#146: Behind the Bima - Sam Lessin

from bokeron Florida this is behind the beima on this episode Rabbi globber and co-host Rabbi Philip MTZ are joined by Harvard alumnus and technologist Sam leson a tireless advocate for Jews in Israel and higher institutions Sam shares his thoughts on the downturn of Harvard's prestigious reputation within the Jewish Community talks about his continuous fight to reestablish an atmosphere conducive to Jews in Israel and shares strategies to implement this change plus once again it's Global campaign time all this and more behind the beima welcome to behind the Bea joined by my dear friend and colleague Rabbi masit Rabbi bro is not with us this week he's back in Israel as we continue to regularly go support love show up and hopefully one day figure out a way that we are all there together RAB mosco it's always good to be with you my friend it is excellent to be with you as well this a great conversation we're bring in tonight Sam Lon we'll talk more about in a moment but we didn't know much about him before we were introduced to him in the wonderful work he's doing to try to take back back Harvard to not give up on higher institution and Jews Comfort there but it was a fascinating conversation but what were you about to say I was gonna say when are you going next you just uh said or Brody's there you said please God will be continuing to go but you have a trip coming up also don't you I do going in a couple weeks for three days each of these trips are really mini trips micro trips uh barem have two weddings from the community very excited about and the ability to participate and to celebrate wish we could always go to all weddings everywhere doesn't work out that way no exact science to it but the opportunity did present itself and to be able to go for the weddings and also go to continue to to connect and to feel the energy the Israel energy right now continues to be extraordinary we hope it never dissipates or unravels but it's still very very powerful the spiritual awakening the Aus the sense of mission and purpose the notion of being part of something bigger now you spoke about that the shabas we're going to take people behind the beam a little bit or I am about to um you you've been am I being interviewed tonight yeah you're being interviewed tonight it's good okay you you've been giving dr's now since October 7th about Israel I think pretty much every week has been about Israel take us behind the scenes behind the beam a little bit as a rabbi because you spoke about this exact idea of of always having to renew our passion not letting ourselves get tired not letting ourselves feel exhausted or complacent but renewing our efforts on behalf of Israel what was the Genesis of that druss is it something you were feeling is it something you feel our community was feeling um maybe walk our listeners through the evolution of your J there P wow wow I didn't see that coming um you know it's been tough for both of us for rabbis everywhere who and I actually I shouldn't say that rabbis everywhere because a relative of mine from Israel was recently in America and was shocked by the disconnect at what they thought was a Toni community and how it Israel did not permeate the drusa the sermon and the atmosphere and the programming certainly was a community that is committed to Israel and and you can feel that but it wasn't as present as it is let's say for us here not that we're better than anyone else but but we we can't and haven't moved on since October 7th every single sermon since October 7th that's now the end of February has been about Israel every article since October 7th has been about Israel because every day and every hour is about checking what's happening in Israel what's the latest news from Israel and what could we doing for Israel what Israel does of course for us so I I've essentially given the same Russia every single week for four or five months in a row it's just figuring out different Torah different story different hook different connection but every single druss is really what's sharing what's on my heart and my mind and I and I feel based on the feedback and the energy in the room is on other people's is just to stay connected so who's our hero this week which story are we connected which movement what we've done though and I know you've done this also in your Dres is is talk about Israel but in a way that we're not talking about something 6,000 miles away this story this connection this model all this example how does that Inspire us here how does that change us here what more can we be doing here in in that way so I can't help but feel and I had a meeting last week I guess that must have motivated the druss a bit where a couple people in the meeting shared that there's some fatigue happening right the outrage that we had on October 8th the outrage the passion that poured itself out in in rallies in the street and in just outrage the outrage as is to be expected I think it's only natural it simmers the outrage gets ton down and so we need to remain outraged we have to stay outraged because the war is still going the threat Remains the losses tragically continue to to pile up and so the outrage and the stories that are still coming out and the impact that will be felt for a long time so that was it it's just how can we shake off and the image of the crew of being children and how can we remembers the that we insisted on keeping that youthful exuberance and and and vivaciousness and energy and freshness to whatever it is that we care about including Israel that's where it came from well I know as a listener in the audience I don't oftentimes get to hear you speak I'm often times speak but as a listener it was exactly the message that I needed and that's why I I connected the two because I know for me personally it's the trips to Israel which really give you that Renewed Energy in commitment I know for me like every time I've come back so far you come back a new person you come back with A New Perspective and you come back with a new renewed mission of like I have to bring what's happening in Israel to our community and I know that's why I'm excited for you to go because I know what that drush is going to be afterwards and how on fire you are and how passionate you are and I know for the community they look forward to that thank you I and I really appreciate that feedback but I tell you a story you know my sister told me whose son she has two sons-in-law serving and her son who's in Gaza fighting and has been and she said you know most days she says I wish this war what over not that she's certainly not advocating for a ceasefire but I want him home I want him safe I want to know where he is and and why do we have to be there and then something will come across her her feed or her her WhatsApp uh you know another video an interview a story because still there are things being revealed now about October 7th the level of the atrocity and the how barbaric and how horrific it was and she says while people choose to turn away and not look or not watch sh daava even to a degree craves watching or reading because it renews the outrage and every time that she sees that story or that video of the bibas family being paraded in Gaza and what's happening with this baby every time the outrage is renewed inside her she says no Sammy stay fight take them out not till this is over not till this is done and so what gives her the will and the and the perseverance to get through her son being in Gaza fighting is only the sense of outrage of how important it is for him to be there so I know there's a big debate I think we've had had it in our off the Record but the big debate not between me and you but generally the debate about is it good or bad that these videos are out there should people watch them not watch them are they dignified or not dignified there is an element of that we should actually be watching them again and maybe Israel should release that 42-minute video of of the depth of the atrocity because it's time to renew some outrage it's time to remember what happened it's incredible it's extraordinary how quickly that can dissipate it's only February and it was October and and and not 75 80 years later and yet the original outrage of the images that we saw have already dissipated maybe we need to Kickstart it again because the war is still going on and renew the outrage do you get that sense when it comes to Unity as well I remember after October 7th this we