Latest / Search for Meaning with Rabbi Yoshi / Search for Meaning with Yossi Segelman and OBKLA

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Search for Meaning with Yossi Segelman and OBKLA · Search for Meaning with Rabbi Yoshi

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is one place where everyone's united to spread light and love.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: One meal at a time, one pack of cookies at a time.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing else makes a difference.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's welcome to volunteer, everyone's welcome to receive a meal.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Search for Meaning.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Yoshi Zweiback.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining me.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: My guest today is Yossi Siegelman, executive director and co-founder of Our Big Kitchen Los Angeles.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I've really enjoyed getting to know Yossi over the last many years and being able to come and volunteer by myself, with members of the temple, with big groups.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's an extraordinary place.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't been there, you have to put it on your list of mitzvah opportunities.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yossi and his wife Chaya started OBKLA out of their own garage back in 2020, packing snack boxes for hospitals and first responders in the early days of the pandemic.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just extraordinary the way this community has grown.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to learn a lot more about it.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: But more than anything else, I just want to say, Yossi, thank you for your time today and thanks for everything you do for our community.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd love to start at the very beginning.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: You had seen a our big kitchen in action.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you could kind of tell the origin story of what you had experienced, what you saw, and what made you decide, I think we could make this happen in Los Angeles.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So my family and I lived in Australia for 16 years.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And uh probably about 20 years ago, I had to vacate my office to make way, make room for what's now our big kitchen in Sydney.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Friend of mine, uh, long story short, uh, his wife Leah was a or is a hairdresser specializing specifically in wigs for uh women going through cancer treatment.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And she would find herself emptying her fridge and freezer every day.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: She would look after her clients and say, Do you have anything for lunch, for dinner?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there's two versions of the story, but bottom line, the family got fed up and said, Hey, if we're gonna do this, let's do this right.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get some volunteers together, start making some meals uh that we can do this properly.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they ended up launching our big kitchen, which is essentially bring volunteers together to prepare beautiful meals.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um they built this quite large facility in Bondi uh in Sydney.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when my family and I moved here 14 years ago, we had always wanted to do something here, but it took until the pandemic to actually make a move.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And as you mentioned, it started in our garage with packing snack boxes, which is a story in itself why we pack snack boxes.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: But my brother-in-law had a shuttered restaurant on La Bray Avenue, and uh in honor of our son's wedding, it was a very small COVID wedding.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted to uh do a mitzvah and uh make some meals and provide them to a local charity, which was Tom Khei Chavez at the time.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we did it once, we did it twice.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Someone posted something on social and essentially the rest is history.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the that's what made that's how it started.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So there was the seed was planted and then the need was real, and you jumped in.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: But going from you know, a casual kind of thing in your garage to actually, okay, we're gonna take over a storefront.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And is that where the Obicat is currently, the same place?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: And you've built it out of this extraordinary place.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, on my last visit, I got to go back in the kitchen and really see how those amazing stand-up ovens work.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've got new ovens that are going to come again and check the new ones out.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was well, the ones I saw you could like roll the whole thing straight into.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: She must have been there quite recently.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, no, this was recently.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it was so cool.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then like steam ovens where they can also do, you know, pastries and baked goods and things like that, but also chicken.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's incredible.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: To be honest, it's grown beyond our wildest dreams.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in addition to what we've uh you know been able to do here as a community, we've inspired now 27 other locations around the country in Phoenix, Nashville, Dallas, Houston under the name Giving Kitchens.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and now hundreds of other kitchens are popping up in smaller centers around the around the world as well.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's become quite a movement and gone way bigger than we ever imagined.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: But the steps that essentially what happened here was my son, whilst he was at SMC, he was in college, he had a side hustle.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: He was selling healthy snacks before they became available in Trader Joe's.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how he got hold of them, but he came up with this with a friend, a subscription model where you pay$29.99 a month and you get some healthy snacks that are kosher, uh gluten-free.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And um, there was a trade show that was canceled because of COVID.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we were left with a garage full of snacks.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And there's only so many corn nuts you can eat and uh and and and uh you know, dates and joli dates and other things that you can eat.