1 00:00:15,150 --> 00:00:18,790 Hello everyone, and welcome back to People Juwan and O Podcast. 2 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,760 If you are watching this and wondering where I am, I'm at my 3 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:24,840 parents house. I'm visiting them right now so 4 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:26,440 that's why the. Background looks different. 5 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:30,280 Today's conversation is with Moshe Davis and we got to record 6 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:33,120 in the Very Fancy Theorist podcast studios. 7 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,480 I consider Moshe a friend as a result of the podcast, and he 8 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:40,120 encompasses to me exactly a people Jew want to know. 9 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,480 You may recognize Moshe because he previously served as the 10 00:00:43,480 --> 00:00:46,040 senior Jewish liaison to Mayor Eric Adams. 11 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:50,560 Truthfully, I had no idea we even had a Jewish liaison in New 12 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:54,080 York City until I saw a Free Press conversation a mere few 13 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,320 days after Mondani was in office, where Moshe discussed 14 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:00,400 with Olivia Rheingold how he was unceremoniously let go. 15 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:03,960 Here's a bit more about Moshe. He also served as the founding 16 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,240 executive Director of New York City's Mayor's Office to Combat 17 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:10,600 anti-Semitism, also known as MOCHA, the nation's first 18 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:13,440 municipal office dedicated to confronting anti-Semitism 19 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:15,840 through policy enforcement and education. 20 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:19,280 During his tenure, Moshe built a citywide operating model to 21 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,800 fight anti Jewish hate. He led an interagency task force 22 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,880 spanning dozens of agencies advanced for mayoral executive 23 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:28,760 orders and developed legislative frameworks to codify 24 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,400 anti-Semitism protections. He also authored New York City's 25 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:36,680 inaugural anti-Semitism Report, an 80 page strategic blueprint 26 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,000 now serving as a national model for how cities can combat 27 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,720 anti-Semitism through actionable policy tools. 28 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:46,480 Again, to be clear, MOCHA is the first of its kind. 29 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:49,720 No other city in America has such an office, and it was 30 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,000 created as a result of the severe anti-Semitism New York 31 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,280 City saw after October 7th. In his role as Senior Jewish 32 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,200 liaison to Mayor Eric Adams, Moshe also launched the New York 33 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:01,920 City Israel Economic Council, which is a government to 34 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:04,640 government partnership to strengthen innovation ties and 35 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:07,120 create jobs. He founded New York Jews in 36 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,400 Politics, a network of 500 plus Jewish professionals in public 37 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:13,920 service and advocacy, and today Moshe lives with his wife and 38 00:02:13,920 --> 00:02:16,920 two children in New York City. While the MOCHA concept is the 39 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:20,440 first of its kind, based on the research I've done, the concept 40 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,960 of a Jewish liaison is very common, especially in cities 41 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:26,720 where there are large Jewish populations including LA, 42 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:30,360 Chicago, Miami, etcetera. Moshe's episode was one of my 43 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:32,160 favorite episodes I've ever recorded. 44 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:33,880 We've. Really get the insider look of 45 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,240 what the last two years were like for Moshe and the mayor's 46 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:37,720 office. Where things went. 47 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,920 South and what the future holds for New York. 48 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,680 I asked pretty much all of the heavy hitters, the things that I 49 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:45,120 know I've personally wanted to get an answer on for a long 50 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:46,920 time. You'll also hear Moshe talk 51 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:50,000 about how he started his career at Manhattan Jewish Experience 52 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,680 MJE before he went into politics. 53 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:56,000 For those who are fans of Rabbi Wilde's episode, there are so 54 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,520 many things about Moshe that remind me of Rabbi Wilde's, and 55 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:01,400 I think he would just be so proud of him. 56 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:03,560 This is really just the beginning for Moshe. 57 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:05,480 I think we're going to see a lot more from him. 58 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,200 He's smart, he's a highly effective communicator. 59 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,120 He's strategic. And hardworking. 60 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,640 I'm grateful to know him and I hope you enjoy this episode. 61 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:16,800 Hey Moshe, welcome to people. Do you want to know podcast? 62 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,760 It's great to be on here. What a fancy studio we're in. 63 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:21,760 This is really a treat. Quite a nice spot. 64 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,760 OK, please tell us about yourself. 65 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,440 What do you do and how did you get there? 