always spoke about this unprecedented Unity both here and in America and in Israel um I obviously you and I can't speak about what's going on in Israel but locally in America do you feel that same pervasive unconditional Unity that we felt after October 7th or do you feel that that's starting to show its cracks as well I think on a People level on a personal level individuals there's still the unity I think a Jew runs into another Jew who they didn't have a lot in common with before and they just connect over wearing the dog tags or the mugging doid or the flag on their car and the wink and the wave and the nod and the we're one I think is still there institutionally um I I don't know that it's as strong as it could be or should be or was or we want it to be I wish it were more I wish it were more what do you think what do I think I I agree I agree I think the dog tags have been like a huge symbolic connection that you have with anyone you know someone came to meet with me the other day not from our community but they were willing the dog tag and that was like an immediate point of connection and you're able to build off that you could be in a supermarket and you see that dog tag and you know immediately that there's this shared language between you and the other person even if you don't know anything else about them so I agree you know when I'm driving down the street and I see the flags on a car or you go to a parking lot and you see the Flags in a car immediately you feel comfortable you feel at home and so I definitely think on a personal level I know for me personally also um I have made like a concerted effort peace you know peace between people peace between congregants peace between me and other people like I've really made an effort to not let other things get in the way of reminding us how much we have in common and how much we're all in this together and institutionally I agree I think we all have continued work to do both locally and nationally to remind every one that we're all in this together and that what we share far outweighs what divides us and you know the longer it goes on the longer you become reminded of those divisions but it it's it's so insignificant in the broader scheme of things and I think that's you know you and I as Leaders of communities I think that's ultimately our job is to constantly remind people of what we have in common of what our shared values are and that sometimes the little things which appear much more significant and much bigger they're really not what matters is we're one people we're one heart we're one Soul we have one land and we have to be there for each other there's a perfect example of a jussa that you and I have both given and I'm sure many others have that says that if we want peace in Israel and for Israel how can we make peace in our home with our family with someone we haven't spoken to so Israel becomes a topic of the Jes right every week it's connected to Israel but it's not about Israel so to say it's about it's about us um and I think that's the the way to approach it and and it's a beautiful message that you're saying and I don't know if you want to elaborate on it or just motivate others to think someone in their life that they're not as connected to or there's friction with or there's something that could be cleaned up fixed up and and connected and and renewed that on October 6th it would have been unheard of no way not I can't let that go absolutely not but on October 8th it's like how could it possibly be worth holding on to that exactly and you know I'm always reminded you know we said the last word we say Esra every day is Shalom peace last Mish and all of Shas talks about the value of Peace so you know our rabbis 2,000 years ago obviously value that as the most significant attribute a person can have and it's as you said it's something that I can't necessarily fix Israel I can't get terrorists to stop attacking but I I could do my little part on a local level to make sure that all those frictions and all that divisiveness um stops to exist and I think that's a lesson that everyone can have and as you said and this is really a lesson I learned from you 13 years ago which is that you could be giving a druss about a topic that's 6,000 miles away but unless you drive at home for the person sitting in that audience as long as that person in the audience has to have a takeaway like when I leave this druss what is something that I can do different in my life to impact that and so we talk about Unity as like a pie in the sky idea some amorphus existential value but unless you concretize that for someone when you walk out of this room here's one thing that you can do differently as a result and I think I hope for our listeners if everyone leaves this podcast and says I'm going to reach out to someone in my life who there may have been a little bit of friction or I may not have spoken to to I'm going to reach out to that person I think we're going to be a lot better as a whole I agree 100% we are currently uh We've Just Begun the soft start of our annual Global campaign and you know I don't know I I'll say this maybe I shouldn't but behind the beam my guess is the place that I get to talk about this is nowhere else um but just maybe in an unhealthy way how emotionally invested I am in the global campaign in the sense that you put your heart and soul into what you do and what you share and what you try to provide and and the community that we are trying to build locally first and foremost but also beyond that in terms of just the the messages and the inspiration of the values and you hope that it's valued and maybe it's unfair to only measure whether people value it by whether they participate or Express their gratitude or it's really not expressing gratitude that we need thank you notes and flowers and chocolates and Gifts nothing goes into our pocket but the ultimate gratitude is to say I value it and I want to help expand it and grow it and do and do more of it so it's the annual sort of graveling and begging and and soliciting but also the annual gut check and maybe it shouldn't be but measure of yeah there's clicks and there's listens and so on but do the people really value and then I once wrote about this that it made me look in the mirror and ask myself right I benefit from wut Tor or safaria or Wikipedia and they they have the pop-up annually that says you know we're providing this free service but we're asking you to help us make it happen do I click out of it or do I say you know I gain from this I should sponsor something every year and it really was a wakeup call to me just knowing how I feel from this saying you know I should and now I try to so I guess reminding myself again now the importance of it's not a major contribution like our major stuck up dollars not telling someone to take their Meer or or 50% or 20% or 10% or 5% of their Meer it's just a matter of being counted among in some whatever way you know so we're doing our Global campaign I hope I hope behind the beima you know behind the Bea thank God is a wonderful wide audience and the the statistics and the data show a lot of listens and supposedly it might be actually starting to stream in a very exciting place that asked if they could put it on their monitors for people to choose from we won't say what it is until it actually appears there and all that's amazingly gratifying and meaningful we want to do it better we want to do more of it and we need support to do it so if anyone is so moved BRS Global BRS online.org Global feel free to contribute and and express your appreciation for behind the BBA but also enable us to do it better and more and reach more people and what's their incentive this year to do it re unless well there is a little incen this year breaking news for those who did not see the BRS weekly last week but uh BRS is going to be hosting a yesai REO concert on April 7th here at Boer tone synagogue it is extremely exciting we're doing a partnership with our friends at the helping Israel frund all money all proceeds from uh from our side of the concert are going to be going towards Israel to support soldiers front lines BRS isn't making a penny off of this and that was never our goal our goal is always to utilize this as an opportunity to magnify what we're doing and to share you know the values of BRS with the world and all the money is going to Israel it's going to help support the soldiers our friend Glen Gish helping Israel fund and as an incentive