we need to talk about UKRAINE...

[Music] Hello friends I hope this video finds you well I've been doing good thank God cannot complain and I wanted to talk to you today about something that's been on my mind something that I need to get off my chest which is about a very hot and shall we say controversial topic Ukraine so let's get right into it there are a couple issues that I want to discuss some of them are smaller some of them are larger um some points that I wanted to bring across and set the record straight let's do this so as many of you already know I've released a four-part series about my visit to Ukraine during the war and it got a lot of interesting reactions now prior to posting these videos I knew that people were going to be having some very strong reactions both positive reactions negative reactions and I wanted to discuss some of those reactions because honestly I was not prepared for the intensity with which these reactions came and I was not prepared for a lot of the issues that people were writing about in the comments section if you don't know what I'm talking about feel free to take a look in the comments under my Ukraine videos because it gets pretty intense number one a lot of people were asking why I visited Ukraine and that's a valid question Ukraine is currently a war zone and why would you do something like that so here's the answer to that I've been visiting Ukraine since hmm I believe it was 2011. basically 12 years ago that's when I visited Ukraine for the first time in fact my first trip that was outside of North America outside of the United States and Canada was to the Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah to go to Umar there's a massive Hasidic pilgrimage which before coven and before the war was attracting approximately 50 000 Jewish people every year to celebrate the holiday of Rosh Hashanah in uman Ukraine at the gravesite of Ravin Ahmed of raslev and that's the first trip I took outside of North America so I went to Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah then later that summer I went to Ukraine again where I was a counselor at a Jewish children's Sleepaway Camp and I tried to help Jewish children in Ukraine learn about their Heritage and then throughout the years I've been visiting Ukraine multiple times every year for the past 12 years therefore as you can imagine after over a decade of visiting Ukraine and after probably close to 50 5-0 trips to Ukraine I developed a lot of relationships with people in Ukraine I had a lot of friends over there I knew a lot of Jewish people a lot of people who are not Jewish and when the war started I honestly wanted to see how they were doing what was going on over there but I wouldn't want to voluntarily just walk into a war zone so I didn't go there I thought it would be very dangerous But as time went on I was in touch with somebody named Rabbi Hillel Cohen who's been doing tremendous work in Ukraine and you've seen him in many of my videos he was running a clinic in uman for Rosh Hashanah before the war started the clinic was in conjunction with United hatsala which you also know from my videos and Rabbi Cohen was also doing some amazing rescue work after the war started so he was in touch with me and eventually we came to the conclusion that the war is taking place in certain parts of Ukraine and not in other parts meaning that the majority of the country is quiet and not an active war zone and therefore we felt that it would be okay for me to visit Ukraine which I did and thank God I got out safely now I don't actively look to go to war zones and I've been to many places where Wars have happened but I usually am not in those places when the wars are happening however this trip was different because I wanted to check up on my friends and people I knew in the Jewish Community to see how they were doing since the war started so that's why I went to Ukraine I must say that I really do appreciate all of the kind messages that I got from people when I was posting these Ukraine videos people were saying slimy I hope you stay safe we're worried about you we're praying for you I really appreciate that that really warmed my heart another thing people are asking me is is it safe to go to the Ukraine during the war and my answer to that is I don't know there are parts of Ukraine that are definitely very dangerous right now and there are parts of Ukraine that'll probably be safe but you can't be guaranteed you can't know for sure for example two weeks ago there was a bomb that fell in uman Ukraine which killed a lot of people including a couple children so uman was generally considered to be a safe area but then this bomb fell so is Ukraine safe I don't know I don't recommend it and if you are thinking about going make sure you do some really good research and try to take as many precautions as possible to keep you and your loved ones safe while in Ukraine now let's get into some of the more sensitive topics regarding Ukraine you guys know me as someone who stays away from politics I absolutely hate politics I never want to be involved in it and if you ever see me involved in politics remind me that I've lost my way because politics is really not my thing however in this day and age if you do make a video about Ukraine it will be interpreted by a lot of people as being political now my business it was totally humanitarian I went to check up on the Jewish community and that was the reason for my visit however while I was there Rabbi Hillel Cohen asked me if I wanted to see some sites like cities that were destroyed during the war so I did go along