There's a lot more opportunity than you expect and thankfully
the opportunities have grown quite dramatically.
I'm a huge believer in a huge proponent in like not coming to
Israel as a charity case, like much more of the opposite, like
come to Israel because you know you you will increase your
quality of life in many cases. Shol Malaysia and welcome to
starting the podcast about the challenges and opportunities of
Big A Bentura in the workforce. This week we sit down with
Jeremy Lustman. Jeremy created and leads DLA
Piper's Israel Group, which includes over 300 lawyers
throughout the firm. But we barely spoke about
Jeremy's legal career. That's because we spent the
entire time speaking about Jeremy's non-stop cassette
activities, his fascinating alias story, and his tight knit
relationship with his Rabaim. My name is Jacob Wolf and this
is start Date. Jeremy Lusman, welcome to Start
Date. Thank you so much for joining us
today. Thank you, Ako.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
So you actually just got back from Ethiopia, You're originally
from America, you live in Israel, you do business
globally. So can you tell us what you're
doing in Ethiopia last week? Sure.
I was given this unbelievable privilege to take part in a
fairly small delegation. It was, it was big for the
organization, but it was fairly small.
We were about 14 people with an incredible organization called
Operation Ethiopia that was founded by a wonderful eye
surgeon, Morris Hartstein and his wife, Elisa Hartstein, and
they're based in Renana. I had seen a post actually about
two years ago, a friend of ours, Jordana Shore, who lives in
Modi, in had participated in an earlier delegation that they had
taken to Ethiopia. And it caught my eye just the
the engagement of this group of Israelis, many of them a limb
going to, you know, very underdeveloped country in
Ethiopia. My family and I have gone a
couple of times to Ethiopia for Sedaka related trips.
We got involved many years ago with an organization called
Innovation Africa bringing solar technology from Israel to
different communities and we had specifically focused on a
community in Uganda. So the idea of Israelis engaging
in Africa, you know, and sort of Orla Goyim and, and raising
awareness and bringing facet sort of on the road caught my
eye And Jordana connected me with the heart stains And I very
quickly learned what they were doing, the incredible work that
they're focused on. And over the last couple of
years just stayed in touch and, you know, developed a friendship
and learn more about what they were up to.
And then I saw, you know, and then obviously we all paused in
our own way and all we're dealing with our own journeys
and challenges over the last year.
But I saw a couple of months ago, it looked like they were re
engaging that Doctor Hart's seen it taking a trip and they were
planning ahead towards a volunteer mission.
So I just reached out and said, you know, I don't know if if
there are openings for non medical volunteers, but would be
very interested if there was an opportunity.
You know, Long story short, there, there was a spot for me.
They invited me to come along and basically what what we did
it, it was for for surgeons, for eye ophthalmologist Dr.
Hartstein and three others, one one of whom trains with him at a
Safarovan to others and to medical students and to Ho Shin
that had just gotten out of the army, and a couple of others,
some of their close friends from Ronana others.
And it's all focused on providing eye care to these
populations in Ethiopia, to literally thousands of patients
in Ethiopia that have virtually no care.
And So what we did was we were involved in in implementing
mobile eye clinics, both in the Jewish community.
Normally they operate very heavily in Gondar, but because
of the civil war and the challenges going on there, so
they they weren't going there this trip.
So we focused on the Jewish community in Adis and then a big
non Jewish community and one of the Christian Catholic
missionaries. And then instead of going to
Gondor, we went to a different area in the Tigray region in the
country and where there has been a significant amount of
fighting. And so there are a lot of
Mifunim, a lot of 10 cities, thousands and thousands of
people that literally just have nothing and the ability to
provide. I care for them in a very
methodical way, treating them, looking after them, you just see
the scale of what they've created has really been special.
And and for somebody who's totally not in the world of
healthcare has always shield away from medicine has always
been, you know, I've always been challenged by by medicine, by,
you know, by blood, by healthcare.
It's just hasn't been where my strength was.
They really opened up the possibility for a non healthcare
person to really be engaged on the healing side of healthcare.
And So what we did was those of us who are not doctors, we were
able to use glaucoma machines to test eye pressure and and test
screen patients for glaucoma. We were able to screen patients
for vision testing, you know, with eye charts and to be able
to see where they fell. We were able to administer once
a doctor saw them, we were able to fit them for reading glasses
and acted as essentially a pharmacy to administer drops for
them. So we basically went into these
different areas set up and we all broke into different
stations. There was a whole registration
for component for how you bring a patient in and, and properly
record them and register them. And so there are many different
tasks that we could that we could be involved in.
And then separately, it was just anything that was connected to
eye care. One thing that they that this
organization has done so beautifully is they've sponsored
cataract campaigns. And so one was last week where
for each of the five days of the week they had many doctors on
site performing like non-stop cataract surgeries about if I'm
not mistaken, 200 or so a day. So we weren't there, obviously
the non doctors of course weren't there performing
surgery, but Doctor Hartstein and the other doctors, our role
during last week was not to actually perform the surgeries.
We, we went into the OR and watched a couple of surgeries,
which was fascinating. Then we had an opportunity to
engage in the aftercare of these cataract surgery.
