Behind the Greatness: Isaac Shalom - Full Feature Documentary

[music] I shalam is it's a brand. You just have to say the name I shalom and everybody knows exactly what you're talking about. He's [music] responsible for a lot of the success that we're seeing today in the community. He was the visionary that saw it [music] way back. He didn't only see it in in Brooklyn. He saw it all over the world. >> He was the icon of the community. When he came to the room, there was a presence [music] there. >> He was not involved in the business when I was working there. He would come to the office every day, but it was all charity work. >> Was not at all uh tolerant of uh being lazy. Everything had to be done with a purpose. I was [music] 14 years old and passed away. We knew he was a very important man, but we didn't realize the greatness that's been attributed to him since then. [music] An icon. An icon is a symbol, a person whose [music] presence, work, or spirit becomes larger than themselves. They stand as a reference point for others, embodying values that a community cherishes, its strength, [music] its resilience, its courage. They remind a community of who they [music] are and who they can become. They connect the past to the present and the present [music] to an inspiring future. From an icon, we learn not to imitate, but to elevate ourselves. [music] We learn the importance of purpose, the importance of setting a foundation for future generations. [music] If there ever was an icon in our community, it was Isaac [music] Shalam. >> Understood that without education, Judaism is dated. It's perishable. As the generations descend [music] and we would have got more embedded in American society, without Torah, we would have drowned. You're not making videos. You're not talking about us. We would [music] have been gone with the wind. we would have melted in the melting pots. His vision to open Mac and David Yeshiva [music] which is Isaac Shalom Elementary School that gave the community endurance. [music] It brought us another hundred years in exile. And I started driving him. I was 18, 19 years old. A lot of times I would take him to visit hospitals from the community in the middle of the day. We go to Brooklyn, uptown Manhattan and so on. He was not talkative. He only spoke when it when it was necessary. He had an idea and he saw what's needed and [music] he acted immediately. He didn't stop and he got other people involved and and and he built on that. He's really like the forefather [music] of the community. I one person brought it all together. My father was very close to Aisha. After Shul on Shabbat, they would go to Linda Linda Mal's [music] house where Abraham was also living. He was a widowerower and Aisha would be there having breakfast and all my father-in-law and his siblings were there drinking from Aisha's fountain of knowledge and wisdom [music] and I think he helped shape their lives and imbued in them what they had in their DNA already but made them [music] become community leaders each one in their own right probably by example he was driven like not other people are driven and that's why 57 58 years after his passing he's still revered within our community they've always given given him [music] such gratitude for what is created. That's a long time in history. 50 60 years go by, [music] people get forgotten. I think my grandfather's remembered today as as much as he was uh uh in the 1950s and60s. [music] Isaac Shalam came to this country with little more than a dream and the determination [music] to chase it. He worked hard day after day when nobody was watching. [music] He worked when it would have been easier to quit. And he built something out of nothing. But the business he created was never [music] meant to serve him alone. It had a purpose, a greater purpose. [music] It was built so others could rise with him. So that people who shared the same hunger, the same hopes, the same dreams could have a [music] place to grow, a place to build something of their own. Through his effort, he opened doors. Through his sacrifice, he offered opportunities. And through his vision, he helped families [music] create futures brighter than the ones they left behind. >> You cannot imagine how many handkerchiefs were sold [music] in those days. I worked there, so I knew. And I didn't know what they're doing [music] with it. I says, "You're selling more handkerchiefs than bread." He always hired workers [music] from the community. Always, not only young boys, middleage, and older men. He always gave them an opportunity to make money. that that was his thing. >> I had almost no direct contact with him except one time. I don't how many years I was working. [music] Then the summers they said, "Mr. Shalam wants to see you. Mr. Shalam wants to see you. I don't know. I'm wondering is my job [music] at stake? I have no idea. I'm just a young kid." So I go to his office. It was on 411 Fifth Avenue. And [music] uh I sit down at the table opposite him and he gives me a white piece of paper. Gives me a pencil and a ruler. He says, "I'm [music] told you know how to draw." I said, "Yes, I'm studying it in high school." He says, "Okay, I want you to take this paper and pencil and I want you to make a like this." [music] He's describing a rectangle. Draw a line here. Draw a line here. I did that. I drew a line. Now, draw some other lines this way. I did that. He said, "Okay, [music] now put a door at the end." He said, "Um, they I'm opening schools in Morocco. They send [music] me all these fancy building plans. It's a waste of money. I'm going to send him this drawing. That's what I want them to [music] build." So, that was my contact with him. I left the room saying I got to I say my job was not at stake [music] and uh I did a drawing for Mr. Shalom. But it was a lesson to me of of his dynamic of his fundraising philanthropy that was not just next door in the neighborhood or in in Brooklyn or [music] New York. It was worldwide. And he always helped his competitors. Men [music] from the