66 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,600 I grew up in Brooklyn. Monty Shiva went to high school 67 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,600 in Queens, eventually went to Israel to study and get some 68 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:38,840 Mika there, came back to New York, got married and started 69 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:41,920 working at my Jewish experience on the Upper West Side. 70 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:44,360 I have two lovely kids. We live on the Upper West Side. 71 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:50,480 And while I was working there, I was approached to by a friend of 72 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,200 mine asking me, would you be interested in politics? 73 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:58,440 Is that a family bar mitzvah? And he asked, you know, would 74 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:02,240 you be interested in doing something because Eric Adams 75 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,160 team looking for people. And I figured, yeah, this is 76 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,880 definitely interesting to me. And before I know it, I was the 77 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,160 Jewish liaison for Mayor Eric Adams. 78 00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:13,760 And from there, start of the mayor's office comments and 79 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,000 sematism did cool things like the New York City, Israel, the 80 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:20,000 Comic Council, and, you know, trying to do the good things for 81 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,920 the Jews. When you interviewed for that 82 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,080 role, did they ask you like, why do you want the job? 83 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:27,160 What? What did you say? 84 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:29,360 I don't remember. They asked me why I want the 85 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:31,040 job. I think they asked me, do you 86 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:32,440 know the Jewish community in New York? 87 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:34,040 And I said, yeah, you know, I grew up here, part of it. 88 00:04:34,280 --> 00:04:35,840 And he asked, well, do you know the difference between, you 89 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:37,960 know, like the various classic groups? 90 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:39,600 I'm like, I know there are differences. 91 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:41,400 I don't know if I could tell you all the differences. 92 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,720 And, you know, do you understand the communities across 93 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:47,080 Manhattan, Bronx? And now I'm like, yeah, this is, 94 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,080 you know, my people. And yeah, that's how I started. 95 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:56,080 Always wanted to be able to use my abilities and talents to be 96 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:57,480 able to, you know, do good things. 97 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:00,760 And I think the political world is always somewhere where I felt 98 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:03,920 that you have so much more impact than almost any other 99 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:05,560 place you do. And you know, we could talk more 100 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:07,680 about that as well. Yeah, I'm curious to know. 101 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:12,120 So obviously with the start of Mondani's administration, you 102 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:16,720 were unceremoniously asked to leave, I guess, or your role was 103 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,400 replaced and it was done in a it wasn't done in a very graceful 104 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,040 way. And I know that you were able to 105 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,760 speak to the Free Press about it and talk about your experience 106 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:27,880 before we get there. Can you? 107 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:31,080 For those people who are not familiar, what does a Jewish 108 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:35,360 liaison do day-to-day? It's usually liaison takes care 109 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:40,520 of like garbage pickup and health certificates for schools, 110 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,600 but also making sure the mayor gets to the various synagogues 111 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:45,240 across the city. Jewish events. 112 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,040 I'm very involved in the Israel Day parade on 5th Ave. every 113 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:51,640 year, making sure that the needs and concerns of the Jewish 114 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:53,600 community are handled in City Hall. 115 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:56,840 So therefore, you know, New York City is a massive place with 116 00:05:57,080 --> 00:05:58,640 almost a million Jewish New Yorkers. 117 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:02,360 The great responsibility to making sure that they're, you 118 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,400 know, concerns, issues are addressed in the highest level 119 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,000 of city government. And they're just, they're very 120 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,080 nitty gritty of daily life of what I mean in the Jewish 121 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:13,120 community. Sometimes it's security. 122 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:17,600 And especially, you know, as things progressed in my time in 123 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,520 the mayor's office, how that became more and more important 124 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:22,080 of a role I was playing, connecting local synagogues with 125 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:24,520 their precincts, making sure that Jewish community groups are 126 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:25,960 funded for their security purposes. 