Latest / None of Your Business Podcast / Fitting In and Finding Yourself with Retired Hatzalah CEO Yehiel Kalish

Transcript

Fitting In and Finding Yourself with Retired Hatzalah CEO Yehiel Kalish · None of Your Business Podcast

• 0:00
  Stupid question, you're in Hot solo as well?
• 0:01
  Or you were never in Hot solo. That's really what ultimately
• 0:06
  led to me making the decision that, you know, they need a hot
• 0:11
  solo guy. Right.
• 0:12
  There were, there were. There were just too many times
• 0:16
  where I paused. You know, when you're, you know,
• 0:19
  when you're leading something, you know it well, right?
• 0:21
  You gonna see, you saw General Caine this morning.
• 0:23
  He's not pausing, Right. Right.
• 0:26
  He's he's not pausing. This is a man who has been
• 0:29
  through the military from, you know, the time he was 18 years
• 0:32
  old, studied it and learned that, you know, like he's now
• 0:37
  acting as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• 0:41
  And you trust everything that's coming out of his mouth, Right?
• 0:45
  Right. No question about it.
• 0:48
  I saw in myself that I'm not a hot selling guy and there were
• 0:52
  just too many decisions that I was being asked to make where I
• 0:59
  I wasn't the right guy to make that decision.
• 1:01
  Interesting. They they needed someone else.
• 1:03
  So you didn't know that going in?
• 1:04
  No, not at all. How long did you serve for?
• 1:07
  Five years. That's a long time.
• 1:09
  Yeah, I signed A5 year contract and within the middle of that
• 1:14
  contract, I I had doubts, Yeah. Because at first everyone's
• 1:19
  holding your hand, but then everyone's like, you know, you
• 1:20
  take the controls and I'm like, are you crazy, right.
• 1:24
  Like asking Tom Cruise to actually fly that plane.
• 1:26
  Are you? Like how you consider yourself a
• 1:30
  Tom Cruise? That's a good one.
• 1:31
  He. Actually can.
• 1:33
  But he can. I know he can.
• 1:34
  He can, He can. He does his own stunts and Tom
• 1:38
  Cruise. He he does his own stunts, but
• 1:40
  he's not flying in he's. Not actually right.
• 1:43
  Exactly. He's not actually flying.
• 1:45
  Wow, right. So this just happened, right
• 1:48
  recently February 1. You recently exited February
• 1:51
  1st. Yeah, Wow.
• 1:53
  OK. So it's a five years, a lot to
• 1:54
  learn though from a big organization, I mean.
• 1:56
  Oh, my God. I, yes, I, I it is.
• 2:00
  I learned. I learned a ton.
• 2:02
  Yeah. Very interesting.
• 2:03
  I got a call from the head of the Department of Health who
• 2:08
  manages emergency medicine. And he, he was very
• 2:14
  complimentary. He, he was very complimentary of
• 2:16
  my, of my tenure in Hansela. He said that, you know, what I
• 2:23
  brought as an outside perspective was very valuable.
• 2:27
  And he said, you know, from his interactions with me, he saw
• 2:33
  that I did learn a lot. You know, he, he was trying to
• 2:37
  encourage me to go seek out clients in the space.
• 2:40
  Cause like, you really know a lot about emergency medicine in
• 2:44
  New York State right now, much more than than, you know, the
• 2:49
  average lobbyist. So it was it was a nice
• 2:53
  compliment, but. There's an advantage of coming
• 2:55
  in as an outsider, right? I mean, look sure, right?
• 3:00
  I, I, I think the biggest hisorone and I and I said this
• 3:04
  to the board and I've, I've said this many times.
• 3:07
  I think I think the biggest case on within Hatzalah is that there
• 3:11
  is no input from the consumer. The consumer has no input on the
• 3:16
  operations of the organization. I was the only consumer to
• 3:23
  provide input, right? And we also don't have input
• 3:28
  from 50% of the consumers, right If.
• 3:33
  That's a big deal. That's a big.
• 3:34
  Deal. Yeah, 100%.
• 3:36
  Let's get started. Sure.
• 3:37
  Absolutely. Welcome back everybody to
• 3:42
  another incredible episode of the none of your business
• 3:45
  podcast. I'm your host Michael Greenfield
• 3:46
  with me is it a very special guest for Raheel Kalish.
• 3:49
  Welcome to the program. Thank you to all our
• 3:51
  subscribers, our listeners, our comments, our feedback.
• 3:53
  We are, of course, produced by the prime source production you.
• 3:56
  So I, I usually do a chat. She PT says, what about
• 3:59
  somebody? But the reason why I'm not going
• 4:01
  to do it on you is because literally yesterday you retired
• 4:04
  from being the CEO of Atsala. I don't even think Chachi Peti
• 4:07
  knew about it when I put it in. I'm like, no, no, no, he just
• 4:10
  and and and he's Chachi Peti is fighting with me.
• 4:12
  I'm like, forget it. Let's just you know, I'll go
• 4:13
  into it with you. I mean, the first thing I have,
• 4:16
  I have to jump in and say what just happened and let's rewind
• 4:19
  and see who you are and where your background is.
• 4:21
  But I know you served as a tenure for you just mentioned
• 4:24
  five years for Atsala as AC, as an outsider.
• 4:27
  You're not Atsala member. How is that like for you?
• 4:31
  When did that start? What?
• 4:32
  What's your world like now? And then we'll rewind in a
• 4:34
  couple of minutes. Sure.
• 4:37
  Had that start. It started because I lost an
• 4:40
  election. I lost an election because I
• 4:44
  took a conscious vote, you know, against the expansion of
• 4:49
  abortion Illinois. And as a result, you know, the
• 4:54
  far left came after me and my re election bid for a state
• 4:58
  representative in Illinois. They did a great job.
• 5:01
  We did a pretty good job, but they did a great job.
• 5:04
  They took me out. And in response, a guy with the
• 5:06
  name of Benjamin Rose, great guy.
• 5:09
  He is the I think he's now the international editor from his
• 5:13
  Buffet magazine gave me a call. He says, hey, I had helped him
• 5:18
  out early in his career with something.
• 5:20
  And he says I want to do an article on you.
• 5:23
  You know, people should know what you've been through.
• 5:26
  That's so nice. And I agreed to the article and
• 5:32
  it was printed in the Sookis edition of the 2020 Ishbaka.
• 5:41
  So we're right after COVID, right?
• 5:43
  We're come. We're right after the first wave
• 5:45
  of COVID, before the 2nd wave. We are before the vaccine,
• 5:52
  right, has really hit the shelves, right?
• 5:54
  That's what we're talking about. And before it's been developed
• 5:56
  because it was developed in December.
• 5:57
  And this is Sokkas. A few weeks later, I received a
• 6:02
  phone call, an e-mail from someone by the name of Isaac
• 6:05
  Stern. And he said, I want to talk to
• 6:08
  you about I saw the article and I'm going to talk to you about
• 6:10
  Hatsala. And I'm sitting in my basement
• 6:12
  in Chicago like Hatsala. All I knew about Hatsala is that
• 6:17
  I, I had passed the lights and sirens law for Hatsala in
• 6:21
  Chicago, but that was my only interaction with Hatsal, except
• 6:25
  for the first time I lived in New York when I worked for a
• 6:27
  good assist. So I had fallen off of my porch
• 6:32
  while taking down the sukkah. So I was in the back of a
• 6:35
  Hatsala ambulance. You know, today 10 guys will
• 6:38
  tell you they were on that call, you know.
• 6:41
  But anyway, I called my friend of Talia Solomon.
• 6:45
  I said, who's this guy's extern? I've Tully is my close friend
• 6:50
  who's ARL 45 and he says no, no, no, you call that guy back.
• 6:56
  He's the head of Azala. And so I called him back and he
• 7:01
  started talking to me about it's all started selling me on it.
• 7:04
  And he said I'd like to come down for an interview to be the
• 7:06
  CELCEL. That's all you crazy.
• 7:10
  I don't know anything about it's all.
• 7:12
  So I called Ruby Yakov vendor and I asked him, I said, you
• 7:15
  know, what do you think I should do?
• 7:16
  He says, get on the plane, go down, have the interview.
• 7:20
  One thing led to the other interviews.
• 7:23
  Barack Hashem went very well. I learned a lot about the
• 7:25
  organization. They were going to keep the
• 7:27
  executive director, director of operations on with me and I
• 7:32
  signed A5 year contract. Towards the middle of the
• 7:34
  contract, I realized, you know, probably not going to extend
• 7:40
  that contract and after Yom to this year, you know, I I
• 7:46
  informed them that that I'm going to let the contract
• 7:49
  expire. They encouraged me to try to
• 7:52
  stay on, you know to stay on to to look past some of the
• 7:56
  challenges that were coming up. But as a non hot seller guy,
• 7:59
  there was a lot of challenges. We did a lot of great things.
• 8:02
  I think we did a tremendous amount of great things the last
• 8:04
  five years. We re established the position,
• 8:07
  we really upgraded every single piece of hardware, technology
• 8:13
  and software that exists within the hot solar system.
• 8:18
  We, we created the a new facade for the for the building.
• 8:24
  Incredible amounts of government relations were put into it.
• 8:28
  So a lot of good things, but it was time for someone else who is
• 8:33
  a who grew up in the hot solar system to take over.
• 8:37
  Did they name someone yet? There is an interim director by
• 8:39
  the name of Romney Brown who is going to be mucho upset that I
• 8:44
  shared his name, but. It's out there.
• 8:48
  But it's out Global, global global tech I think is the name.
• 8:52
  Of Romney's a good friend, Yes, yes, kudos to you.
• 8:55
  Of Romney? Yes, because you're not doing
• 8:56
  enough. He, he's unbelievable.
• 8:58
  I, I love this guy. He, he's just, he's just
• 9:00
  incredible. I'd asked him six months ago to
• 9:02
  come in and help us out with some of the technology stuff,
• 9:05
  and he really got to know some of the board members.
• 9:08
  So when I met with the board, they're like, you know, what
• 9:11
  about a Brummy and made a lot of sense.
• 9:13
  I have to ask you because I have so many questions, but I'll
• 9:16
  start with this one, which is a simple one, which is I had to
• 9:21
  call at Sala the other day and I'm not going to go into why
• 9:24
  right now because it's not about me.
• 9:26
  But when I called, the only number I remembered was the 718
• 9:29
  number and I called the 718 number. 718230387. 230-1000
• 9:35
  Colts 7823 on with Hatzolah. Yes.
• 9:37
  Hi, I need someone for Hatzolah and Muncie.
• 9:40
  Hold on a second, please. Yeah, the process took a lot
• 9:44
  longer than I expected and they're busy.
• 9:47
  Hold on. I'm trying to transfer you.
• 9:49
  One second back and forth. A little bit disappointed that
• 9:52
  there wasn't a button that they pushed.
• 9:54
  And then I got Hatzolah and Muncie in a second and it got me
• 9:56
  thinking, like what? Who is Hatzolah like?
• 9:59
  If you don't mind breaking it down for like, is it New York?
• 10:02
  Is it the five boroughs? And we've we've gone through
• 10:04
  this once when we sat with Ellie Rowe and we spoke about at Sala.
• 10:06
  But just a little bit of a refresher, like at Sala is 1
• 10:10
  umbrella organization, like when I'm giving to duck or charity
• 10:13
  dot Sala, am I giving it to one specific as they're overarching
• 10:16
  at Sala? How do you break it down for the
• 10:18
  simple mind? So, so, you know, I don't know
• 10:20
  when this is going to air, but you know, Ellie's right now in
• 10:23
  the midst of things and artistal.
• 10:24
  So I just want to give him good wishes.
• 10:26
  Wow, he's such a hero. By the way, he he he is watch
• 10:31
  over you and watch over everything you your family and
• 10:35
  give you scar for everything that you do.
• 10:37
  Big Ellie Roe fan so Hatsala and Ellie loves talking about the
• 10:43
  history of Hatsala and how many Hatsala branches there are.
• 10:47
  Hatsala started in Williamsburg. It was an idea, right?
• 10:50
  Started with Williamsburg was an idea of Herschel Weber, and it
• 10:55
  grew. It was a great idea, right?
• 10:57
  So it grew organically. Rockland, where you live,
• 11:02
  actually happened to be one of the initial Hatzolah branches, I
• 11:08
  believe before RL. I'm not sure if it was before
• 11:14
  Crown Heights, but it was that early in the hot salt.
• 11:18
  RL is. RL is Rockaway Lawrence.
• 11:20
  Rockaway, Lawrence. Rockaway Lawrence, the 5 lbs
• 11:22
  chapter, right? Yeah, OK.
• 11:24
  But, but Rockland was really early.
• 11:28
  Muncie was really early in the Hotzal development.
• 11:30
  And it makes sense because of the, you know, Hotzala was
• 11:35
  really initiated by the Hasidism and, you know, the Hasidic
• 11:38
  presence here in Muncie at the time, it made a lot of sense
• 11:42
  that Rockland was going to be one of the initial Hotzala
• 11:46
  branches. So as Hotzala began to grow and
• 11:49
  the different parts of the five boroughs really started to grow,
• 11:53
  especially Flatbush, Borough Park, Queens, Williamsburg, they
• 11:58
  needed some sort of central office.
• 12:01
  So it was the five boroughs in the 16 branches of the New York
• 12:07
  City that created what we call Central Hotzala.
• 12:11
  So again, as we said, Rockland predated that.
• 12:15
  So when they created Central Hotzala, it was only the five
• 12:18
  boroughs. It was only and Rockland and New
• 12:23
  Square and what's it called KJ, right?
• 12:30
  Those 3 New York branches were not part are not part and still
• 12:35
  they are not part of Central. However, Central had this one
• 12:41
  number right 230-1000, 387-1750. And I always tell people nothing
• 12:46
  connects Satsala more than the phone number, right?
