Transformative Leadership and the Power of Jewish Education

hello everyone and welcome to the oh you podcast hello everyone and welcome to the OU podcast try to keep a straight face a little bit Rabbi Glasser we are so blessed to have with us today Rabbi yakob Glasser who is the managing director of our community engagement arm here at the OU so welcome thank you for being here and thank you for everything you do for us at the OU and for all of the Jewish people it is an honor and it is a pleasure and we've been working together for quite a number of years number of different places yeah it's always been uh but that's not how we met do you remember where we met I don't we met in the Wu Bas Manish and when I got there in 1996 I sat down at a seat on the left side and on one side was what would become Raba goly well he learned really loud and at the next table was Rabbi Asaf benar he was also learning and I sat down and I met you you were sitting in the seat next to me and you were like much older much older smik guy um who I could turn to with questions and you were into it you learned with the guy named Simka that's where we met we met Jacob that's right so you uh you mentioned that your Rabbi D goly was learning yeah Anda benar was learning yeah and you and I were smoing that actually sound that resonates no we were dreaming of taking over the OU that was that even back then we were like what is this you know Oreos or mil we got to get in there we got to deal with this you know we got it we got it all squared away now almost done now we're almost done here okay what's next get to that at the end of the podcast okay good good good good so let's take it back a little bit good why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself with pleasure I grew up in Los Angeles California um my family actually moved there when I was about four four or five um I grew up in a home where both of my parents were in Jewish communal work it was our entire life um all three of their children went into Jewish communal work and all three spouses are in Jewish communal work amazing um my father was the Executive Vice President of Beth Jacob of Beverly Hills my mother was a librarian um in Sinai Temple Temple and people were at our home all the time my father eventually became the American friends office of multiple institutions so he had one big donor list and he would go out raising money and for these different institutions anyway I grew up in a home saturated with Jewish communal work it's all I know it's all I've ever known and uh it shaped my life in every level um eventually got very involved in ncsy as a kid um at 16 years old um I left to go for Yesa I was also a musician we had an amazing band in high school so I grew up with music also around my house and um and then at 16 I went to ell and I went to Yeshiva for two years and where did you go I went to orine and it was an amazing experience and I really fell in love with learning and I developed a KRA that I mean is just like the who who of and Rabon in America now and it's it was amazing amazing kusas amazing rabim and I really really got turned on to learning there uh and then from there I ended up at Wu I was at Wu for 10 years um I did College there I did SM there and then I stayed learning for another five years in k um did the y y k and uh I loved learning at Wu so much I missed I missed that Bas Med aot yeah um and I had amazing rabam R parnis um Rosen swag RAR R willig when I was in the K it was it was just unbelievable and and my kusas from that time were amazing some of the people you know Noah Eisenberg um you know SCH Silber Rabbi soer we were kabus for like five years um really amazing amazing experiences and while I was there so towards the end of college I married my wife Ruth Ruth is a psychologist Dr Ruth and Ruth um and I met in ncsy in like 10th grade and and uh we got married like at the end of our senior year in the middle of our senior year uh she was at your Alma M she was at Penn and I was at Yu we lived in Highland Park which was in the middle and we used to get on the train every day the opposite side like a movie you know opposite sides and wave goodbye and then we came back and um and we started our life together and it was uh it's amazing it is amazing and we lived in the heights for about seven years um and then Heights was which side of the heights were you on we lived actually on the Breer side of the heights it was hard for two La kids um you know because anything without palm trees is not simple did you know each other from La who me and Ruth yeah we knew each other yeah yeah already first of all we grew up in the same sh we grew up in Beth Jacob of Beverly Hills and uh Ruth and I grew up it was a real sh and so everything we do in our sh we try to bring over from that sh so a lot of men hug him in our sh that have nothing to do with pic and nothing to do with it's just that's how we did it in Beth Jacob and um and then we were co- chapter presidents of ncsy so we are our journey helping the Jewish people interwined started started very very early um so yeah we definitely knew each other growing up and um so yeah and then we started to build our family while we were in the Heights and then is this boring no that's great okay and then um as I was finishing up you know in terms of learning Yu two jobs came at the same time one was to take a sh in p and the other was to become the regional director of ncsy in New Jersey and I assumed I'd have to pick um until I had a phone call with the sh and they said we really want you to come we'll give you as many shabam off as you need which was crazy for a sh W um and then ncsy said we really want you to take the Sho we think it'll be good for ncsy for the regional director in New Jersey at that time um to also be part of the