127 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:30,720 And that was a big part of it. But I always said, I came to 128 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:33,160 City Hall. I'm there to uplift Jewish life. 129 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:35,640 I'm here to make sure that people could be living as proud 130 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:38,720 Jews in New York City. That's my job, That's my role. 131 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,800 And then eventually it turned into putting out these fires of 132 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,720 like Jew hatred current in our city agencies, current on the 133 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:47,680 streets, wherever we've got went. 134 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:51,920 And that's when really I had to shift focus to say, OK, what can 135 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:54,120 we do to make sure that the Jewish community is safe, 136 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,480 literally just safe. And started working on some of 137 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:58,880 those projects. Eventually I put together the 138 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:00,920 proposal for the mayor's office, common anti-Semitism. 139 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,240 And the idea for that office was we could take municipal 140 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:08,920 government, our levers of power in the city, whether it's our 141 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:11,000 through our agencies, through our Police Department, through 142 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:14,320 our relationships across the city, and we could make 143 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:15,840 municipal change here in the city. 144 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:18,800 We can't eliminate centuries old hatred. 145 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,760 We can't change people's minds and hearts by, you know, just 146 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:23,360 forcing things down their throats from a government 147 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:25,240 perspective. And that's not how I think, you 148 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:27,480 know, think that won't actually make you safer. 149 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:31,840 But we could do is making sure that places in the city which 150 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:35,480 need security bollards so that driver a car can't just drive up 151 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:38,280 and kill people coming out of synagogue. 152 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:39,960 I think that's something that we could do in the city. 153 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,280 Or we can make sure that, you know, our city agencies are 154 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:46,480 doing everything that their role, whatever where they are, 155 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:48,560 they are interacting with the Jewish community. 156 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:50,480 They're doing their job. And that's the reason why we set 157 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:52,800 up this office. And that was our interesting 158 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:54,920 task force we set up. And then we have created 159 00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:58,800 policies, legislation, we created proposals of making sure 160 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,200 that people shouldn't be able to protest wearing a mask. 161 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:03,240 People shouldn't be able to protest outside houses of 162 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,320 worship city should not be able to engage in PDS boycotting in 163 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:09,000 Israel through their contracting, through their 164 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:10,960 pensions. And that was the work that we 165 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:12,800 did in the office and very proud of the work we did. 166 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:15,960 Some of it is continuing on through the next administration 167 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:20,040 through the first couple weeks into 2026, which I was there and 168 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,720 then continuing on after me. And some of those things were 169 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:24,920 revoked on the first day, and I was in office. 170 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,480 But I hope that they actually, you know, focus on what it 171 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:30,720 doesn't mean to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe, understand what 172 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:32,880 the concerns in the community are and actually address them. 173 00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:35,080 How did this whole thing play out? 174 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,000 Like everything started out fine, then things got 175 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,559 progressively worse in terms of anti-Semitism. 176 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:42,240 The scope of your role is changing. 177 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:44,720 You're kind of putting out these different fires. 178 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,320 How did it come to an end? I mean, come to an end, I mean, 179 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:50,040 Jew hatred, I don't think it's coming to an end. 180 00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:53,840 I think it's been around as long as, you know, we've ever been in 181 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,640 diaspora. People all have targeted Jewish 182 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,360 community in different ways. You know, look at the long arc 183 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,840 of Jewish history is not something, you know, foreign to 184 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:05,240 us. But we saw that starting after 185 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,480 October 7th. You know, there's semitism 186 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:11,320 existed before that, but all of a sudden this propaganda to 187 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,280 demonize, legitimize Jewish people on the relationship with 188 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:17,400 ancient homeland Israel was being used to target Jewish 189 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:21,120 people, was being used to. I mean, the people were 190 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,800 assaulted in streets. Teachers were teaching all sorts 191 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,160 of crazy things in schools, college campuses. 