#164: Behind the Bima - Jonathan (Yonasan) Rosenblum

from boit on Florida this is behind the beima on this episode Rabbi Goldberg is joined by Jonas Rosen a renowned Jewish journalist and the director spokesperson and founder of Jewish media resources known for his in-depth analysis and captivating storytelling jonis explores the historical narratives that have shaped the Jewish world and discusses their relevance today Yodas delves into the themes of resilience and continuity in Jewish history offering his perspectives on how understanding our past can Empower our spiritual growth yonasan also shares his insights on the challenges of preserving Jewish identity in the modern world the interplay between tradition and Innovation and his personal Journey as a writer plus thoughts on the contributions of key Jewish figures throughout history and the importance of nurturing a sense of unity and Community responsibility all this and more behind the Bea R Jonathan R yonasan I'm not sure which to call you or both really I think in itself is a reflection of how complex you are how nuanced you are um and how much there is to you but it's a great pleasure to be together again and I thank you for going behind the Bea very excited to learn about the new book and ordinary greatness which you've really taught the world and shared in in so many of the platforms that you share on it's been a long time since you were in boaton for a shabas but we still remember fondly and I gobble up your article every week and enjoy it it's one of my uh mustre as I flip through mostly advertisements and Skip other sections but lot of thank you for making you way here it's amazing to be back in the Dau studio and I'm thankful to my sister danela and the incredible people at Dau so thank you for being with us today you it's my pleasure so RAB there's a lot to talk about um but let's start with the book let's start with good news let's start with that which all can rally around agree with be inspired by something not controversial whatsoever what's the Genesis what what brought you to this is it simply a collection of Articles you've written is there new material what is it about these people that qualify them to make the book well it's interesting I didn't I'm I'm not a very efficient person so while I've long wanted to put together a book of articles on different subjects and I could write I could put together five or six books like this somebody came to me and he said he had selected out articles that were dealing with people and he said what do I think about publishing he he thought that he was going to get in the book publishing business he was looking for something to do and he basically selected the pieces which is probably why the piece on your your shair got left out which should have definitely been there uh and he he came up with the idea you would think okay he's selected the Articles the Articles have already been published they've already been edited should go real chick-chack right to show you how ill suited I am for this task it took probably four or five years oh wow to to get everything done it needed a glossery he wanted it to be a book that would provide a different perspective on the Orthodox world he himself is not from the K world world uh but he thought you know somebody who can write articulately about a wide variety of subjects you know who's as much the product of University of Chicago and Yale law school as he is the product of the Yesa world I mean I like to think I become more of a product of the latter but uh and show that community and show an ability to deal with with a rde a wide range of people and we have on George Washington Abraham Lincoln and Margaret Atcher as well uh and a lot of interviews with you know Yehuda abir wrote the prime ministers Robert wistrich who was the greatest Authority on anti-sm contemporary anti-Semitism so it's a wide ranging book it's it's also a personal book well what was the goal of the book to put this together what what do you hope that the reader walks away with how do you want to transform them well you know I start on the the flap cover with this quote from uh um George ell somebody said to me you'll have to explain to most of your readers that George Elliott was a woman but George Elliott says in Middle March you know she talks about those who lie in unmarked Graves who have who but for whom the world would not be quite as well with you and I as it is because they lived how many special people there are around us uh and if you look everywhere they're everywhere you know I was just thinking yesterday uh I look at American politics I'm it's I can't believe that a country of 350 million could have come to this and these should be the choices that are confronting us such a poor reflection of us this is this is how unworthy we are as a Generation Well HL Menin said that democracy is a system by which the people get what they want good and hard so if this is what we want okay it's it's it's sad I look at the situation in Israel the the uh the tremendous divisions that existed prior to October 7th and I'm also and then I look around at my community I just look about the people who I diving next to and there are pieces number of pieces here about people who passed away who I ding next to in some of them I never even talked to because I was so I realized that their time was so precious to them that it would be a waste of time for me to engage them even when I knew that you know one of them had pancreatic cancer and wasn't going to be there long but I figured I just saw who he was but I observed him from afar and then I'm excited you know I mean I know so many remarkable people partly I was able to bring out in this book my mentors I could talk about