• 12:48
  Because as different as we are as people, right, there's one
• 12:52
  phone number and bar Hashem, that's the phone number that 50
• 12:56
  years of children have been taught to learn.
• 12:58
  You can't retrain that. So that's really keeping us all
• 13:01
  together more than anything else.
• 13:04
  So when Central brought everyone together under one roof, the
• 13:07
  Central is designed to take care of infrastructure, licensing,
• 13:13
  billing, right back office stuff and allow the branches just to
• 13:16
  focus on on the care. But those branches that I
• 13:19
  mentioned that are outside, right, KJ Rockland, those
• 13:24
  central's not taking care of those organizations.
• 13:26
  They're doing it themselves. Chicago, Miami, all those right,
• 13:30
  doing it themselves. However, as the years went by
• 13:34
  and different communities started to grow, Kali Stroll
• 13:38
  started to grow. You know, I'm an AD towner my
• 13:41
  whole life, you know, and you know, the communities where I'm
• 13:44
  from. And it was like you knew you
• 13:47
  were something if you had a, a Shiva or you knew something, if
• 13:50
  you had a girls school, right? You had a Shoal, you had a, you
• 13:53
  had a base, you had a, you had a mikva, you had a, you had a, a
• 13:56
  small yeshiva, right, a small yeshiva, Cortana.
• 13:59
  But did you have a yeshiva? High school did it.
• 14:02
  Now it's Diavatala, right? Became Viavatala Satsala.
• 14:07
  Leadership started looking at that like scary because if
• 14:10
  you're right, the story that you just told me, right, and you're
• 14:15
  in Chicago and you call that number and you call the direct
• 14:20
  number in Chicago and they don't come in 90 seconds, you're not
• 14:24
  happy. You moved to Jackson, NJ, right?
• 14:30
  And you call Hatzalah Central Jersey and you don't get someone
• 14:34
  in 2 minutes, right? Because you're from Williamsburg
• 14:38
  and you just moved to Jackson because he got all this land,
• 14:41
  you're not happy. The leadership that I tell us
• 14:44
  started looking at that like whoa, we need to own this name
• 14:49
  because somebody's life is going to be in danger because of how
• 14:54
  good had solo became right? You expect something right that
• 15:02
  that city may not be able to deliver that Jackson, NJ may not
• 15:06
  be able to deliver. I think they can now, but when
• 15:10
  they first people started, first moved to Jackson, people start
• 15:13
  moving to Howell or these other areas.
• 15:16
  Manchester, right from Borough Park where there's a hot Sulla
• 15:21
  guy on your block in your building to a hot Sulla guy 15
• 15:25
  minutes away story. So the Central became the
• 15:32
  federally recognized license holder of the name Hot Sulla in
• 15:38
  the United States. And so there is a structure now
• 15:44
  if you want to be called Hatsala in this country, you need
• 15:48
  authorization from the Central office.
• 15:51
  That's something we did in these last five years that we created
• 15:54
  this. Interesting.
• 15:55
  Which is probably why the new Hatsala that opened in Lakewood
• 15:58
  called themselves Hatsala's in the fascia They.
• 16:00
  Have to use a different name. Right.
• 16:01
  They have to use a different name, which I want to ask you
• 16:03
  about because I'm curious. But before I ask you that, do
• 16:05
  you know the average response time?
• 16:07
  Like where is the fastest average response time?
• 16:09
  Is it Brooklyn I'm assuming? Borrow Park going to be Borrow
• 16:11
  Park. You know what, how, how, what
• 16:13
  timing that. Is we don't like to say those
• 16:15
  times, but it's really fast. I had a doctor from Baltimore in
• 16:19
  the dispatch room. And you know, and I will wholly
• 16:24
  admit, there are times when, you know, we have VIPs in the
• 16:28
  dispatch room and nothing's going on.
• 16:30
  And I'll text someone, Hey, create a call for me, right?
• 16:34
  Let's show them. Just because I'm terrible, but
• 16:36
  you know, that we, we, we, I mean, thank God there was no
• 16:39
  call, right, Right. But this was not one of those
• 16:42
  situations. And there was a child choking,
• 16:46
  right? We had a, it was a pediatric
• 16:48
  physician in the room and we had a child choking call come over
• 16:53
  the line. The child choking is like #1
• 16:56
  right. Child choking, you know, acute
• 16:59
  heart attack, you know, stroke, whatever those I mean.
• 17:01
  But child choking #1 The doctor heard the Hotzala member
• 17:08
  knocking on the door while the woman was still telling the
• 17:13
  dispatcher. That's how fast it can be.
• 17:18
  It can be in certain neighborhoods under a minute.
• 17:21
  Because what? That's what makes Hotzala so
• 17:23
  special, Because they're your neighbors, right?
• 17:27
  It's it's that that's what makes it work, right?
• 17:31
  Because they live on your block. And and does it make sense that
• 17:33
  that's what happened in Lakewood and Jackson, that whole area, of
• 17:36
  course. So the timing wasn't like you
• 17:38
  said a minute ago, which is interesting, is that we got you
• 17:40
  spoiled us, right? So, and when I say you, I mean
• 17:43
  all of you, all of you, holy Sadiqam and Yiden and neighbors
• 17:47
  that, you know, response time, I mean, you would say average is
• 17:50
  under a minute and 1/2, right? You said 90 seconds, right?
• 17:52
  So when you get used to such a response time and you're living
• 17:55
  in Lakewood and suddenly you're in the area where response takes
• 17:57
  4 or 5 minutes, you're getting frustrated, right?
• 18:00
  Yeah, one of the Rabunnam told me he literally had to get up in
• 18:03
  the middle of and show one shop as and tell people you moved
• 18:06
  here, you moved away from that. For whatever reason, you moved
• 18:10
  away from that here in Jackson. It's not Borough Park.
• 18:16
  We don't have all of those conveniences about Hashem, you
• 18:19
  know, now there are much, but it took time in Lakewood to get
• 18:23
  out, to become a hotel member in Lakewood and to become a hotel
• 18:26
  member of Central Jersey. And in Central Jersey, it's
• 18:28
  awesome, right? They have great hatzalah.
• 18:31
  You got to go on 500 calls to be a primary responder.
• 18:36
  And you as the consumer, that's awesome.
• 18:39
  That's what I want. I want a guy who's going on 500
• 18:41
  calls. I want a guy who's going on 30
• 18:43
  calls a month, right? Like, I want a guy who's sharp,
• 18:47
  who knows what he's doing. So is that what the challenge
• 18:49
  was when it came to? So a couple of guys are sitting
• 18:53
  around wait, you know, waiting for Atzalah to expand to their
• 18:56
  territory. It's not happening.
• 18:57
  And their EMT is, and they're available to participate.
• 19:01
  But I guess that's all it has rules of who they're going to
• 19:03
  accept and how, right, Very much so is that part of the challenge
• 19:06
  of what happened? I mean, so I, I, and, and when
• 19:09
  this whole story happened, I, it resonated with me because I had
• 19:12
  a story where someone called me asking me for help because he
• 19:17
  knew that I knew one of the coordinators.
• 19:19
  It's a great story. He asked me for help.
• 19:20
  He's like, can you help me get into Atzela?
• 19:22
  I'm like, what do I know? When I have, I have nothing.
• 19:24
  It's nothing. But you asked me to make a call.
• 19:26
  I'll make a call. That's just, you know how we
• 19:28
  are, right? So I made a call and the guy,
• 19:32
  the coordinator says, let me, let me meet you for coffee and
• 19:34
  explain to you what goes on Atzela.
• 19:36
  When you asked me to just take a guy for Atzela, like you think
• 19:39
  it's just like hire somebody. Let me just explain it to you.
• 19:41
  So he came and he sat with me and I'm not going to use any
• 19:44
  names, but it was such an interesting story.
• 19:46
  Otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell you.
• 19:48
  So he says, imagine that your sister or your spouse, your
• 19:52
  wife, right? You know, so if someone's
• 19:54
  married and their wife is home alone and you're on a business
• 19:56
  trip and it's 2:00 in the morning and they're calling for
• 20:00
  abdominal pain and you want someone to show up that guy that
• 20:04
  you want me to get him. Is that the kind of guy you want
• 20:06
  to show up to your to that woman's room at 2:00 in the
• 20:08
  morning? Or do even know the answer to
• 20:11
  that question, Right, Right. Do you know this guy well enough
• 20:15
  to give me the answer to that question?
• 20:17
  Can you? You may say I, I, I don't know,
• 20:20
  right? That's all so bad.
• 20:22
  You know one of the things I learned about Hatala when I came
• 20:24
  in. He never got accepted by.
• 20:26
  That I I knew from the beginning of the story.
• 20:29
  I. Imagine.
• 20:32
  One of the things I learned about Hatala when I came in is
• 20:35
  that money doesn't matter and it's so important.
• 20:42
  It's very different and and it's all does wonderful work.
• 20:47
  They they're they're the people there do wonderful work, but
• 20:50
  money that's united, that's all. Oh, that's united, that's all
• 20:53
  right. Different, very different
• 20:54
  organization, but they money means a lot there.
• 20:57
  Right, right. You don't want Israel, that's
• 20:58
  all right. That's what you mean.
• 20:59
  OK, right. Money means a lot there.
• 21:00
  Sure. Money means a lot there.
• 21:02
  You see it? I mean, they literally put out
• 21:04
  yesterday a $6 million campaign for a war effort that they're
• 21:08
  going to have nothing to do with, right?
• 21:10
  So I don't get it. But money means a lot there,
• 21:12
  right? Money means nothing here.
• 21:16
  Nothing. Doesn't matter if you're the
• 21:18
  richest guy in the world, right? No impact.
• 21:23
  You either have skills or you don't.
• 21:26
  Zehu PR means nothing. That's why you don't see them
• 21:29
  anywhere. Right.
• 21:31
  Very hard to find stories about Hatzalah, very hard to find
• 21:35
  information about our operations.
• 21:37
  That's by design because it's an organization that is strictly
• 21:41
  focused on one thing that when you call, we come and we take
• 21:47
  care. We pack and we go.
• 21:49
  That's what. Whatever happened to all the
• 21:52
  what happened to the women participating?
• 21:54
  And that's all that does. That's all that ever did they
• 21:56
  ever. I don't.
• 21:56
  I just don't know if I'm asked her.
• 21:58
  I know there was a whole thing of.
• 21:59
  Women, you live in Muncie. I'm out of touch a little bit
• 22:02
  with. Here, in here, in here, in the
• 22:04
  here in Rockland, the new square has has a whole has a whole team
• 22:08
  of women. Do they separately?
• 22:09
  You're saying it's a separate? No, no, it's part of, it's part
• 22:11
  of, it's part of a hotel. So if you're a woman and you
• 22:13
  call Hatsala of of new Square and you say I want a woman, they
• 22:17
  get you a so so. The way, the way the way it'll
• 22:19
  work is that the closest person is going to get eyes on the
• 22:21
  patient, right? That's primary because, you
• 22:25
  know, sitting around the table, it sounds good.
• 22:28
  We want a woman, really want the first person who's able to come
• 22:32
  if you are really in need of Hatsala, right.
• 22:35
  Not that you stubbed your toe or you cut your finger.
• 22:38
  If you are in real need, right. We had a situation in.
• 22:42
  This is one of the primary examples I give and I talk, you
• 22:45
  know, when people ask me a question about women in Hatsala.
• 22:49
  So I was, I was in the dispatcher.
• 22:51
  Yeah. I spent a lot of time listening
• 22:53
  in the dispatcher and just trying to learn.
• 22:54
  Again, I'm an outsider and a woman calls and she says I need,
• 22:59
  I need a woman, I need a woman, I need a woman.
• 23:01
  And the this is in Williamsburg, OK.
• 23:08
  And and the dispatcher followed his protocols.
• 23:12
  Excellent. We have such great dispatchers.
• 23:15
  Dispatcher followed his protocols and first he contacted
• 23:19
  the closest member on scene, right, who could possibly get to
• 23:22
  the to the patient. Then he contacted A coordinator,
• 23:26
  right and let the coordinator in that area know what was
• 23:30
  requested. We have no idea.
• 23:32
  She said she cut herself and she needs a woman.
• 23:36
  So first member on scene got to the woman's apartment and she
• 23:43
  had cut herself in a very private area.
• 23:45
  A knife had fallen off the off the off the counter and it just
• 23:51
  magically hit her in the worst possible place for a woman and
• 23:55
  it hit a vein. So she was losing an incredible
• 23:59
  amount of blood. The very sensitive Hatsella
• 24:03
  member who showed up on scene first showed her how to apply
• 24:09
  pressure herself on the area until a nurse, a female nurse
• 24:14
  that works with William and server Cutzilla showed up was
• 24:17
  able to, you know, address the the situation in a much more
• 24:22
  respectful manner. According to it.
• 24:24
  Now, if the first member on scene that seemed that she had
• 24:28
  lost too much blood or something worse had happened, he would
• 24:32
  have absolutely right intervened right then and says your life is
• 24:35
  in danger and you know, I need to I need to help you.
• 24:38
  So, so yes, does Hatzalah interface with women?
• 24:42
  And that's a situation in Williamsburg, right where, you
• 24:45
  know, bar Hashem stabilized the the nurse came, stabilized the
• 24:47
  woman, and we, we packed. Her up it makes sense that
• 24:51
  protocol do do they have training for this You're saying
• 24:53
  the way they came in right so they and I'm sure there's
• 24:56
  ongoing training for these things.
• 24:57
  What about training for dealing with trauma?
• 25:00
  And you know, I'm curious about this because no, I'm talking
• 25:03
  about their own trauma. I'm talking about for.
• 25:05
  Example. Yeah, Oh my God.