So the day after the cataract patients are wearing patches and
they need, they need the patches taken off and they need
antibiotics administered and whatnot.
And so just be in front of these incredible people, many of whom
are elderly, who have not had healthcare.
Many of them, unfortunately, from an eyesight perspective,
are blind because they've never been treated.
They're now having cataract surgery.
We have those huss of taking off these patches, sort of putting
our fingers in front of them to see if they read our you know #2
fingers, 3 fingers, whatever, carefully.
The, the smile, the tears, the joy when they can is just, you
know, very, very special. So it was just a special
opportunity. So when I heard you describe the
tent cities and the people who are evacuees, it reminded me of
an emotion that I felt when Alimosa Shiva was over.
If I memory serves, around Thursday or Friday, the Shiva
was winding to a close and there was the next casualty.
I think during the week of Shiva was it was somewhat quiet.
There was even like a little 24 hour pause or something and
there was another casualty and I had this sort of weird emotion
like like I was so self absorbed in my own, in our own family's
pain. And now I have to like figure
out a way to make space in my heart and to think about another
person's pain. So when you describing coming
from Israel where there's so much going on, so many
challenges, so many organizations, so much pain, so
much suffering, so much resilience, and then you have to
go and open yourself up to a new world of need, of challenge, of
of pain, of hope. What was that like for you?
It was. You know, I, I would say it
really on, on one hand, it's so humbling to to be there and to
recognize the heartbreak of, of so many others.
You know, we all go through our challenges and obviously your
family has gone through the harshest possible challenge that
anyone could ever imagine. You know, my I my heart and
prayers are continue to be very much with with your family, your
extended family and you know, so heartbroken for what you've gone
through. But everybody has gone through
trauma challenges in in our own way.
And I think that as harsh as those challenges have been and
continue to be for many, it's I think recognizing that there are
many others out there that have had it a lot worse.
And even, and even amidst our own challenges, you know, one of
the, one of the therapeutic ways, perhaps of, of not moving
past it, but just trying to be as positive as we can in a very
challenging world is just to see what we could do for others and
kind of recognizing that. So that's always been, you know,
a hallmark for me to, to recognize that there are a lot
of people around us and much closer than we think that need
help. And there's a lot of opportunity
to engage and and to and to and to find ways of giving to
others. Right.
The Rambam describes how a poor person is obligated to get stuck
also. And I guess one of the things
you could interpret from there is the fact that it's not about
inserting yourself on some sort of ladder of how sorry you
should be for me, and then just sort of enjoying that place.
You could have your own challenges and still be
obligated to look out for others and care for others.
I think there was actually something that I heard on a
podcast earlier today or, or late yesterday in the Orthodox
Conundrum podcast and and Scott was interviewing Dr. Erica
Brown, who's a family. Awesome.
OK, I didn't listen to that episode.
She's she's, she's a rock star. She's awesome.
And we had the privilege of being neighbors and friends in
Silver Spring for many years before we moved.
But she was talking about and, and I think she has a book about
to come out next week. So she was talking about, you
know, a lot of different aspects of the challenges of what
everybody's been going through, but she coined the term that I
hadn't heard before, focused on faith in others, You know, and
there's obviously our faith in Visa V Hashem, but there's also
faith in humanity and recognizing the goodness in
others. And she coined the term faith
deposits. Basically, the idea that we come
across so many scenarios amidst our pain that are things that we
need to grab a hold of and celebrate and, and focus on.
And whether that is a kind person who did something, you
know, a person who did something kind for you today.
Whether it's a SIM card that you had, you know, grabbing hold of
that and not looking at positive moments as fleeting in time, but
like almost grabbing a hold of them and almost putting them in
your bank, you know, and kilo, just like you have your banking,
you put money into the bank and the, and the money is there and
it's growing interest, etcetera. The idea that, you know, we have
to bottle up these positive moments in our lives and thank
God we have many of them. There was a lot to be thankful
for. And just even the small moments,
waking up in the morning and having your spouse near you and
your kids healthy and another day of accomplishment and, you
know, a great cup of coffee or great walk in the park, what
whatever it is, there are a lot of positive moments that we have
and bottling those up and putting them into the faith
bank, so to, so to speak, you know, was, was a powerful
concept for me because I think that too often we say, OK, that
was a great, you know, that was a great, you know, Simcha last
week, two weeks ago. But now we're dealing with
hardship and sort of that Simcha has sailed.
And I think that the idea of always trying to access that
bank, even amidst the our, our challenging times was, is, I
think, a very instructive and helpful point.
I just wanted, I didn't want to lose.
Going back, I was going back to the sort of conversation about
October 7th and and you going. Exactly and and and just sort of
finding, finding ways of, you know, recognizing the light
amidst the dark and, and, and giving back, etcetera, with
respect. I'm happy to go down through a
little bit. Is there any when you think that
when you when you mention that idea, so are there specific
deposits that you find very meaningful that you draw upon
when you're having harder times or reading tougher news?
Sure, there are a lot of them. Yeah, I, you know, I, I'm a big
believer in, you know, like using a baseball analogy.
Obviously we all want to swing for the fences and want to hit
home runs, but I'm a big believer in singles.
And I think singles, you know, you get on base, you advance the
ball, you move forward. It's a positive stat and it's
something to, you know, be proud of.