rman Bulman in our first conversation when I thought we came here on our honeymoon thinking we were going to go back and I would become a conservative Rabbi I never opened up a gamor I was 27 years old and uh he told me don't become a rabbi I'm he says it's good advice it was good advice not all of us listened or got it but it was good advice so I I have you know and Rob Benda we back and and most most most powerfully for me n walpin the editor the Jewish Observer who was you know basically an older brother to me I'm the oldest of five boys and he was an older brother to me and he was a second father because just as my father alom guided me in the world into which I was born he guided me into a world in which I entered and I couldn't have done it as as felicitously without without him that's for sure that that um contrast between the leadership and the people that you describe leadership maybe reflects our unworthiness but the people the ordinary people who otherwise might be invisible it's part of the story of October 7th where the authority the political leadership and the military leadership sort of disappeared or fell apart or failed but it was the ordinary citizens whether it was ordinary citizens who took up arms to volunteer Security Forces whether it was volunteers of hatala and zaka and others who rushed right into the danger and that contrast that sh position is sort of that story also until it regrouped in this last year and what the Army has done but 100% all around us are you know I I always think of it as Ordinary People leading extraordinary lives right and and how I feel it more and I wonder whether you see this or how it's reflected in the in the ratio in the book I definitely feel it more here than I do outside of AR outside of Israel and and maybe that's part of my romanticizing Israel that on an ordinary bus ride the person who maybe has the the tum open or the Kish open or sitting next to you is some extraordinary b or somebody who who is a walking huge but nobody even notices them or knows them um lesso outside of Israel do you think that's accurate or is that romanticized vision from someone who lives outside of Israel I don't know I've been here so long it's hard for me to tell and this is I definitely think that there is so much in the world in which I live and so many people but many of them are products of American society they may live here now let's say we were just talking about revd Miller okay so he grew up in America right he's a person you can see you could talk to him you know here's somebody who's always asking himself the question what does a k want from me at this moment and you see it you see it um my wife tend tells me that I'm an idealizer in other words I tend to see people in rose-colored glasses and I'm actually happy I do but my kids told me when it came to shim I could tell them I know the parents the grandparents and I even know one of the great grandparents and they would ignore me and then three months later they'd hear that somebody on the shid list is a friend of a of a friend's sister in baso and then they'd be really willing to listen to and I'd say what's going on here he say Abba you like everybody your investigations discount you have no credibility you have no credibility on this and I think it's maybe the most valuable lesson I've given to my kids look for the good in everybody and look for the good take it away and see how you can apply it to your life and if you do that right you're going to have a happier life learn to smile at people you know scientific studies show that smiling is one of the great uplifts and and the response that you get when you smile at somebody and they smile back at you and it and almost everybody smiles back for sure and and and you feel that they they also are lifted up there's evidence scientifically smiling is as contagious as a yawn the same way in a room as a rabbi I know this well one person yawns and it sets off a string of yawning the same is true scientifically you better get started with a good joke got get people smiling and yeah so given that you're this Optimist or idealist or you see the best in people was it hard to narrow down the profiles for the book no I think you know most of them are about people who are no longer living uh most uh but I know that there were articles that were left that I simply didn't remember I've written over 2500 pieces over the years um some of them are know some of these are very dear to me and R Gusman napali Mand who was a rebbi in in Baltimore but you've thrown yourself into them you've investigated them you've gone that time somebody who I knew at or called me up and said there was a great man who was nifter here and I you know when I was there interviewing in Baltimore interviewing his kids and other I felt like crying a lot of the time I said how could I have never known him and the uh then a friend of mine who did know him well said oh but he knew you he he used to comment when you when the English yet Ted NE man started oh now there's something here to read so this is a way of connecting you can you know somebody is nifter and you can write something about them somebody unknown but when they're on sees something in a book form it's just such a wonderful way of connecting if we would the problem is that I travel a lot so when you travel you or I used to travel a lot you you meet new people and you throw yourself into the the conversation always goes to two or three in the morning the first time I think you may remember our mozi shabas conversation didn't I don't think it went to three in the morning but it can go a long time and the problem is then you're trying to meet somebody new and you're trying to think about the things you'd most like to say