community would go to him. He would give them merchandise to sell and then they decide to open their own business. The same business he helped them a lot of times gave them loans. I know one story about the loan he gave Ralph Towel was $10,000 to start his business. He told him, "Who's your guarant guarantor? You know who who's going to sign for you?" So he says, "Mr. Shalon, really? I don't have anybody that's going to cosign." [music] So he says, "You do. Hashem is your your partner. Promise me you give 10% of your profits every year. That's that's a good co-signer. That's enough for me." >> He would put other people in business. He had the merchandise. He [music] had the contacts. And so he would start people off to be his competitor, so to speak. How do you do that? You know, that's uh who who does such a thing? >> He'd give them inventory. He'd give them handkerages and he'd tell them where to go buy, where to go sell, and he would give them on credit. Who does that today? Would you help somebody who's want to become your competitor? [music] That's what he did. That was his nature. He was happy because he realized he saw the greater picture. He wasn't interested only in his own success. He was very interested more than his own success in community success. Isaac [music] Shalam was a man who believed that the true measure of a life was not in what one kept but in one what gave away. To him [music] generosity was not an act, it was a calling. Philanthropy was not just something he practiced. It was something [music] he embodied. He gave not only resources but time, compassion and dignity. >> [music] >> He understood that the smallest kindness could become the turning point in someone's life. And he lived each day with that truth [music] guiding him. In a world often defined by what people can take, he chose instead [music] to give. And through his giving, he changed lives quietly, powerfully, and forever. >> Most people, and it's only normal, they want their family to do well. He had a wider view. He really looked communitywide. Doing well was important to him. >> He would come to the office every day, but it was all charity work. It was all the organizations that would come to him and he was always helping them and soliciting for them with his friends and [music] getting them to know the community. Besides dealing with uh organizations, he was also problem solvers for the community. Anytime there was a dispute or a problem or he [music] would be the first one to speak to. I was in Israel about 20 years ago and a rabbi I was with took me around. [music] He said, "I want you to meet this man." And I went to the guy's house and the man's father was a photographer and he had a whole wall of photo albums. I gave him my name. My grandfather was Isaac Shalom. And he starts looking through all the photo books [music] and he came out with maybe 80 photographs of my grandfather during his various trips to Israel. And the thing that I found the most interesting, he was always with religious [music] leaders. He wasn't with the politicians. He wasn't with uh any entertainers. He was only with the rabbis. And that's where his comfort zone was. [music] He didn't care so much about politics. He didn't care so much about being a VIP. His sweet spot [music] was being with rabbis. That's what he loved more than anything else. He spent most of his time on philanthropy and uh not so much on the business. He was involved with the, you know, schools in Morocco, building new [music] schools at Megan David, always meeting with um rabbis of all sorts. And yeah, business was more um especially in the later years, more secondary to him. >> I remember going to his house on Avenue W. My father would take me there on Sunday mornings. He always had somebody he was waiting for that was arriving at Kennedy at 5:00 [music] p.m. Sunday night, and he had a meeting with him. It was always it was always meetings with important leaders all the time. That that's what his life was filled with. >> That was going on 24 hours a day. My my father always [music] liked to say that I had a very rich father but he never gave us any money. And what he meant by that was he gave away all the money. Gave 80% of his money away to charities. He uh he felt that was you know the purpose of earning money [music] was to give it and help others. He taught the community how to give charity. The financial community give credit to my grandfather for teaching [music] them that you can't go a week or two weeks or a month but there's not some new organization popping up to fill some need in the [music] community that didn't exist before. community is the icon of any Jewish community around the world. Whether you talk about people in Mexico or Brazil or even in Israel, there's no community like our community. Grandpa Isaac set things into motion, but the community deserves a lot of credit for continuing the impetus that he started with and really building an amazing community today. Was also very close with the Ashkanazic community, especially Rabbi Kawasa. [music] He helped him get off the ground when when he first started the yeshiva which was after World War II and [music] he helped them get settled and you know he did all the red tape whatever was necessary. When my father was the president of the Mag and David Yeshiva, they they had a they had a problem and they didn't know how to handle it [music] and uh they decided to call on Rabbi Mosha Feinstein and try to see [music] what he thought of the situation. And they said, "Oh, no, no, no, no. Rabbi Mosha Feinstein, you can't get him. He's so busy. He's doing so many things. You're never going to get him." So my father or someone called him up and you know, I said, "Look, can I speak to Mr. Feinstein?" I said, "Oh, no. It's impossible. It's impossible. [music] I'll leave your name. He says, "Henry Shalom." 