192 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,040 We saw what happened there as well, which got a lot of 193 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:30,680 attention. And we realized that, you know, 194 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:32,720 we need to be coordinated on our efforts. 195 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:34,320 And I was working in city government at the time. 196 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:35,840 So therefore we were able to use, you know, what city 197 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:37,840 government could do. And I think that, you know, at 198 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:39,960 the same time, much of the other Jewish community is realizing, 199 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:43,920 OK, this is a effort to demonize and generalize Jewish people. 200 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:46,680 We have to stand up and making sure that our communities are 201 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:49,120 safe. We have to make sure that we 202 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:52,200 could live our lives freely and that, you know, to me that that 203 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:54,440 should be the bottom line. I don't know if we have to, we 204 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:57,160 could get into the arguments about, you know, Zionism and 205 00:09:57,160 --> 00:09:59,960 anti Zionism and Israel. But if you're not making sure 206 00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:02,680 that the Jewish community is safe, then you know there's no, 207 00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:04,400 no point of anything else you're going to be doing. 208 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,520 So part of my role in the mayor's office was coming up 209 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:09,760 those proposals, ideas of what should be done from the 210 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:11,360 government perspective. And some of those were able to 211 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:14,000 actually implement through our agencies and get things done. 212 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:16,520 But the end of the year, what I did was I actually put together 213 00:10:16,560 --> 00:10:19,120 the mayor's office to comment anti-Semitism report of 2025. 214 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:23,200 The idea was that we're limited here in our government and what 215 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:25,760 we can do, but we actually got to show people what we have 216 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:27,840 done. We got to make sure that there's 217 00:10:27,840 --> 00:10:29,880 accountability for a future administration that's going to 218 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,640 come in and a model for others, other cities, other 219 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,320 municipalities nationwide that they could actually see, hey, 220 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:37,360 this is what we did in New York City. 221 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:40,680 Eric Adams has been of the best friends the Jewish community has 222 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:43,160 in terms of safety and security and making sure to stand up for 223 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:46,800 Israel. And we created this basic model 224 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:48,960 for what a city should do with the greatest city in New York 225 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:51,400 City, and other people should be able to replicate it. 226 00:10:51,680 --> 00:10:53,840 And the future administration should be held accountable of 227 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:57,760 what was done. So I put this together really 228 00:10:57,840 --> 00:10:59,880 last weeks of 2025. And just to give you 229 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:03,200 perspective, most of the people I've been working with already 230 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:05,720 left like they went to other other roles. 231 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:07,880 Yeah, they knew. They knew every this was the end 232 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:10,160 of 2225 election was over already. 233 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:11,680 We knew this was coming to an end. 234 00:11:11,680 --> 00:11:14,480 A lot of people actually got noticed from the transition team 235 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:16,040 that you know, your role won't be continued. 236 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:18,080 You're, you know, would be out on the first day. 237 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:21,360 I didn't get such a notice, but other people on my team did. 238 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:23,680 Other people I was working with on, but I said, look, if I'm 239 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:25,120 doing anything, I got to put out this report. 240 00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:30,200 So this is late December. I just stay up to 3-4 AM 241 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:34,160 literally just writing this report and making sure that this 242 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:38,200 is a city government document showing what could be done, what 243 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:41,400 has been done and what should be done for the coming year as 244 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,560 well. And I put that out literally in 245 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:47,600 the last of the year. Then the new registration 246 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:50,880 starts. I am there handing out my report 247 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:53,040 on the first day, making sure that people understand, you 248 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:55,600 know, this is this is my role, this is my job. 249 00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,600 Something that the new mayor has talked about that he said he's 250 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:02,520 going to make sure the Jewish community is safe and cherished 251 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:03,760 in the city is the one that he used. 252 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:07,800 So this is how to do it. At the beginning, my responses 253 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:09,760 were great, very nice. Oh, there's a blueprint for 254 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:13,040 20260. How great, amazing, very sweet, 255 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:17,640 very friendly until my meetings weren't responded to my follow 256 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:19,280 up. I'm like, hey, let's have this 257 00:12:19,280 --> 00:12:21,400 proposal like this should be the 100 day plan. 258 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:23,440 And they asked me, oh, what would be your budget request for 259 00:12:23,440 --> 00:12:25,400 the year? What would be your, your, what 260 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:27,400 things would you want to have announced within the 1st 100 261 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:30,640 days? And eventually it was like, and 262 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:33,400 then I heard, you know, they're interviewing for my role and 263 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:36,560 eventually they actually just announced a replacement without 264 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:39,120 letting me know. I saw a tweet, got a text from a 265 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:43,360 friend, and then sure enough, chief of staff came in like, 266 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:45,240 yeah, we're looking to go in a new direction. 