about yourself so much of that is in this book I say it's basically might sa to my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren if batm they'll know how to read English that uh but you we don't do that with the people around us in other words I've been in a sheer every morning for more or less 20 years with some breaks here and there and I don't we're a group we're definitely a group as different as we are we don't even see each other socially so much by and large but everybody has a place in that group but you're not looking in the same way you are when you're meeting uh you know I remember this with ran yakman and in in pic and our conversations and many other conversations with people I may never have seen again but we have to learn to be alert to the people around us to learn curious to be curious about people and would you recommend that you know you're you're a writer with a big platform like you said you've written 2500 articles you've written many books what number of book are we up to I think this is 13 13th book um you know the average person is not necessarily researching or writing as as a as a rabbi you're constantly living life looking for the druss story or the next article idea but the average person doesn't feel a need to do that um there's so many people that I've I've been mased to give a hesp of eulogy for them and also as I'm sitting with the family learning about the person I say can't believe that I didn't know this while they were alive I didn't make more of an effort or I couldn't have spent time with there was so much to learn from them and I think for the average person they are in a community they have a neighbor or friend or someone else in SHO that if only they'd be a little curious about them if they' actually turn off a device make some space shut off the noise and listen there's so much to learn so how how do you recommend people go about that if they're not going to do so with the agenda of putting it into a book or an article but do it only with the agenda of being an OE St of learning and being curious there's no doubt that being a there's no doubt that being a writer helps I mean I remember from the time that I left stopped editing the yet man till then I started writing RAB yakob R desler Mike Tres they all I wrote about seven books in the first 10 years Lieutenant bbam but I didn't have any ideas for columns when I didn't have to produce a column every week there are other times I've written three columns a week regularly for different venues you get you you have as many ideas as you need to have so the writing is definitely a big impetus one thing everybody can do is learn to say thank you to the people who had an influence on them it's good to sometimes to get to wake up in the morning and think what would I have done if Miss Borman my e my AP English teacher in high school and not flunked me on my first essay senior year which I had sent off to Harvard as my application form I thought it was so great and she said it was so miserable and if all these people who took enough interest in me to tell me you're not a very good writer you don't know how to punctuate you don't know how to dangling participial phrases you know you know but they thought you could get better you know it's such a it's such a it's a gift to be able to write but it's not it's it's not something that it's not fairy dust that's that's that just sprinkled on you you work at it you read you learn a lot and you get better but you need some people who will tell you you're not good enough you could get better you could do better so just being curious about the people who've gotten us to where we are we tend to live life only looking forward like what's next as opposed to stopping and saying this is the person helped get me where I am well you know and of course one of the dearest sections is that the chance that I had to memorialize my parents I always thought about my parents and my my youngest brother uh uh you know who passed away young BM he put out an important book of his own well it was published posthumously but it was raise of wisdom but it's collected letters that he wrote to talim and mov when they went back to University or when they went back to the world I mean he had finished second his class at Yale and he he had a perspective on that that very few people you won't get a ra you won't your average Rabbi and in the ISA is not going to have the same perspective who hadn't worked with wasn't a Greek classic civilizations major and able to deal with how do you relate to these things they're not having a column is a big benefit but learning how to everybody can learn to be more sensitive to other to look right to see and I hope I'll open people up to that if my kids say to me that your legacy is that uh is that we make more friends or we look look for friends not everybody needs to have hundreds of friends uh and I don't I don't think I need to have a hundred friends either but everybody needs somebody that they have a sprock with and there's so many out there who are different so different from one another I mean my best friend in Kusa right now we met during covid because we went to a 615 in 615 Minon in the morning on shabas which adhered to the various separation requirements and then we would sit we we started talking the first shabas we were there and we found out that we had a lot to talk about and it went on for hours and and I'd been living on the same street with him for 25 years I mean we were not in acquaintances we' probably had a few conversations I knew who he was but I didn't know he could be such a great friend and I didn't know he would be such a great Kusa either there the nuggets are waiting there to be discovered they're right there