And I think that too often we look for the grandest type of
things in life and we lose sight of the Matano Ketano and that
that song, you know, the Rami Klein shine song, Matano Ktano
really like moves me because it's, it's the just the idea of,
you know, we all have a lot of brothels from Hashem.
You know, we wake up in the morning and we've been able to
sleep and we're breathing, thank God.
And we have our spouse and we have our children and we have a
parnassa and we have a community and we have friends and we have
so many things that on a day-to-day basis, we so often
naturally take for granted. And so I, I would say more often
than not, what I sort of go back to is just recognizing how long
that list of Matano Katanodar. And obviously, if I'm in the
midst of a positive, you know, work transaction or we're in the
middle of celebrating a SIM car, anticipating a SIM car, there's
a, a vacation or there's something positive to be excited
about. You know, I, I try to try to go
there, but I, but I would say what, what really drives me and
what, what, what I've, I've learned to become more and more
grateful of is, are those small things in life 'cause I think at
the end of the day, for most of us, it, we can all point to
something, even small things that put a smile on our, on our
face. And, and, and, and it, you know,
I would say that idea is very like the Labava Churabi talks a
lot about, you know, the opposite of lush and horror is
not withholding from lush and horror, but it's a really lush
and atov. And the idea that a positive
word, a good word to someone on, on a day, on any given day is
not just OK, you said, you said a night, you said good morning.
How are you, you know, and, and that's the end of it.
But there's a very good chance that that person was probably
could have been in in the dumps and was feeling down and you
acknowledging them and raising them, you know, made them feel
positive. And they're going to now go home
and treat their family in a more positive way.
And they're going to feel empowered.
And I think like, it's such a small thing to be able to do to
kind of recognize all of those moments they spoke a lot about.
And I remember, I don't remember if it was for Moshe Feinstein or
Yaakov Kamenetsky. I think I think maybe both of
them. But there there were these, you
know, the stories that they would walk on the street and
they would, you know, say good morning.
And it could have been a Catholic nun or it could have
been, you know, someone else. But just, you know, covered up
Rios. And recognizing the small things
in life can really make a big difference.
And I think that that's a similar attitude when it comes
to just being grateful for what we have and even those small,
those small points. And growing up, my favorite
Jewish baseball player was Kevin Yukilis, and he was known for
getting on base. So I didn't realize that his
model and his strategy was so useful in in leading meaningful
life. But I appreciate that.
And I'll, I'll have to keep that in mind.
I like that. So maybe I would just take a
little step back because you're involved in a lot of different
stuck out initiatives, nonprofits or other
organizations and missions that you are involved in.
So community, take a little step back and and give us a big
picture of how you look at that a very significant portion of
your life and your energies. Sure, yes, I, I wouldn't say
like there's any, any specific like instructive book for me
specifically. I think that I, I look at my
world as most of us do in, in various concentric circles,
right. We have our own immediate
family. We have our, you know, reaching
out a little bit. We have our own immediate
community. So for all of us, I think the
idea of, you know, trying to see that your family is well taken
care of within your own community.
We all live in communities that have, you know, those who are
suffering and need help and trying to tie into that and
finding ways of helping there. And then more broadly, it's just
a matter of identifying those causes that really have impact
and really have impact. And it's something that you
know, speaks to each of us, you know, if you've got a friend or
a family member that has gone through, has gone through
challenges economically. So looking at food security and
things that relate to food security like Lecked is
something that speaks to you. If you have members of your
family that are developmentally disabled, you look at the
incredible work of Shalva and what they're doing.
If you've had family members that, you know, have had 911
type moments and truly have suffered, would have suffered
but for the incredible Herculean efforts of Mada or Ihur Hatala,
et cetera, You, you, you totally buy into what they're doing.
So I don't think it's so hard for us to kind of think even
within our own circles of those causes that, that speak to us.
And so I, I, I would say those are, those are the types of
efforts that, that, you know, that really interests me.
And, and specifically in Israel, I think that we have a
mentality, especially as especially as a as a limb, that
nothing is too far removed from us.
You know, in America, when you think about big organizations,
when you think about big Amuto, you know, they're located
thousands of miles away from you.
Your ability to actually get in front of them, to actually
engage and have an impact is is limited.
Your ability to get away from work and travel and your ability
to get to people senior in the organization is really hard.
And most of the time it's not going to happen.
Whereas in Israel, you know, we only live an hour or two away
from almost everywhere. Your ability to access is right
there. You don't have to wait months
and months to get a meeting. You can just show up and you
know, and maybe you have to network a little bit to get to
the right person, but it's 2 steps removed, not 6, not 6
steps removed. And I think that there is a
real, there's a real drive and a real interest to, to find ways
of giving back. And, and the fact that it's so
accessible and, and available really makes that all the more
attractive. So I remember, I remember over
COVID specifically, one thing that kind of comes to mind where
I started getting involved in Hatzalah was everybody was home.
We were all dealing with COVID. In the early days of COVID,
there weren't any big fancy dinners or anything like that
where fundraising was going on. But I had an opportunity just
through my relationships. I had met Ellie Beer before and
I had known other volunteers in Hatzalah and our offices in Tel
Aviv. And we try to be very engaged in
the local Tel Aviv community. And I remember just hearing from
one one of the people within Hotzala that there are a lot of
Hotzala volunteers in Tel Aviv like on a daily basis.