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we said, hey, how about we pack these together and take them to Cedars, to Kaiser, to the emergency rooms?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh again, we it just evolved.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: We invited some families to get involved, some volunteers, and uh, we were delivering, I think, the 30 to 40 locations uh every week around the city, and it felt good.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh when this opportunity, my brother-in-law's restaurant was unfortunately shut.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when this opportunity came to, hey, let's go cook some meals uh in honor of the wedding, it was the Sheba Brachot.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just us, and we're like, instead of just eating, let's prepare some meals.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it felt really good.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those things where, you know, I've been in business 25 years, and towards the end of the work that I was doing, it became mind-numbing.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was how many how many pieces of jewelry can you produce and sell?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this for me really personally added a tremendous, a tremendous amount of meaning uh to my life, uh to my wife Chaya's life, and to the family, and now to a community of 80,000 volunteers.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really, it was about timing, it was about uh mentally being in that space during COVID where we were very much within and had this opportunity to connect with the outside world world, if you will, through uh providing meals to people in need.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: I love how universal it is too, because you're making kosher meals, so obviously any Jew in need who's hungry and wants a meal could enjoy, but your clients are not exclusively correct Jews.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: This food, and we'll talk about the the way the food gets distributed, because I think that's really beautiful and also efficient and smart.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: You guys aren't in charge of all the distribution.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: You have partners who do that with you.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: But this concept of like we're gonna make strictly kosher meals that are for everybody, was that something that you that you took from Australia, or was that your own uh addition to that model?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So in Australia, the food is strictly kosher and the recipients are 99% in the broader community.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it really is a tremendous kiddush hashem because these are meals that are coming from OBK in Sydney, which is at the heart of the Jewish community in Bondi.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we're at the heart of essentially Pico Robertson West Side, where many Jewish community members live, and OBKLA did start with the community.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: The first volunteers were members of the community, and then it grew from there.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So kosher certainly it's in our bylaws, it's in our values.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're based um on the value of Yahftalachamocha and Siddaka and Kashrut.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the three um values in terms of so just for anyone who might not know the Hebrew, so love your neighbor as yourself, and charity or righteous giving, and what was the third and kosher and so to ensure that um Obi Kele will always be kosher, and there's two reasons for that.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: One is to be sure that absolutely everyone can partake, so there's absolutely no limitation, no impediment to anyone needing a meal, being able to have access to a meal.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, we're becoming halal certified as well.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're halal approved, and we're actually going to be receiving certification shortly.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's really, really important to us because we want to be sure that absolutely everyone can partake.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the kosher certification we have is like the highest standard of cash root.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's really no one that can say, I will not eat that, or not, or or is unable to eat that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then the uh the uh second thing was we also wanted people to know that this was coming from the heart of the community.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um, especially the last couple of years, it's been more important than ever to be able to make the Kiddush Hashem to sanctify God's name uh by doing good and um being available, making it available to absolutely everyone, both to participate and volunteer and also to receive a meal.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's such a beautiful expression of so many, there's so many different ways it's articulated in Jewish tradition.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the way people know it best is hillel, you meena ni li mealy, you know, if I'm not for myself, who will be for me?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, if we're not providing kosher meals for Jews who are hungry, like it's not like someone else is gonna go make kosher meals.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: But uchsha niela, it's me, ma'am, but I can't only be for myself.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: I have to care about other people too.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's embedded right there.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then the final piece is the urgency, you know, vim loaksha of eymat's.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like there's hungry people.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was the middle of a pandemic.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: We had these snacks, there are people who are struggling, you know, there are there are restaurants closing down, there are people out of work.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we have to do something.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I love it on so many different levels, and and I love for anyone who ever thinks that it's an either-or in Judaism.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a terrible misunderstanding of Judaism because it's never either-or.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: From the beginning of the tradition in the you know, the book of Genesis, you know, kvotabriut, is everybody, everybody has a base-level kvot.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I just, there's so many different layers I love about it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing I love is just the experience as a volunteer.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And as I said, I've done it now a number of times, brought groups, been uh able to participate myself, and it's fun, it's very communal, there's lots of schmoozing and conversations that happen.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: But you also see the quality of the food that you're preparing.