of all the books that you've written the personalities that you've covered is there one that's your favorite that jumps out from rakov no of course no was a yeah did you read sure because remember I interviewed you for that and I think your story's in there no I think so the story about not wanting to go down toat that's it so um of desler of yeah all these when you're read when you're writing them uh the book your favorite is always the one that you're writing at that time I mean RAB yakob will always occupy a special place in my in my heart because it was the first and because I figured out what I wanted to do with a biography what is the purpose of a guttle biography and the introduction there I still use it whenever I say what should be in a guttle biography so it got me started and I had a Clear Vision uh I mean I was a history major so it that's always very dear to me and RAB Yakov was of course such an attractive personality and one of his is one of my closest friends partly through that book because he he helped me translate some of the Yiddish interviews that have been done by rev nen kinety there's a chapter in the Mike Tres book where I found a a trove of letters that had been written by soldiers in the DP camps after the war and and I realized that if I didn't do something with these letters they would never they would never be seen again this was the last time they' be seen much less come out and they told an amazing story of the mistreatment uh of uh of Jews who had survived somehow in the in the in the uh DP camps but of them coming back to life so that you know that that chapter always has a special resonance with me because I knew I saved something from Oblivion it would not have been known uh you know the last two books R RB Noah and the Ruster book so I'm a product of the Bal chuba movement of the late 70s and for the next 12 or 20 years and I was able to basically portray a tfan history of which I was it wasn't just a tefa it was one which I live through right it doesn't exist anymore it's I mean if rev Schuster would appear on the scene today there would be very few people at the Cotto for him to pick up it's a different it's a different world but so that's obviously very meaningful for me to have been able to do that and know everybody lives off of Mah so to read through ressler's letters I mean there are a lot of letters in volumes four and five and uh it's it there's none that that that I I don't have a lot of hanov from but in different ways so let's uh we can come back to but I want to talk a little bit more globally or broadly because one of the things that draws me to you that I've always appreciated about you is in a world that is so bifurcated that people fit neatly into boxes that they're tribal that they're part of a camp that they tow a line you always come across to me is very nuanced and your column over the last year in mishak for example has not hesitated to memorialize heroic soldiers who've lost their lives to speak loly about them or their families that you have featured um personalities who may not be from the same camp that you're part of by Taran I remember you you wrote about he's fantastic I do too but we live in a world where um as much as in the Progressive woke world there's a fear of being canceled or there's the cancelling movement in The Firm world there's also a very big cancelling movement and people are very afraid if I say this if I allude to that if I reflect that then you know the mob the zealots the canarm are going to come after me they're going to cancel me and and you have identified for a long time as with the K world and for a period where the spok person in some ways of the world in your bio I think back when you came to boa still you were trying to represent eloquently articulately compellingly some of the policies or approaches of the Ki world who didn't have somebody who had the vocabulary to do that or the sensitivity or Nuance to be able to do that so I think that you have Nuance you don't fit neatly in even if you identify with or put your children through a particular world but as much as on October 8th there was this almost unprecedented Aus In Our Lifetime in the weeks and months and now more than a year that's passed since then a lot of those energies of of divisiveness have reintroduced obviously surrounding the issue of serving in the Army an enormous enormous enormous one even less than that I shouldn't say less but different than that is a sense some people have of the world even if they're not ready to to transform and to begin to serve which would be a radical radical shift but do they feel the sympathy and the empathy ransi we both admire just wrote a I think incredibly powerful and I thanked him I didn't use the word courage because that would I'm not in a person place to thank him for that part but I thanked him for writing it because he made that exact point why can't K newspapers feature profiles on soldiers Benet Torah and not who gave their lives why don't people feel that sympathy you mentioned D Miller I saw him yesterday coming out of a Shiva call David Miller my rebbi Mari vabi one of the most extraordinary people that I know Meo and and he said he said to me and he's almost unsolicited he just wanted to share and I hope it's okay I'm repeating he listed off three or four recent Simas in his family of the birth of children great grandchildren great- grandchildren and and and engagements and he said as much as I have all these Simas I don't feel them fully because I'm broken I'm broken and and that so is the average person the community feeling that Brokenness I don't mean the fear of when Sirens go off did this T did was it reflected if God forbid God forbid God forbid 1,200 people in Lakewood