for those BRS Global Investors who give above a certain level are going to be entered into a raffle to receive two free tickets to Boer Aton spend shabas with us um in our community experience the the magic of erss and Be Our Guest VIP at the iso concert on Sunday night if that is not incentive I don't know what is that is a pretty good incentive and when they're here right we're g we're gonna fly them in two domestic tickets fly to boka are they goingon to get spend time we're going to hang out maybe we have them on behind the Bea maybe record I think we should do the raffle maybe we're can do the raffle on behind the Bea maybe even yesai will join us on behind the Bea to do the raffle and yeah I look forward I'm a little nervous now who wins the raffle but I look forward to meeting this person to spending shabus with that um I think it'll be a really great experience we'll be able to highlight them in our on our community that chabis I think it'll be like a real blending of the worlds you know sometimes you go somewhere where you meet someone from your personal life and then also from your professional life and it's like the BL I feel like this is going to be the ultimate combination of like the global world and our local world and it'll be a real celebration of everything that uh that you and that we have been building over these last number of love it $180 get someone one raffle ticket 363 tickets 5005 tickets and so on and uh you know I would hope one would think that they should give anyway because they're appreciative they're grateful and again it's it's not just appreciation you're enabling us the more we have the more people we could reach the more tooro we could spread the more difference we could make and and hopefully you want to be a partner of that and as a our gratitude for your gratitude you're in a raffle the REO concert there's a lot of excitement about the Rebo concert here at BRS hopefully it's more than just a concert that we're gonna have with him together it will be special celebrate Israel connect with Israel one of the great musicians one of the great panim of our time he is a a holy Jewish poet really more than even just a singer and we're really pumped and excited and like you said the fact that the proes are all going to Israel you know we have a dinner locally and we need to support and keep BRS strong so BRS can do what it does locally and for Israel um and that's that's our dinner we have our efforts to keep ourselves locally strong and then we have our effort to continue to be contributing to Israel and the combination of the two is really really exciting as is just being together with you RAB MTZ it is great to have you on and uh I want to share with you a little bit about about Sam Lon guest for tonight really excited for Sam Sam is a member of the Harvard class of 2005 graduated magnom loud in social studies was a member of f Beta Kappa he worked in technology started at ban and Company then he founded two companies he was a VP of product at Facebook he left Facebook uh and he reported to the CEO through the IPO of Facebook he was a classmate actually of the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg 2014 he co-founded a venture capital firm called slow Ventures that has done very well early invest in venmo salana Birchbox and others I grew up in Anglewood New Jersey right near me although not overlapping apparently and and he's why is it worth having our conversation with him he's a wonderful fascinating person alog together but after the whole episode with Harvard president and resigning in the Congressional hearing he has been working hard to try to get onto the board of overseers of Harvard and to take back the governance to not give up on higher education or Jews ability to participate or be comfortable there he's done a great job with that there's a lot to say about that we're excited to bring it to you right now Sam Lon thank you for going behind the Bea with us we're so excited to learn about you your life your career and most importantly what you're working on right now on the front lines of fighting for the Jewish people here in America in some uncomfortable places so thank you for spending some time with us thanks for having me I'm happy to be behind the Bea with you guys we appreciate it so let's let's jump right into that we'll go backwards and talk about you know your amazing life story and your career and things that you've been doing but Harvard Harvard is a used to be a prestigious word an elite word a word that people said with pride and and had bumper sticker around their car and today particularly in the Jewish and pro-israel Community Harvard's now a dirty word and Harvard's something that you don't want to associate or identify or necessarily connect with it it lost its Prestige and and so on but you haven't given up a lot of people have given up after those Congressional hearings presidents of Harvard and MIT and Pen a lot of people gave up and said we're done we're finished put them in the rearview mirror and you have not given up so as a Harvard Alum just share with us why why do you why are you have any optimism that anything can be done and what have you been working on to try to to make that optimistic future a reality yeah I mean as you said Rabbi I mean the the it's been a depressing fall um you know I think a lot of people um and certainly the Jewish community and candidly even beyond the Jewish Community really saw Harvard um in a certain light and you know you heard stories about some of the changes and issues on campus anti-Semitism Etc but you kind of chalk it up to you know who knows what's true what's not Etc and I think post 107 it became all too real um unfortunately how much the culture and the campus had changed since I was a student and since many people were students there you know um as you said speaking with many friends who have been generous to Harvard who care about Harvard over the years the reaction largely especially on the west coast is we have to move on right this is unfortunately it's 400 years of history and you know a challenging history at moments a place that you know a lot of a lot of Jewish people on Jewish alums cared a lot about we just we have to move on it's time for new institutions Etc you know I'm a West coaster but I also believe that some institutions are quite powerful and Brands don't go away overnight right and so I think that I get the Instinct especially in the creative community and the entrepreneur Community to say We'll build the next one don't worry about it we'll move on but you know when you have 400 years of history and probably the most well-known academic brand in the world I think it's worth a try to push back and say no like is it really gone or do we just need to put a little work in to bring it back right and so I started working on that and you know for me it was obviously doing what everyone else did which just saying I'm not giving any more money until things are changed but then was also saying you know there are these boards the overseers being one of the governing boards can we get a seat can we start advocating more directly you know can we start kind of put some some pressure and I'll tell you the process of doing this U has been both extremely um frustrating in a lot of ways but also actually quite heartening right and let me give you kind of the both sides of it the the frustrating part is the things people say for all organizational reasons it's incredibly hard to change there are real issues you know there's real deep problems that are going to be very hard to move forward and fix all true right all true and I've seen it firsthand in many places the the positivity though and this is again I'm I'm I'm always an optimist because I think these you have to be is one you know working on this campaign the number of people that have come out of the woodwork from all classes all schools and said yes of course right of course we want to support you you know of course this has to change is enormous the number of people even in leadership positions who called me in private and said look you can't use my name but I agree with what you're doing please keep doing it is very real and so I think there is a culture of fear um there are some real organizational problems it's not going to be a simple fix but I will say that you know having worked hard on a campaign for the first six weeks now having a mailing list of tens of thousands of alums you know having you know 