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's really high-quality food, and it's packaged love with love, and then there's cookies at the end.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, what about that concept?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Was that something that you also borrowed, or was that something that you that you said, hey, no, we are gonna make things at the end of the day.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's four pieces of the puzzle.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll uh describe it as the four, and it's on the banner, it's all over the it's all over the marketing at OBK.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's meals, love, unity, community.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Say it against me.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Meals, love, unity, and community.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the four components of what we do.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Meals, and this was, to be honest, uh, this developed here.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I give tremendous credit to OBK and Sydney.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the founding directors of OBK and Sydney, which is how we were able to uh implement it here so quickly.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and again, we just copied the logo because that's what we had access to during COVID.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Retrospectively, is that the best name?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the ideal name?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it's stuck.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: OBKLA, right?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: But meals love unity community.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Meals because we're preparing beautiful, fresh meals using the finest ingredients.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're using beautiful ingredients, and within 90 minutes, we're prepping the meal.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: That includes chopping the vegetables, rolling out some meatballs or chicken, whatever it may be.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Each meal uh is almost 500 calories, nothing's fried, so it's healthy, it's delicious, it's meals, it's food that you and I would be very, very happy to eat.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: The next piece of the puzzle is love.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I always say, as cheesy as it sounds, the recipients feel the love.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: They feel the joy, they feel the cavod, the dignity, the honor, the intent that goes into the meal prep, the way uh items are chopped, the way things are rolled out, the way the stick is a place, the way it's all packaged, it's beautiful.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's felt.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's also why we play music.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We want people to feel good, to be joyful, because that comes across.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: The next piece of the puzzle is unity.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Within the four walls of OBKLA, you know, whilst it's a fractured city, state, country, world, lots going on.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is one place where everyone's united to spread light and love.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: One meal at a time, one pack of cookies at a time.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing else makes a difference.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's welcome to volunteer, everyone's welcome to receive a meal.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a very unique space in our community where you can do that.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot of places that you can do that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, community.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: It really is a family.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we have now people every Monday morning.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So retirees come through on Monday and Thursday open to the public.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: This has become their community.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: This has become their lifeline.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got so many stories, you know, of how that's um developed.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: But essentially, that's the core mission.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what keeps us, you know, absolutely focused, is those four pieces of the puzzle.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: I had the opportunity when I was in rabbinical school to volunteer at a soup kitchen that we ran out of my yeshiva.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this was when I was studying in New York.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea was to provide beautiful, high-quality meals and also an experience.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: So the things that you shared resonate so deeply with me.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like we would have students come and perform live music and volunteer some of their time, cantorial students who would come down and do a jazz set, you know.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you had folks, many of them, you know, unhoused, coming in.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was New York, you know, in the winter they'd come in, it'd be bitterly cold outside.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And to be able to sit down in the warm, beautiful environment, both both physically and also just kind of the spirit that we brought and have some music, have a good meal.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then we did things like, okay, well, let's make sure on your way out you grab a wool hat, make sure on your way out you get a new set of you know, um, of gloves or whatever it was.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And what we s what we understood was that we were providing more than just sustenance.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking, you know, as as we're talking, I'm thinking just a few weeks ago in the parsha in or in Devarim in Deuteronomy, it says, you know, human beings don't live only by bread.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and so this this sense that like, well, of course, you need the calorie count.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, people uh they have to get enough food to survive.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what this is about.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: This is about living, and it's more than that.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it just it it it resonates on so many levels.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: What's been one of the more surprising things when you think about, you know, you launch in 2020, so you're six, seven years into this.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: What's uh I'm sure there's hundreds of these little moments, but is there one that really stands out where you found yourself going home and talking to your to Chaya and saying, like, you cannot even believe what happened there today?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great question.