And we just sort of came up with the idea, you know, why don't we
just sponsor, you know, burg like a lunch, a burgers, a
burger lunch for them, you know, just sort of put the word out
that between, I don't know, three and six.
We did it at Bodega, you know who are awesome, you know, and
you know, it's incredible, credible business, incredible
family that that runs it. And we, we, we went to Bodega
for three hours and we basically just sort of opened the tab and
word went out OK for outs, all the volunteers, you know,
there's for sponsoring a lunch, you know, at the end, I don't
know, maybe 8090, a hundred people came by, very modest
costs, very reasonable. But like, you know, the ability
to sit with these heroes. Share a bite with them, tell
them how much you appreciate what they're doing.
Express a car Sato. To me, that was actually like a
very telling opportunity that it's not all about things in big
lights and fancy, you know, affairs that you know, that
often times are looked at as ways of getting involved in
organizations. You can really in a grass roots
way, find opportunities to get involved and to engage and
create an impact. And it also just, it just sort
of brought to my, to my mind, the concept of brand
ambassadors. I have a good friend in, I have
a good friend in, in Silver Spring, Jeremy Epstein, who's a
real guru in marketing. He taught me a lot.
And he often talked about just the idea of like creating brand
ambassadors that at the end of the day, it's not about how you
can spread the word, but it's finding others who can go and
spread the word out for you. And it's almost like the
multiplier effect, right? Rabbi Sachs talks a lot about
the difference between power and influence, right?
He talks about, you know, Moshe was the epitome of somebody who
who was influential and essentially took what he had and
tried to replicate it and and give over what he had to so many
others, you to Yoshua to this Kanem, et cetera, et cetera.
And you know, Moshe's influence ended up multiplying
dramatically, whereas Koroc, his cousin who wanted power, looked
at the world of power. Power is, you know, maxed out at
100. And if you talk about dividing
power, so by definition, you're talking about taking something
away, whereas influence you're talking about creating a
multiplier effect. So I think like in the world of
has said, especially in Israel, especially with the connectivity
that we have to a lot of Ammu toad and the ability to get in
front of them and find ways of engaging, there's a real
opportunity to become brand ambassadors.
And I saw that through that Hatzalah event that wow, you
know, here's a way to do a small event couple 1000 checkout.
But we touched a nice group of volunteers and, you know, now we
want to go out there and spread the word and find ways of, of
giving Hakara Satov to other volunteers and finding other
people who might not be aware of what Hatzalah is doing.
You know, I think it's similar with like it like it has their
warehouse now and everything incredible that they do there.
But they have farms all over the country and they have individual
farmers who are, you know, who need guidance and help and
etcetera. And I think to kind of recognize
the ways of, of bringing has said making has said accessible
to the masses and being able to spread the, the incredible work
of these organizations is, is something that really speaks to
me. So your own family community and
then just like I said, the broader initiatives that speak
to us. So, so for, for me, me and for
our family, it's, it's really been looking for those
organizations that, that have those who are in need those, and
I mentioned a few of them, Shalva and Hatzala and, and
Lekkad and, and various others. And then, you know, we've tried
to sort of bring that into the workplace and recognize the
importance of just being good citizens and doing whatever we
can to be involved in in the broader community.
And so we've opened up just the idea of has said within our
team, you know, to just for everyone has their own their own
passions. And, you know, we want it.
We want everyone to kind of come and feel that they can create
opportunities for us to do things as a team together along
different fronts. And yeah, you know, it really
creates really it's a, it's a, it's a special effort to be
involved in because you feel good about what you're doing.
It's a way of bridging and bringing people together and how
it's, it's something that I'm very appreciative for.
And I'm going to take a guess here, correct me if I'm wrong.
My guess is that the Jewish people are so blessed with so
many wonderful people and organizations and who really
want to do good in the world. But I, I'm going to go out on a
limb and say they're probably more people and organizations
that approach you to be involved.
Then you have the capacity, you're very energetic, involved
a lot for things. I'm assuming there's some number
of organizations that come to you and say, Jeremy, let's do
things together. And you say no for various
reasons. So it could be that you
mentioned your personal preferences, that sort of one
thing. Are there other things that
you're looking at when someone comes up to you with an
initiative that you want to try to dig and understand better and
do sort of what are the takeaways?
People who want to start different tested projects as to
what you personally would sort of coach them and how to build
organizations, build their case in order to create engagement
with other organizations. Right.
You know, I'm a big believer that that that time, sometimes
to my own detriment, but that, that even though we live in a
day of 24 hours, you know, those 24 hours can be stretched.
And on one hand, we don't want to stretch ourselves too thin.
On the other hand, we don't want to miss opportunities to be
engaged in, to be involved. And I think like there are many
organizations that approach me that I've engaged with that I've
had an opportunity to meet. And, you know, the ones that I'm
passionate about and the ones that I buy into right away are
ones that I want to be more involved with.
And sometimes that involvement is financial.
And just to, they weren't on my radio radar previously.
