The EMET Effect: Episode 2 - Interview With Rabbi Kigel & Daniel Matatov

We're honored to welcome two more voices from the Emeth family, Rabbi Ruven Kiegel, Emeth's dynamic campus director, and Daniel Matatov, a proud Emeth graduate, successful professional, and someone who embodies Jewish growth and community. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. It is a pleasure to have you here. Um Rabbi, we have a very interesting question that I think our viewers will be really happy to hear and learn. What is your vision for the next phase of Emeth's campus outreach? That is an amazing question. You know, at Emeth's about 21 years old and I've been there for 18 years. So, my MO on campus has been get to the campus, figure out where the Jewish students are hanging out, and uh basically get them to like me, and then start programming where we offer free food, which is number one for college students. The free food works, and also a trip to Poland and an iPad, both an iPad and a trip to Poland, sometimes a trip to Israel, whatever it takes, cuz I know once the students experience the Emeth effect, going to the classes, coming to the Shabbatones, coming on a trip, from the students who meet statistically, 50% of them become shomer Shabbat, which is like amazing. You know, when they're shomer Shabbat, that means they're going to be obviously marrying Jewish. And if they're shomer Shabbat, they're obviously going to be sending their kids to yeshiva, and it's really a huge deal that makes a generational impact. And also, what's amazing about the Bukharian community, really all communities, but especially the Bukharian community, is that not only does the student become more observant, but then it's like a ripple effect not not just a downward ripple effect, obviously with wife and kids, but it's also like an upward effect on his parents and grandparents. And it's really his or her parents and grandparents. We have countless stories of mothers becoming more observant with their daughters and fathers and sons and everything and it's really an amazing thing. Baruch Hashem. So, but now for your question, what is the next vision cuz we've really had sort of been doing a very similar awesome model for the last 18 years that I've been there. And we're around five, six campuses. So, the next phase is to bring in more senior rabbis, right? And to get to a total of 10 campuses, which they're around. There's City College, there's NYIT, there's Adelpha Adelphi, there's St. John's, there's of course Queens College, one of our main places, there's Baruch College, one of our main places where Danny and I met. There's uh also Hunter College, there's also John Jay College, and there's we're in New York, so there's other colleges in the area as well. There's QCC and everything in between. And our next vision is to get to 10 campuses, which is going to obviously require more staff because we were not able to deal with that many people and make really, really huge impact because I'm sure as you've heard, I'm sure as you can imagine, we have about 10 years left and just too many years in America for any community, even someone as strong as the Sephardi communities, is like leads to more and more assimilation. So, we have like 10 years where we feel like we can make a profound difference and we want to take advantage of that time. It's not the Hashem. It's only with the Hashem. Everything we're doing is with the Hashem's help. Absolutely. You know, I'm a testament of the Emmet product, you can say. And we were discussing it with Rabbi Ruttenberg just a short while ago how it began in Beth Gavriel. And I personally remember attending those lectures. And it's funny you mentioned food cuz that That one of the things I said, "Listen, they had free food, you know?" Right. It definitely attracted the younger generation and it was a place to come, socialize, to be surrounded strictly by peers of your culture and background. Right. And I remember to this day, it felt I can't believe it's been over 20 years already at this point, but um it it it brought me much closer to religion. From those lectures, I was introduced to Shabbat, Shabbat homes, etc. And baruch Hashem, I I have kids who are attending yeshivas. I'm coming from Forest Hills High School. And it's a different it's a different upbringing. Right now, to sit at a Shabbat table and to hear my kids say, "The parsha of the week was" It's worth every penny. It's worth every dime. Right. I mean, and coming from a communist background, you we like you literally got your Judaism back from what the communists stole from your grandparents. That's amazing. And I also know, obviously, you spent your cousins, your brothers, relatives what all over this house as well, and it really makes a huge impact on everyone. Baruch Hashem. And I feel like this is an important uh purpose of this current campaign. We have a problem. Our community is growing. It's a good problem. And uh the there's more schools that need to be um attended to. Right. And hence the staff need, and hence the financial need. Right. Absolutely. Right. We need it. There's That's the vision. Right? Cuz if you can keep doing the same thing, but not if the community requires more. Daniel, how did Emes help you grow on your Jewish journey? And how did it I I From what I understand, you also met your wife. Yeah, partially. Indirectly, directly, but yeah, it also happened that way. Please share it with us. Yeah, it was a it was a combination of a lot of things. I am very blessed. I'm very grateful to, you know, to have the man beside me when I was 18 years old, you know, what what do we know as kids in college? Even though I went to Yeshiva, you know, I