20 minutes later, the phone rings back. How are you related to Isaac Shalom? He says, "That's my father." He says, "I'm coming to your [music] house tomorrow night." He came to the house. He sat down. He spoke for an hour or two with my father regarding that situation. Isaac Shalam was a man [music] with a vision that stretched far beyond the familiar streets of home. While many looked inward, he looked [music] outward across oceans and deserts to children he had never met [music] but could not forget. He saw a world in need, a world where countless Jewish [music] boys and girls in distant lands had no access to education, no teachers to guide them, no schools to call their own. They were part of a vast and silent population known as the [music] forgotten million. But he refused to let them remain forgotten. He had a vision of classrooms filled with hope [music] and promise. That vision would become Torah, a network of Yeshivot [music] that reached deep into the Jewish communities of Middle Eastern lands, bringing children the gift of [music] a Jewish education. His mission was simple and yet immense. To ensure that no Jewish child, no matter how far away, would ever again [music] be forgotten. Through Hatra, his vision became a reality. One [music] classroom, one child, one life at a time. Israel got their independence in 1948. As Israel got their independence, the Arab nations stopped being friendly to them. in Iraq within five or seven years [music] they expelled all of them. Syria they wouldn't let them out. >> He he sponsored [music] as many as he could to leave Egypt, settle them and help them find places [music] to live and he settled them all of them in the Yeshiva and most of them became rabbis. He also [music] partnered with Rabbi Kovitz on setting up yes especially in Morocco, Iran and France. call them the forgotten million because nobody was paying any attention [music] to these people in Algeria in Morocco. >> It was called Osar and everybody knew that was the organization that was the umbrella organization for developing these schools [music] in other countries >> and he had an executive director was used the shalom office to uh to work from. >> Traveled there many times and traveled there by boat. We made [music] a few trips overseas to visit the to visit the uh organizations especially in Morocco and visit all of them and see that they [music] were being properly run >> and then he set up a network in France. Still today they're the leading educators of uh Jewish education in France. >> Between all the countries you're talking about a couple of hundred yeshivas [music] that he was able to establish. I was once in Montreal, Quebec to give a dasha. And the rabbi who introduced [music] me says, and I want you to know that by introducing Rabbi Mansaw, his great uncle was Isaac Shalam. [music] And he goes on to say that I am a graduate of Mr. Shalam's Tora program [music] that they had in Casablanca. And if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here. And because I'm here, I have the Cole. So, it was a very nice introduction. [music] The next night, I was in Beverly Hills and I spoke at another event. This was a Persian event. And it's déjà vu. The rabbi gets up to introduce me. He says, and the rabbi's great uncle is Isaac Shalam. And if it wasn't for Mr. Shalam opening up in Thran, I would not be able to study Torah. So I'm looking at two different places. I was in Montreal and then California at two different communities. And they're both saying how if it wasn't for this man, their communities would not have toat today. There is a saying that charity begins at home. While others focused [music] on building businesses and settling into their new lives, Isaac Shalom looked at the children. He saw bright faces, [music] eager minds, and souls hungry for Torah, tradition, and a sense of who they were. Without a place to learn, without teachers to guide them, without a structure to preserve their identity, he knew the community's future would be [music] at risk. A Jewish community without education is like a flame without oil, destined to fade. Out of that determination, Mag and David Yeshiva was born. The first all day Yeshiva in our community's history. [music] It began modestly but with heart. Although with just a handful of students, the mission was clear to build a [music] sanctuary of learning where Torah, tradition, and academic excellence would walk hand in hand. And [music] he was right. From those humble beginnings grew a thriving institution and community that shaped generations. His vision ensured that the Syrian Jewish community not only survived but flourished, anchored by education, uplifted by unity, and protected by the very values he fought to [music] preserve. >> Most of American Jewish society assimilated and went other places because of lack of Jewish education. This is really key and it needed to be yeshiva for our community, our way, our way of reading, our customs, our >> he had an unbelievable foresight like he just knew what's coming 20 years later and he prepared for it and he said we [music] need that foundation for our youth to learn properly and to learn all the laws they can't learn it in an hour tamutra in the afternoon [music] said we have to do it and he just said let's get started and he did it >> and there were people against it people for it. It went both ways and ultimately he prevailed. It started as a uh bingo hall I believe and uh wasn't getting much use by room by room. He took it over and put a classroom here and a classroom there and that morphed into Magna David today. You know, there was a lot of steps in between. But um you know that was the seed >> I know. He went and he tested the boys. He went into the class and he he asked the boys questions, had conversations with the rabbis about what they're learning and what they're doing and what they're teaching. And he never left it alone. He had every right to say listen I worked hard all my life it's uh golden years it's time to retire [music] but he didn't >> go back to history from the 40s now where would we be without >> he's gets the credit for saving the community from mass mass assimilation >> success breeds other