And you know, I, I, you know, they now are and it's important
to get to their 'cause there are others that rise higher and just
say, wow, there are ways that I could actually like spread the
word of what this organization is, is doing to, to, to the
masses and to broader numbers of people.
Another one that that comes to mind.
I actually just on my way here, I had a great opportunity to sit
with Nachem Wasafsky. Wasafsky, who's the runs gears,
which is an incredible amuta in Israel, providing to thousands
of kids in the periphery each week mountain biking who gave
him to try and especially for many who are coming from broken
homes, broken communities to give them Bhita Konatsumi
confident independence building and really changing lives of
many kids. And they do a great bike ride,
charity bike ride, raising money for the organization once a year
for two days caught my eye again another post that someone had
done over COVID that they got fifty 60-70 guys at the time.
I was intrigued by what they were doing.
I wanted to learn more had a chance to meet Nachum and I'm,
you know, they, they run the organization together and very
quickly saw that this is a great opportunity to be with a Kevra.
It's nice to do classed with other people and not do it alone
to do something fun to raise awareness.
Other times it's, you know, just having role models and and
heroes that you really look up to who are engaged and it's
almost like they're they're Haskama for what the
organization is doing, like a a great one, like, you know, and
just not to play favorites. And not to mention him
specifically because I'm talking to you, but I'm a huge fan.
Love your dad. Have developed a close
relationship with him over the years and years ago he got me
turned on to Kablan or and just understanding the incredible
work that they do and what he's done and again recognizing that
they're a humble organization mom and pop.
I'm saying that in a positive way, like not, you know, overly
bureaucratic and very effective and very impactful.
And certainly since October 7th, what they've done has been
unbelievable. And he introduced me to Ellie
and others in the organization and we had an opportunity to be
involved in the marathon and was able to give some financially.
And now like with seeing the incredible impact that they've
had and how not easy it is to have impact, but like how
effective how can be in creating impact.
It's with your dad's encouragement and Josh Hexter
and others, it's an, you know, organization that I'm getting
more involved in now, which I'm grateful for.
So sometimes you never know where the where the exact impact
will be or the exact where the exact involvement will be.
But I think it's like just keeping your eyes open.
And I think we all have an ability to recognize the people
and the efforts that we want to be connected to.
Sometimes you come across a great person, you have a great
interaction, You're like, you know, I don't know how I'm going
to engage with this person again, but I really want to find
a way of doing so. You know, or my wife and I talk
a lot about, you know, people that uplift us and those that
don't uplift us. And we want to focus our efforts
on those friends, on those relationships that uplift us.
And I think it's the same thing with with people that you engage
with and organizations that sometimes you come across an
organization, you're like, wow, they are doing incredible
things. I know I want to find a way of
being involved. And I don't know how that's
going to take shape. But OK, you know, maybe it's an
initial contribution or maybe it's an initial going to one of
their events, or maybe it's just reaching out, you know,
recognizing the value of relationships in Israel and our
ability to get to people fairly quickly.
You know what, I really want to learn more and I'm going to
reach out and try to have a coffee with somebody senior in
the organization. So I would say my, it's a long
way of getting back to your question, but I think the, my,
my biggest word of, of guidance is just like, don't make quick
judgements other than quick judgement that this is something
that I want to be involved in. But if you don't have the exact
answer as to how or in which way or what exactly you're going to
do, just keep an open mind and you know, and be proactive and
follow your passions and, and listen to what others are doing.
I think after October 7th, the amount of festive that was going
on in the country rose to unbelievable levels.
And you just saw the incredible octos and you saw so many ways
that the goodness of of what people were doing and you just
wanted to be a part of it. And whether it was barbecues or
packaging things for soldiers or picking in the fields or going
to visit, you know, our our holy soldiers and those who were
injured in rehab centers, you know, there's no end to ways of
being involved. And I think we just saw that,
you know, no one wants to restrict has said.
And just just to look for those opportunities.
Right. That's a great segue to my next
question, which is I've heard this from people just to to
frame the question this way, you're friendly and a sort of
similar age to my father, my father-in-law.
So with friends in my generation who are a duration below who are
younger, starting their families, starting their
careers. I've heard people say, you know,
when I'm in Jeremy's place in life and I'm a partner and my
kids aren't so little and wake up at all hours a night, then
I'll be able to do lots of classes.
Then I'll be able to do a lot of other things.
But now I'm stretched by my own sort of getting my career off
the ground, getting my family off the ground.
But you were talking about the fact that we should be looking
for ways to sort of stretch ourselves in in the right way
for Hussed. So maybe you can talk to that
point a little bit to those who are a little more, feel more
bogged down by the day-to-day of their careers and their families
and don't feel like they have the space for Hussed right now.
Right now it's a great it's a great question.
I think that you know, the world of hussed is, is is this
incredible continuum and it's not all or nothing.
And I think if you just subscribe to the fact that it's
not all or nothing, we all have time for some cassette.
And again, going back to I said on a very human level is just
train yourself to say good morning to people and keep your
eyes open for people who might need something.
When you and I were walking into the building and you noticed
someone who was looked a little bit lost and being able to say,
could I help you? Like that's a cassette.