or M or Pak would have died in a pagum last year would anyone in have had Tor as usual or would they have paused to introduce something to reflect so because it happened in Israel with all of the so I'm not putting you on the spot or expecting you to be able to stand here represent everyone K world is a big place and a lot of of segments of it has it been hard for you who's a person who identifies with a community but lives with a Nuance to feel connected to reflect to feel responsible for how do you sort of make so I always look for the models Ain Lansky I consider the wisest person I love no so his article didn't surprise me um you know everybody has seen the clip of RAB Asha Weiss talking about the my children's dermatologist grandson who lost three limbs I believe um and whom I continue to D in for every day and talking about the shilas that were asked you know we I've written about the uh R from alone raon R remon and the shilas that I I have a whole column of the kinds of shilas that he's imped but there in rasher Weiss was talking about the shilas that he was asked about where to how to put on toiling and so forth I don't have to be embarrassed about anything because if rasher wise who's a velt gone and uh uh and and as long as I have my models and and I know that I'm within I don't have to be in the consensus of everybody you know the olm is always a little bit of a Golem but when I think I'd like to know that I pass this on to my children when my grand when my son-in-law told me that my grandson who's 18 years old in Kon Yesa a little bit independent minded any event but uh has been fasting every uh Monday and Thursday since you know since the beginning of the war you know that was exciting to me I have a daughter-in-law who cooks every week for soldiers and I'm also very involved in an organization called kesher UD which you you know from The Columns now my wife and I have been present both at a shabbaton for hostage families and and families of hostages and a shabbaton for survivors of the Nova Festival but they've done three shabat tones and that was all financed by almost one Jew in America who's put almost a half a million dollar I don't know exactly the figures but I would say close to half a million dollars in providing shabbatones and if you would see some of the clips of people there with you know Rings through their noses and so forth and what this is meant to them and they just we were just atos and and most Tor but they had done a pror in in the hotel and they told me that the bidding was there the the survivors of Nova were bidding for Aliah with how many shabbatot they were going to keep there is so much potential in this country there's a real Awakening there's a real Jewish Awakening on campuses in America there's an Awakening I mean as one Rabbi put it from uh in the OR program at NYU uh somebody said to them if they hate us this much there must be much more to Judaism than uh than locks and bagels absolutely and and and I think that anti-Semitism is one of the most powerful tools it's you know you take the fact that we are the smallest people we've been hated for 3,000 years in every different form and it takes it's always fluid and changing shape-shifting uh hatred but it's always there or waiting there I mean I didn't know that growing up never expected to see anything like what we've seen I mean these are my the playgrounds in which I was comfortable and happy and excited and intellectually H nurtured had become bastions of of insanity my you know my grandfather already a slon andorn grandfather went to Harvard and so that this these places have become what they have what they have is almost it's almost unfathomable to to to me but and that we're the only people in the world that can still Trace itself you know if we would walk into the Bas magician Puma we would still be able to partake in the discussion there that we can trace ourselves back so far in our identity is clear there's no other people on the face of the Earth so we're the most hated and we're the only ones who exist this this is a powerful Tool uh one of the former rafo Shore who's done about 19 films has just done a new film and produced a new book uh where he says he's coming our show to talk about it show it m you've seen it you've seen I haven't seen it he's coming to boa it's very it's very important uh I used to give a speech called an Optimus anti-Semitism and Optimist view they see they hate us because they feel our chosenness shouldn't we also tune into that but he says if you want to understand anti-Semitism you have to read mine comp and and he does a pretty compelling case of showing how that is the case that there's a cosmic War Robert wistrich told me that everybody who set out to destroy the Jewish people almost immediately no matter how if the sh was with them they went down the minute that Hitler at the wzi conference decided that they were going to wipe out all the Jews in the world he started making one bad decision after another to go into Russia instead of first taking care of England and so forth inexplicable decisions let them go at Dunkirk and inexplicable decisions but you see that this it it it's it's it's an it's an amazing it's an amazing story and we and they are waking up you know the the college maor the maor I think is on 20 campuses and and uh they said they can't they don't have enough room they don't have enough staff they can't handle all kids who are seeking Shelter by them but they're also seeking to learn and then they want to know I want to identify as a Jew Josh fredman who you probably know lives in raat B sheemish he's given away 8,000 pairs of its filling I'm sure a 100 at least come from bokeh maybe a thousand but uh you know he's given