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll answer that in a minute, but I will share something else that I shared recently um at a personal milestone at a birthday that I celebrated with friends and and family at OBK.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at the last days when I had my office downtown in my previous in my uh business, uh I would actually leave the office and I would say Baruch Hashem.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I made it through the day.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was a public company, so I passed, I was able to get through the SEC, uh, investors, partners, and then the business.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: There was the customers, there was the manufacturers.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I find myself now leaving OBKLA.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I put my hand on the mezuzah and I say, Baruch Hashem, thank you, God, that I can do what I do.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, that's and and it's really every day I have that moment when I leave and I say, I'm just so blessed and so grateful that I'm able to do what I do.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess the amazing part is that I continue to feel that.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's a real, real blessing, a real bracha.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the other thing is what continues to amaze me, and I come home frequently, and I tell Chaya that, and she sees it herself at OBK, is just the diversity of the beautiful people that come through.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we see the best of Los Angeles.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when you come through on a Sunday with 80, 90 other volunteers, just to look around and say, wow, this is just so absolutely incredible to have uh the diversity, a true reflection of uh OB of Los Angeles at OBK LA.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the other thing that's truly remarkable is the speed with which this uh took off.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I would attribute this to coming out of COVID, people seeking connection.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, we're providing meals to people doing it tough through the agencies, as you mentioned.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the thing that drives me, and I think the most powerful thing at OBKLA is the community, is the connection.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when people are coming in, I can't think of anywhere else where they leave their phone.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would hope in this beautiful campus they switch their phone off.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: But at OBKLA, because both of your hands are being used to uh prepare food and do the packaging and everything else, the phone's in the pocket.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: You you're forced to connect with a person standing opposite you or next to you, whether that's a family member, that's a colleague, or that's someone you've just met.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that just blows me away how that has grown, how that how that happened.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I would attribute it to um you know people seeking connection and being I being continuously spending time on their iPhones or on, you know, working remotely.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things I experienced my last visit, which was uh just about a month ago, I got to be there, I guess, yeah, in in June.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: So a little more than a month ago, and I was there with a church group that we're very connected with, um, Greater Zion Church family in Compton.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you'd said that night that it was one of the first times we'd had formally, of course, there's been lots of volunteers coming from you know different faith traditions.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's hundreds of them.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: But to have a church and a synagogue come together that that that that either had never happened or hadn't happened very often.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a really beautiful evening.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was just so sweet, and we had great music, and when people came in, they could get a little snack and it was they could have a beverage and and hang out and schmooze a little bit, and then we got busy and worked, and we made 900 meals that night, which was so wonderful.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the things that was an important takeaway for me is there were members of the Greater Zion Church family who had come to volunteer with us, and you know, frankly, we're not aware that there were Jewish people in this city who had food insecurities because of, you know, stereotypes that people hold about Jews, uh just like we hold stereotypes about all all sorts of other folks, you know.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the idea that, like, wait, you mean all Jews aren't wealthy, all Jews don't just have it made in the shade, you know, that there would be this, but that's the reality of any any community in any city.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that that was a beautiful and important takeaway to see that.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and also just, you know, that we had an opportunity to in casual conversations, people were asking me a lot of questions about Kashrut, and they wanted to know, because of course they were familiar with it, but now being in a place where they were helping to prepare kosher meals was sort of interesting.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um what when you think about your distribution networks and where all the food goes, what would you say?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: What is the balance between direct support for Jewish people who are in need of a nice meal and people outside the Jewish community?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the last number is 35 percent.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's the last time I checked it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um it it fluctuates slightly.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: 35 percent Jewish.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: 35 percent Jewish.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the cap I've most I've seen is about 40.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but it's between 35 and 40 percent um who are Jewish.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to add, and if this is these these are studies that are publicly available, one in five Angela, one in four Angelinos are facing form of food and form of food insecurity.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And within the Jewish community, uh, it's one in five.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's a still it's a very high number.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nationwide, that's 13.8 percent.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the last report that I read uh was one in five members of our community, and that's 20% of our community doing it tough.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So uh really, really important the work that's being done by OBKLA and many others in this space.