So I think like I said, on a very basic level is thinking
about others and not thinking about yourself, just sort of
looking outward. So I think that that's that's a
no brainer, no matter how small or big you are, even the
youngest kids, I think, you know, you see those kids in
Shoal that are like at an oof roof, like running to grab candy
bags for other kids and do something for others.
So I think a lot of that is in the home.
Follow the role models of your parents, grandparents, seeing
what they've done and recognizing that the ability to
instill cassette from a philosophical perspective is not
that challenging. And then from a from a timing
perspective, those in earlier stages of career might not have
as much time, but maybe it's as a family saying, OK, you know
what, on on on Friday, instead of going out to breakfast with
my wife or whatever it is. So maybe we take a drive and
grab a coffee and instead go go and visit someone in the
hospital. Or I think like finding small
moments is much more accessible than than people recognize.
And I would say when I was your age, I was also like cautious
with, you know, organizations would approach and be like, you
know what, I and we were living in America at the time.
And it's like, you know, I don't have a lot of money to give you.
You don't want my $10 check, my $18.00 check, my $36 like OK,
And it enforces you to give and to be approached is humbling and
you want to find opportunities to give.
But you know, I would say for me, it's been a sea change being
in Israel because I, I feel that the combination in America of
both being a younger person without funds to give and real
time to donate. And at the same time feeling
that, OK, I'm writing a check to some organization that's in
Brooklyn, NY, I'm in Maryland or in Chicago, IL, I'm in Maryland
like they're not going to know me.
I'm not going to have any ability.
Whereas in Israel, I think that we should feel empowered with
the fact that there's fuss at all around us and, and there's a
lot of opportunity in your own Daladamos and whether it's your
Shoal, whether it's your kids school, whether it's, you know,
and to just say, OK, I don't have all the time in the world,
but I'm happy to be part of an advisory committee.
I'm happy to help raise some money.
I'm happy to send a couple of emails.
I'm happy to, there are a lot of things that we can do to be
engaged. And I think because in Israel we
have the accessibility to these organizations and to the people
who are running the organizations and organizations
to actually know who you are. I think it's empowering for even
the youngest among us to find ways of being involved.
You had a great definition of hased where you talked about
looking outward and being sensitive to the world around
you and being there to, to to help others, which I think is
very, very beautiful. And I think it takes us to the
question of aliyah. I just had a conversation last
night with someone who's considering aliyah and it was
very heart warming to hear the tone that you were expressing
before with your own aliyah. You know, we can call it impact
aliyah. Like I'm going to come and see
where I can get where I can help and where I can be hassed
oriented in my aliyah, Whereas sometimes I'll speak to people
who are considering all yeah, and it seems to be a much more
will able to get the salary that I'm looking for, able to get the
house that I want to live in and get the community get, get, get.
So I'm wondering if you talk to that point and how you, you
know, what your advice would be for Olean as far as having that
impact all. Yeah, focus.
And may I'll just add one more point to the question, which is
the fact that knowing a lot of Israelis as I do now, like you
don't necessarily want to be an Israeli feeling like the
Americans coming like fix you and you're like their charity
case. So we can talk about the your
Aliya journey a little bit and then how you have it as a Hassid
focused journey in your case. Sure.
So I mean, I, I, I'm also like you, I'm very involved and have
engaged certainly in the last year, certainly before the last
year, but much more front and center in the last year,
particularly in the legal community.
There are a lot of lawyers in the United States, some in
London, but more in the United States that are trying to find
their way to Israel. And I think with everything
going on in Israel, anti-Semitism in the United
States and just sort of people taking a step back from life for
30 seconds, just saying, is this, is this where we see our
legacy? I remember having a coffee a
couple months ago with my good friend Noam Eisenberg.
And we were just talking about the idea of, OK, 40 years ago,
30 years ago, you would be sitting in American.
You'd be able to look ahead in four years and say, OK, this is
what, you know, my life in America is going to look like.
Or would you have stayed if you could forecast?
And I think the the ability now to, you know, we're living
through historic times, unfortunately with a lot of
pain. But I think it's created a real,
it's really crystallized for so many the unbelievable gift of
Mitya not used to all that we have and the opportunity that we
have to be here. And and understandably, you
know, in America, there's very much a mentality of I need to
make X in order to live even a modest lifestyle.
You know, if I have multiple kids and I want to put them
through day school tuition and I have I want to buy a home in a
religious community, you know, that is attractive and, and
healthcare costs, etcetera. You recognize that there's a
real pressure that while I need to actually make like a lot of
money from, you know, when we were younger, like just sort of
the numbers of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars
before I can even save a penny. And I think part of the
conversation with future O limb here is a there's a lot more
opportunity than you expect. And thankfully the opportunities
have grown quite dramatically. I'm a huge believer in a huge
proponent in like not coming to Israel as a charity case.
Like much more of the opposite. Like come to Israel because you
know, you will increase your quality of life in many cases.
I'm again, I'm not denigrating a lovely life, a wonderful life in
in Maryland, a lot of hot cars that told I don't look at the
United States. I can't believe I live there.
I'm so grateful that I lived there during the years that I
lived there, but I'm so even more grateful that I moved to
Israel when I did. And I I think that just the
concept of being here is overwhelming for so many.