away 8,000 and those are only to soldiers who are committed to putting them on yeah if we could get Beyond some of the the the political issues the chances for spreading Torah in a Israel so are you frustrated by that are you frustrated by on both sides leadership I'm not talking about necessarily not necessarily gum but political leaders there seem to be people who have made a living off of the division and are very dug in on ensuring that ideologies are not confused or overlapped or or corrupted whereas you know if we could get to the people there are extraordinary demonstrations which coming back to your book is is really what it's about of of the ability to find common ground to love each other to work together to find Solutions instead of focusing on on problems are they intractable are is there no solution what what's going to be it's a different time it is a different time I mean what you learned uh R Tamar granot who's a Rosa of hez Intel I think a musically oriented hezar Yesa said the other day we all believed for a long time that we didn't really need the Kum in the Army but you know it's a difference in kind when reservists are serving 300 days even if you come back shalm in body at least not injured not wounded not killed but the strain that this puts on families is is unbelievable but I think you know the the the story that really captures what could be done and has been done and by people who are alert to it there's a woman who is one of the leaders of the hostage families named uh Shelly Shel shemtov there was a clip of her literally screaming at the kar in in Tel AV that don't you understand this didn't happen Stam my om is not in Gaza for nothing he's om because we were fighting with each other for a year the D so SEL Schneider who's been running a program which works with all the 30e the pre induction academies for almost 10 years now uh saw this and she just went down to the kar in telev to give her a hug and from that came you know at the first shabbaton I think 70 hostages members of Hostage family signed up to have a regular Kusa Beneath The Sur surface there's so much that can be done and any I mean ranski is Right anyone who doesn't show who doesn't feel who doesn't know when when you learn if you're inona at the very least feel that that you're a helic of this do I have the right to go out to do this thing to to to go on a tour but you know one of the things that was most powerful they took a group of uh I I suspect non-religious Jews to see ritak kadow he's the son-in-law of the of R and his wife show them he's been sleeping on a board for since the beginning of the war uh R doin Miller told me yesterday that R Farin one of the Rosas of Kon comes into the Bas M every day and when he recites to he him he's sobbing the big people always identified they always identified and and you know I have a piece there about ravak you know who he could do an operation without anesthesia be because he didn't want to be left unable to learn but when he heard about the two masok Kim the two helicopters that collided and 76 boys were killed it was inconsolable one of the advantages of the guttle biographies that I've written maybe this is maybe their greatest Merit see the way Arab yakob looked at the the Jewish people thought about every Jew how rev desler rev desler didn't sleep on a bed during the whole War period he didn't sleep in a bed he traveled from one place to another Rago F movitz uh had his fatal heart attack while benching and when he got to V over thinking of the siege of that Jerusalem was over these are the real these are the people so who am I to say that we're an orphan generation but it feels like we're we're lacking a little bit of that leadership today because the during war the war those statements that demonstration and you're describing but it's not as well known and you know yes the privilege have relationship with went went to the gush B Med and gave a eulogy for a who was killed who he was close with you know unafraid but there and rasher Weiss and I think they've even paid a price for for the in the armor or for demonstrating that might perceive as crossing a line or or a camp it's sad and and and we need to celebrate more those types of leaders and recognize and and again without pointing fingers at others each of us in our own way be able to recognize in others uh the good but but those forces that energies we know everything I I think that we don't know everything that's being being done even of those who you might say Well they're not doing enough about this I mean Rd landow is considered one of the two leaders of the world today um he wrote and I think this is a little bit of Justice he said you know we want to we want to talk to the Army we first of all we need to protect ourselves you know my son lives in akak it's next to lud lud is a town filled with lots of guns lots of Arabs and akak is unprotected we should have our own civil defense there's so much work that needs to be done in a civil defense capacity there are so many things that can be done he says we can't but it doesn't matter what the Army agrees to I mean rev Gran said yesterday the armies made lots of mistakes over the years the Army made lots of mistakes and anyone who would you know see they're they're trying to force on uh women singing as if it was a priority or mixed battalions as if they were priorities they what David fandel TS about is the heliz of our soldiers there the Army's made lots of mistakes but the Army wants to be Makin or there are those in the Army certainly who want to be Makin are you hopeful the optimism in you that you described before is there optimism that says whether now or in the aftermath There's an opportunity to write a new chapter and to you