267 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:48,000 And that point I understood that, you know, they might have 268 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:51,480 understood that the way to protect you New Yorkers is might 269 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:53,680 be right in front of them written out and what could be 270 00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:56,880 done in New York City. But they're saying they have a 271 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,600 new a new political era that they're trying to create New 272 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:00,080 York. Yeah. 273 00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:02,880 To your knowledge, do you think that they used anything that you 274 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:05,200 had proposed or they're just going to start from scratch? 275 00:13:05,560 --> 00:13:08,840 So, I mean, what we did in New York, creating the iteration 276 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,600 task force that's still running, one of the big proposals that I 277 00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:17,120 was looking to do for this specific year was actually to 278 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:19,160 create those Ballers. I was talking about those for 279 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:20,400 security. So we actually, you know, we 280 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:22,560 helped streamline the process while still in city government, 281 00:13:22,560 --> 00:13:24,280 but we actually want to work on a capital project for the 282 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,520 purpose in terms of a budget to be able to do this. 283 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:28,760 And not just at synagogues, but any vulnerable houses of 284 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,360 worship. We had NYPD put together those, 285 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,440 those lists of like where, where, what, what would be 286 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:35,520 vulnerable in the city? How could we make sure to 287 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:37,720 protect them? And I think that's actually a 288 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:39,040 project that is still being worked on. 289 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:41,280 From my understanding. Last week, there was a City 290 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,000 Council hearing on the matter. And the office did say that, you 291 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:45,880 know, this is something, this is a project that's a great 292 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:47,280 concern. And it's to me, it's something 293 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:50,800 that I've been very passionate about after seeing what happened 294 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:53,600 in Michigan where a car, you know, came to drive up, right, 295 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,440 almost got into the synagogue there where preschool is 296 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,200 happening. And then we've seen other cases, 297 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:02,600 you know, by 770 a couple months ago, other, you know, attacks 298 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:05,400 that were thwarted often included a vehicle which was 299 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,360 coming to attack a synagogue. So therefore, I think that's 300 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:09,960 going to be something that should be absolute priority for 301 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:11,840 the next administration, for this administration that's here 302 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,480 there now so that they could make sure that just Jews are 303 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:16,560 safe like that. Again, the bottom line. 304 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:21,080 Once this kind of hit the press that you were asked to leave, 305 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,520 one of the like recurring pieces of hate or like feedback I saw 306 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:29,400 from the Jewish community towards the Mayor Eric Adams 307 00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,600 administration was no matter how awesome he was and you know, how 308 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,760 many Jewish events he attended or galas and how fun he was, 309 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:38,760 like anti-Semitism progressively continued to get worse and worse 310 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:41,080 for New Yorkers under his administration. 311 00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:43,840 So it was almost kind of like a rebuttal of like, well, we 312 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:46,320 shouldn't, you know, be so concerned about Mandani's 313 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:48,600 appointment or whatever because things weren't good anyway. 314 00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:50,960 Like how much worse could it be? Maybe a change is necessary. 315 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:53,480 I think what people fail to understand when they make that 316 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,160 argument is oftentimes you, your task force and your role is 317 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,360 cleaning up the mess of things you did not cause. 