ribic community and so I did that I took over the region and the sh and both started to grow both started to grow it was working to do the two jobs because they were both pretty much you know in a in a growth phase but then the sh really took off and the region really barem really started to grow and take off we did a lot of restructuring we structured from we had more volunteers uh advisers working in shs to more city-based directors and we started Js u in New Jersey and the sh grew it's now got like about 170 180 families from 340 yeah yeah yeah and the sh is basically one big ncsy shabbaton from beginning to end like singing programming focus on youth you know I'll give you an example on T we have an enormous amount of dancing a lot focused on the kids and then before the sakafa I stand on a chair if you hear my voice clap once if you hear my like camp like the whole place turns into camp and I make a huge circle around the room the men on one side the women on another side put all the children in the middle and my father leads the six AAA and we sing slow songs and then only the kids sing hamal and it's and then we have dancing the whole the whole place is just rocking with different programs and different you know things going on so the show's amazing and I had the great of doing NC y i loved ncsy I Lov New Jersey ncsy both of my parents became from an ncsy and I discovered the emotionality and passion of Judaism in ncsy and I found my life partner in ncsy she was Regional president of uh of um West Coast David lucens can share all the different Matrix you know uh connections my mother was Regional president of New Jersey exactly 25 years before I know there's a lot of that he has of exactly how the Stars aligned it was such uh it's been a big part of our life and it's a big part of who we are and uh and it brought just so much passion and I loved shabbaton and I was very involved in building Yara National Yara into what it became and um Just Amazing Just an amazing amazing experience and I also was able to develop myself so much there how so much because everything was thrown at you you had to deal with boards and parents and kids and programming and budgets and the OU and rabbis and principles and organizational issues there wasn't an I had to deal with other things also there was everything was thrown at you and you were young and inexperienced and there wasn't as much training as I'm sure you have now but there was space to figure it out yeah and you were allowed to fail once twice you know and there was such an environment of energy then the original directors then were like it was me and Glenn black and arier lightstone and and Noam Zach and I mean it was it was and it was just it was such an amazing and it allowed me to to work on public speaking there were so many opportunities to teach and speak every time we went to another Community I would speak in the sh yeah and it was low pressure because I'm not scholar in Residence I'm not getting paid to do this but I would use it as an opportunity to like hone my skills and even though I had a smaller scho in pic I was speaking in every major SCH in New Jersey and uh it was an amazing opportunity it's also in the context of ncsy is where I started to develop trying to use humor more in uh speeches and I have how's that working out I try I work at it I work at it um and that had a lot to do with ncsy that that change was uh inspired there and and had a lot to do with what I was trying to accomplish there um and it's amazing I still hear from the kids that were involved then absolutely absolutely and I miss ncsy a lot um but I tried to bring lot of it eny you know people there believe me they know believe me they know they know that since I came back to the OU I've been able to spend uh some time there then I came to the OU then Josh knocked oh then I was at Wu for seven Great years as being the the dean of the center for the Jewish future and what were you supposed to be doing over there elevating the Jewish communities of North America in serving their rabim their lelay leaders Torah programming bringing the energy and the hasas of Wu out into the community great um also exhilarating yeah um and then uh Rabbi Dr Josh Joseph uh knocked on my door and said hey we're building amazing Community team at the OU would you be interested in coming to join and uh after a few conversations back and forth and a classic Yakov Glasser let me take six months to make a life decision um we finally decided to do it you asked three or four or 27 100,000 questions yes yes yes I have my con Consultants you know and all my uh yes your own personal board exactly exactly exactly anyway in the end uh we came and this has been incredible and you're not it's not even two years it's not even two years it's not even two years it's incredible when people ask me I get asked this all the time how often do you have to go in to the office it's a question you get if you say you work in Manhattan yeah I always respond you could interview any of them I always respond how often I get to go into the office I love coming here I do not love the trip to get here I'll be honest the journey is is it's a journey it's a journey it's left to be desired although anytime you leave New Jersey you're Ming to something but the bottom line is for an LA guy to cross the tunnel and then see at the light at the end of the tunnel is New York also not easy but Lisa um the energy here is unbelievable the creativity here is unbelievable the passion for what people are doing it is just uh it is an exhilarating place to be and you are the managing director of community engagement Community engagement that could be a lot yes so what yes what is it maybe a little bit more specifically for great so what we work on in community engagement is elevating the