can't start from scratch but basically say what would it need to look like and are there enough interest on both sides to create what it would need to look like in order to find a solution to this well don't Jews have to be hopeful I mean we do believe in Messiah we do believe that history is moving to an end we we are helpful I mean I have a friend of mine who was called up once and he was interviewed his health profile and then the person said and what's your religious identity and uh he said well you guess and he said well I'm guessing that you're uh this man is now he in his late 80s and still learning every day you know with a Bren in the in the Sha he says uh and he said why did you say that he says you're really optimistic you know Believers are optimistic we are optimistic I believe in the in the Jewish people um I've you know been involved enough behind the scenes with people who had a breath of vision and I I didn't even include ramosa Shar when I was talking about the biographies who had a breath of vision uh and that's my job is to bring out that breadth of vision and to demonstrate it too you know one of the things on October 7th one of the people who went down just picked up his rifle and went down was a guy named yair Golan the leader of the opposition in the in the knesset um and a person who said awful things about the Judah he's called the settlers Judah Judo nais and he said some awful things but in the end of the day he also picked up his gun and went down to defend uh one of the kibuts not to to to rescue them them uh we always have to look at the good I remember one of the leaders of the labor party once you know who somebody whose politics were somewhat anathema to me but you know I started reading something about Abram Rabinowitz had a book on the on the I guess it was on the yamer war and how he pulled himself he you know he had his arm practically blown off and pulled himself into three different tanks when the tank that he was in was disabled he pulled himself into another we always have to remember who these people are what they've sacrificed who these H you know when they have 150% showing up for for milim many of them people who have been living in America for 15 years yeah you just look for the good you know we had um one of our KAS Bon a young man who grew up in our community who had served in the Army his parents are Israeli but he's been he's been out for several years but when he heard the news October 7th you know the first flight the next day he came he rejoined and he spent the last 10 months fighting in Gaza and in Lebanon and he was back in bokeh and we made him one of the Kasam and in addition to the on the beima where we get as alah they lifted him on a chair with AA over him and people were waving flags and singing am yeah it was so powerful and there was a there was Aid at the airport when the first reservists were going back paying for every ticket for everybody who was going back um there's a lot more identification than you think I remember used to go into the 16th Avenue tells minion in the morning in uh in uh burough Park and people would ask me what's the latest news from AR Isel but I realized that they were better informed than me that half these people sit at work with ar cheva on their radio I mean they're businessmen but they sit with aruch cheva on they're you know on the hour they're listening all the time they're completely involved it is you know just to remember that we are part of a people and that everybody is part of that you know the basic lessons that were all in this together that if the Iranians get a nuclear weapon you know and they call the Israel a one bomb country you know we're all in this together we have to we have to find a way out of this you know one of the most hopeful statements that I always quote in my lectures on the k Community is that trends that can't continue forever won't I mean it's an it's a statement made by a famous economist but it's it's applicable to everything societies change all societies change there's always a pendular motion and then a Readjustment we're not the same world we were in in in but it's good to know that in the 1948 war in lots of Rosa's Sons also fought you know raat s the r of of Kon one of the visiter Ser visiter Reb's sons was people you know there was no choice you have to be at the battlements and we have to find some way to limit this uh the burden un reservist uh not everybody stays in Yeshiva forever you know the burden under which they face but you then but you need some prior military training to be of any use you can't just walk into Lebanon do you find in your writing do you get censored or do you have to self-censor one of the things again I appreciate about your articles is you'll come back from a conference you'll reference and you'll quote non-religious Jews non-jews you'll reference articles and in in Legacy Media in America newspapers who I don't even like to mention their name in front of the AR kodesh but you're not afraid to incorporate those into your into your writings do you get censored ever to say hey whoa this is a certain type of a of a magazine or I don't want to pick on Mish I love is there elsewhere or do you self censor are you worried about your children grandchildren getting if oh you knowum is a is a is a but he's not so look what he's reading look who he's quoting look at the idea he's exposed to look who he's exposing others to have you gotten censored do you have to self censor I have I have my old friend naan slifkin who always likes to go through my writings and out me as not really k or something like that I'm I'm I'm always out of the closet to some extent and you know one po ISU of mish one of the the the then M of the magazine