to see that and I share that with you guys but none of this was intended to be political and as I already mentioned I do not want to have anything to do with politics ever there are many people who have many different feelings and opinions and ideas about the war in Ukraine and this is a very sensitive topic and therefore I noticed many people were speaking out some were angry at me for going because they're pro-russian some people were angry at me because they thought I wasn't sympathetic enough to Ukraine and again I'm always trying to stay out of politics so I tried to make it as neutral as possible not be involved in any of this stuff but then there were people who were upset at me because they said how can you go to Ukraine don't you know that ukrainians are anti-semits and if you do look at the history of Ukraine there's no doubt that some of Ukraine's national heroes were anti-semites people that killed a lot of Jewish people but then if you look at the other side and you look at the National Heroes of Russia there are some people there and we're not going to mention any names anywhere but there are definitely people on both sides who were terrible to the Jews okay but having said all of that I don't think that sympathy is transactional just because people did Terrible Things to Jewish people in Ukraine and in Russia doesn't mean that I can't be sympathetic to the people of Ukraine who are suffering right now both of these things can be true at once I can be filled with pain and sorrow and anger for the terrible atrocities that Jewish people have gone through in Eastern Europe throughout the ages while also being sympathetic to people who are suffering right now as we speak there were people who were angry at me because they said I spelled Kiev the wrong way I wrote the words Kiev in the description or the titles of the video I wrote the word Kiev as k-i-e-v prior to the war when I would book tickets for flights to Ukraine that was the way that all of the booking sites spelled Kiev but apparently it's been brought to my attention that that is the way the Russians spell it the ukrainians spell it kyiv so people think that I'm pro-russian because I didn't spell Kiev the way they wanted to again I'm not into politics and I want to have nothing to do with it this is just the way that I've always spelled it because of the way I've seen it been spelled and it doesn't say anything about where my sympathy is or who I support so you may be asking yourself who do I support in this war and I'm gonna tell you after visiting Ukraine and having seen the terrible scenes of Destruction that I witnessed in other places I can tell you that there are so many innocent people who are suffering people who have lost their loved ones people have lost their homes their businesses their cars they've lost everything these are the people that I support what's going on in Ukraine is absolutely terrible to see so much suffering with your own eyes really takes a toll on you it's one thing if you're watching the news from five thousand miles away yes you see bad things are going on and you feel bad about it but when you're there in the places where these atrocities took place it has a whole different effect on you and it really leaves you with a deep impression of how bad War can be people in Ukraine are certainly suffering but believe it or not there are also people in Russia who are suffering obviously their suffering is very different most of them are not losing their homes their cities aren't being bombed but they're hurting financially because Russia's under sanctions and the sanctions don't only hurt the government sanctions for regular people like me and you I know this because I have friends in Russia and many of them tell me that they're worried they don't know how they're going to continue to support themselves then you have people in Russia who are suffering because they're being ostracized or bullied just for being Russian if you speak Russian or if you have a Russian passport people online and in person all over the world are ganging up on you that's not nice that's not good one of the biggest problems in my opinion is that 99 of the people in Ukraine and the people in Russia regular people who do not work for the government who are not in the army people have no say in whether their governments fight a war or not they're simply trying to pay their bills they're trying to live good lives with their families and what's happening around them is not something they decide yes of course you get to vote but your vote doesn't always guarantee the outcome that you want therefore I think the most important thing that we the people the 99 of the population can do is to love and support each other we can be nice and kind to each other wouldn't it be nice to see people all over the world reaching out to each other and saying we are peaceful people we don't want war with you we just want to live our lives and happiness and we want you to live your life and happiness we need to find a way to connect with each other there is so much Division and fighting going on all over the world but us simple people we need to find a way to bring ourselves together to get closer to build friendships to build strong lasting relationships hopefully somehow someday if we all use our power and use our voices and we come together as one we can make the world a much better place and we can end all wars and live in a peaceful beautiful kind loving and friendly world this is an idea and this is a fight that I'm willing to get behind thank you all for watching we'll see you soon [Music] foreign