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but just to talk, just to touch upon some of the distribution and how that works, because uh you you mentioned it earlier, yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: We OBKLA does not deliver direct to the recipients, and that's for two reasons.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, because it's an art how to deliver a meal to someone who's unhoused, how to connect with uh people who are dealing with mental health issues.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and we've discovered that we're very good, we realize we're very, very good at bringing volunteers together, giving them a five-star volunteer experience, and making in a scalable way a tremendous amount of beautiful kosher meals.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't really have a grip on the distribution network.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the first thing.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the second thing is, which is part of that first part, is that the charities that we work with, the Ronald McDonald House, People Concerned, Hollywood Food Coalition, Venice Family Clinic, uh Tom Reich's High Lifeline within our community, um, Aaron's Pantry in Northridge, Etta, and many others, they they've got a great they've got a great distribution network.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: They they know they're specialists in their area.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we've learned to focus on what we could be very good at and then partner with others that have their ear to the ground.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's why this has been a very successful model.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would add, during the fires is the only time that we published a hotline to say let us know if you need meals.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then we partnered with Magin Um and others to distribute it directly to the families.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: We did that for a number of weeks.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, our specialty is think of it like a cloud kitchen to the nonprofits.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're like a cloud kitchen to Ronald McDonald House or to some of the others, so they don't have to have a food program.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like B2B versus B2C.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it's organization to organization versus direct to the recipient.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the other beautiful byproduct of that, I would imagine, is that now all these other organizations really know who you are, and they know that there's this team of volunteers, many Jewish but not exclusively Jewish, who are coming together to make this happen.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, in terms of what does it mean to be part of a community and to know that organizations that are national organizations like Ronald McDonald House, okay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but now they have a little insight into OBKLA and the idea that wait, there's this kosher thing, but they know that a lot of the meals are going to people who aren't Jewish, who don't keep kosher, and yet their funders are still there because they feel like, hey, we're here to support our community, not just our community with the capital O, like the people who are, you know, literally our families, but also the broader world.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I I notice in moments like this when you know anti-Semitism is meaningfully in our faces in ways that uh that it that it hasn't been in our lifetimes, and we're asking questions that most American Jews haven't ever asked themselves.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like, well, what would happen if I have to leave here?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, where would I go?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Those kinds of questions.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And in a moment like that, you would imagine that a lot of people would say, you know what, Yossi, with all due respect, you know, let everybody else worry for themselves.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're only going to worry about Jews.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: But clearly that hasn't happened.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, you know, your donor base and your volunteer base continues to grow.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that says a lot about where people's hearts are.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and also it's it's an important byproduct of what we do.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what we set out to achieve.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: We set out to achieve bringing volunteers together to make beautiful meals to feed people via organizations, but it's become a real kiddushishem.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It has become a positive um uh uh perspective, a new element in terms of what the community is doing for the broader community.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we find that in two ways.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: For example, yesterday we had the executive leadership of Amazon come through.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and these are you know, these are decision makers, global decision makers, and they had the opportunity to participate in a similar session that you would have done, but they also got the opportunity to understand about Kashroot and what we're doing as a community within the community and for the broader community.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we've had 200 such companies come through, you know, Netflix, Disney, Paramount, and others, as well as many, many uh organizations, um, nonprofits, and school groups, specifically, a third of our volunteers are between the age of 11 and 26, many of whom have never met someone Jewish or heard about Kashroot.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this is an important byproduct of what we're doing, that it is helping to build bridges.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the recipients from time to time will send a card just explaining where the meals are coming from, what's being involved, uh, just to create that connection.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the organizations, they come to volunteer at OBK as well.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have uh activities from time to time.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: We do we will do this four times this year, hopefully, where we bring the nonprofits together so they can experience OBKLA, they can meet and network with their peers, but also they understand what we're doing as a community.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that this does chip away and help help uh help build bridges.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we found.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed with uh your funders and funding sources, has there been any meaningful decline or drop-off because of post-October 7th, people saying, you know, good for you, Yossi, but like not me.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm only gonna focus on zero.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, we've grown our budgets now three million dollars.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll be producing about 400,000 meals.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've doubled in July, 26, our output from July 2024, 25.