success how many yeshiv are there now it's a miracle how many and there's never enough >> if you go to the Magen David elementary school they have the big portrait the big portrait of Aisha when you walk in that's a That's a legacy picture. You see the founder of the yeshiva, glorious man. >> One day I went to visit my grandfather with my dad on a Sunday and my grandfather opens a prayer book and he says, "Show me how you pray." I must have been in fifth grade, sixth [music] grade. I went to Yeshiva Flappish. I did not go to Mag and David. In Yeshiva Flappish in those days, they torture [snorts] Kumash and Na'vi and Diktduk and all those subjects, [music] but they really didn't give you the day-to-day prayers. So I said, 'Well, grandpa, I don't know. They don't really teach you how to pray, but you know, I could tell you what the Na'vi is doing, what's going in Na'vi. I could tell you in the what's going on. Okay. Okay. All right. We go home. End of the day. I go to school Monday morning, 9:00 a.m. on the loudspeaker, Mr. Isaac Shalam. Come to the principal's office. They look at me. What's the matter? I said, "What?" He goes, "Why don't you know how to pray?" I said, "What are you talking about?" Your grandfather called up this morning. You didn't know how to pray. You told him we don't teach you how to pray. I I I didn't know what to tell him. I was getting yelled at. But that was that was, you know, the influence that he had. That was, you know, one firsthand experience I remember having directly from my grandfather. Isaac Shalam had an impact. But what is impact? Impact [music] is the force that continues long after a visionary begins their work. It's the echo of actions, decisions, [music] and courage that ripple through years, even generations. Impact is what we still feel today because what he built, what he believed in, and what he set in motion. [music] However, it doesn't end with him. Just as he had impact, we can have impact, too. Every choice, every effort, every moment of courage [music] plants a seed. And the true power of impact is that you rarely see its [music] full reach in your lifetime. But others one day will. All of us have that opportunity to create an impact. When Hashem created the [music] world, he didn't create three million people in in one shot. He created one person, Adam. And of course, the wants to know why did he create it in such a uh limited way. And [music] the answer is because it's worthy to create the world for one person because he can have an impact as Adamishon did. Unfortunately, in a negative way, we're still impacted from some decisions that Adam made. We're still impacted positively for some decisions that one man called Isaac Shalam [music] made. And the story doesn't end with Adam and Aisha. It it it continues with every single Jew that he is the one man that is able to make a difference. ripple effect is long after his passing. We're still talking about it. >> He he was a doer. He was always active with the community. >> He saw a need and he filled it. You know, he saw the Jews in North Africa needed he built. He saw the the community in in Brooklyn going to public school. He he looked for the need and he filled it. >> Anything to do with religion with synagogues [music] and schools, he was right behind it. >> I was in Israel once about 20 25 years ago. There [music] was this silver store not far from the King David Hotel and I went there to buy a couple of items and I [music] give the guy my credit card. He sees my name. He says, "Oh, how you relate to Isaac Sha says my grandfather." He says, "Hold a woman." He runs in the back. He brings out his father. It was an old man and he introduces him to me and the guy starts telling me the story that my grandfather used to buy Jude from uh Muzot Teilene uh Sidurim and other items [music] and they used to smuggle it into Syria. And they were doing this for a number of years. uh smuggling. Uh you know, this story [music] I never heard before. It's not uh you know, but it's just like I got to imagine there's got to be more of those stories out there [music] that just don't get the coverage. At 75 years old, he was still going to Israel and still going to Morocco with my grandmother and still hosting receptions and still going to charity fundraising [music] events. And you know, that was until his last day he he was doing that. >> It's it's mind-blowing. I mean to see [music] what's going on in the community today and compare it to 50 60 years ago. Nobody would believe it. If somebody said it's going to be like that, nobody would would agree. [music] The education is what turned everything around little by little. Took time. A lot of families that were not shame Shabbat and so on. And now their children are rabbis. They're shamesh and they pray every day and they go to shul every day. >> They had one synagogue on 67th Street. And today, how many synagogues in the community? 45 synagogues. Between New York and New Jersey, there must be 45 synagogues. And there could be another 105 we don't even know about. And you have the same thing with the schools. So you had one Magade yeshiva, then you had hal Yeshiva, then you had Hayza Yeshiva. And today there's yeshivas everywhere. It all started from Magadea originally. [music] You know, I think the community has really absorbed that message of giving back. That's why this community is world famous community. conserving people turn out for their charities like nobody else. He was lucky enough to be one of the initial leaders, but the community has carried on and we have great leaders since then and we have great leaders today. We should all be very proud to be a member of this community and I'm very proud to have Isaac Shalom as my as my grandfather who was a wise person. A wise person is somebody who could see the future and Mr. Sham certainly [music] was that and I think he led others to have the same type of feel. [music] >> [music] >> uh he was legendary. He created [music] a great consequence long after the man is uh is with us. [music]