don't want to bash the high school that I went to, but it was it was quite secular. It wasn't the most It wasn't the best representation of of you know, Judaic education. So, a lot of kids after high school, unfortunately, they do they can you know, they can plateau and worse, you know, fall off. So, and you know, I'm very lucky and grateful that Rabbi Keagle gave me the opportunity cuz I remember he was he was speaking to kids at the time. I was just I This was 7-8 years ago when it was it was smaller. It was much smaller than it was now. You know, like EMET did it got a lot of momentum and it's nice to see that EMET compounded to so many students today. I was speaking to someone in the morning that's saying, you know, I love EMET and I went to Yeshiva and now I'm not part of it. So, it's it's a good problem to have where like there's the demand is so strong to go to EMET but and there's so many students that still want to go that went to Yeshiva. So, I don't know if I'd have that opportunity today. I remember when I was 18, freshman year, Rabbi Keagle stops me and says, "Hey, you can use EMET. Let's do this." And of course, every kid's thinking, "Oh, I don't know. You know, a guy with you know, a guy with a hat stopping you, you know, like saying you need to come to my class, you know, you don't you never know where it's going to go, but you know, as I said, I'm very grateful for Rabbi Keagle stopping me. Besides the iPad, besides the classes which you know, it it helps. It really does help when you when you you know, you're not working. You're just going to school. You don't really have much. So, getting food, getting the I don't know what the stipend was, 3-400 bucks. We never give out money. It was always an I know that down no more. No, no, we Sorry, I missed the end. Don't worry about it. Yeah, no, no, we just we don't like to do that. We give we give it either an iPad to like the brew students or we prefer you know, obviously it costs more money to send people on a trip which is a real experience. Listen, who would these kids would never in their life consider going to these trips if they weren't you know, if they weren't subsidized. You know, to go to Poland How much was the trip? I think we charged like $600 to go to Poland. practically free for these kids to go for a like one in a lifetime opportunity. When is a Bukharian kid going to go to Poland and experience Auschwitz? When are we going to see the millions of names in, you know, in the Auschwitz Museum? Never. To see Bukharian names like not Bukharian names. Some Bukharian names, we saw prisoner of war names. I saw names of my family which, you know, trying to connect it back to my family and my family was shocked. It's crazy that, you know, there's a organization in Queens that can take you across the world. You know, who would think that in, you know, 21st century that we would even need that, but you know, what Em is doing is a blessing. And fast forward to, you know, before I'm getting married. Even though I like to give my credit and I would like to give the credit to my grandmother cuz she she kind of did some of the work. The closest Rabbi I saw Yeah, but we always have to give the credit cuz That's right. she gets upset when I say this because this is 50% Bubbie and 50% Rabbi Fuzaylov. You know, and um the importance of Emmet because I live in Forest Hills on 108 Street, there's so many kids. It It's so local. You know, the market is so local. It's not like Emmet's like selling this prod- product of Kiruv in in San Diego or in Florida. It's so local. It hits close to home, you know, like you're hitting direct to the market. You say it, the product. You know, we are the product. Kids from Forest Hills, Rego Park, Fresh Meadows, you know, it's it's so close to home. So, it's very you know, we're Who else is going to do it? So, I remember my grandmother, like all Bubbie's, they're throwing darts on the on the board to see what sticks. Like, Danny, try this. Danny, try that. And I'm like, Bubbie, you know, stop pinning me. I want to, you know, let me be. And Rabbi Fuzaylov, who's going to listen to their grandmother? So, I kept in the back of my mind. And then Rabbi Fuzaylov, he said, Danny, and I never met my wife at the time. Never. Never heard of her. Never seen her. Danny, there's this girl that my wife teaches. Like, she might suit you. And she was coming to the Em and Em Fellowship. She was How was she Where was she teaching her? to one of the She was going to one of the classes and um by King David that shul. I don't know if it was a Tuesday or a Wednesday. I believe it was a Tuesday. That was the Emes fellowship, right? It was a Tuesday class for girls. Right. And I'm thinking, "You know what? I love my bubbeleh dearly. She knew me my whole life, but I feel like I could trust her or Refoel Eisel's opinion better." But I took it as a chance that an Emes rabbi he he knew me for years. Rabbi Kugler knew me for years. Rabbi Refoel Eisel, they saw me growing up as a kid and they said, "You know what? Based off your needs, maybe you need this. Maybe you can use that." And I took his cuz I was in his house. But the only reason why I took his suggestion because he was so local. I would literally walk two, three blocks to his house on Shabbat every three weeks. What else am I going to do on Shabbat? Walk to his house. He looks at me and says, "Danny, you know what? My wife teaches this girl. She might be for you." And I'm thinking, cuz this is the second time I'm hearing in a week, so I'm like that you know, it has to be a sign. But we're just throwing darts and I'm like, "I don't know." But but uh you know, Rabbi Refoel Eisel was saying it, it made sense and you