2,900 go through a very Arcane process to vote for me in terms of this I have a lot of Hope actually that this year and going forward with the right application of uh of pressure with the right Clarity of ideas that we can make a difference here um so I'm not done and how how do we make that difference if Harvard if Harvard is redeemable and I'm gonna I'm going to go out on a Lim and say that everybody would agree if it were redeemable if we can turn them around and pivot them to support stand with the Jewish community be more pro-israel and and the issues that need to be fixed that that certainly is the better way to go because of all the reasons you listed and more so let's hope and assume they are redeemable what's the strategy what's the method what what did you try what wall did you run into and how you going to run through it yeah look I mean here's my personal belief and strategy having spoken to a lot of people and not just Jewish alums I think it's very important to keep in mind the fact that it's not just Jewish alums who feel this way it's it's a broad swath of the of the of the of the alumni and I the the organization in different Pockets I think we have to reenter on the core principles of what Harvard is supposed to stand for right and to me it's very clear which is Harvard has stood for 400 years in the spirit of academic Excellence it's literally in the slogan it's veratos it's Truth full stop right and if we're being honest I think what happened in the last many many you know years certainly since I was there I graduated in 2005 is we've watched so many institutions of the country fall right or become not trusted anymore and so you know rightly or wrongly what happened I think is a lot of people in society they want things to be better they want things to change they say well what institutions are still strong and what can we ask them to do that's more than their core mission in order to accomplish it that's how all of a sudden you get these changes where Harvard went from purely being about academic excellence and Truth to well is there a Dei mission on top of that are there other things we should be optimizing for Beyond just the core mission of truth and the problem with that it's a nice thought some ways right the nice thought is okay these institutions are strong and there are problems we have as a society maybe they can pick up more slack the problem is that it's not designed to do that right and so what happens is when you complicate the mission which has clearly happened it puts pressure on the board these boards are not designed to be very strong right they're donor boards in a lot of ways and so when all of a sudden it's not hey we're optimizing for Veritas we're optimizing for Veritas plus diversity plus other social issues the boards don't know how to trade those and candidly they don't want to get mixed up in it right they say look you know we're here as you know as supporters of Harvard you know we we don't want to be trading these different goals against each other and then that percolates through the campus culture in various ways because no one's holding a firm line right so to me look the anti-Semitism is very clear on campus and does need to be directly dealt with I don't want to write that off as you know a red herring on of its own but I actually think to fix Harvard overall some of these and to fix anti-Semitism for the long term it's actually about rest strengthening the core Mission and then realizing how anti-Semitism and kind of the policies that are allowing it actually hurt that core mission right vers it is just saying this is about anti-Semitism full stop right so my view is if you fix the core Mission it's about truth that's it you can kind of fix governance make it easier to say yes is this about truth or not right is about academic Excellence are we trying to win Nobel prizes or are we optimizing other things and then you get to canus culture we can say hey is um freedom of speech in the classroom to find truth is that an important input to AC of course it is right uh in civil discourse perspective on the flip side if we believe in academic Excellence is it okay to exclude Jewish students or make them feel unsafe on campus on private property right and not allow them to participate fully in that of course it's not right these things become very easy right um but the problem is that when that mission gets muddled all of a sudden these trade-offs become very hard and you don't have the right governance in place to kind of protect people so that's kind of how I see things but is it too entrench Rob mcot I'm sorry but is it entrenched if you have if you have professors they're tenured the culture is it so entrenched is is it as simple as and it's not simple at all but is it as simple as um running for the board of overseers making it on taking over the governance or or you gonna have to purge some of the I wouldn't say Purge RAB I wouldn't say Purge what I would say is this I mean I think there's a bunch of reasons why you know the academic world has always had s colorful and sometimes very wrong views about the world right that's nothing new right um what I do think what happened over time and I think brings to a head right now and I do think there's a lot of what you're discussing is with no back stop with no one saying these are the lines right that those those types of viewpoints have been allowed to run a muck right in a way that's very damaging to the institution and also does have the byproduct of doing something I think none of us probably listening to this no one listening to this is excited about which is causing a lot of anti-Semitism and legitimate fear among Jewish students right um and feeling just unincluded from the environment so to me look I don't think it's a quick solve I don't think we're going to be here in a year and we're gonna say hooray we've succeeded and we've finished but I would say that if we fix the mission we fix governance we establish clear lines you know some professors might leave of their own valtion because this is no longer the environment that they thought it was right others might stay on and you know be moderated we need to introduce more intellectual diversity you know there's no question that in terms of the evolution of these things there have been professors who have been excluded from roles or not considered that should have been that might have added more intellectual diversity um so it's a m it's a multi-year process right but in the in the history of a 400-year institution that again for better or worse is still the best known academic brand probably in the world and certainly represents the liberal West to me it's worth the work right and it's worth the work to to to do it and I think the good news again about my campaign so far and the experience I've had is I've been overwhelmed with support by alums who agree I mean you hear from the extremes you hear from the extremes on on any end of things you know the reality is is most moderate caring Harvard alarms and other people they're living their lives and doing other things right and so they're not necessarily the loudest about these issues but I do think that this was such an extreme moment post 107 right of you just can't avoid you can't unsee once you've seen that there's a lot of people that are willing to step forward now that would have historically said look it's a problem but there are other problems in the world world right and so in some ways maybe that would be the glass half full view is that this was so bad right that it's going to spark action that otherwise wouldn't have happened so so that's where I want to pick up because obviously everyone knows about 107 everyone knows about what's going on in college campuses the vast majority 95% of American jewry sees it shrugs its shoulders said Harvard's a loss cause MIT is a loss cause Pen's a loss cause there's nothing you could do about it you looked at that and you said this is something I can change and it's not going to happen overnight it's going to happen over the Long Haul and you put yourself out for it right I mean I was following your your Twitter feed I mean you're you're out there and very publicly um with your perspectives and your views about Israel and defense of Israel and against the New York Times and that's opened you up I would imagine to enormous amounts of anti-Semitism what in your background gave you the Jewish Pride the Jewish strength the backbone to be able to say I'm