• 25:07
  And I'm asking you specifically because you didn't grow up as an
• 25:10
  EMT, you know, red siren Hatsala guy.
• 25:13
  So I, I have Hatsala friends, some of them get really excited
• 25:17
  when they see a car accident, really excited.
• 25:19
  And I'm not saying in a bad way, in a negative way.
• 25:21
  I'm saying this like they're they, their Superman power just
• 25:24
  gets activated. They sort of are immune to the
• 25:27
  challenges that come with the trauma of it.
• 25:30
  But you who did not grow up in this environment, I'm curious
• 25:34
  how you react to all this trauma that's happening around you.
• 25:37
  Like has there been a story that like you went home at night and
• 25:40
  like you couldn't sleep and something happened?
• 25:42
  Like tell me about that. Tell me about the training that
• 25:44
  you have or how you react to that trauma.
• 25:46
  I hope, I hope my wife listens to this podcast because she'll
• 25:49
  be laughing from the time you start asking the question.
• 25:53
  Unfortunately or fortunately, throughout my life, I've had a
• 25:56
  lot to deal with and I've been in positions in helping people
• 26:03
  through very, very traumatic situations way before my time in
• 26:09
  Hatzalah, you know, for, for, for, for years and years.
• 26:12
  So, you know, to the point that one time my wife and I were in
• 26:15
  the car and certain rub had called me up about a situation
• 26:19
  that I was involved in family. And a lot of times, you know, my
• 26:25
  wife used, you know, my wife used to say that you work for
• 26:28
  the CIA because I I never can't share.
• 26:30
  You just can't share. People call you with very
• 26:32
  personal private situation. You can't share.
• 26:35
  But a lot of times you'll find out in the car, right.
• 26:38
  We're driving together in the car and you know, she'll hear a
• 26:40
  conversation or, you know, put together some stories.
• 26:45
  I'll just, I'll never forget this because this is a
• 26:47
  particularly brutal family situation.
• 26:49
  And the Rav that I was working with called me up and yeah, he
• 26:55
  was breaking down over this whole thing.
• 26:59
  We finished the conversation, you know, I hung up and I was
• 27:03
  with my wife and I'm like, you know, so where we going for
• 27:05
  dinner? You know, like, and she's like,
• 27:07
  how do you do that? I said, I don't know, Hashem
• 27:09
  gave me that ability. I have to put it somewhere.
• 27:14
  You know, it's probably not healthy and it probably, you
• 27:18
  know, it's why I don't drink on porn.
• 27:20
  It's you know, it's, it's probably not great.
• 27:24
  But no, it when you talk about the members, I care very deeply
• 27:28
  about the members and some of the things that they see,
• 27:32
  because I'm aware of a lot of what they have seen over the
• 27:35
  last number of years. And some of it's not great.
• 27:38
  And, you know, you walk into situations in people's homes and
• 27:42
  some sometimes it's, it's devastating.
• 27:45
  And then we had a bus accident in Williamsburg a couple years
• 27:49
  ago. A couple of children were
• 27:50
  killed, right? The first guys on scene.
• 27:52
  And I had to see that, you know, I know that one of the guys on
• 27:56
  scene had a child literally that same age, right?
• 28:00
  Called him up later that night just to talk to him.
• 28:02
  There's a tragic accident and would mirror a few also a year
• 28:07
  or two ago. And the first guy on scene, you
• 28:11
  know, saw these little girls, you know, young, young teenage
• 28:14
  women, two of them, you know, died.
• 28:17
  But he literally, because of his ability to stay focused on the
• 28:23
  moment, saved two other lives, right, in a horrible car
• 28:27
  accident, right? But I saw him couple nights
• 28:30
  later, and he was not good. You know, I sat with him, talked
• 28:34
  to him. So, yeah, no, guys.
• 28:36
  Guys definitely in some areas have therapists who work with
• 28:40
  the members and some hopefully will get them.
• 28:44
  So it's not an official process, it's something each person on
• 28:47
  their own. Each no, each neighborhood deals
• 28:50
  with differently. Yeah, because it could be
• 28:52
  really, It could be a lot, I mean.
• 28:53
  It could be a lot. You say you've gone through
• 28:55
  things, so let's rewind a little bit and learn about who you are,
• 28:58
  where you from. I I don't know enough about you.
• 29:00
  You said you were in politics. Yes.
• 29:02
  You're dealing with emergencies before Hatsala.
• 29:05
  Where'd you grow up? Where's your family from?
• 29:07
  Tell me a little bit about your. Everywhere.
• 29:09
  Yeah. I, I, I was born in Philadelphia
• 29:11
  and I I, I lived there long enough to become a complete and
• 29:14
  total Philadelphia sports fan. OK, I know a few.
• 29:18
  And. The die hard like eagles.
• 29:20
  Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Eagles Torah.
• 29:23
  Sorry. God Torah.
• 29:24
  Eagles family. You know, that's just just, you
• 29:28
  know, dating with my wife. God, Torah.
• 29:29
  Eagles family. Just got to know that's where
• 29:31
  it's at. I love.
• 29:31
  It we already. It's in there, it's in there.
• 29:34
  The kids are all, all, all Eagles fans.
• 29:37
  Yeah, no. So born and filled.
• 29:38
  But we moved to Cincinnati when I was around 9 years old.
• 29:41
  And then I went to Yeshiva and Skokie.
• 29:42
  So when people ask me where I'm from, I just say I'm from
• 29:44
  Chicago because I really, you know, that's been home ever
• 29:47
  since my mother sent me to yeshiva in Chicago.
• 29:49
  I, you know, that's been, that's been home.
• 29:53
  I connected with Chicago, with the community, with the Rabian,
• 29:56
  with, you know, just so, so dearly.
• 29:59
  I always like asking where are your parents from?
• 30:00
  Where? Where's their background from?
• 30:02
  So my, my mother's from Queens. My father is from Philly.
• 30:08
  He still lives there. Like, you know, Yeah, my father
• 30:10
  still lives in Philly. My mother and stepfather live in
• 30:13
  Farrockway. They moved to Farrockway when we
• 30:14
  moved back here. But my father and stepmother
• 30:18
  still live in Philadelphia. Yeah.
• 30:21
  So whenever I go to Philly games, we it's an excuse to, you
• 30:25
  know, see my parents. But yeah, so that's where my my
• 30:30
  parents are. I'm 4th generation American.
• 30:32
  Wow. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:34
  Super cool. Which is pretty cool.
• 30:35
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Grandparents born here.
• 30:37
  So, yeah. So it's it's it's pretty
• 30:40
  awesome. But yes, I was in Chicago.
• 30:44
  I was in Skokie and I ended up Marcus a Terra and I had to
• 30:51
  stroll and then came back to Skokie and I went to Cincinnati
• 30:53
  Kaila Cincinnati. I was a Cincinnati boy and they
• 30:56
  wanted me to come back to be part of the Cubs, part of the
• 30:58
  second group of the Cincinnati Kailo, which is down brokerage
• 31:01
  on 20, you know over 30 years because going strong and Shmuel
• 31:07
  Bloom was visiting for Shabbos in Cincinnati of a bloom from
• 31:11
  the Agoda. Any side put the Shabbos
• 31:14
  together. The Shabbos physic for Rabbi
• 31:15
  Bloom and couple of the Kadalin came to visit and he said you
• 31:21
  should come work for the Aguda. That's it.
• 31:25
  That's how it started. That's how it started.
• 31:27
  OK, so he just saw you doing? Good, right, right.
• 31:29
  Saw me this. Is a pattern I'm noticing a lot
• 31:31
  with people's history is that if you just do the work, people
• 31:35
  will notice for. Sure, yeah, absolutely, 100%.
• 31:38
  I'm a little kid from Cincinnati who's in Skokie.
• 31:40
  Shiva made no sense that I should end up working for a good
• 31:43
  State of America. No sense.
• 31:45
  Completely and totally illogical.
• 31:47
  There were 1000 guys in Brooklyn that should have had that
• 31:48
  position and I was hired by the literature of America was hired
• 31:53
  by Schmo Bloom, right Bloom hired me and then he sent me to
• 31:57
  Chicago to learn under David Chanel.
• 32:01
  David Chanel is one of the greatest.
• 32:02
  I called he's he should be on Mount Rushmore of us got him in
• 32:05
  America, you know, in terms of what he has done for the Chicago
• 32:10
  community. So under the radar screen built
• 32:14
  the camps that exist throughout the Midwest really created a as
• 32:19
  a balabas A terror environment. You know, he worked for the the
• 32:24
  elder statesman, you know, Sidney Glenner, Jack
• 32:26
  Reichenbach, you know his father, Jack Schnell, right.
• 32:30
  He took direction from these daily daily ballabath them and
• 32:36
  the Vermont Haim who was she was tells she at the time he was
• 32:41
  armoured there and I had close to learn with him to have Rusa
• 32:44
  for seven years while I was in Chicago working for there good
• 32:47
  every Friday I sat with the Robin Fireman.
• 32:49
  I learned. What, what do you think makes
• 32:51
  Chicago so different? I mean, I have to be honest with
• 32:53
  you from as an outsider when it comes to cassette, when it comes
• 32:57
  to giving, I don't think there's any community like Chicago.
• 33:00
  And I, I believe it's, I believe it's primarily because of the
• 33:03
  clinic we got from the Rashima. Which was what?
• 33:05
  What? What was that message that
• 33:06
  you've heard? Air.
• 33:08
  To care loyla Asma nivra, right? Loyla Asma nivra rakla hayla
• 33:13
  akrini kiza kolhaddam, right? That's what we learned to
• 33:17
  explain those words. From those words invalujan loyla
• 33:21
  Asma nivra, you are not created for yourself, Rak la hail la
• 33:26
  ahrina rat, rather to help others Kiza kolhadam, that was
• 33:32
  absolutely drilled into it because that is the essence of
• 33:35
  all man. That was drilled into every
• 33:38
  Chicago guy from the time we were kids till we became adults,
• 33:43
  right? You are not here for yourself.
• 33:45
  You're here to help others. And I don't know any community,
• 33:49
  no community like Chicago, where the older generation is actively
• 33:55
  helping the next generation succeed, be it in business,
• 34:00
  invested, or in what's it called the entire anything, right?
• 34:05
  It's incredible what what what the Shiva planted in Chicago and
• 34:12
  David Schnell and Jack Reichenbach, Jack Schnell,
• 34:15
  Joseph Davis, Sidney Glenner personified that, you know, to
• 34:18
  the to the NTH degree. And he's all Glock.
• 34:20
  I mean, there's so many ball about them.
• 34:22
  I can say, you know who cared so much and you know gave that.
• 34:28
  And grew up in that environment of living for others, which is
• 34:30
  so beautiful. You don't see that enough, I
• 34:32
  mean. Bob Hartman I mean, like,
• 34:34
  there's like these guys how they cared so much and really put
• 34:40
  into their children and their children's friends.
• 34:42
  And I grew up with David, you know, and we in in their house.
• 34:46
  And it was all about, all right, how are you?
• 34:48
  What, what are you good at? What are you going to be
• 34:50
  successful at? What are you going to write?
• 34:52
  It's just, it was always like that.
• 34:53
  It was, it was always like. That so growing up and seeing
• 34:56
  all that, I mean, what, what were the challenges that you had
• 34:59
  as a as a teenager? What what were the what were you
• 35:02
  facing during that era of your life?
• 35:05
  In terms of what I mean just. The challenges, just like the
• 35:07
  typical teenage challenges, right?
• 35:09
  Like the you're surrounded by a lot of love.
• 35:11
  Which is great. That's.
• 35:13
  I'm curious how that, you know, lends a.
• 35:15
  Hand just just growing up, you know those types of challenges
• 35:18
  because the other challenges didn't exist, right, because you
• 35:22
  had that love, right, because you had that support right.
• 35:25
  You, you look at our Hebra, the guys that I grew up with, almost
• 35:30
  every one of them have successful lives today.
• 35:33
  I can think of very few who don't.
• 35:36
  And that means something, right, Because we didn't fall off the
• 35:41
  wagon. You know, everybody Elephant
• 35:42
  likes to say, you know, to his guys, you know who show up, one
• 35:47
  boy who learned by him and one boy who got a lot of enough for
• 35:50
  him. He likes to tell the guys during
• 35:52
  the schmooze, if you're sitting in the schmooze, you missed the
• 35:54
  off ramp. Yeah, you know, but there were a
• 35:57
  lot of guys in a lot of our cities who took that off ramp,
• 36:00
  right? And our and our and our guys, we
• 36:03
  were growing up so many, but Hashem amount of guys who stayed
• 36:08
  on stayed from stayed connected to the community.
• 36:11
  Different challenges, different challenges that's.
• 36:14
  Beautiful and the common denominator is the love that you
• 36:16
  felt from everyone, which is so beautiful the.
• 36:18
  Community Support. Tell me about that Aguda.
• 36:20
  First of all, I have to admit to you it's not the first time I'm
• 36:22
  saying it. I don't really know enough about
• 36:24
  what Aguda does. I know they're out there.
• 36:26
  I know they collect money for the Aguda.
• 36:28
  I just don't know exact. I know they oversee the school
• 36:30
  systems, which is a nice thing. They actually helped me
• 36:33
  tremendously. Towards the end of my career at
• 36:35
  the Aguda, yeah, I used to tell people to ask that question and
• 36:37
  say, you know what we do, What's your question?
• 36:41
  So how long were you there for? I was there 12. 12 years so you
• 36:44
  started off as what what was your when they first.
• 36:46
  Recruited you. I started off the Midwest
• 36:48
  regional director. OK, you know.
• 36:50
  Your job was what? Grow the Midwest right?
• 36:53
  What do you they gave me $5000 in the word go.
• 36:56
  That was the extent of the direction I had so.