How are we going to do it? Where are we going to find a
community? How are we going to make ends
meet? And when you distill it and say,
first of all, thank God, the old limb community here has grown so
dramatically. And it's not only like families,
but it's college students, it's postgrad students, the, you
know, the vibrancy of what's going on in Hertz, Aliyah in Tel
Aviv, 126 community and others in Jerusalem.
It's really empowering to see. It's exciting to see.
So I think that for any community, age bracket, socio
economic or academic or work wise, whatever you're focused
on, there's a community for you in Israel.
And I think that there's a sense of, OK, salaries are
considerably lower in Israel. How am I going to manage?
It's true salaries are are lower and in many cases they should be
higher. And I think that that's
something that the country needs to work on.
But the cost of living here are dramatically lower in my view.
And I think when you get down to it and when you talk through
with different, you know, people who are considering aliyah, OK,
you're not going to have tuition costs like you do.
You're not going to have healthcare costs.
You're not going to have property tax costs.
And even when the small thing is you want to get a babysitter,
you want to go out for a nice dinner or things like that,
those costs are going to be dramatically lower.
You actually can make considerably lower, lower salary
and you'll be fine and you'll be good.
We're actually we had an event in early January and we're doing
one now also in early January this year of an event in our
offices bringing Israeli partners, partners of Israeli
law firms, some in house counsel and people in foreign law firms
like my firm DLA, but others like our our competitors, our
friends in the market. Just to raise awareness.
Last year we had 120 people who came and showed up.
It was an incredible morning that 120 people that showed up
and we did a subsequent event in London actually led to a small
mission that we hosted in Israel about a month later to bring
these people to law firms, open doors to them, to various
companies. And one for sure that I know,
but I think 2 have already moved and accepted jobs.
So like the idea of like opening doors and being able to show how
it's much more accessible than you know, then then people think
is is is is is is important for our own aliyah.
We came at a different time. We came 15 1/2 years ago.
I was working for my company that and it actually is a is a
is a situation where it was a really challenging time in the
market. And it's one of those situations
where my wife and I talk a lot about, you know, just Hashem
moments We were living during a year that had incredible
challenges in the economy. A lot of people in the world to
finance investment, corporate emerges and acquisitions were
losing their jobs, whether it was investment banks, accounting
from law firms. A lot of my colleagues were
losing their job. I really felt that my job was
very vulnerable. At the same time, my wife and I
had received a couple of invitations for one specific
week for some what's going on in Israel.
And we said, you know what, we have this opportunity to go to
Israel. Let's run to Israel for these
smuckle. And it was happening in the
midst of all this going on. And I had an opportunity while I
was here to like, open my eyes for 5 minutes and talk to a
couple of people and say, wait a second, you know, like maybe
there's an opportunity now amidst this most challenging of
times to throw out. This Israel concept to my
company that had never really focused on Israel before and
just opening their eyes to the possibilities of being here.
And I gained by talking to some senior people here during that
week, which which caused me when I went back to the States to put
together a business plan. You know, not being afraid of no
recognizing, OK, the answer might be no, but it's certainly
going to be no if you don't ask and you don't try to fashion,
you know what you're interested in.
And so I, I went to senior partners in my firm.
I said, I think here's an opportunity.
It's the focus on Israel. We're growing as an organization
around the world. Israel seems to be moving up the
food chain. Let me go to Israel for a year.
I'll take a pay cut. You know, it'll be an
opportunity. And the way that I looked at it,
not fearing failure, you know that if it's a total failure,
OK, a year from now, I'm going to have to look for a new job.
But I already felt like I was looking for a new job at that
time. So it was almost a way of buying
a year, recognizing the opportunity and, you know, and,
and, and bar Hashem, you know, one thing led to the next and we
had an opportunity to come for the year.
We looked at it as a family adventure.
We didn't make Alia initially. I think every family who's
considering coming has to do what works best for them.
Some say, you know what, the only way I'm going to get there
is if I sell my house or if I make aliyah, do it right away.
And for others, it's, you know what we want to make sure that
we can see the seeds of, of potential and, and hopeful
success, you know, and once you have that.
So for, for us, we, we did it more on a trial basis, but it
ended up working out well, bar Hashem.
Well, there's so much more that we should really love to dive
into me, we'll have to do a Part 2 at some point, but we are
running a little bit short on time.
So I think actually the last question I want to ask you is
about your relationship with your obey The Mishnah says, I
say, look, Harab, which is a value which you all believe in.
But people who are, you know, beyond yeshiva and they're
working and they're busy and you know, in Israel especially
they're, you know, the Shoals aren't don't necessarily have a
robust rabbinate position or rabbis.
It doesn't really do so much. But you have maintained close
relations with some of your obey.
We can talk about that a little bit.
And maybe specifically if you have advice to people as to how
best to carve out the time, the space to, to keep the
relationships, to define their relationships and why it's
important in in your, you know, being so busy career, but having
that that anchor of a rabbi talented relationship.
Sure, I would say it real. For me, it really started when I
went to Shalo Vim and I was, you know, first year in Shalo Vim
and the guidance that I received from I forgot who it was before
getting there is Shalom is this incredible place of learning,
but it's not a place where Rabbiim are going to come over
to you and put their arms around you and hug you.