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: So last year we made about 14,500 meals.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: July this year was 30,030, 75 charity partners versus 30 this time last year.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh revenue generated, it's about a million dollars, and most of that is coming from uh the vast majority is coming from companies and partners outside of the community, uh, foundations.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: There are many prominent um Californian and national foundations that are supporting our work because our work is truly helping the entire community and welcoming everyone to OBK.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in a time like this, it's not, it's really not easy to find, I think, to find organizations that are doing that.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we are very committed and very proud to be doing this.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we have quite a few Barnbart Mitzvah students who that's their project, and we just tell them look, if you're looking for a very meaningful, uh fun, engaging family, you know, all ages can participate.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And also just in terms of the planning, and it's easy.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you just get on the list, sign up, and you can just show up.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, better register in advance and come on in and volunteer.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a repeat um, you know, volunteer, then you come in, they know you already.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you can come for 90 minutes, come for two hours, and know that wow, I actually actually made a difference.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And somebody's gonna have a great healthy meal made with love.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the cookies at the end are great.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you volunteered there, you know you get to go home with a cookie or two.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: You can just you can do the spiel, you can do the orientation next time.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: I like um I mean I've gotten a chance to do a lot of different things.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's something that I find very uh just chopping.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: I just like give me a cutting board and let me and then you're talking to the person across from you, and then it's like, wow, this big giant tray of kosher chicken, you know, we cut it up into bite-sized pieces.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it's so it's so beautiful and so meaningful, and you just get so much out of it and you get to give back in such a powerful way.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: You'd mentioned your background in jewelry and for-profit business and all of the, I'm sure, the mini moments of joy, but also moments of just exhaustion and like, why am I doing this?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: But as I was thinking about that, it's like, you know, the the nature of a of a kitchen like this is that, you know, tomorrow morning you wake up, it's like, okay, we've got to make another 900 meals or however many you make a day.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and it there is a sense of like, okay, time to make the donuts, time to make the donuts, time to make the donuts.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And even though that you might think that would just be a grind, it doesn't feel that way at all.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I think I know why, but I'd love you to articulate it for you when you think about, okay, so why was that grind so different than this grind?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, first of all, credit to the team.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have a remarkable team.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have really an unbelievable team at OBK chefs, um, kitchen hands, administrative staff.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've hired recently appointed a chief of staff.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I get to do the fun stuff.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I get to come in and speak to groups and chat with yourself and and talk to funders, um, but blessed that we have an amazing team.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's really what keeps it going going and keeps it joyful for everyone.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think honestly, I mean, I've been doing a lot of reflect, you know, reflection recently.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I turned 50, so I guess it's a milestone that one reflects on these things.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think, you know, we were selling uh thousands and thousands of units of jewelry, and it became a number.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: It became a number.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: It really meant nothing.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's good to be able to um you know generate a profit and all, but uh we were mining sapphires in Australia and had a supply chain where we where we were heating, heat trading, cutting and polishing, and then uh had retail brands and finished jewelry, and it was cool, it was fun.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it be at some point it just became a number.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: It just became a grind.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I don't feel that here.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly feel that every person that comes through the door uh to volunteer is a world.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And every meal that goes out is more than a meal.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's feeding someone's father, mother, brother, sister.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's this is there's soul, there's nishemah to that, both in terms of the people that are coming in and uh the output, the meals that are going out.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's never been honestly, it it's never been considered a number, the number of all yes, we put out the stats, but I've never I I felt that stark difference in contrast between the numbers of units we were selling that would be put on the whiteboard each day versus the number of volunteers that are coming, the number of meals.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's soulful.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: When did you start doing the corporate opportunities for people to come?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because obviously, as I was thinking about it, you know, it works on so many beautiful levels.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: The corporation comes and gets to make a donation, which is great, and support your good work.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you bring in people who might otherwise, you know, not have chosen to come, but it's like, hey, we're doing this corporate thing today.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's opportunities for bonding and you know, team building and all those kinds of things.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: When did that develop and and and how are you moving that forward?