• 37:00
  Growing what doing? Well, I I connected with
• 37:03
  government. In other words, you know, the
• 37:05
  the key, right there were there were there were there's a key
• 37:08
  role that a good of plays in Claudius always.
• 37:10
  You know, I looked at and I said there's the direction we have
• 37:14
  from the Manas Escudera, right, and then there's the government
• 37:17
  affairs and you looked at Chicago.
• 37:20
  That's really where we could play and make a difference
• 37:24
  because there was associated Tamil Torres.
• 37:26
  There was someone taking care of the schools as you as you
• 37:29
  discussed, there were other organizations who were dealing
• 37:31
  with a lot of the hesed work right by first you know his his
• 37:36
  Chicago hesed fund and all the great work that they do that
• 37:39
  some a good of related branches perform around the country, but
• 37:44
  we really focus on government camps and.
• 37:48
  Government. Government interaction with the
• 37:50
  hopes of what? What's the goal?
• 37:51
  Well, I mean, you know, first of all, there's the desire to live
• 37:56
  as an Orthodox Jew in this country, right?
• 37:58
  So therefore, laws have to be capable.
• 38:03
  Laws have to allow us to live in this country.
• 38:05
  Give me an example. First Amendment type issues.
• 38:09
  We want freedom of religion, right?
• 38:11
  We want, you know, your daughter wants to go and become a nurse,
• 38:15
  right? So therefore she wants to be
• 38:16
  able to go to the school without having to go to school on
• 38:18
  Shabbos, right? You want to work in the public
• 38:20
  workspace, but you want to be able to observe your religion,
• 38:24
  you know, and take off, maybe not for Purim, sorry, but you
• 38:27
  definitely want to take off for Yom Kippur, right?
• 38:29
  So these types of situations there.
• 38:31
  Are things that that good should get credit for doing?
• 38:33
  With government, absolutely. OK, I'm learning. 100% OK, These
• 38:37
  were all laws that were passed both federally, and then it
• 38:40
  became important to pass them on the state level.
• 38:43
  And then things come up like in our time, you know, literally I
• 38:46
  got thrown into the fire because if you look back, the Boston
• 38:50
  priest situation, you know, really started around 2002.
• 38:56
  What are you talking about? You know when you know, the
• 38:58
  accusations of molestation right started happening right in 2000
• 39:04
  and and two, so that the whole Boston diocese basically went
• 39:10
  down. I think there's a movie about it
• 39:12
  or ATV show that I'm blanking on the name but.
• 39:17
  Maybe staff can find it. Yeah, they can find it.
• 39:20
  He'll say it. I'll remember right away.
• 39:22
  So the that was around O2 and that's when I started working
• 39:29
  for Chris this role and laws started popping up.
• 39:33
  You know that we're going to have a massive negative impact,
• 39:40
  you know, statute of removing statute of limitations, you
• 39:43
  know, on yeshivas that may or may not have been involved in
• 39:48
  situations like this from 30-40 years ago where statute of
• 39:52
  limitations were in 20 years. Today, none of that
• 39:56
  administration exists anymore. We had to play incredible amount
• 40:01
  of defense. On these on these issues, that
• 40:04
  was my like, that was my introduction.
• 40:06
  But in your 20s in. My.
• 40:08
  Dealing with abuse. One thing you want to ask how I
• 40:11
  can deal with what I deal with today From 26, I was introduced
• 40:15
  to the abuse community, right? And I sat and I listened to the
• 40:20
  stories. I sat with, you know, I once
• 40:23
  said this publicly, but I can't say it anymore, you know, but I
• 40:25
  sat with good daily Tyra, you know, I wish I could share who,
• 40:29
  but I sat with good daily Tyra who wouldn't listen to these
• 40:32
  stories and cry, right? Listen to these stories and cry
• 40:37
  abuse that took place in our community.
• 40:39
  And but then we had to take a step back and say that's
• 40:45
  horrible, horrible. Not putting that aside.
• 40:49
  We have to look through the lens of today and as laws are being
• 40:54
  passed, how they are going to affect our community.
• 40:57
  Give me an example. What do you mean by a law?
• 40:59
  Well, you know statute of limitations, they want to remove
• 41:02
  statute of limitations for abuse cases against the institution,
• 41:07
  right? And if the statute of
• 41:08
  limitations is removed and somebody becomes litigious
• 41:13
  against you, have no more ex yeshiva.
• 41:16
  Meaning what? So if somebody in their 30s or
• 41:19
  40s decides that they want to call out something that happened
• 41:24
  to them when they were 12, Right?
• 41:26
  Correct. So that's where you're talking
• 41:27
  about statute of limitation. So where they wanted to pass a
• 41:30
  law, that there would be a statute of opposition.
• 41:32
  There would no they wanted to pass laws that to remove
• 41:34
  statute. To remove statute.
• 41:36
  And we wanted to protect those statute of limitations.
• 41:38
  But to allow for anyone, whenever they're ready to talk
• 41:41
  about it and to come out with it.
• 41:42
  But not to be able to destroy the Shiva.
• 41:45
  What does that mean? In others because they shouldn't
• 41:47
  be able to file a civil lawsuit. I see.
• 41:49
  So it should be something against the individual and not
• 41:52
  against individual. What about and as far as the
• 41:55
  institution protecting it, that we're not talking about that?
• 41:58
  If those and again, that's how you you know you have to split
• 42:01
  hairs, right? Only I'm, I'm thinking about it
• 42:03
  now and it was something that came up around a year ago.
• 42:06
  I think it was in Chicago actually.
• 42:07
  So I'm curious about it. I haven't spoken about this
• 42:10
  topic in quite a while, so I'm curious.
• 42:13
  Someone that passed away, there was a Rebbe and he died and
• 42:17
  someone came out against that person.
• 42:19
  And it was a huge question of whether it's considered lush and
• 42:23
  hara or whether you should be sensitive to the family that,
• 42:26
  you know, affected. Horrible, horrible, horrible on
• 42:28
  what? On what end?
• 42:29
  What, you know a person like you who went through this?
• 42:32
  Politically, I knew the whole thing.
• 42:33
  I was so so just. Teach me a little bit what what
• 42:36
  happened there that we can learn from and then what's something
• 42:38
  there that we can grow from in terms of understanding people
• 42:40
  who have gone through abuse and who are afraid to talk and, you
• 42:44
  know, have that feeling of, you know, I'll just park it in the
• 42:47
  back of my head. But then one day it affects them
• 42:49
  and they say, you know what, I want to let it out.
• 42:51
  There's something to it, right? There's definitely something to
• 42:53
  it. And you know, the question is
• 42:57
  you have to the person who is abused, right?
• 43:01
  They need to be cared for, right?
• 43:03
  There's no question about it. But this man's children didn't
• 43:08
  do anything wrong, right? This, this man's wife, didn't do
• 43:12
  anything wrong. She had no idea.
• 43:13
  Isn't that always the case? It's always the case.
• 43:16
  So this story now destroys them, right?
• 43:20
  So that's where we need daily Tara to advise us because you're
• 43:25
  right, this this victim, right? He he needs to share because it
• 43:31
  could kill him, not Sharon, right?
• 43:34
  That's also true. The not Sharon could also kill
• 43:36
  the victim, right? So he needs to share, but he
• 43:40
  needs to share in a way that's not going to kill others, right?
• 43:46
  Because this could have a devastating impact on the wife
• 43:52
  and the children, which it did. It's had a horrible impact on
• 43:56
  the family and such amazing, special people out of that
• 44:02
  family. Just very, very special.
• 44:04
  People, is there another way to do it?
• 44:05
  Is there a way that you would have done it differently?
• 44:08
  I don't know. There's, there's a there's a lot
• 44:11
  of hurt in the world, right? Yeah, I know that there was a
• 44:16
  cadre of Gadalan, right, that said one way and a cadre of
• 44:21
  Gadalan, they said another way. So whatever ended up happening,
• 44:26
  whoever did what they did definitely felt that they had
• 44:31
  backing by Hashva Rabbani, right on both sides.
• 44:37
  So I'm not going to enter into what should have happened.
• 44:42
  I definitely saw the fallout of what happened and it was, it was
• 44:45
  devastating. You know, people got sick later
• 44:51
  and like seriously ill. And some people point to this
• 44:57
  story as, you know, what could have caused them to, to, to, to
• 45:02
  get sick. So, you know, it's really, you
• 45:05
  know, you've this this whole, you know, this, this whole
• 45:11
  parsha of the abuse is just something that it's really just
• 45:18
  awful. And there's no good answers.
• 45:20
  No good answers other than keep your hands to yourself.
• 45:24
  Definitely, you know, and it's something that I guess that it
• 45:28
  could take years to come out and it's.
• 45:30
  No, no, no. Decades.
• 45:32
  Decades. Sometimes it really takes
• 45:33
  decades. But I like what you're saying
• 45:35
  before, and I never thought of it that way, that if the person
• 45:37
  who felt the abuse doesn't speak, they themselves die
• 45:42
  inside. Literally, literally, literally
• 45:44
  emotionally. I mean mentally, emotionally and
• 45:47
  then unfortunately physically it can be.
• 45:48
  And that's why I sat with these Gadolin, with those survivors at
• 45:50
  that time, because, and again, his family doesn't want me
• 45:57
  sharing. But this gubble, who's an
• 45:58
  amazing person, he knew that he knew they needed to share.
• 46:03
  And they needed to share with him.
• 46:05
  And they needed to yell at him and they needed him to feel a
• 46:09
  sense of responsibility for people shoving it under the
• 46:14
  carpet. And he listened to them, hours
• 46:18
  and days. He opened himself up and one
• 46:22
  after the other came to talk to him.
• 46:24
  And it was, it was, it was, it was wild.
• 46:28
  Wow, so through through your 20s, you're dealing with a good,
• 46:30
  you're dealing with abuse, you're dealing with government.
• 46:33
  What else? What are what are the other
• 46:35
  highlights of the a what a good does?
• 46:37
  Because you're teaching me and you're teaching the audience of,
• 46:40
  you know, the government involved stuff and the laws and
• 46:43
  protecting. Education, I mean, obviously we
• 46:45
  we started the school choice that you know what Mori Litwack
• 46:47
  pulled, you know, he said when I when I stepped away from from
• 46:51
  the Aguda, he he picked up the mantle of the school choice
• 46:55
  work. But AD Mutson from Agusususo
• 46:57
  still champions at in Washington.
• 47:01
  School choice work being what? Vouchers, you know, and.
• 47:05
  So those cities that have vouchers, right?
• 47:08
  Do you know what man who has? Vouchers, like, I mean, yeah,
• 47:11
  sure. I mean, Ohio has a program.
• 47:14
  Florida. Has a program or.
• 47:15
  Maryland has a program, Maryland right there.
• 47:17
  There are different programs throughout the throughout
• 47:19
  throughout the country. The reason why I'm asking is
• 47:21
  because so many people I speak to.
• 47:22
  Talk about the challenges financially that they have and
• 47:25
  raising families. And the first thing I say is,
• 47:27
  well, if you made a choice to have seven kids, right, one of
• 47:31
  the things you should think about is where you live and how
• 47:33
  to get, you know, schooling covered.
• 47:35
  But but Cleveland didn't grow. And Milwaukee.
• 47:38
  Which has vouchers didn't grow. Cleveland grew because as a
• 47:41
  Klein and Jaffa family created economic opportunities for from
• 47:46
  people to come and build a build a life, not because they were
• 47:49
  going to get free any jobs being number one to when you.
• 47:52
  Moved to a community when when Milwaukee was the first voucher.
• 47:55
  In the school voucher in the country and the the community
• 47:58
  started a campaign I don't know if you remember it called begin
• 48:03
  thinking Milwaukee right there was a there was a whole to try
• 48:06
  to try and get people the morning they got.
• 48:08
  Called this when. They say via called that's what
• 48:10
  they got and no offense, but because it's Milwaukee, that's
• 48:14
  correct. Right, so so you want the.
• 48:16
  Vouchers and stuff to happen in New York.
• 48:18
  Or New Jersey, Right? Exactly.
• 48:20
  Florida did a good job then Florida did a good job.
• 48:22
  So Aguda takes credit for those kind of vouchers.
• 48:24
  Rabbi Matz Moshe Matz was very, very.
• 48:26
  Involved from beginning to end in the creation of that program.
• 48:30
  So that that is a pretty big one.
• 48:31
  What? What are other some?
• 48:33
  You know, credible things that Aguda takes pride in the I, I
• 48:36
  believe the camping, the entire camping.
• 48:38
  Network that exists in upstate New York was the brainchild of
• 48:42
  Mayor Fischman and you know and and some of those others you
• 48:47
  know who really have been involved in Jewish camping for
• 48:50
  50 years or more. But it was really a good star of
• 48:53
  Amesha share and others. Silverman's flanking on his
• 48:58
  first name. Are you talking about like where
• 49:00
  they get support and Josh Silverman?
• 49:01
  Josh Silverman's Yeah Rabbit. Josh Silverman's Yeah, the
• 49:03
  Movie. Was Spotlight, by the way?
• 49:04
  Yeah, Spotlight. There we go.
• 49:05
  That's right. That's correct.
• 49:06
  That's the movie Spotlight. Thank you, Stephen.
• 49:09
  There you go. But Ravi, Josh.
• 49:11
  Silvermans and those I mean they, they created this concept
• 49:15
  of, of sleepaway camp in caskills.
• 49:18
  And it was actually Frieda Bastman.
• 49:20
  I believe it's Kershen Bastman's mother who was the one of the
• 49:24
  Kershen Bastman from Chicago, one of the original
• 49:27
  philanthropists who purchased camp sites, you know, 60-70
• 49:33
  years ago in the mountains for the Jewish camping networks and
• 49:38
  a good of Venosa. I mean, you cannot underestimate
• 49:43
  the positive impact a quality summer has for a child's
• 49:48
  development. And Aguda gets a strong amount
• 49:53
  of credit for the creation of this camping network.