religious experience of the North American Jewish community and Jewish communities around the world and what that means is there are so many different contexts within which people can grow and thrive in their religious life and each one of our departments or each one of our programs addresses a different dimension of that communal reality and provides whether it's in programming or in people or in support of other organizations to help the community some measure of transformative impact for people's religious growth that's TR there are so many examples people are familiar with you're going to run out of film although that's probably a 1990s description this probo film we have a synagogues initiative the synagogues initiative works with ranim around the country to help them Elevate their balaba that's our goal we don't just them information and programs and ideas we convene them and we convene them in incredibly creative ways instead of putting in the room just a random group of rabbis we recognize that the rabbi experience is different depending on where you are and who your constituency is so we Group by Affinity groups of constituency so for example we'll bring 20 ranim here to the OU who all have communities that are in small Jewish communities so so they're shouldering completely different types of responsibilities than someone who's the rub of the Young Israel woodmar right completely different we we bring rabbis who all of them have synagogues that have Outreach constituencies so they have to create environments that are welcoming to nonform people that's a different type of uh that's a different type everyone should be welcoming to nonform people so one thing you do is shs one thing we do is shs one thing we do is we have a women's initiative women's initiative Works in educational space the community space and the leadership space nakomi one of the signature programs tens of thousands of women learning na every single day um this new program that we have L Kos where women convene on their own in shs and living rooms all across the United States thousands of women on Fast days for and messages of we work with women leaders with rabbitson with lay leaders and all these different uh spaces a tremendous amount of activity in that area um we have Torah Torah we have the most popular Torah apps imaginable focused on a wide variety of different uh spaces all all da or mishna now all all par again tens of thousands of people interfacing with rabam for life we just had a CM with Rabbi Rosner live in tenek I can't even tell you what it was like tamim came from Teek from Lakewood it was like mashia it was like every type of Jew coming together why because they all learned by rev rner why because everyone has the old Al app on their phone right um and we have UT Torah Advanced learning all over the country so there are all these different programs and projects and if we went through them all like you said you'd be old you just gave a presentation 37 minutes yes I wasn't Diamond why does everyone remember how long that was everybody who talks about that presentation like it's also getting longer as because we're trying to be more honest but but it's not just the specific departments it's an approach to community that we are taking at the OU that you are sort of the tip of the spear in terms of how we should be engaging and can be engaging with the community on all kinds of different things right so you have a vision you have a you know sort of an aspiration for where you think this can go where it's gone in the two years that you since you've been here and maybe where it can where you're looking 100% we have to recognize that it's a big country and it's a big Jewish people it's a very diverse Jewish people and uh there are a lot of needs that people have and a lot of opportunities that we have to impact and Inspire we think of the Jewish Community almost in concentric circles of impact some people were going to impact at the periphery in a more limited and surface way but meaningful way some people were going to impact in a more significant way and some people were going to impact in a more transformative way and each one of these programs is set up so that the portals of Entry are open at no matter what space a person wants to engage we have can have people learning with the OU for five minutes a day we could have people finishing sh with the OU we could have women finishing n with the OU we could have women receiving a booklet that just Ates the rashash but we want to impact everyone we want to impact everyone in some way and most importantly we want to convey in all of that impact an aspirational sense of growth we want people to to move from place to place being part of the Jewish people can't just be we satisfy all of the requirements and expectations of Tor it's got to be a living breathing animating life that has meaning and purpose and is constantly striving for something more that's engagement I don't love the word engagement because it's a little passive right you engage but to me Community engagement is the beginning that's what we if we're not engaged then there's nothing to discuss for US unless we know unless there's a metric there's a measure we know that this has made a difference this has made an impact we need to know we're engaged with you and then there's an opportunity for elevation so we're going to ask you some uh some rapid fire question rapid fire so 10 minutes or less what's that 10 minutes or less rapid fire Rabin version Rabin version yeah how many muas are there in the OU offices I'll give you options okay 125 so close 119 119 so close maybe maybe you know that there's six we're missing could be maybe we're missing six no I don't muas is in my department yes I that's one of the things we're working on we we didn't get are