going to step forward and I'm going to take this issue on well for me there are just certain things that are clear and just there's right and wrong on and I'm willing to step forward for that I think when it matters and when I think I can have an impact you know my personal take you know I have many Israeli cousins right um you know some in politics in Israel Etc like you know again the um and I look at what they're doing and I think to myself the reality is it's necessary they're doing what they have to do but I also trust them to do what has to be done uh I don't as an American Jew living in California I'm not going to personally have much direct impact on that part of the problem which is very serious to be clear but I look at higher education and I look at kind of Defending what I think is critical which is the liberal West right um and you look at kind of what's going on there's a few hot button issues or a few places I think I can have impact you know one which many you know Jews and other people are working on is which I'm sure you guys are you know well versed in is you know Tik Tok is a massive national security problem right and it's it's we can talk about it as oh and people do about the anti-semitic content there everything that's going on it's all true but stepping back if you believe in the liberal West and you know Israel and you know as important part of the the liberal West in the broader sense it is inexcusable that we haven't banned Tik Tok in the United States um and it's it's it's wild now that's a thing I think I can have some level of impact on higher education starting with Harvard I happen to be in alum I think it really matters I think it's a mistake to write off these institutions um because they really are the bull workk of liberalism um and say ah you know we'll move on from them we'll figure something else out I think it's a mistake but I think I can actually have an impact there and so you have to look for those targeted moments and then do some people yell at you on the internet sure but people have been yelling at me on the internet for 20 years I'm not that worried about it come back to that question about about your background we grew up as neighbors I don't know that we overlapped I think you were in diapers when I graduated to Teek you grew up in Anglewood New Jersey we didn't know each other but we overlapped on the earth at the same time and still do thank God what what in your background who who are your inspiration for your Jewish Pride for your pro-israel activity is it family are there any teachers is there a rabby what is it in your in your background in your own personal history that positions you to be this fighter right now in this moment again I I think for me I grew up in um you know we kept Shabbat you know I grew up down the street from Mariah we were by no means the most religious Jews in the community went to a reformed synagogue um you know I have Jewish obviously large Jewish family and then more importantly you know I think it really does matter to me that I have Jewish cousins um who are living in Israel um you know my aunt made aiyah um after college and has been there ever since um you know I have first cousins who live there I've had you know been able to visit them many times and experience Israel in various ways and look Israel like any liberal democracy is a complicated place right as a modern State it's not a simple uh environment there are things that I think you know the Israeli state does that I think are challenging right I think they're leaders we might not all love in various ways but for me it's just you know you look at um at kind of the importance of it and what they what what's been built there the importance of kind of that Jewish identity is is pretty deep you know you know raising children Jewish um you know being involved in the broader you know story and then just candidly from a pride perspective I mean look you know it's it's the intellectual contributions of the Jewish people um you know are wonderful right and so I think there is a real connection and this part of the thing with Harvard and some of the connections there is you know again you're not going to have if your true goal is um academic Excellence right you want to talk about the story of academic Excellence um it's pretty tightly intertwined into the story of the Jewish people over certainly over the last hundred years and not Beyond and so to me these things all are very aligned right um you know anti and that's why I say also anti-Semitism is candidly very aligned with anti-liberalism and anti-western culture right these things are all very related and I think it is important you know as Jews um to think about this as our story but also in some ways as like a broader story right um that a lot people that aren't Jewish care about as well you you live in the west coast you live in a world of venture capitalism of of private Equity of investing and you know some of the companies you've been early investors and is is extremely impressive what are some things you hear in the boardrooms that might be misnomers that might be misconceptions about the uh the Israel process the experience you know obviously because you're very public about it I would imagine that is very intertwined to internal conversations does it come up does it not come up how much does your Judaism play either to your advantage or disadvantage when you're in those boardrooms with other Venture capitalists you know it's funny I live in a very weird small world right is the reality and so you know you talk about at one point remember early after 107 I was put on some list of you know Venture capitals you should never take money from because they're Jewish and I was like this is the best marketing I've ever seen in my life thank you like I don't you know you look you look down the list of people on this list and it's like I've never been so thrilled to be in such great company right you know it's like is like all the best you know and so you know to me in the small world I live in candidly and working um it's it's not a problem I mean people broadly agree like the people I want to invest in and spend time with they're not all Jewish by any means but like broadly speaking I think they support the West they support liberalism they support you know Israel um you know they do R&D in Israel it's there's a very tight relationship uh and conversely I mean it's a little bit silly to say but I'll say in this context it's you know the people who are extremely anti-israel are generally not not aligned with the types of people creating great technology companies anyway right and so it doesn't I mean I'm sure there's some exception right I'm not you know but like um there's always an exception but you know in general that's that's what it's been I mean there have been a few interesting things you know sometimes my dad used to say that it's important in life to have setbacks every once in a while because when you have setbacks it helps you figure out who your real friends are right if you have no setbacks you don't really know who your real friends are and who aren't but you have a real setback it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly who shows up and who doesn't and in that respect there are certainly a few voices in The Venture Capital and startup Community who I will not name right who have shown themselves to be people that you don't want to do business with um but I think the vast majority again you know this is part of the thing about I live in one of the world's great liberal enclaves right and I mean that in the real sense of liberalism um it's not a daily problem for me is the honest answer which again people say it's I don't feel like I'm being so strong I feel like I'm in a very nice position where I'm able to say things that others might believe but have other reasons they can't speak up and I'm free to speak up you were a classmate of Mark Zuckerberg you you began at Facebook and you were a vice president there are you and not about Mark in particular I don't know him and we haven't met him although we we'd love to have him on behind the bimma but are you frustrated or disappointed in prominent Jews or prominent liberal Western members of Society who have not stood up for Israel in this incredibly important moment who are other calculating other factors and variables socially financially uh in terms of their influence as influencers and are worried about many other things should