent a a nice little document with pictures of kids giving Saka people doing and him all over whatever it may be giving shim to the family and the father said something to into the tune of you know you don't you don't you can't imagine what this means for us again it's just an incredibly difficult day and there was someone else thinking of them and he again he was already surprised like why us he said to me why us like why why you choosing us I'm just you know I'm a random Jew in in Russia of all places that's so thoughtful and and such a a beautiful way of of giving the family n during this time they they just to know like we we've heard over and over again when a family knows like the exactly thing like why are you reaching out to me who are you and knowing that a whole Community not like you said not just your show which would be substantial init of itself but the lind in New Jersey Community I thinking about him is just such and such such Comfort to the famine beautiful that was a bit of a shift I think initially when I had it it was how can I connect the sh to Israel then I realized this is an opportunity to somehow in a very small way let the family know we're thinking of them right and which led us to part two and that is what's in everyone's mind well every sh rabbi's mind is what is Shar simp going to look like this year yeah and I'm sure there'll be a number of initiative Will Roll things out the RSA Will Roll things out the Young Israel Will Roll things out and every organization under the Su Will Roll something out but I wanted to do something that would take some sort of investment and so we said we're GNA we a small sh we're going to finish tanak together everyone's going to take a peric par safer we're gonna start now again because there's the time if you start now then no one has an excuse not to because even the most busy people between now and simpar you can find a few minutes um we're actually going to give out a tanak to every one who finishes we got the beautiful coras and that also as well all been done for all the soldiers but specifically for you know talking about Boris there as well that's tremendous tremendous tremendous as really you and your your kahila is blessed to have you as thereof uh and just such creativity and such guidance and I so appreciate you sharing the story about Boris and and what you're doing and the and the you're giving the family it's really really incredible hasm should just give the family Boris much and should give you and your just so much and because of your incredible thank you so so much for for joining us and for sharing these this inspiring inspiring stories thank you for giving us this opportunity