know, first date went to yeah, for us getting married. So, who would who who knows? You know, of course meant to be that I'm I'm supposed to be with my wife like everyone else with their wife, but Rabbi Refoel Eisel was like the was the messenger, you know? He was He was the He was the middle man, you know? And I had to go through that. I had to go through Emes, you know, I had to go through a rabbi knowing me, watching me grow up as a kid to go through that. So, it's interesting to see how things go out, how Emes is involved not only in your spiritual life, but in your physical life. Right. Right. Yeah, I'm definitely an example of uh you know, Emes being very involved in my life and I'm very proud to be part of Emes. You know, one other thing, I don't know if you feel this, but obviously everyone has relatives and their own friend group, but sometimes if you start growing religiously, you don't necessarily have them. Right? Cuz they're they may either be ahead of you below below you. They're not like necessarily growing with you. And we really try to create at Emes, Sarah, Dena and I talk about this a lot as we call them Emes friends. Where other people are on the journey with you. Like I remember during COVID, everything's closed, Emes open. Right? So, and we had like a great summer program. Remember you came on the like summer trip to the class goes and the people there we took like 20 25 guys they all bonded with each other. You know, and they became like in some ways like really life long friends. Regardless of age, regardless of school backgrounds, everyone of you. Right. Right. Right. Yes, it was it was like a really an amazing experience and then you have someone to grow with when I was becoming observant. So the hardest thing about it was I didn't have anyone to grow with. And so it's really great to be in the Forest Hills community and we're really Forest Hills Fresh Meadows Queens let's call it and we really are bringing people together that either friend groups start growing together or you make other friends that you grow together with as well which is a really amazing. Slowly turns into a family. 100%. Right. We actually I'll tell you a funny story. We made a shower buffer first someone like last week. Now it happened to be a a student and we this a female student we were very close with her brother as well and she got married and we we really didn't know the Khaton at all from he never came to he never really came to any of my classes and at the end he says I can't believe you guys threw me a shower buffer like there's no way any other organization could would ever do this. I'm not sure with Bukharian food. Right. Well, it wasn't so Bukharian it was from I think it was from Posh. So but it was delicious. So Bukharian own roots. Oh, okay. They must have I felt there was something there something in the seasoning. So So me and his new brother-in-law looking with the same ties when we say "Amits not organization, it's a family." You know, and that's really the distinction and so that when you're when your organization of course you don't throw a shower buffer for someone that you don't never even come across your door but if you're a family and someone marries like one of your close students so then of course you make a shower buffer. Danny, I feel like you touched a very very key point and it's important for people to know. You said that you come from a Yeshiva background. So, this goes to show just because you're being sent to Yeshiva as a child, so the parents that send their children, um it's a great thing, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee that your child will have a um the proper foundation or the the yearn, the desire of being Jewish. It sometimes takes an outside organization such as Emmet to bring you closer to basically sort of solidify that bond. and maintained. High school's not enough. And I feel like Emmet definitely is able to do that. Right. I mean, most the majority, just like the majority of the population is going to public school, so that's the majority of our students, but we do have kids that go to Ezra, to North Shore, and places like in places like that where their parents are essentially sending them there to just avoid public school, and they're maybe not getting the some background information or basic information that they need, and we really do provide that in Emmet, and and it's great. And sort of like puts all the pieces together, and those and those students fly. Yeah, the amount of kids that we see that go to Yeshiva and go the other way, and so many kids from Four Seasons High School that are more observant than me. It's insane. It's crazy, but partially because of Emmet, a lot of people went through their own route. We have a a good friend, Dennis for example, he he's a clear example of a baal teshuva where he he went he went from zero to 100 really quickly. Like he It wasn't super quickly from my standpoint. Relative to a lot of Yeshiva students, like what up, you know, he Right. He's you know, he's a great example of You know, He's also determined. Like he really cared about Judaism. He It's like he was introduced to it, and you know, it needed to be nurtured. Right. You caught on a a soul that needed that nurturing, and Emmet was part of the spark. And one of our really just our core values in Emmet is like the rabbis and the rebbetzins and the teachers, we're just the guides. Like you were saying, the students are the heroes. We're providing information, we're showing them classes, we're ex- providing for them experiences, but at the end of the day it's one's own determination and how they feel about Hashem that's making them grow. The The students are are the