we expect more demand more are we showing enough appreciation to those who do you live in a world and you know many of these of these players and these people are you are you gratified or disappointed in in the degree to which prominent Jews have have risen to the occasion well I think the thing to keep that I keep in mind with a lot of these things is having been exposed to a lot of very interesting stories that are in the news are very splashy over time is don't believe everything you see on TV um in terms of what is and isn't being actually done right um in various ways I think that there is plenty of smart people who are doing quite a bit um but they're doing it in smart ways given their position in the way and what they can and can't affect um different people are able to do different things now there people who I feel like are not standing up enough sure right I'm not saying that that you know everyone's doing their utmost everywhere but I'd also say that you know reading the just the headlines of the New York Times or looking at Twitter will never give you the full picture of what actually is going on and who's actually doing what in various ways um and sometimes you know the reality is for someone like me I'm in a position where I can speak up very freely um and and actually again to your point I think that there can be value to that helping other people rally behind it Opening space Etc um there are other people for whom there might be a nice show you can make a nice show of being very public about something with words right but you might actually not be doing the maximum by doing that for the overall situation and so that's the thing I think not to be overly political about the answer but that's the thing I would just keep in mind is we should celebrate people who do stand up very publicly there's no no reason not to right and and it is a noble thing to do but I wouldn't automatically assume that basically that that that no one else is doing anything uh is the way I would think about it what would you tell students or parents um of students on college campuses a student who wants to get involved has always been involved maybe dabbled in student government but feels it's such a toxic environment and such a threatening environment that um and and they don't have the mouthpiece that you have or the confidence that you have or the ability to speak as freely um as you are able to what would you tell them what what what what strength would would you give them what pep talk would you give them what motivational tidbits would you give them to give them the confidence to be able to make that difference start in small ways I think the reality is is is you know being willing to speak your mind and and and and kind of put things out there I don't think it's something that happens overnight you know it's not the movie story where someone wakes up one day and they've been you know Meek their whole lives or freak to speak up and they have their one mind Shining Moment you know with some Grand speech and then everything changes I think it comes from daily practice and daily action and so to me you know one of the things I think is most disappointing that's changed you know in Liberal campuses is it's very clear that in a lot of elite schools people are willing to unwilling to to express controversial ideas in class what a tragedy right like that's the whole point right the whole point is to and it strengthens everyone's arguments and it can be done in a respectful way and so even if it's a small opportunity you think yourself should I speak up or should I not speak up should I say something should I try an idea you start in small ways and then you build right right now obviously there are places where physical safety is a problem I would certainly not suggest marching into a hostile environment and getting yourself hit on the head right like that's not that's not a good use of anyone's time and attention you know you know in any immediate sense but I do think that that practice and building and building confidence in yourself is absolutely critical and I think we need people to speak up I mean the biggest the biggest disappointment in this campaign the good part is getting a lot of calls and a lot of support from people saying I really agree with what you're doing here's let me help you let me help you in the background but to your point also about you know who speaks up and who doesn't there's a lot of people you're also like you can speak up right um you know you you you you know you should be on the record on this and maybe you're not being strategic maybe you're just scared and the only way to overcome fear is to do it in small ways and build talk to us about Facebook helping build it do you use social media do you let your family use social media do you see how do how do you balance the benefits and the dangers of social media as one of the uh people who who've invented it yeah I mean again I I think that's a little bit of an overstatement to say I invented it I certainly have been involved in it and and proud of the contributions I've made uh over the years I do use social media I think it's fabulous um you know I do think like anything it can be um distortionary and too much of it in any direction can be a bad thing I think you have to keep your sense of reality about you um you know in proportion but look at the highest level what just happened to humanity in the last 20 years is one of the most shocking fastest transitions ever for human species right we went from a world where you know you used your eyes and your mouth and your ears and you could interact with a very small amount of people around you in your smoke call Community all of a sudden you know you can speak to everyone on Earth instantly for free right that is a literal human superpower like that is literally a hundred years ago you make a comic book out of that right and so obviously when you change the patterns of human communication that dramatically so quickly it's confusing right there are problems with it you know and there are problems up and down the chain I mean there's problems of people's sense of purpose in place right the analogy always to use with social media is imagine you know 50 years ago you would take real Pride if you're the best basketball player in your community if you were the best at you know street ball with your friends right um Instagram comes out and all of a sudden it's pretty depressing to realize you're not good at basketball right and that people can watch better basketball players all the time that's a real issue right from an identity perspective like what is my purpose why am I valued things like that my sense of self you know um the same thing with you know again things around there's no question that you look at social media which is always going to be the rosiest picture of your friends or influencers or things like that and if you get sucked into that being reality can be quite depressing right all of a sudden everyone else seems like they're having a great time and I'm having a terrible time right you know or my life is more complicated so there are but but on the flip side it is important to remember that we just got a new human superpower right we are literally all Supermen right and I think that used well the ability to meet new people find new ideas uh explore you know explore new communities new creativity is incredibly profound um how do you think religious leaders can use it well we we asked we asked Cheryl Samberg when she was on how do you think religious leaders how could rabbis who are trying to promote values who are trying to repair the world who are trying to bring greater light what are the ways that social media Facebook in particular or any can be best utilized for us um to able to advance our our goals well like I love what you're doing here which is kind of building Community you know in various ways in more connectivity I mean you know I'll be honest you know when I think about the relationships I have with rabbis here in the community things like that they're wonderful leaders um but it's all very local right uh it's all you know very much around the Sho or like a community in various forms you know um you know was doing doing a group with a rabbi over through the pandemic through Zoom but it was all people locally and that that's really important I actually I wouldn't lose sight of that I think the reality is is even as the world gets big and diverse real human physical