318 00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:05,160 And so you are really, you're not combating anti-Semitism, 319 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,840 you're combating what you would refer to as effects of 320 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:11,240 anti-Semitism. And oftentimes, you cannot solve 321 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,640 anti-Semitism through the actions that you are allowed to 322 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:17,520 take within your role. And they're also not something 323 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:22,280 that, like the mayor can solve. anti-Semitism is far more of a 324 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,400 systemic issue that's, you know, created by media cultural 325 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:30,320 sentiment, like the fact that somebody in an appointment of a 326 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,880 mayor or within a task force can do something so profound to 327 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:35,920 change it. It's like an unreasonable claim. 328 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:40,040 What do you think in your time went really well and what do you 329 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,320 think needed improvement? So key pieces of things that we 330 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,960 worked on that I would love to see do better where our 331 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,600 legislative proposals while we were in city government, you 332 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:54,520 know, we had a City Council who could have worked on. 333 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:57,120 We had a friendly mayor who would have cared about, you 334 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,240 know, protecting New Yorkers in general, not just Jewish New 335 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:04,440 Yorkers from violent protests, making sure that anti-Semitism 336 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,360 is defined by the city, by legislatively. 337 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:09,920 We thought that, you know, there's good proposals we put 338 00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:12,840 together, protect houses of worship included last year. 339 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,360 And it would've been really amazing if the City Council 340 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:17,680 actually would have followed up with some of that because if 341 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,680 they did, you wouldn't have a scenario in which the mayor 342 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:25,080 vetoing those proposals. Meaning right now you have a 343 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:29,680 City Council which is interested in doing some of this work and 344 00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:32,560 you know that a speaker who's very passionate about it and 345 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:34,520 they've passed a few pieces of legislation. 346 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,440 However, the mayor just this past week videoed one of those. 347 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:39,680 So I would, I was, you know, there was something I was 348 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:41,120 passionate about. I thought we would have some 349 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,640 friends in the council who would be interested and unfortunately, 350 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:45,960 leadership there were just not interested in doing this. 351 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:48,000 And that's something that I was very disappointed about. 352 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:53,160 But I think that we did well, I think are the ones that created 353 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:57,720 that systemic change like when, you know, Brad Lander was 354 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:02,680 exposed for engaging in on BDS with divesting from visual bonds 355 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:07,079 and we expose that. And we, you know, demanded those 356 00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:10,800 records of like, how did you just do something which for last 357 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:15,280 70 plus years the city has been invested in is a bonds. 358 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:23,520 We have been a, you know, key partner of our city and you're 359 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:25,960 doing it for political reasons. This is not helpful for the 360 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:28,240 employees and the retirees in New York City. 361 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:30,800 And that's something that has been part of the conversation 362 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:32,040 since then. And thank God we have a new 363 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,480 Comptroller who's going to, you know, reinvest in Israel. 364 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,320 And you know, there's just one aspect. 365 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:41,320 But those conversations which we started House of worship, one, 366 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,920 we brought the executive order, we wrote the proposals didn't 367 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:48,560 work last round, but now this is a national conversation. 368 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:50,840 There is council bills that has been passed, 1 is going to go 369 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:54,040 into effect now. And then we also have state 370 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:56,280 legislation on topic and national legislation on topic 371 00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:58,520 right now. So these were things which we 372 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:00,400 did as part of our job and city government. 373 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,960 We know part of understanding elected officials role is you're 374 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:05,800 there for a couple years, you're not there for forever. 375 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:08,160 You're able to get do things which are in your power to do. 376 00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:10,480 You get them done. You make your case and hopefully 377 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,200 things will continue afterwards. And I'm really, you know, be 378 00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:17,920 able to work with Eric Adams, who's naturally had this like 379 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:21,120 instinct of just caring about the Jewish community. 380 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:23,920 And that's all point out like the relationship with Israel. 