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great question.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that happened pretty much just a couple months in.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what would happen is people would come volunteer on their own or with their families, and then just people started saying, Hey, this this is cool.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll bring my team because they would be going rock climbing or ATVing and then to a restaurant and spending all this money and uh the feeling of volunteering as you've described.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: It feels good being able to do this and and uh do this with people that you like and you're spending a lot of time with.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how it grew.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we did model it on a similar model in Australia, but it evolved here into something um very different.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: It became a real uh experience that we were able to curate for companies to be able to not only have a team-building exercise, but also to spend time dining together and learning more about the food and security realities uh of our community.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, that's one of the greatest ways that people can help OBKLA and continue our work is by bringing in groups.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So individual volunteering this wait lists, uh, because there are thousands of people that want to come through each month.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we'd love to have people come through and do a mitzvah project, celebrate a life cycle event, uh Barabat mitzvah, or a commemoration of a yardside, a passing, or a hodayah, Thanksgiving, whatever it may be, um, or a corporate event.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: These these are this generates a third um of our revenue.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we're aiming to cover 50% um by 2030 by revenue generated from corporate partnerships and people celebrating SMACut and life cycle events, so we can rely less on philanthropy.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it again, it works on so many different levels, you know.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: When you come to OBKLA and you're in the space, kind of towards the back, there's a little museum.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd love you to say a few words about that because I think the the way it preserves memory in such a precious and powerful way.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: And also for when you think about the kinds of groups that come through, including the group I mentioned before, you know, to come in and then learn a little bit about this family story is pretty powerful.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Say say a few words about that.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I I actually find people just standing mesmerized and immersed in that in that uh display.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh some people even get teary and take photos and uh conversations, uh, you know, a lot of conversations happen as a result of that.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's essentially a tribute to the life of Margaret Fetter.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the organization is called Margaret Fetter, Our Big Kitchen Los Angeles.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: So a couple years in, I reached out to um the Feder family to potentially partner with us in the work that we're doing.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um uh after a short period of time, they agreed to uh commit a significant amount of money to uh become our partners and uh change the name of the organization to Margaret Federal the Kitchen Los Angeles in memory of the matriarch of the family Margaret who had passed away in 2019.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now Margaret was from Munkatch in Hungary, and at the age of 14 was forced to work in the kitchen in Auschwitz for what is it, 16, 18 hours a day, and survived by smuggling out vegetable scraps under her skirt and taking them to her bunk where she shared them with her sister and her cousin, which is how they survived.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And she moved to Israel, so there's a display of there's four pillars.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's a display of her time in Auschwitz, there's a display of her time in Israel, there's a display of her um Shabbat candles and kiddush and chalakover, uh, how proud she was of her heritage.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: She then moved, and then the last one is her hospitality.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: So she moved to Brazil, then she eventually settled in Beverly Hills, and her and Paul built quite a successful um real estate company.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Her motto in life was Life is Beautiful, and it says that on the display.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: She chose to focus on the beautiful parts of life, not the family she lost and the tragedies of her early years.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: And she also called her company Triumph Properties to focus and remind herself, her family, and her staff to really focus on the wins, the beautiful components in life.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the family built that.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: That was the previously a wine cellar.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: So they built that into a tribute, and that's uh really it it's it's extremely powerful, especially after you know, over since October 7.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it is a very, very powerful tribute to her, to our people, to the resilience uh of um our community and many, many people in our community, and what can be achieved as a result of uh a partnership such as this, because of the commitment of the Fedder family.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were able to move into this beautiful new space.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And since then, I think it's 80,000 people have walked through the door, uh, 700,000 meals.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's 700,000 people have eaten a fresh meal, a million baked goods, uh, 600 groups just in the last year.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really it's really testament to the power of community commitment, and um we're just blessed to be able to be partners in this work.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking now about the first times I came and volunteered there pre-October 7th, and and the way that display, the meaning of that display and everything that is in it changes because of things that we see happening in the world.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the part of the story that gives me so much hope is when you said that, you know, the number of donations that you've lost is zero.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: That in in the face of this outside hatred that's growing, the internal work of saying, well, but there's still hungry people that need to be fed, and this is in a great mitzvah, and I'm not gonna stop doing it.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: And there's still members of my own community who need to be fed.