relationships real Connection in person I think is absolutely critical so I think my mistake rabbis could make would be to be like well the world's completely changed my congregation is now the world you know let's not worry about the local community I think it has to start with that but looking for opportunities to share messages connect build relationships you know I think is critical uh and very interesting for rabbis to do this is I will admit the first Rabbi podcast I've been on okay okay podcast I want to talk this is not going to come with a solicitation from rabbis but you'll understand why I'm about to ask that I want to talk about philanthropy for a second obviously um in the position that you were in I would imagine you were able to to also make philanthropic contributions how do you make those decisions where does Israel fit into that um where does your local community fit into that how do you educate your children into the privilege that they've been born into and to make that difference from a philanthropic perspective as well you know I think it's a good question and I'll be honest with you I'm still figuring it out you know I've given certainly gifts to to organizations in Israel that I think have done interesting and good work over the years you know certainly in my local community Etc but it is interesting right to think about where can that as a venture capitalist where does that marginal dollar make the most impact right and how do you measure that impact and how do you make sure that you know you're actually spending money wisely right as opposed to doing things that might look good on a billboard or feel good but aren't having the impact you need them to have and the reality is is the philanthropy world you know if you compare and contrast investing dollars for profit versus investing dollars for philanthropic philanthropic ends the philanthropy world is more complicated and also in many ways less sophisticated right um and I think that is something that I think has to change over time in terms of scaling philanthropy well um I also think one thing I think a lot about I do I've talked to people about this idea of you know I've done well and I I like to try to be generous where I can but I'm also not a multi-billionaire right and I'm not a government right and so I think the other really interesting question is where can your dollars make the marginal difference is it investing in something that isn't quite ready for really scale dollars right like you know once you prove it then like there's the a government or a multi-billionaire can put a huge amount of money to work but people like me can put a little bit of money to work to start proving or approving the data it's like a seed venture capital I think is very interesting I'm sorry seed philanthropy so but I don't I don't have clear answers for you yet in terms of how I think about that I think it's something I do want to figure out over time um and it's complicated you know I will tell you this it's not unrestricted dollars to Harvard anytime soon ever again amen Amen to that how how is your Jewish identity your Jewish values your Jewish upbringing how has that impacted your career has it do do you think about or do you draw from particular lessons or values as you've made decisions even the companies that you've seated in and and seated so well from ven molo te team shares open phone all the the successes which we're not going to ask for any tips here um although to extract the bigger lesson of of how do you see potential how do you see potential in companies how do you see potential in people does your Judaism inform those kind of things you know I say Jew culturally absolutely um is what I would say you know from religious perspective I have to think harder about the answer to that right but from a cultural perspective I mean the culture of debate um you know the culture of trying and playing with ideas you know I think a lot of the things that I learned in Jewish communities um about you know I think are all like very informative to it um you know how do you play with ideas how do you push around things I mean I love there's um you guys you either think this is funny or not we don't know each other well but I love there's a if you've seen the movie The Big Short uh it's about Wall Street and at one point there's a a character who's Jewish in it and um they're talking about backstory and they talk about how you know he was um at Hebrew school and the rabbi called the side his mother and said we have a problem and and the mother said what's the problem he said well your son is you know studying very hard you know talmud uh I'm sorry the Torah and um she says isn't that a good thing that he's studying Torah you know with such a client like no you don't understand he's looking for errors in the word of God and and and she says what do you mean they said you can't you know and and she goes well did he find any and I think that and I think that kind of you know it's a funny little story from a movie nothing more but it's like there's the the Jewish Spirit of I think debate and inquiry and discussion um I think are all really just like really core cultural values and I'll say not just to to the Jewish Community but I think to the to the liberal West um and how do you so how do you as a venture capitalist who seated these companies and success stories and I'm sure nobody's bio necessarily lists the the failure or the bad investment and the bad call right all of us life tend to there are a lot of those too oh of course there have to be right when you're so what would be the difference if you could extract lessons for us not necessarily investing not from a financial perspec open this to debate openness to uh to to um being wrong openness to dialogue I think are just the culturally very Jewish values and so for me it's you know I always like the ideas when people come in um I think almost all the best investments I've ever done if people come in and they say something you're like that's crazy or that's wrong but then instead of just dismissing it you debate it right and you say huh they might be right or like they have to have some it has to be a little bit you have to be willing to entertain ideas and debate ideas um in a broad spectrum right and I again it's hard to say whether that's strictly a Jewish value like again you guys would know better than I would from like a religious perspective from a cultural perspective that's how I grew up right I grew up with people and you bring them in and you debate with them and you push around ideas and sometimes they're wrong and sometimes they're right and that kind of dinnertime banter right uh that debate you know was wonder mean I love um again I'm not by any means versed but you know even in like basic T like The Clay Pot story right you know I remember the first time I read you know is it kosher is it not Kosher and you you you know those types of vignettes culturally um I don't know that's my job uh first of all it's 100% of Jewish value you're right but do you worry that we're losing that value that social media that the echo chambers that we're creating online means that my children are growing up with a very narrow perspective of the world filtered through the lens of social media filtered through the lens of a very homogeneous community that we live in and and that ability to like be open and and willing to explore other OPP you know ideas and opportunities is kind of a little bit lost on on the Next Generation you know I hope not and well I'll tell you a funny story that I kind of sometimes use about the era I think we're in in the internet is there was this period the after the British invented Jin uh that where basically GDP did not grow in Britain for like 50 years and the basically the entire population was drunk for 50 years right and they eventually grew out of it most right and I I do think the reality is that you know if you think about this moment in time and where we're at with the internet are the record of course the record Chambers you can now if you want go on the internet and say almost anything you want and find a bunch of people who agree with you and then spend all of your time agreeing with them and that might feel gratifying for a moment but it's pretty Hollow and pretty boring right um and I think my hope my My Hope Is that candidly we are struggling with this now we struggle with Echo Chambers we struggle with people not willing to debate not you know