• 49:58
  So, yeah, right. That's these are good things to
• 50:00
  know. I always knew that.
• 50:00
  Aguda has something to do with schooling.
• 50:03
  Camping is another thing and government involved in that.
• 50:05
  So throughout your tenure you had a lot of things happening
• 50:08
  there. What, what are some of the
• 50:09
  things that you learned in general about yourself and about
• 50:12
  growing with an organization? Because there's a pretty big
• 50:14
  organization. Good.
• 50:14
  It was a great organization. I, I I.
• 50:17
  Ended up becoming the vice president for development and
• 50:21
  government affairs. And, you know, I was one of the
• 50:24
  four people to, to to lead the organization.
• 50:27
  But at that time, you know, one of the things I learned is that
• 50:30
  Jewish organizations don't pay very well.
• 50:33
  And at that time, I was actually the highest paid employee at the
• 50:37
  organization. And I had received my tuition,
• 50:41
  you know, bill from the Shiva, and it basically matched my
• 50:45
  salary. And I remember sitting down with
• 50:48
  Shlaima Gritzlin, you know, who at the time was chief financial
• 50:51
  officer of the organization. I, I just showed it to him.
• 50:54
  And I remember him sitting there like, you know, like needing a
• 50:57
  drink, right? You don't mean water, right?
• 51:02
  Yeah, he just. Sat there, I remember.
• 51:03
  Him plopping. Down in the seat in front of me,
• 51:05
  like he's like, how are people supposed to respond when they
• 51:09
  get something in the mail? Like, right, So what was the
• 51:11
  what was the answer? What's that good as answer?
• 51:13
  When it comes to these kind of things, the financial strain
• 51:16
  negotiate with the Shiva, you know, but.
• 51:19
  That wasn't my Rachlahela Aquini, right?
• 51:22
  That wasn't my DNA. So and I always felt it was
• 51:25
  important to support my family. So more than anything it was
• 51:29
  financial challenges that caused me to go into the private sector
• 51:32
  for the first time. So you went from a good to what?
• 51:34
  What? I started my own.
• 51:35
  Lobbying firm. Oh, OK.
• 51:37
  So you knew enough about. Government interaction.
• 51:40
  I could be a lobbyist. I could be a lobbyist.
• 51:42
  I went to Mike Madigan, who was the speaker of.
• 51:43
  The House of Illinois at the time, and I said to him, Mr.
• 51:46
  Speaker, I think I'm going to open a lobbying firm.
• 51:50
  And he gave me a list of clients.
• 51:52
  Wow, How long did that last for the lobbying?
• 51:55
  It was until I went into it lasted.
• 51:57
  I mean, it would have still lasted had I not gone into
• 52:01
  government, right? Right.
• 52:03
  But you did lobbying for a number.
• 52:04
  Of years, five years, five years.
• 52:06
  Give me some of your. Accomplishments as a.
• 52:07
  Lobbyist, I mean, we, we worked mostly with the long term.
• 52:10
  Care industry, you know, working with that space we had Naha
• 52:17
  Khareedi was a was a client of ours, WZO was a client of ours.
• 52:21
  We helped them with the the prior, prior election, making
• 52:26
  sure that the attorney generals in the United States didn't give
• 52:29
  them a hard time, worked a lot with the visas for visiting
• 52:34
  nurses in Washington. Because as we know in the
• 52:38
  industry, as I'm sure you know, in the industry, you got to get
• 52:41
  nurses into this country because our facilities desperately need
• 52:45
  them. Those are so I was, we were
• 52:47
  really in the private sector. That's still an issue, right?
• 52:49
  I'm getting that's an. Issue, I mean they're they're
• 52:52
  bringing in people from different countries and we need
• 52:54
  them where they coming from right now.
• 52:55
  They're coming from the. Philippines.
• 52:57
  Philippines mostly. That's that's really those are
• 52:59
  the best. And are they allowing?
• 53:00
  Them these days to come in like. In certain pockets, Yeah,
• 53:03
  certain pockets, right. It takes.
• 53:05
  It's a. Number of years to.
• 53:06
  Figure that part out right and there are a couple of couple of
• 53:09
  couple of guys have. Schools out in the Philippines
• 53:11
  and you know, Grisman family, I think the in, in Lakewood, you
• 53:17
  know, they're originally from Ballpark, you know, they have a
• 53:19
  yes, we know the Grisman family very well.
• 53:21
  Excellent people. So they have a school system,
• 53:23
  they have a whole school system in the Philippines and they're.
• 53:25
  Teaching them how to do. Proper nursing, proper nursing
• 53:28
  and then bringing them into this country and they bring in.
• 53:30
  Here and I guess there's there a commitment level that.
• 53:32
  They have to have when they come in here a certain number of
• 53:33
  years. Yeah, right, right.
• 53:35
  In order to. Bring them in and then they're
• 53:36
  coming. In as a visa coming in on a
• 53:38
  special visa, right? That's 1B visa, right?
• 53:40
  Wow. OK, so those are some of the.
• 53:42
  Things that you've done and then you decide let me just go all
• 53:45
  in. Let me, let me.
• 53:47
  There was the. The Me Too movement.
• 53:49
  Happened OK How did it? Affect you like in that world
• 53:51
  state. Representative from where I
• 53:53
  lived was a. Cute mate was a cute so he was
• 53:56
  basically. Forced to step down.
• 53:58
  I see OK and. There was.
• 54:01
  An opportunity where the community could choose somebody
• 54:05
  to be their representative without an election.
• 54:08
  Without an election. Got it.
• 54:10
  It was an appointment. Got it.
• 54:11
  So it was in the middle, right? With how many?
• 54:13
  Years left a full term, so it happened right in the.
• 54:16
  Beginning what an. Opportunity, crazy opportunity,
• 54:20
  OK. And I remember.
• 54:23
  Saying to the. Guys, you know, if we do this
• 54:25
  right, by the end, they're going to be screaming.
• 54:28
  List them at them, list them at them because we're going to
• 54:32
  accomplish so much. It's it's really it.
• 54:35
  It's and I've seen a couple of other people do it, you know,
• 54:39
  since. But when you go from being a
• 54:41
  lobbyist to being a member, right?
• 54:45
  So a lot of times people like your brother, right?
• 54:48
  He, he wasn't a lobbyist first, right?
• 54:50
  He ran 1st and then he became a member, right?
• 54:53
  Became a member. And then he learned all the
• 54:56
  insides out, you know, and he accomplished a lot for Barbara,
• 55:00
  for the community. If you're a lobbyist and then
• 55:03
  you go in, right, you're like, you know everything.
• 55:07
  You're armed. You're armed.
• 55:08
  Yeah. Yeah, I was.
• 55:09
  Not your regular freshman. Wow.
• 55:12
  Right, so you must have been I. Mean we've been making impact.
• 55:15
  So who? Decided that you.
• 55:16
  Should be the one. How did that work out and how
• 55:18
  did that happen? There were many.
• 55:20
  First of all, who's from? The community, it was Mota
• 55:22
  Davis, right, who led the effort.
• 55:23
  Mota Davis Yes. So people from the community
• 55:25
  came together and they elected you.
• 55:27
  Yes, you. Might tell you and they went
• 55:28
  over to you and they said you're the guy, right?
• 55:30
  You're perfectly fit for this. I did not know at the time it
• 55:33
  would destroy my. Business.
• 55:35
  I should have thought that through and got it.
• 55:37
  Kudos to my Shota Fianki filer for surviving all this.
• 55:41
  But yeah, you're saying as having a lobbying firm, Yeah.
• 55:46
  I mean, I should have thought through.
• 55:48
  That obviously you're going to lose all your clients from
• 55:51
  conflict of interest, right, right, right.
• 55:53
  But you had a partner at the time.
• 55:54
  You had a partner at the time. Got it.
• 55:58
  So you were you were appointed. As the state representative,
• 56:02
  state representative of this district assemblyman in New
• 56:05
  York, you call it like Sims I. Haven't seen that.
• 56:07
  Right. Similar type of thing.
• 56:08
  Right. OK.
• 56:09
  I think Aaron Wieder is current. Yep.
• 56:11
  So you came in guns? Blazing ready to rock'n'roll.
• 56:14
  You already had ideas, right? Tell me about the things that
• 56:17
  you've changed, the most challenges you've had, the most
• 56:19
  important thing that we did during those two.
• 56:22
  Years that I had this opportunity and I knew going in,
• 56:24
  there were three bills that I was not going to be able to vote
• 56:26
  for as the former vice president of Agusi Stroll and this
• 56:30
  abortion bill was going to be one of them.
• 56:32
  I knew that I knew going in. I knew going because I knew it
• 56:35
  was on the calendar. What was the bill?
• 56:36
  What was the IT was expanding? Abortion in.
• 56:40
  The state of Illinois, way past what it was, it was a complete
• 56:43
  and total expansion of the of the law.
• 56:46
  It's called the Reproductive Health Act.
• 56:49
  In theory, Orthodox Jews are not opposed to abortion, but the
• 56:54
  right we're not opposed to we in fact, we can't live in a society
• 56:57
  without abortion because sometimes Halafa dictates it
• 57:02
  right by us, as in our lives. It's either it's either you must
• 57:06
  or you can't. That's how abortion works,
• 57:08
  right? So you if it's, you must, right?
• 57:12
  It must. Is a an example, a must?
• 57:14
  You woman's life is in. Danger mental, physical right
• 57:20
  situation, how she got pregnant, right?
• 57:23
  If it was rape, incest, right? These types of situations must,
• 57:28
  right? Or you can't.
• 57:31
  It was a mistake, right? Right.
• 57:33
  Whatever that may be. So that's the way Halafa treats
• 57:37
  abortion, right? It's either are you must or you
• 57:40
  can't. But we can't live in a society
• 57:42
  where it's if it's you must, right?
• 57:45
  You can't live in Texas. How do you live in Texas?
• 57:47
  And it's you must, it's a real Shiloh, right?
• 57:50
  How how are Jews living in Texas right now?
• 57:52
  Because there could be a situation where it's you must,
• 57:55
  but in Texas you can't. What do they do?
• 57:58
  They come to. They go to Illinois.
• 58:01
  Wow, that's what they do. So.
• 58:04
  On so together with a certain receiver we created maybe a
• 58:09
  possible hava mean how I could vote for it, but ultimately it
• 58:14
  was it would have been a massive hell Hashem.
• 58:17
  But knowing that that was coming, we had as what could we
• 58:21
  do beforehand and we accomplished a lot.
• 58:25
  I mean, we, we, we had the the highest increase for the
• 58:28
  industry in the history of the state that myself and my senator
• 58:34
  put together as a deal between the industry and SEIU.
• 58:38
  Only experienced guys could have gotten that done.
• 58:40
  You talking about the reimbursement rate for
• 58:42
  healthcare? Where it would make sense for,
• 58:45
  you know, the operators to continue giving the care they
• 58:47
  need That's correct so overseeing this this concept
• 58:51
  that you go to a hotel and the minimum you pay is $200 a night
• 58:54
  to get cared for in a shower A150175 for.
• 58:58
  Total healthcare I I, I don't think people enough understand
• 59:01
  this, they think. Like, you know, nursing homes,
• 59:03
  like, you know, first of all, it's not as peachy as it sounds.
• 59:06
  You know, it's, it's a lot of hard work, but getting
• 59:09
  reimbursed an average of $175 is a joke.
• 59:12
  But this was 2019 and we brought the levels.
• 59:16
  Up to 2017, hasn't changed since then.
• 59:19
  In Illinois, hasn't changed since then.
• 59:21
  They're still at reimbursement level that I brought them to.
• 59:24
  You gotta go back. We're still, though.
• 59:26
  That's sort of. What I'm doing now?
• 59:28
  But the, the, but at that time, myself and my senator, we like,
• 59:34
  we got to get this done and we got this deal that he, he was a
• 59:37
  former SEIU one employee and I grew up in the industry, you
• 59:40
  know, with my families and friends and we approached it
• 59:45
  together, we attacked it together.
• 59:47
  We worked together with the first year Governor Pritzker and
• 59:50
  we got it done. It was the biggest impact could
• 59:53
  possibly have had on the community.
• 59:55
  Besides all the other programs, I also passed a very important
• 59:58
  piece of legislation for the abuse community.
• 1:00:01
  What's that there? Prior to my law passing, if, if
• 1:00:08
  a woman had been if a woman had been raped and went into the
• 1:00:14
  hospital for medical care, but she had a warrant out for her
• 1:00:17
  arrest, she would be arrested in the hospital.
• 1:00:20
  So it was a deterrent for women who had.
• 1:00:26
  Received who had unfortunately been the victims of abuse who
• 1:00:32
  had again non violent you know warrants out so they won't go
• 1:00:38
  seek medical so if you have a warrant for a suspended license
• 1:00:41
  and. You get raped, you're not going
• 1:00:43
  to say anything because you're afraid of getting arrested.
• 1:00:45
  The Sheriff's Office is going to show up and arrest you.
• 1:00:47
  Interesting. Wow.
• 1:00:48
  So you changed that unpaid, you know, parking?
• 1:00:52
  Sure. Yeah.
• 1:00:53
  So we changed that. Law, that was.
• 1:00:55
  That was a probably. Probably.
• 1:00:57
  One of the more. It was so significant, the
• 1:00:59
  Chicago Tribune wrote a front page story on the passage of
• 1:01:03
  that bill. Republican Leader Jim Durkin at
• 1:01:07
  the time was sitting in his office as we were debating the
• 1:01:09
  bill and we were killing them. And he was so angry.
• 1:01:16
  He came out of his office and onto the floor and started
• 1:01:20
  yelling at me, right or endangering communities.