heroes. We're We're the guides. We're just, you know, we're sort of in the middle. Messengers. Yeah, just the messengers. And it's interesting cuz it's like about calls all their hero rabbis shluchim. Right? Cuz they're just the messengers. Well, they're like I'm just a messenger. So, baruch Hashem. Rabbi, we've heard stories of transformations, learning, connection rooted in the mission of Emunah. Can you share with us one story that really is resonates with you that's like one that really sticks. Um you know, we like literally we have so many stories. Like I always kid around with my kids like I have to like write a memoir cuz there's so many different things that happened all the like literally or literally all the time. So, I'll just say what's it been the the last story which is something that occurred like like a week or so ago. So, we had a student in Borough College that, you know, just was hanging out by the hill over there and we were having an Emunah program. And then in the And he just was like I don't know if I really want to go, but I said, "Hey, guess what? There's free food." Right? So, free food and it's dinner time. I'll come, why not? So, he comes and he comes to the classes. And then he also came, you know, for the shabbaton. It was a great experience. He wasn't not sure much about it at the moment. And then um the program's prize was a iPad. Right? An iPad for attending all 10 lectures and coming to shabbaton. You get an iPad just to keep them keep the students going. So, um at the end I came up to him. I said, "Listen, I can give you an iPad or I can send you to Israel for 3 weeks to go learn in yeshiva a little bit." He didn't He didn't have a yeshiva background. And he thought about it. He said, "You know what? I can get an iPad myself. Let's go to yeshiva." So, he He to yeshiva. And then he liked it so much he wanted to go back again. But the problem is that we didn't have a scholarship for him to go back. So and I I felt like if I asked him to pay for it just at that moment he he'd be like, "Ah, no, forget it. I'd rather go work, whatever." So I put it on my credit card. I'm not sure if I had ma'aser money to give or not, but it didn't matter. I put it on my credit card. So then he went for another few months Yeshiva. So long story short, I just bumped into him the other day. He came back. He said that second trip really solidified everything. And he's he showed me pictures. He's got his wife covering her hair, two kids. And it's like, "Wow." I I was like blown away. I said, "Baruch Hashem, thank you, Hashem." I was I was I said, "Thank you." I said, "Thank you, Hashem, for putting me in the middle of this." It's like it's amazing. You know, obviously he's the hero, but it's like great to be in the middle. It's just to have a have a a part in that is awesome. And and that's what really I love about working for Emes. We just have nothing but opportunities. I explained to someone when we're trying to hire new people, I explained, "Okay, imagine you're like working on Wall Street as a and then you have nothing but customers. You just have to grab them." And that's how we feel. We have so many people in so many different campuses. And that's just the that's just the campus part of our organization. And we have over 500 couples as well. As much care of as you want to do, as much reaching out as you want to to do, you can do it. The sky's the limit. Rabbi, that was an incredible story. I hope that you always have the opportunity to be on the giving end. And to all our viewers, to those who are donating, may you always be on the giving end. Amen. And may we see that this organ- organization grows. And that the goal is going to be reached. And may we continue having this problem that our community is growing. Amen. Amen. Amen. I just want to say one thing that you mentioned that you gave me a bracha that I should be on the giving end. And I believe me, I love giving. But we And literally in Emes, one of the things is that we realize and one of the most humbling things we do is that we ask our alumni 70% to 75% of our of our donations are coming from alumni, which is a huge tribute to what we're doing. Uh Baruch Hashem. But when we ask our alumni for money, that means we're saying something like this, like we can't No one can just give. We cannot give without getting from you guys to pay it forward. It would be literally impossible because we we're not a school, we have no we have no tuition coming in. We really literally just have donations. And so when I in some ways one of the greatest gifts we can give is to allow the our alumni to give to us and to pay it forward because when you give someone the gift of giving, that really is beautiful. I'm I'm not the most I'm not a rabbi or anything like that. For those of you don't know, I'm a DJ. But um and a great DJ. I once heard an interesting story that um a baby cannot approve the fact that it's getting a Brit Milah. Can't. Father brings the baby on the Right. Gives it a Brit. The baby only confirms that it agreed with his father when in due time that baby then becomes a father, has a son, and does the same ceremony, Brit Milah, for his child. That's when it's the approval, Dad, you did right. I approve. Same thing goes over here. The fact that an alumni student gives the donation that goes to show that they approve. This works. I'm here with it, you know? Beautiful. Beautifully said. I love that. concept for sure. Exactly. Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure. Bezrat Hashem, only good days, good news, and I hope that the Emes effect will be reached. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure. Hazak u'baruch. Hazak. Danny. Hazak. Mhm.