starting from the you know I'm right and you're wrong and being very closed but look if that persists too long we're not going to have much of a society left and I think a lot of smart people will wake up right and I think you're seeing this in certain places and speak up and I I'm hopeful that actually if anything we'll get more diversity of opinions uh we'll get more new ideas we'll get more creativity we'll get more truth coming out of this but I agree that it's a tough moment right now right because I think people are still very into this idea that they can go find any Community they want to Simply affirm them right as opposed to push them um yeah Brett Stevens was recently in our in our synagogue and that was one of the points he made how important it is to to watch and read and follow the opinions you dislike you disagree with and we tend to subscribe to and only follow closely what like you said affirms what we what we know and believe but how do you know it's never challenged unless you also are willing to read and consider and follow um the things that you disagree with and they'll make your arguments better I mean I think this is one of the things that even if it turns out that the other side is you know the other idea is wrong and your idea is that you know if you let someone push you you'll come out with stronger Arguments for what you believe too um and I think look we've lived to a very very difficult period culturally for a lot of reasons I do think a lot of it goes back to this kind of loss of sense of self and identity um that that it has it internet has been a part of U again I don't blame the internet for it it's it it is it is the double-edged sword it's it's complicated but the social impact is real and I I think you know there's been a lot of um it's it's the the the way forward has to be people being able to talk to people and say I don't like you as a person but that's actually true right or that's a good idea separating those out again right which is critical right uh it has to be people willing to engage with the other side just to get stronger and better right um and then I will say the other thing that is true which is really shocking to me to bring it back to a little bit of the 107 moment and kind of my Awakening me like we have to push on this is you know there are also red lines right um so this idea that a bunch of college students all of a sudden would be endorsing Osama Bin Laden's letter right to America or you know justifying terrorism I do think the reality is as much as I do believe in open-mindedness and open debate and discussion and things like that I also do believe that there are core we'll call them the modern Ten Commandments whatever you want to call them where it's just like those are not violable lines right for any context or any reason right and so I do think it's kind of a double-edged thing that has to go on which is people having enough core values those core values of agreement for instance terrorism is never okay full stop right raping women is never okay full stop there is no context right like that's it right that is what allows the freedom of ideas and debate and discussion to sit on top of it but if you have no rules right and no basis right then it's very very hard to maintain that open space for discussion and dialogue how do you think AI plays into all of this and how how big is AI in our future you know it um it's going to be interesting because you talk about Echo Chambers it's the ultimate echo chamber right um is really what the way to think about it I um AI there's several angles to it it's obviously a big topic right now the straight version of does it make you more productive and help do a few things faster of course it's pure technology there's clear applications there it'll make Photoshop a little better right it'll make certain things a little easier um you know I think the AGI or like we're going to have intelligence and is fanul um candidly that's more religion than it is science um in terms of how people are thinking about that people are looking for new religious Frameworks and I think there's some real interesting cult-like aspects to what's going on there but then I think the real thing is if you think about it you know we went from a world where talk about learning how to interact with people that you don't necessarily agree with if you're in a local community there's 200 people around you there's a thousand people around you guess what you have to interact with people that don't necessarily fully agree with you right you have to learn how to debate with them you have to be you're going to be engaged with them you need to find common ground with them when you move to an internet where you can say I don't care who's around me I can select from seven billion people just the people I want to talk to right you lose that you lose that muscle you might learn forget how to do it unfortunately the thing that's even more than seven billion people in terms of finding your audiences AI because you can talk forever to AI you know looking into a mirror and it will say whatever you want right and you'll feel really good being validated by a machine looking at pretty pictures generated by a machine you know it becomes the ultimate now my thing is I think Humanity will grow out of it because I think actually after you've seen enough of it and you've experienced enough of that type of experience it gets really boring and it's also not very effective right and I think we'll come back to a healthier space but I do think what you'll see in the short term is a will have lots of practical uses that are very kind of boring but quite if you're a business person useful right you'll have a lot of people who are basically coming up with new AI Cults right and then you'll have this Middle Ground which is true but complicated of this super Echo chamber which again maybe like the fall will be so bad that a lot of people wake up from it because it becomes kind of obvious and transactional um so you came up 99 nominations short on the uh no two 200 and something it wasn't quite 99 but it was it was very close very close Okay uh in the Right End campaign for the overseas board so what's next what's next we'll just come back next year and do it with 10,000 Nom I mean it's not to me the the there's I'm GNA work this year and you know anyone who's interested or Harvard alums and I really want to build a lightweight community and organization of moderates who care about these issues and want to see Harvard return to its roots you know putting academic Excellence first fixing governance and making serious govern and then working on Free Speech in the classroom and making sure students are safe outside of the classroom and able to participate in that ultimate academic Mission and we're GNA you know put together a newsletter build a community maybe we'll have a podcast but we're gonna you know we'll we'll uh we're going to work on that throughout the year because I do think there is a very large reasonably silent majority who cares about these things and in the right format wants to be a part of them and can can have real influence we'll obviously run the overseers campaign next year and you know we got 2,900 wrin votes through a very broken process to be clear right a lot I have hundreds of people who tried to nominate me who couldn't but the line is the line next year we'll have 10,000 um and we'll make a difference how can Harvard Alum find you how can they join your your well I don't have at some point I will share the I'm working on kind of the the the platform for it now so it will be um you know a forthcoming but until then honestly I would love to hear from any of you know your congregants or people list is my my last name at Gmail is like the way to reach out and I'm happy to hear from anyone um you know in a in a personal way as we figure this out fantastic well thank you for your time thank you for going behind the Bea thank you for your efforts fighting the good fight and we look forward to your success in in redeeming what some consider irredeemable but but we always believe and we have hope and optimism and the world's a better place if Harvard is a safe and comfortable and supportive environment for Jews and for Israel so we thank you for putting yourself out there and for for fighting this fight and others thanks thank you you both appreciate you having me thank you for watching behind the Bea catch us next time for another Peak behind the Bea