• 1:01:26
  And I remember I said, I said, you know, Mr. Leader, you, you
• 1:01:30
  don't understand the bill. You don't understand the while
• 1:01:34
  he's yelling, yelling, screaming like.
• 1:01:37
  You know. Wow, wow.
• 1:01:39
  And we, we. Passed it with.
• 1:01:41
  He ended up because of his, the vocal opposition, we, we tabled
• 1:01:47
  it that day. But I remember going to the back
• 1:01:49
  of the room with him and singing, he's a lawyer.
• 1:01:52
  I'm not a lawyer. I said, Jim, you know, this is
• 1:01:54
  what we're doing. And I walked him through.
• 1:01:56
  I had law enforcement lobbyists come come on to the floor, talk
• 1:02:01
  it out with us. They gave us support and, you
• 1:02:03
  know, pass the bill almost unanimously.
• 1:02:06
  Beautiful. Congratulations for.
• 1:02:08
  Everything you've you've done. I remember my brother passed a
• 1:02:10
  couple of cool laws in New York. One of them that stands out is
• 1:02:14
  like that yellow sticker that used to get on the window when
• 1:02:16
  you parked illegally. They can't take it off.
• 1:02:20
  Yeah. So he passed the law that you
• 1:02:21
  can't. Do it anymore.
• 1:02:22
  And you know that's it and they stopped putting it on because
• 1:02:24
  he's like innocent till proven guilty.
• 1:02:26
  So like you know putting on a sticker that means I'm already
• 1:02:28
  guilty right? I'm driving around with it for
• 1:02:30
  the next 6 months also. Dangerous.
• 1:02:32
  You can't see out the window, so.
• 1:02:34
  That plus the tip thing, that was a big one, which restaurants
• 1:02:37
  still play games with. But you know, you go to a
• 1:02:40
  restaurant and it's and asks for a tip and then you sign and then
• 1:02:43
  the receipt comes back and it asks for another tip.
• 1:02:45
  So he passed the law against that.
• 1:02:46
  Well, you can't do that and you can't ask for tips more than
• 1:02:49
  once. And those are these are real
• 1:02:51
  deal, you know, things that happen.
• 1:02:53
  Is there a law now that's happening that you have your eye
• 1:02:55
  on and you think like, oh, I want to do this.
• 1:02:57
  There's something going on in the world.
• 1:02:59
  I mean, yes, actually there is. I What would that be?
• 1:03:03
  I, I believe very strongly that families of victims who, if, if,
• 1:03:18
  if a judge and a District Attorney do not do their job and
• 1:03:24
  put the violent criminal away and then that criminal goes out
• 1:03:30
  and kills someone or hurt someone, that family or that
• 1:03:34
  individual should have the ability to sue the judge or the
• 1:03:39
  District Attorney for negligence or, you know, lack of
• 1:03:45
  professional responsibility. I believe very strongly in that
• 1:03:49
  because right now there is no recourse, right?
• 1:03:52
  He saw this woman in Virginia who was just killed right after
• 1:03:57
  a judge let a let a guy with 30 felonies out of out of prison,
• 1:04:02
  you know, out of, you know, let him off on, on a misdemeanor,
• 1:04:09
  you know, for, for nothing, whatever, not a misdemeanor.
• 1:04:11
  I mean, sorry, he was he had a violent crime and the judge just
• 1:04:14
  let him off. And because compassion, well,
• 1:04:18
  this false compassion ended up costing this woman her life,
• 1:04:22
  right? That the Russian woman that
• 1:04:24
  Trump spoke about and the Ukrainian woman, sorry, Trump
• 1:04:27
  spoke about in the State of the Union address, right?
• 1:04:29
  She should be alive today, right?
• 1:04:32
  But instead, the judge let that that criminal free, absolutely
• 1:04:37
  that family should have recourse against the judge, against the
• 1:04:40
  District Attorney, against everyone who allowed that person
• 1:04:43
  to be on the street because they did not fulfill their duty to
• 1:04:47
  protect the citizens of this their state, their country,
• 1:04:51
  their whatever. So you want to create a
• 1:04:52
  accountability system. For that person needs to be
• 1:04:56
  accountability, right? So were you going to sue them
• 1:04:57
  personally? You're saying Sue?
• 1:04:59
  Them personally I like this idea by the way.
• 1:05:01
  I mean, I don't know. If it's necessary.
• 1:05:02
  Today, in today's environment, but I I think like 1520 years
• 1:05:05
  ago, had you done that to Rabam and teachers, I think it would
• 1:05:08
  have helped a lot. Helped a lot.
• 1:05:09
  Also right whole concept. Right.
• 1:05:11
  Like, Oh my gosh. Like, yeah.
• 1:05:13
  Professional negligence. It sounds like a good idea.
• 1:05:15
  Like, you know, some God forbid something happens, you can go
• 1:05:17
  after the person. Yeah, again, we work in the
• 1:05:19
  healthcare space. How many?
• 1:05:20
  How? Many lawsuits are there against
• 1:05:22
  against the the industry for every day, every day, every day,
• 1:05:28
  every facility. Wow.
• 1:05:29
  OK, so you're you're in. The a good the world, you go to
• 1:05:33
  politics, you go to lobbying, you go to politics.
• 1:05:36
  Then you the the election time comes and I guess you ran and
• 1:05:39
  didn't win and then you got recruited by Hatsala, correct?
• 1:05:43
  And then you moved. Then we moved.
• 1:05:46
  Wow. How was that for you?
• 1:05:48
  That was a lot. That was a lot.
• 1:05:51
  That was a lot. We love Farrakhan, you know,
• 1:05:54
  we're Chicago family, you know, So everyone asked after I
• 1:05:57
  announced that I was stepping down, are you going to move back
• 1:05:59
  to Chicago? I think we're just too old.
• 1:06:02
  You're never too old. Come on.
• 1:06:03
  Just. I can jump on a plane I'll be
• 1:06:06
  in. Chicago in two hours.
• 1:06:07
  You know, I've we have children there.
• 1:06:09
  I have a son who's an attorney and with two grandchildren.
• 1:06:12
  But you did it for financial reasons, I guess I.
• 1:06:15
  Mean you needed a job, right it was the right move for you to do
• 1:06:18
  shows the right if someone needs to do something dramatic in
• 1:06:23
  their life for the right financial reasons, you'll do it
• 1:06:26
  right and I I guess. That's also another.
• 1:06:30
  Interesting thing that people should think about in terms, of,
• 1:06:33
  you know, where they're leading and in terms of their financial
• 1:06:36
  responsibilities like you have to be responsible to your family
• 1:06:39
  your. Responsibility is, is, you know,
• 1:06:41
  yes, Hashem provides, no question about it.
• 1:06:44
  We all know, right? We, we're in this nursing home
• 1:06:47
  space. Some guys are billionaires.
• 1:06:49
  Some guys lost their pants. I don't know.
• 1:06:53
  Yeah. Is this guy a better operator?
• 1:06:54
  Is he such a better operator? It's all from Hashem.
• 1:06:57
  I think the greatest Raya Brewer, that Hashem is the
• 1:07:01
  provider of Parnassa, is the nursing home industry.
• 1:07:05
  Because everyone's in the same business, right?
• 1:07:08
  Everyone's in the same business, right?
• 1:07:09
  And some people make it tremendously and some people
• 1:07:11
  don't. It's incredible the burial oven
• 1:07:13
  provides for. Another but you have to be
• 1:07:15
  responsible. It is your ahrias to provide for
• 1:07:19
  your family. You know I have Kanine Haro, we
• 1:07:21
  have, we have six children. I have 4-5 boys and A and A and
• 1:07:26
  a daughter. And you know three of my boys
• 1:07:30
  and one my daughter are married. Kanine Haro we have one entering
• 1:07:34
  shaddach him and each one of them.
• 1:07:38
  I gave him the speech is your responsibility to provide for
• 1:07:41
  your family. You can learn but how, Daddy?
• 1:07:45
  How? What should I?
• 1:07:45
  Do what do you how do you answer that question to somebody that
• 1:07:48
  comes to you like a child or even someone in the committed
• 1:07:51
  God? You know my my.
• 1:07:53
  My oldest, you know, knew he wanted to be a lawyer, right?
• 1:07:56
  And he and he married an incredible woman who who
• 1:08:00
  supported him through, helped him get through law school.
• 1:08:03
  Yeah, that's that's the easy way when you know you have a career.
• 1:08:05
  Lined up. You want to be an attorney, A
• 1:08:07
  doctor, by the way, there's a lot of attorneys and doctors I
• 1:08:10
  know these days that are struggling as well,
• 1:08:11
  surprisingly. And it happens.
• 1:08:14
  It happens. Yeah, But if someone's coming.
• 1:08:16
  To you with all the experience. That you have and the knowledge
• 1:08:18
  and how you've moved your entire life.
• 1:08:21
  What do you say to people who are struggling financially?
• 1:08:23
  How do you? Yeah, how do you, how do you
• 1:08:25
  give them advice? If someone's coming to you and
• 1:08:27
  asks you for advice, what are you saying to them?
• 1:08:28
  How How are you breaking it down?
• 1:08:29
  Each situation is differently, right?
• 1:08:31
  You have to break it down. Right, you got to break.
• 1:08:33
  What are the questions you're asking me?
• 1:08:34
  What are you? How are you?
• 1:08:35
  Identifying what to do. How much time are you putting
• 1:08:39
  into this? Right.
• 1:08:41
  Like you know, my business isn't succeeding.
• 1:08:43
  Well, OK, how much time are you putting into that business,
• 1:08:48
  right. So like, that's the first
• 1:08:50
  question I asked, right? What distracts you from your
• 1:08:54
  focus at work? What, what prevents you from,
• 1:08:59
  what do you think is preventing you from success, right?
• 1:09:02
  What do you think your obstacles are?
• 1:09:04
  You got to look in the mirror first because when you start
• 1:09:09
  there, I think 80% or more of the answers will come out as to
• 1:09:14
  why the individual is struggling.
• 1:09:17
  And there's a certain percentage of the community that can't make
• 1:09:21
  it right. We always say that 7% of society
• 1:09:26
  is unemployable, right? So when you say that the
• 1:09:30
  unemployment's, you know, below 7%, you know that's a false
• 1:09:35
  number because there's 7% of the world who is simply
• 1:09:39
  unemployable. Or if those people are employed,
• 1:09:42
  that means they're not, they're not doing anything because they,
• 1:09:46
  there are certain people who can't, right?
• 1:09:48
  You and I are different. You're sitting here, you run a
• 1:09:50
  big company and you're doing this podcast, which is
• 1:09:52
  incredible around professional thing, right?
• 1:09:55
  You're literally managing 2 big enterprises, right?
• 1:09:59
  You, you're an overachiever in, in that sense.
• 1:10:02
  You're not getting off of this podcast and taking a nap even
• 1:10:06
  though it's tinus Ester, right? I'm literally going to the
• 1:10:10
  office to to my next appointment.
• 1:10:12
  Right. So like.
• 1:10:14
  There there are those of us who just have a different drive
• 1:10:18
  right And that's going to produce it is right.
• 1:10:22
  Yes, Hashem is in charge of Prognosa, but it's going to
• 1:10:25
  produce a certain amount that's going to meet you make sure that
• 1:10:28
  you're not at the poverty level. You're going to be above that
• 1:10:30
  poverty level whether or not you're going to get to the next
• 1:10:32
  but that's the right that's Brafa see at this money bought
• 1:10:36
  at the right time, sold the right time, got the right deal
• 1:10:38
  didn't get that, but you're going to get above that that
• 1:10:41
  line when it comes to career advice for an individual right.
• 1:10:44
  So I had a young killed man, you know, asked me just last week.
• 1:10:50
  He says he's he's really, he's he told me this guy's cutest
• 1:10:56
  guy, guy saw me in Shiva because I was helping where I've been
• 1:10:59
  there with something. So he says to me, he says, he
• 1:11:05
  says I'm really good with these bachram.
• 1:11:07
  I'm really good at helping these bachram out and understanding of
• 1:11:10
  them. He said.
• 1:11:13
  He says, I don't know if I have the Bahira not to go into right.
• 1:11:20
  That's the, that's the smart. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:23
  Sight. One more sign of me.
• 1:11:25
  First question I asked him. I said.
• 1:11:28
  What does your wife want her life to look like right in five
• 1:11:35
  years from now? Does your wife want to be living
• 1:11:40
  a Chinook life? Does your wife want to be living
• 1:11:46
  in a situation where she's thinking about where she can buy
• 1:11:50
  a home right now? It whatever the answer to that
• 1:11:55
  question should absolute because you're married now.
• 1:12:00
  I said to this young man you this he has, he has a child.
• 1:12:04
  You have a responsibility to those two people to get that
• 1:12:10
  answer right, because it's not just about you, right?
• 1:12:16
  It's about what you have to provide for them.
• 1:12:20
  And according to the Mark Suvas, according to what they are
• 1:12:25
  looking to be provided. Wow, that's a good point.
• 1:12:28
  By the way, I like. That I don't think enough people
• 1:12:30
  think like that, you know, and I speak to a lot of young families
• 1:12:34
  and the the head of the household, so to speak.
• 1:12:36
  Whoever's making they're, they're not thinking like that
• 1:12:39
  and they really should they have to in terms of what's going to
• 1:12:42
  be in five years from now. So like, so what's next for you
• 1:12:45
  Speaking of five years from now? Well, right now I'm.
• 1:12:49
  I'm, I'm, I'm lobbying right now.
• 1:12:50
  I'm, I'm doing some lobbying work.
• 1:12:52
  I'm I'm right back into lobbying right back, right back because
• 1:12:55
  that business. Exists.
• 1:12:56
  So it's it. It is it's it's.