And if you want to create a relationship with a rabbi, you
have to be proactive about it then.
And I was very focused on there were a couple of Rabbiim there
that I ended up really aligning with and developed a very close
affinity for. And I set and Revyamer was first
and foremost Revyamer and who's now the Roshi Shiva was then the
first year Rebbe. And he learned in the we had
cheer in the morning, you know, cover center in the morning.
And then every afternoon he had a hub Russo with Rav handler,
who's now the Roshi Shiva, Shiva and Ramla.
They were the closest, closest of hub Russo and they sat in a
memorial room and he said, any time anybody has any questions,
come to me. And I almost made it a point,
you know, to in my head I'm like, OK, am I being like too
annoying? But I made it a point of at
least a couple times a week of like going and asking a question
and trying to engage. And for me that actually was
incredible. It really forged a close
relationship and shun of that. I did that with Jakubsen, who
subsequently became the Roshi Shiva and.
Bruce has had quite AI know. I know you were engaging.
I had quite a track record. Absolutely.
But I think being proactive, recognizing kind of like what we
were saying earlier, recognizing people that you want to engage
with and being part of and not being and not being afraid to
engage. So I think we all go through
different periods of life and I think that you can have
different Rabbaum from different parts of your life and hopefully
create a relationship and maintain that relationship.
Growing up, right around the time that I was bar mitzvahed,
Rabbi Wine Rut became the the Rava of my Shoal in Baltimore.
And I had this close of developing a close relationship
with with him, you know, and when he left the show and went
on to the OU and now he spends a lot of time in Israel and, you
know, still have the opportunity to be in touch with him.
Friends of mine, like close friends of mine, Rabbi David
Gottlieb and Beit Shemesh is one of my oldest, closest friends.
Kavrusa's, you know, you know, wears 2 hats with me.
He's a super close friend. And our families get together
and, you know, very much like family.
And at the same time, he's an unbelievable resource.
And Rob and, you know, I don't hesitate to ask him questions
or, you know, try to access his shoe rim and his Torah.
Rabbi Liebowitz Rabbi Aria Liebowitz is a relatively new
Rebbe for me. But in the world of COVID, you
know, I'd heard for a couple years earlier, I'd been
listening to his Daviomi. It was all on why you Torah.
And then suddenly COVID happens and suddenly everybody's home
and Rabbi am like Rabbi Liebowitz and others open their
Shoals up to the world. And suddenly I was live on share
with him every single day. And and so to this day, you
know, it's almost I've worked very, very hard to be on this
year alive every day. And it's created a very special
friendship and relationship and opportunity to engage and to,
you know, and to really and to really, you know, glean some
glean from them And, and thankfully now and you were, you
were mentioning it that unfortunately a lot of
communities in Israel don't have that Rav that the Shoal
mentality in the same way. But I think one of the positive
aspects of what the growing Anglo community has done here is
it really has fostered a real need, need for it.
And you look at Rabbi Rosner's community and what he's done in
Beit Shemesh has been unbelievable for years in hush
money. And we, we had a, a community,
Rob, but certainly wasn't at the, of the model that we're
used to. And now in the last couple of
years, we have a new show, Rob. We have a new community, Rob,
who are unbelievable. There's a lot of engagement.
And so I think like my, my, my guiding principle is not being
intimidated, feeling open to engage, recognizing where every
Rob is comfortable in their own way.
Some are more comfortable socially, some are more
comfortable, you know, with a question privately.
Some want you to attend in the masses, their sheer rim.
So I think it's being able to recognize what where Rob and and
Rob Onnum have their most joy and finding ways of tapping into
that. My eyes are always open.
I'm always looking for another one of shy Shafter.
I had an opportunity a number of years ago to spend a Shabbos
with him at a cousin of mines, Shabba Brachos, and it was a
very small group and I was like, wow, you know, here's this
unbelievable Rav who's Marbits Torah has thousands of Shira rim
when I ever have access, you know, Barack Hashem, I have this
opportunity and, you know, now his she were in are very much a
part of my world. And, you know, I've managed to
maintain a relationship and staying in close contact,
etcetera. And so I think like just keeping
your eyes open and recognizing the opportunities to engage.
And I think Robin and Robin want to have that Rebbie Tomlin
relationship and to find ways of, you know, and I think being
able to share the impact that they've had with you is
something that really empowers them.
And so that's, you know, something that definitely, you
know, has driven me over the years.
That's beautiful. We're gonna have to do another
part too, because there's so much more.
But I think I'll just, I'll, I'll give a spoiler to the
listeners that don't know Jeremy personally as well.
Is that the, the people you keep talking about, the
relationships, the connections, the communities that you
continue to build and be involved in are, are certainly
saying, which drives professionally also, let's say.
We'll have to reconvene and talk about that a little more in
depth. But Jeremy, thank you so much
for coming out here today and for sharing all those wonderful
stories and ideas. Thank you for having me.
And I'm such a huge fan of Stark Tank and what you've done with
it is incredible and really just continue to, you know, have such
wonderful hush Bah and so many people and the incredible work
that you're doing is something I really look up to.
And I'm grateful, you know, for the invitation and to sit
together with you. Thank you so much.
Thank you, that's our show for today.
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