these OU misas they're not we got to we have no how many safety reflector bets have belts oh boy have been distributed to shes throughout North America 10,000 15,000 31,000 25,000 well considering the fact that Judy sty could get any initiative she's involved in in every newsletter that goes out of here and into the state of the union I would say 30 31,000 you got it you got it you got it what is a musthave dish at your chabus or Y table at our table yeah um salads or big California people we have very little like salad or just like uh yeah range of salads Granton like a lot of vegetable stuff what's your go-to safer to pick up and read it depends on what period of my life um right now I'm very much enjoying the Torah of RA MOS Shapiro in his set of sh I've been learning that a lot um but whatever I'm teaching and whatever I'm preparing for Dres I have SPM that I like to go to for Dres um I love the NV I know you're a big fan of the nitv um yeah but it's it's I love learning learning is the best you miss it I do I miss I miss the focus of you know what I mean like I I do but that's amazing working here also which is you can grab a few minutes to learn they'll be proud of you I'm very blessed that I'm in rabanas so I I I don't have a choice you know I I have to keep learning and I have to keep um writing and preparing and giving Shum and that's been a big blessing and I've had many opportunities to give up the Sho and go entirely into executive Jewish leadership and I've always turned them down because I need the sh I need that first I need anchor with people and I need um Torah in that way I've also had chances to give up leadership and only do a and I I don't want I don't think I'd be happy doing that up cuz I I love strategy and thinking and vision and teams and that's not you know that's not the same it's not the same sure in the same way scaling things like so I'm stuck I I have no choice I have to do both but I love both but it's all good our next segment yeah you get to ask me I'm doing all the I'm doing all the work over here asking you the questions uhuh you get to ask me a question I get to ask you a question any question that you want Oh My Gosh okay Josh you have such optimism when you interact with everyone where does that come from wow that's a good question um you always think it's gonna work out it's a little Annoying it is a little sometimes it it can be a little annoying on tishu uh Rabbi zakutinsky was talking about that in every country that Jews live in we have an opportunity to learn something from that country and so he asked what's the spark of America that we were meant to lift up he spoke about uh that there's a certain even irrational optimism and hope golden a Medina right that uh things are going to work out Rags to Riches see to shining sea right there's this there's this optimism so um for me some of whatever it is that I have comes from the people around me right you know you're from Canada right in that case I'm sorry what is Canada's contribution it's true it's true it's true yeah but you're right you're right but I live I've lived here for a couple years so maybe that's the that's why um you know I I I think that um it's it's a little you know Pascal's wager which is like about faith right so you might as well have faith because uh sort of what's the what's the upside in the other right you know uh so I think with with optimism I I think some of it is that like what what's the upside in pessimism so you could be right a couple times right right and uh my experience tell a story of meeting RAB G and his encouragement to be and my experience is that when I smile at people there's more the chance that they're going to smile right my experience is if I pump positivity into somebody there's much more of a chance that they're going to be positive and pump positivity back to me or to other people or whatever it is and I also I guess I should have started with this I don't know if that's what I do I appreciate the the compliment it's good to have that from you that that whatever whatever I am doing that it's uh that that that's how you experience it but I'm about people you know you talked before about you know being part of a team sometimes when you're a rabbi you're a little bit of a solo practitioner or when you come to an office right right I don't like getting to the office maybe right like you said but like I come here and it's like feeling the energy from other people and so for me that that's like definitely like a br that I get that gives it a lot you know that uh being around others who are positive energy inclined that encourages me to do whatever I can to be helpful it's amazing it's just I've always found people with your level of a like it's pressuring it's very pressuring and so you know sometimes you can get them in a good but it's always like that's usually what you do with bosses you try to catch them at a good when they're in a good mood you know I just feel like you know that that's a good it's a good tone that's been set here and I think people feel it and I think uh I know I feel it and especially this year where there's been so much pain and so much suffering to see the posture of the OU as okay where could we bring hope and light and support and and you know that just seems to be you know what we're about we conclude here by asking you to give uh give AA to the OU and to the the to kind of you give to the um BR the we should be able to accomplish everything within our potential and we should feeles while we do it and we should be able to do it with as broad a sense of claw as is humanly possible we send that right back to you yeah thank you so much for everything you do here and across the Jewish World pleasure and we appreciate you pleasure thank you thank you I feel appreciated thank you [Music]