• 1:12:59
  One of those businesses that that is going to exist whether
• 1:13:03
  you know the what's the I'm looking, I'm forgetting the
• 1:13:08
  phrase, it is, it's always going to be there.
• 1:13:11
  It's always going to be there. There's, there's, there's.
• 1:13:14
  There's no downturn of the economy that's going to cause
• 1:13:17
  lobbying to cease to exist. Or I do a lot of election work.
• 1:13:23
  That's really, that's really my my core skill.
• 1:13:26
  What does that mean? What's what's, in other words,
• 1:13:28
  helping Helping. Candidates.
• 1:13:30
  Get elected, getting their messages out there, working with
• 1:13:33
  the media and, and, and some, you know, both print media and
• 1:13:41
  digital media, getting the messages out there, attacking
• 1:13:44
  the right areas, working with the right, putting the right
• 1:13:46
  groups together to help your help your campaign.
• 1:13:49
  So I do a lot of a lot of that work.
• 1:13:51
  I'm working with a couple of candidates right now in
• 1:13:52
  Illinois, you know, helping them out.
• 1:13:55
  Adam Braun, you know, and, and Sarah Feigenholtz and, you know,
• 1:14:01
  Paul Kendrick, you know, 3-3 people running out there and 2
• 1:14:07
  for state representative, one for senator.
• 1:14:11
  Really love that work. I love that work.
• 1:14:15
  And then the lobbying as well, which is very much so right now.
• 1:14:19
  I'm working strictly with the industry.
• 1:14:22
  Wow, so it seems like that you're back.
• 1:14:24
  To where you feel at home so very much right yeah.
• 1:14:28
  But you know, five years in Atzalah is is not a small feat.
• 1:14:31
  I mean that's a it's a very big deal.
• 1:14:33
  So very special and and the accomplishments that you leave
• 1:14:37
  moving forward right. There's a lot I mean there's a
• 1:14:40
  lot that happened over there. One of the things that I think
• 1:14:42
  you guys tremendously should be proud of is the you have an app
• 1:14:46
  that you have that's around the world and I and what tell me a
• 1:14:48
  little bit about that app. How does that work?
• 1:14:50
  Because I will tell you in a time of crisis, you don't
• 1:14:52
  remember any app. You only remember 718-2301.
• 1:14:56
  Thousand. I mean you.
• 1:14:56
  Know I'll tell you myself personally, but you know, but
• 1:14:59
  what is that app so so that app. Is it's, it's it's it's a great
• 1:15:05
  app. And if you if you it's called
• 1:15:10
  the global assist app, Yeah. We'll, we'll show it on the on
• 1:15:14
  YouTube. Yeah.
• 1:15:16
  So the. The Global Assist app was was
• 1:15:20
  really developed by a group out here in, in, in New Jersey who
• 1:15:27
  you know who call themselves statewide Hatsella.
• 1:15:31
  And Statewide, Hatsella was founded by a couple of
• 1:15:36
  individuals who said, hey, they're hot tall guys who travel
• 1:15:40
  all over the world, right? Let's create a chat, right?
• 1:15:44
  And if a call comes in where there's in Boot, Montana, maybe
• 1:15:50
  there's hot tall guy there, let's just put it out on this
• 1:15:53
  chat. And you know who knows?
• 1:15:56
  Like winter break in Vermont or. Or you know some of these like
• 1:16:00
  not Pesach. In Cancun exactly.
• 1:16:02
  Maybe that's not exactly by the way.
• 1:16:04
  Yeah, we actually had a crazy. Story on on.
• 1:16:07
  Statewide where never fight. Yeah, individual one and his
• 1:16:15
  relative were travelling to New Orleans for a conference and
• 1:16:19
  died in flight and literally Dino flight put the, I don't
• 1:16:24
  remember it was a male or female, but let's just assume
• 1:16:27
  male and put his head on his travel mate and didn't wake up,
• 1:16:32
  just died. And they landed in New Orleans
• 1:16:37
  and they freaked out. You know, they called their
• 1:16:39
  local Hatzalah, which was not in New Arkansas.
• 1:16:42
  They called their local Hatzalah and the person from the local
• 1:16:47
  Hatzalah put out on the statewide chat.
• 1:16:50
  Is anyone in New Orleans. Right.
• 1:16:53
  And there was a Flatbush member who's also a Connecticut member,
• 1:16:59
  Waterbury member who was in New Orleans at the time and for the
• 1:17:05
  same conference. And he ran to the airport and he
• 1:17:09
  provided incredible care to the family.
• 1:17:13
  Make sure that the loved one didn't get the autopsy right, to
• 1:17:17
  make sure that someone was with the Mace the entire time.
• 1:17:21
  And that's just that's just the stuff nobody hears about that
• 1:17:24
  hotel members do. And statewide hotel had, you
• 1:17:28
  know, is responsible for that story and so many other stories
• 1:17:32
  like that. And they came to us.
• 1:17:35
  I said, want to do this app and I remember we met in Wolfson's
• 1:17:37
  building in Manhattan and you know, show us what you got
• 1:17:41
  there. And they really, it's
• 1:17:44
  incredible. And then then it became
• 1:17:47
  territorial. OK, you know, what's my
• 1:17:50
  territory? It was here, right?
• 1:17:53
  How do we define, you know where you know?
• 1:17:55
  So we had to create the territory and that was done.
• 1:17:59
  But that was done. And now you.
• 1:18:01
  You just put. Up the app if you don't remember
• 1:18:04
  the number and it'll oops, it'll call your local Hotzela anywhere
• 1:18:08
  you are. Yeah, and it's active.
• 1:18:10
  Right, Hotzel. Oh, yeah, It's very active.
• 1:18:12
  It's very. Yeah.
• 1:18:13
  So click that button and then it calls.
• 1:18:15
  Whatever, based on your you're basing your location, it'll call
• 1:18:18
  that Hotella and Hotella. Most Hotellas are synced with
• 1:18:22
  the app so they don't even have to ask where you are anymore.
• 1:18:25
  In other words, they won't have to ask you know where are you
• 1:18:28
  when a hotella call comes in? I'm just curious so.
• 1:18:30
  As the person's talking to you, they're already typing
• 1:18:33
  something. Absolutely.
• 1:18:34
  Yeah. So immediately.
• 1:18:35
  Immediately. Immediately, right.
• 1:18:37
  So someone out there is getting it, but then they hear it on
• 1:18:39
  the. Radio, though, right?
• 1:18:40
  The member is listening to the second person in the room.
• 1:18:42
  There's three people in the room.
• 1:18:43
  Actually, but there's 3IN in the dispatch, so there's three
• 1:18:46
  people. How does the process?
• 1:18:48
  Work. I'm just curious. 2 phone calls,
• 1:18:50
  right? Two phone, two guys.
• 1:18:51
  Taking phone calls OK at all times at all times and the
• 1:18:54
  person. 'S putting out the.
• 1:18:56
  Call to the public is listening to both calls I see and they're
• 1:19:00
  all looking at the same screens. So the guy who's taking the call
• 1:19:03
  is putting the information in and but the guy who's putting
• 1:19:07
  out the call is also listening. So he's seeing the information
• 1:19:10
  on his screen and he's listening.
• 1:19:12
  If he he hears child choking like we talked about earlier, or
• 1:19:14
  if he hears heart attack, like he's just pressing that button.
• 1:19:17
  Hey, anyone, he's starting the process.
• 1:19:19
  Anyone in Flatbush, right? Available for child choking,
• 1:19:23
  right chest pain, whatever. Then as somebody answers, OK,
• 1:19:28
  you're going to let me ask you a question as CEO?
• 1:19:31
  Of Hatsala for five years. Give me something that you've
• 1:19:34
  learned that you can teach the average Joe about health or
• 1:19:39
  about living a certain lifestyle or something that you've seen.
• 1:19:42
  I mean, you know, like, I don't not the typical wear your seat
• 1:19:45
  belt. I'm saying like, but, you know,
• 1:19:46
  wear your seat belt. Wear your seat belt.
• 1:19:48
  Of course, you know, drinking on Purim, you know, there's so many
• 1:19:51
  lessons to learn from all the calls that you have gotten.
• 1:19:54
  I mean, child choking. I don't think it's a lesson to
• 1:19:57
  learn other than be vigilant and understand you know what a size
• 1:20:01
  of a gumball is. 1 lesson? Yeah, probably.
• 1:20:05
  Because we're in the firm. Community.
• 1:20:07
  Right. Yeah, VIP Healthcare is the
• 1:20:09
  worst healthcare. Just call, don't call your
• 1:20:12
  friend. There's a not seller.
• 1:20:14
  There's a system in place that's really good, right?
• 1:20:17
  And the system that's in place that's really good is going to
• 1:20:22
  save your life, right? If you deviate from that system
• 1:20:27
  because you're think you're AVIP, right, chances are you are
• 1:20:31
  going to get worse healthcare, not better.
• 1:20:36
  Follow the system. OK, that's that's a good
• 1:20:38
  practical piece of. Advice.
• 1:20:40
  I think it's also more of embarrassed people don't want
• 1:20:43
  people to know they don't want the lights and sirens coming.
• 1:20:46
  But but if you need it right. Do it right.
• 1:20:49
  No one's, no one. You know, we had the we have
• 1:20:56
  during my five years, there were people, right, who had to be
• 1:21:00
  asked to leave, right, for sharing information from a call,
• 1:21:05
  right, that that happened twice in five years.
• 1:21:09
  Wow, twice. I'm actually.
• 1:21:11
  Impressed that it happened. Even once, right?
• 1:21:14
  One story was. So crazy.
• 1:21:16
  It's it's a little shocking that only one guy got thrown out from
• 1:21:19
  that story because you do tell I can't.
• 1:21:23
  It's a family show. A lot of your business, but.
• 1:21:29
  You know and. Another situation was
• 1:21:31
  disgruntled guy. So, you know, it's it, it's,
• 1:21:35
  it's, it's, it's really the, there was a AMI article that
• 1:21:43
  showed up last year, I think it was.
• 1:21:47
  Anyway, the individual who worked for Haver Kadisha said
• 1:21:54
  that he was told that X number of situations happen in
• 1:22:00
  Hatzalah, whatever it was, whatever the statistic he was
• 1:22:03
  trying to spell. And I wrote a letter to
• 1:22:05
  Hatzalah. There's no way on God's greens
• 1:22:08
  earth that there's any Hatzalah member who shared any of that
• 1:22:11
  information with this individual.
• 1:22:14
  Not not You're saying you're so confident.
• 1:22:16
  So confident. We there's your story.
• 1:22:21
  That's why we don't publicize. That's why there's no PR.
• 1:22:23
  That's why we're never out there.
• 1:22:25
  We will never. Hatzalah will never Share your
• 1:22:28
  story. Never.
• 1:22:30
  Hatzalah will never Share your story.
• 1:22:32
  Ever. You can Share your story.
• 1:22:35
  And even after you Share your story, Hatzalah is still not
• 1:22:38
  going to Share your story. Your story will never be shared.
• 1:22:43
  Never happen. That's good.
• 1:22:44
  That's that's very. Comforting knowing that if
• 1:22:47
  there's an issue, don't expect the VIP when you call out solo.
• 1:22:51
  That is the best VIP. That is the best VIP.
• 1:22:53
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:22:53
  OK. That's a good lesson learned.
• 1:22:55
  OK, good. Anything else you got from Yeah,
• 1:22:57
  Don't drink. Just period.
• 1:23:00
  Don't drink. Alcohol causes a lot of
• 1:23:02
  problems. Alcohol causes a lot of
• 1:23:05
  problems. Alcohol is probably the if you
• 1:23:07
  if the, the, the, the common denominator of situations that
• 1:23:12
  shouldn't have happened is alcohol.
• 1:23:16
  So, you know, if there's something that I learned from
• 1:23:20
  being around Hatsala for a number of years, that's for
• 1:23:24
  sure. It like, you know, stay away
• 1:23:26
  from alcohol unless, yeah, obviously you want to enjoy a
• 1:23:29
  drink, but alcohol is problematic.
• 1:23:34
  Wow. You know, I've, I've, I've
• 1:23:36
  known. This for a while and I have to
• 1:23:38
  tell you that there is I I've been reading articles about this
• 1:23:40
  as well about alcohol being an issue gambling being an issue I
• 1:23:47
  think we don't see that in hotel but yeah no but I think the.
• 1:23:49
  General issue is addiction of. Course, you know that you have
• 1:23:52
  to, you know, not teach your kids, you know that it's OK to
• 1:23:55
  drink and to gamble and so on. But how do you everything that
• 1:24:01
  we're doing in Purim and Pesach and is all about drinking,
• 1:24:05
  right? So the hyems and let me tell
• 1:24:07
  you, great mice of Numas Grabber.
• 1:24:09
  Great mice. Numas Grabbers Trump Scrub was
• 1:24:13
  in Chicago. His family in Chicago is by his
• 1:24:14
  nephew. He was in Chicago for whatever
• 1:24:16
  reason. I he's a family.
• 1:24:19
  Some nephew was making a bar mitzvah or something.
• 1:24:21
  There's a family, some he was in Chicago by his nephew's house as
• 1:24:25
  A and he, he was there for the Shabba Sudha.
• 1:24:31
  And the the nephew was so excited that the rebel was by
• 1:24:34
  his house that after the fish, he had forgotten to take out the
• 1:24:38
  schnapps and give the rebel to drink.
• 1:24:41
  And they had already served the soup.
• 1:24:45
  So the nephew said to the Reba, I forgot the snap.
• 1:24:50
  The rebel was already in the middle of the soup.
• 1:24:52
  I forgot the schnapps. I'll go get the schnapps.
• 1:24:54
  You know, he says, he says there's no head there to drink.
• 1:24:59
  I said there's no head there to drink.
• 1:25:01
  He says there's a halacha to wash your mouth out.