said my my job here is to make sure that Yos and Ros Moon doesn't get us closed down so but I don't find you know I find that my fellow writers are pretty broadminded the editor sha freedan is one of the brightest best R people whom I know I uh but I think we do learn we all learn how to put our messages in a in a different fashion sometimes we one of my brothers once said to me he said Jonathan my youngest brother he said to me you think nobody figures out what you're saying believe me there are plenty of people who are on to you don't think that sure don't think that you're whatever uh heterodox views you have are not not known and people say to me uh things like who gives you the right to write about this I have had people stop me I had a a young man from brisk at my own table asked me who's your D Tor who's your D T so I said you know he had invited himself to come for uh so finally I said RAB Lansky so one of my sons who was at the table he says Abba you have to have that answer faster took too long took too long took you too long but don't invite him back again this is not somebody you want in your house yeah but you know that in itself is a reflection a little bit of our time your life experience and your journey and your relationship with big people helps you understand when you need to check whether you're pushing the envelope when you're comfortable being a big person yourself big enough person yourself to publish something and some of the younger that this generation is living in a world like I say of these boxes and absolutes and and a lot of fear a lot of uh insecurity religious insecurity so sometimes it's ignorance too you know my one of my sons once said to me when he was learning in the mirror you know already as an a he said to me you know we're not anti-zionist the only real anti-zionists are these Americans they come here and they just spout things but they don't know what they're talking about they and they're really they're for Brent but they're for Brent because it's just ideology to them it's not it's not the people on the street they're not they're not involved uh one of my sons said to me listen there are many people who want to stay K but they also want to be part of Israeli Society I don't know what the percentages are I'm not I'm not a sociologist I haven't done the research but you know I I listen a lot to what my kids tell me he said and part of the markers of being a member of Israeli Society is at some point Army service now that one is doing milim now but he's in law school why shouldn't he be doing milim it's not a pure that you once learn fulltime Inon Yesa if you're now in law school and and was it controversial that he did Army service or he's doing me does that does that make him not a member of the k Community that alone for sure not I mean I don't know if he's still ident identifies as a member of the Ked Community um but in our building we had at least 10 in our one single building in harof and I think all the parents would probably identify themselves as K but there were at least 10 boys in the building who have served in the Army many who did n so I'm obviously we're an outlier to some extent that wouldn't be true in my daughter's you know neighborhood in babra uh but you know a number of my children tried to enlist and were not successful they weren't taken for one reason or another um that desire and I I think it's I think it's it's certainly positive I I mean not that I think that a person who's really you know ligging and learning and is is you know one pushing the envelope furthest in the K World probably is my friend Yeshua feffer yeah but on the other hand I don't think his sons I don't think I'm not 100% sure I don't think that they went into the army I mean I'm sure they're brilliant and I'm sure that they're you know top students and so forth but I never had it that conversation with him because you know that's a conversation we each have to make our individual decisions and our children have to make theirs because we don't make them for them that's true there's there's a lot to be optimistic a lot to look for the ordinary greatness around us and those people that General attitude that you have and that comes across in in your writing in your column that we're so grateful for is important and and hopefully we can turn off some of the noise and in fact just focus on on the people and the good things and the trends and and hopefully there's a positive there's a reset a reboot to CLA Isel Amel that's happened in many ways this Awakening that you're describing where where can people find the new book well Bel Time online is probably the easiest you know I I didn't take a major publisher um you know somebody I didn't take a major publisher and it turns out to sell books you have to get shelf space in the book in the bookstores and for that you need to be either art scroll I mean in some ways Rabbi Sherman surprised me he said we would have been happy to take this book and I said you told me the last time you published previously published works that had sold seven copies he said you would have been different but and you know there's a big thing the the advertising apparatus but feldheim online you know feldheim online Amazon but and and in your local bookstore I want to help the local bookstores I'd like the local bookstores to be there but uh if I got this if you know if this message gets across and I consider myself well satisfied even if it's only a SAA for my grandchilden it will be good enough but uh we're looking forward thank you for this book thank you for all your writing and all your work your optimism your smile your positivity and thank you for letting us go behind the Bea with you today thank you it's a real pleasure