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this this uh mitzvah allows me to do all of those things.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna keep doing it.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: It gives me such a great sense of hope and uh sense of you know sepulch nefish of of internal spiritual satisfaction.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm thinking to to to close our time together, because I know you probably have uh meals to fix uh to prepare and deliver and get delivered through the exactly.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to keep you from that important work, but you know, thinking uh looking out maybe five years from now, ten years from now, what's your vision for OBKLA?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: You've already, as you've mentioned, you know, all over the country and around the world, there are places that inspired by this original kitchen in Bondi and the work that you guys have done have have you know multiplied.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: What are some things you're thinking about for us right here in LA and and what's next?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a great question.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we have our OBKLA 2030 plan, which uh includes a million meals a year and a million pounds of pantry supplies.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, as part of that, uh we are in the advanced planning stages of relocating, so purchasing, acquiring uh a custom-built space between 10 and 15,000 square feet, very important, with at least 30 parking spaces.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: We know that's a big issue where we are.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and um we are absolutely within the next, we're hoping within the next 18 months to be in a new facility, to be able to welcome more people, do more good, uh, and also look after the families not just with fresh meals, but also with uh pantry supplies to see them through the rest of the week.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: We also plan to significantly increase the number of volunteers that we can host, add some depth, additional pedagogic depth to the programming in terms of food wastage, food insecurity, and education around those areas.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and then the goal was we're blessed that we've met our 27 goal.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: 2027 goal two years early, so I guess we're gonna go back to the drawing board and really assess uh what the 2035 goal would look like because now the absolute focus is um maintaining the five-star volunteer experience, the quality of the meals whilst working on the 2030 expansion.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: So um we didn't, I honestly didn't think that this number of kitchens would be inspired this quickly.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: It snowballed.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: We thought there'd be 10 kitchens by 2027 that we would help get off the ground.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: We've personally helped 27 locations, and now it's sort of snowballed, they're off on their own.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: We can't even keep up with how many hundreds have started.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're just extremely grateful for the partnerships that we have, the partnership that we have with you as well, and the support we have uh from you and from your community, and invite whoever has not yet been to OBKLA to come join us and experience the joy in volunteering.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to add that there's really a triple benefit to um volunteering.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if I could say specifically volunteer volunteering at OBKLA, there's the feeling one has from volunteering and the joy in volunteering.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: The recipients get a beautiful meal, and the nonprofits that we provide the meals to get to redeploy their limited resources to mental health, housing, and other areas.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, many of your viewers would be familiar with Food on Foot and your listeners would be familiar with Food on Foot, a beautiful organization looking after the unhoused in Hollywood 27 years every Sunday.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: So up until two years ago, they would pay vendors for those meals.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: As a result of OBKLA providing those meals for free, 11 people were housed in a shelter in 2025.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a six-figure saving.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ronald McDonald House are able to look after a family for a year as a result of not having to pay for meals.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: So this mitzvah has a real ripple effect.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when you think about ways that you can try to make a difference and and and have so many different layers, uh, and then the personal satisfaction knowing that, like, no, it's actually, I know for me, when I've had an OBKLA date on my calendar coming up, and I see it, I'm like, oh, I know it's gonna be meaningful.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's gonna be fun.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: I know I'm gonna enjoy the process of getting down there and getting checked in and the whole thing.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: At the end, you go home with this great cookie.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and the whole it just feels like, wow, this this is amazing.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: So to have that happen on so many different layers is just wonderful.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yossi, thank you for everything you and your family and your community do.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being a great partner to Stephen Weiss Temple and so many other organizations, and then individual volunteers who are there.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: We'll put in the episode notes all the info for how you can sign up to be a volunteer, how you can make a donation, how you can bring your team from your business to come and do a corporate event.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're grateful to you, Yossi.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: Look forward to seeing you back.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's our episode.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to Search for Meaning.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed today's conversation, please like, subscribe, and leave a review.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: It really helps others discover the podcast.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: And consider sharing Search for Meaning with a friend.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: They might appreciate the insights and inspiration found here.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: Special thanks to our editor Josh Sterling and our production coordinator Raz Husseini.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: Our theme song was composed by Maestro David Cates and myself, produced by Kenley Mattis, and features a vocal by cantor Josh Goldberg.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Stay healthy, stay hopeful, and stay tuned.