• 1:25:05
  You have to eat fish before you eat flash.
• 1:25:07
  He says I took a piece of challah, I took whatever.
• 1:25:10
  He says no, that that would be the only head there to have.
• 1:25:14
  So like when you think about your consumption of alcohol for
• 1:25:18
  poram or for Shabbos or right, if you think about it, obviously
• 1:25:24
  to get to the level of the Reba, that's right.
• 1:25:27
  But that's a level to get to, right?
• 1:25:29
  If you can, if you can aspire to get to the level where we're
• 1:25:34
  drinking because it's a mitzvah or, or because it's within the
• 1:25:39
  confines of halafa, chances are we won't enter those.
• 1:25:43
  So I'm, I'm curious about this, what do you do with kids?
• 1:25:45
  That are at a bar mitzvah at a wedding at at A at what age do
• 1:25:51
  you say it's OK to drink because every year pays off you're
• 1:25:53
  saying them tell them to drink I'm poor him what do you do poor
• 1:25:56
  him for kids like what do you what is your suggestion like
• 1:25:58
  what are your thoughts Obviously brochure would come you know a
• 1:26:02
  good. Home right people ask me how I
• 1:26:04
  have such great kids, I said because I travelled when they
• 1:26:06
  were young and I married a great wife.
• 1:26:08
  So but all honestly, like I taught my kids how to drink.
• 1:26:14
  I taught them. I sat down with them.
• 1:26:17
  I said, this is how you drink them for them.
• 1:26:19
  Eat a lot of bread. Make sure you have Pickles,
• 1:26:21
  right? Milk of magnesia, Coat your
• 1:26:23
  stomach, right? We had, like, open and honest
• 1:26:27
  conversation. It wasn't taboo.
• 1:26:29
  Alcohol wasn't. It wasn't something to be
• 1:26:32
  admired, right? It wasn't right.
• 1:26:35
  We like bourbon because I'm from Cincinnati, right?
• 1:26:37
  So, like, they grew up every Shabbos afternoon, you know, by
• 1:26:41
  the fish. Yeah.
• 1:26:42
  Do you want a little bourbon? Right.
• 1:26:44
  It wasn't taboo. I didn't need to lock my
• 1:26:47
  cabinet. I also wasn't scared that the
• 1:26:50
  children were going to abuse it. It was just the children that we
• 1:26:53
  had. But we had open and honest
• 1:26:55
  conversation about every every one of my boys who went through
• 1:26:58
  yeshiva we had. You'd say that again.
• 1:27:00
  Repeat it. Look at the camera.
• 1:27:01
  And tell everyone. I feel like I want to make this
• 1:27:03
  as a clip for perm. Like what?
• 1:27:05
  What do you do? How do you teach a?
• 1:27:06
  Kid to drink. For perm, what do you say to
• 1:27:08
  them? You said it so quickly.
• 1:27:09
  Have a pickle. I mean like, you have to eat a
• 1:27:11
  lot of bread. If you want, before the day
• 1:27:14
  starts, coat your stomach with milk of magnesia, then eat
• 1:27:18
  bread, Pickles. Also.
• 1:27:20
  Pickles and bread are food items that absorb the alcohol so that
• 1:27:26
  it will have a far less impact on you later.
• 1:27:31
  So if you eat enough bread, if you have Pickles while you're
• 1:27:35
  drinking and you have coated your stomach with some milk of
• 1:27:37
  magnesia, you will have a pretty safe perm.
• 1:27:41
  Wow. OK.
• 1:27:42
  And obviously staying at home and.
• 1:27:43
  Not even in yeshiva, right? No, but I mean is.
• 1:27:46
  Like, you're not getting out there, you're not driving.
• 1:27:48
  You're not obviously doing great.
• 1:27:50
  You talk about, you talk about physically feeling OK
• 1:27:52
  physically. So you do not have to end up in
• 1:27:54
  the. Hospital, right?
• 1:27:55
  And I feel like, you know, there's so many other.
• 1:27:57
  Challenges with drinking it's not just on you, it's not paying
• 1:27:59
  attention to your children when you're drinking.
• 1:28:02
  It's getting in a car. It's, you know, not behaving
• 1:28:04
  properly like all those that milk of magnesia is not going to
• 1:28:07
  help me on that one. That's it.
• 1:28:08
  That's a whole. You have a Good Wife, you know,
• 1:28:10
  hopefully. You know, a good system, a good
• 1:28:12
  family, a good. Yeah, a long time since I've
• 1:28:15
  really gotten. Drunk.
• 1:28:17
  So I've, you know, but that's more because like I shared
• 1:28:20
  earlier, like as as someone who has yeah, I, I learned from my
• 1:28:24
  Rebbe. I learned from rub Zeb Cohen.
• 1:28:25
  I learned from, you know, my Rebbe and that, you know, you
• 1:28:29
  really can't drink too much, you know something else.
• 1:28:32
  And and and I know we have to wrap up.
• 1:28:33
  I just want to. It's on my mind.
• 1:28:34
  You're talking about the things and the lessons that you've
• 1:28:36
  learned. And I know you can't talk about
• 1:28:37
  stories, and this is a really sensitive topic, so I'm like a
• 1:28:41
  little bit nervous to bring it up.
• 1:28:42
  But I'm going to do it anyways because I have grown up with
• 1:28:46
  friends that have lost their lives to suicide.
• 1:28:49
  And there are times in the community that we hear about it
• 1:28:53
  more and there are times you hear about it less.
• 1:28:57
  Something tells me that it's the same amount happening all the
• 1:28:59
  time whether you hear about it or not.
• 1:29:02
  I'm curious about your take on this topic in general.
• 1:29:05
  What can we do as a community to I don't I, I, I'm like, I feel
• 1:29:10
  bad saying prevent it. Like how could how could we
• 1:29:12
  prevent other people from that? You never know what's going on.
• 1:29:16
  In someone's home, you never know.
• 1:29:19
  And that's my question to you, What have you learnt?
• 1:29:21
  From being a Nazala for so long, what can we learn?
• 1:29:25
  What? What do we need to know?
• 1:29:27
  As a community about this happening around us and I'm
• 1:29:29
  telling you this happens all the time like Oh my God, you heard
• 1:29:31
  this just happened yesterday and this because it's hard for it to
• 1:29:34
  get out, but I believe it's happening more than we like to
• 1:29:37
  admit. I'm curious, is it a pattern?
• 1:29:39
  Does it happen all the time? What can we do if you could just
• 1:29:43
  cover that topic before we wrap up.
• 1:29:44
  It's hard to cover this topic before you wrap up, but.
• 1:29:47
  Just from a 30,000 foot level, Yeah, that's what I mean every
• 1:29:52
  I'll. That exists.
• 1:29:53
  In society exists in our community.
• 1:29:57
  Every I'll right everything that you read about what's going on
• 1:30:04
  in the world. We have in our community
• 1:30:06
  everything, including suicide, albeit at far lower numbers.
• 1:30:16
  OK, So if statistics are out there that it's 2%, we're at
• 1:30:22
  .2%, but it's there and it's a consistent number.
• 1:30:27
  And if it's rising in the world, it's rising by us, right?
• 1:30:35
  I would. And it's impossible to say why
• 1:30:41
  it exists because we had sometimes it does come in
• 1:30:46
  spurts. There was a situation where I
• 1:30:49
  called certain rub on him because we had seen a bunch in a
• 1:30:52
  row and not out there and but we had seen, we knew, right?
• 1:30:58
  We had seen a bunch in a row and we were worried that it was
• 1:31:02
  become a pandemic. And one of the that I had
• 1:31:06
  called, he said, tell me if it hits this number.
• 1:31:09
  If it hits this number, then, you know, we'll, we'll issue
• 1:31:13
  something to be concerned about. Brock Hashem just stopped.
• 1:31:16
  So we never know what's going on in, in people's lives.
• 1:31:23
  We see it in the wealthiest of homes and the poorest of homes
• 1:31:26
  and everything in between. So I think the common
• 1:31:30
  denominator is mental illness, mental illness not being
• 1:31:34
  addressed either by the individual or by the family and
• 1:31:39
  just take mental illness seriously.
• 1:31:42
  Everyone has to treat mental illness differently, right?
• 1:31:46
  It's not always to go to the psychologist.
• 1:31:48
  It's not. Maybe it's just to make sure
• 1:31:51
  that the above is aware of the situation.
• 1:31:54
  Make sure that a family member who cares is aware of the
• 1:31:57
  situation, right? Whatever a spouse is going to
• 1:32:01
  see or a child for sure is going to see something going on in
• 1:32:06
  their parent, right? I remember when I had children,
• 1:32:09
  my Rebbe said, you know, you can fool your Rebbe, you may be able
• 1:32:12
  to fool your wife, but you're not going to be able to fool
• 1:32:14
  your kids, right? So you know, the kids know
• 1:32:19
  what's going on to people should not be afraid to speak up when
• 1:32:25
  they see mental illness within their family, the hopes of
• 1:32:30
  helping them get better, right? So, you know, help people get
• 1:32:36
  the treatment that they need for mental illness.
• 1:32:38
  I know I'm involved in a gamache.
• 1:32:41
  And the amount of money that goes out just for mental health
• 1:32:48
  care has, you know, skyrocketed in the last number of years
• 1:32:54
  since COVID, for sure. And nobody's batting an eyelash.
• 1:32:59
  We got to raise that money. People need that help.
• 1:33:02
  So wow, OK, I really. Appreciate you being here,
• 1:33:06
  especially after such a life changing experience of yours and
• 1:33:11
  so soon also. And you ask we don't we don't
• 1:33:14
  hold on to podcast for very long, by the way.
• 1:33:16
  So this is going to be out very soon.
• 1:33:17
  Do you have any questions for me?
• 1:33:19
  No, I I I you're, you're, you're pretty.
• 1:33:24
  What's the word you are you you are really good at pursuing your
• 1:33:30
  guests. Still I you know, I don't have a
• 1:33:32
  question for you. I get more of a bracha that your
• 1:33:36
  future guests should be far more easy for you to get on the show.
• 1:33:40
  Well, not everyone is, you know, leaving as.
• 1:33:42
  ACEO of a large organization, you know, and, and I need to go
• 1:33:46
  after them so that I appreciate that.
• 1:33:47
  And finally, do you have any guests that you would bring on
• 1:33:50
  your show? If you were starting a podcast,
• 1:33:52
  who would be your first guest? Who would be my first guest?
• 1:33:55
  I'd want Jared Kushner on my OK, You, you know Jared Kushner.
• 1:33:59
  This is a reason to knock on Oshie's door, by the way.
• 1:34:01
  I'm going to go tell him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:34:03
  That's he. He warned me.
• 1:34:04
  He told me if you get Jared Kushner, come knock on my door.
• 1:34:07
  But other than that, let me do prime source stuff.
• 1:34:10
  Jared Kushner would be a great guy, but I don't know if you
• 1:34:12
  have a way to get a hold of him. I don't know.
• 1:34:14
  Right. Someone that realistically.
• 1:34:16
  You can get a hold. Of and have you had Eric Adams?
• 1:34:19
  No. You'd have.
• 1:34:21
  You'd have a blast. You're right.
• 1:34:23
  I think Nachi Gordon had him right.
• 1:34:25
  Did he? I don't know.
• 1:34:26
  I think he did miss. I think mislabeled had.
• 1:34:29
  Him. Really.
• 1:34:30
  Yeah, I think so. I think it was.
• 1:34:32
  Nachi. I don't think Nachi.
• 1:34:34
  Had him? Well, somebody.
• 1:34:35
  Had him but irrelevant you're. Saying he's a he's the right.
• 1:34:38
  You'd be so much. Do you know him?
• 1:34:39
  Yeah, sure you can. Get him on.
• 1:34:41
  I couldn't get him. Stefan, go knock on his.
• 1:34:43
  Door, Eric. Adams is coming.
• 1:34:45
  Yeah, You could definitely get a message over to him.
• 1:34:47
  No, he's. Definitely a guy that I would
• 1:34:49
  appreciate. Having as a New Yorker and as a
• 1:34:51
  multiracial, integrated politician and understanding
• 1:34:55
  different cultures, he knows everything about our community.
• 1:34:58
  He's. So knowledgeable about the
• 1:35:00
  different community in the United States, not just in New
• 1:35:02
  York. What's he doing now?
• 1:35:04
  He is consulting. Business.
• 1:35:06
  Consulting. Nice.
• 1:35:07
  Yeah, OK. Tell him we need a consultant
• 1:35:09
  for the non of. Business podcast.
• 1:35:10
  And yeah, if you can reach him, definitely please ask him to
• 1:35:12
  join our show. It's not one, it's not something
• 1:35:14
  that you can call him now on speaker though.
• 1:35:15
  No, I'm not calling on speaker. Would you like to interview him
• 1:35:19
  with me? I'd be more than happy, yeah,
• 1:35:22
  because I'm. Thinking of doing a pattern.
• 1:35:24
  Where whoever is suggesting that interviewer just to have a seat
• 1:35:27
  here with me. Yeah.
• 1:35:28
  And, you know, and be very cool, right?
• 1:35:31
  Be very cool. OK, let's do it.
• 1:35:33
  All right, I'm ready to do it. All right.
• 1:35:34
  I appreciate it. Thank you to all our
• 1:35:35
  subscribers, our listeners, our followers, our comments.
• 1:35:38
  We appreciate it all. Again, thank you to the Prime
• 1:35:39
  Source production team and Kalish, it was such an honor to
• 1:35:43
  have you here. Thank you so much for all that
• 1:35:45
  you've done, for the community, for the community at large.
• 1:35:48
  Knowing all that you've done now, it's really like, it's such
• 1:35:50
  an honor to have you here. Really appreciate the time you
• 1:35:52
  spent. That's a wrap.
• 1:35:53
  Thank you. All right.