381 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:29,680 He at the Western Wall. We went to Israel at the end of 382 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,840 the term December and he gave this speech at the Western Wall, 383 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,320 which went viral for all the wrong reasons because all like 384 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:41,120 gripers were promoting it. And but if you watch a video, 385 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,120 great little speech Mary gives. He decided he wanted to go to 386 00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:46,120 the Western Wall late at night instead of doing like a whole, 387 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:47,760 you know, entourage mill of the day. 388 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:50,280 But he's going to go in the evening was late. 389 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:54,360 I think it was like past 11:00 and we go to the Western Wall. 390 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:57,680 He prays, turns around, there's a crowd forming behind him. 391 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:03,040 And he says, no, you've been here for me, I've been here for 392 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:07,960 you, Thank you, Israel. And people looked at that and 393 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:09,880 said, what do you mean? Thank you as well. 394 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:15,360 You've been like, you know, is he subjected, is he to foreign 395 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:17,560 government to, you know, what they wanted? 396 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:18,720 And that's why he was doing as mayor. 397 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:20,920 And to him it was. And to anyone who was watching 398 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:22,440 it, I think from Jewish community understood it 399 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:26,160 instinctively, as I know he was saying thank you to the Jewish 400 00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:28,480 community for standing with him, for being there as part of him, 401 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:30,160 and he's been there as a friend to the Jewish community. 402 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:32,920 And also as the nation of Israel, he refers to us as a 403 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:35,600 nation of Israel because he intuitively understands this, 404 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,120 whereas, you know, other people, especially politicians, don't 405 00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:41,280 understand this. Right, and to him it was it was 406 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,600 a given. I mean, go back also to his most 407 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,160 famous speech. We are not all right that he 408 00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,160 gave after October 7th amazing speech he gives that really 409 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:49,680 reverberate across the world. We're not all right. 410 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:53,320 That's what, you know, most people took that phrase and from 411 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:59,520 IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza to, you know, hostage families, 412 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:02,480 they took a lot of comfort from that speech where he stood there 413 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:05,560 as their chief executive and as called a brother. 414 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:07,360 I'm gonna stood there with the Jewish community and off again 415 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:09,360 there he ended off that speech, you know, thank you, Israel. 416 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:10,680 This is who the Jewish people are. 417 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,920 This is who we are as a people. This is our nation, and we have 418 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,480 this ancient relationship with our homeland, where people that 419 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,120 are bound by our faith, but also by our. 420 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,560 Families bound by our. Nationality. 421 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:27,400 Yeah, this is who we are. This is you can't bifurcate, you 422 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:29,240 can't dis act. And he he took that as a given. 423 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:31,720 So it was really amazing to be able to work with him. 424 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:34,200 As you know, we went to synagogues, he went to events 425 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:36,840 and also working on issues. When we worked on stuff, it was 426 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:38,720 like, OK, yeah, this is going to be this is important for the 427 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:40,160 Jewish community. This is going to protect the 428 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:42,280 safety. We see the propaganda and the 429 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:44,800 craziness that's coming from the outside pushing on some and 430 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:45,840 therefore we want to do something on it. 431 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:48,880 And you know, I thank God I had that experience and something 432 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:49,960 that's always going to sit with me. 433 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,400 This is the moment I want you to talk about Israel Bond's way. 434 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,880 We are here very closely and I want you to tell that story 435 00:20:57,120 --> 00:20:59,520 because I want people to understand kind of like the 436 00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:03,160 day-to-day that you operated in and like the ridiculous, almost 437 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:05,440 whack A mole ish job that you had. 438 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:07,120 Right. Part of the role of our 439 00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:10,400 Integration City task force was not just working on like the 440 00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:12,880 long term policy things, which is what I, you know, like to do. 441 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:14,680 And think of how, you know, we could do things in the long 442 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:16,080 term. But sometimes there were just 443 00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:18,480 incidents that happened within city government that just has to 444 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,240 be responded to. And you know, one of the things 445 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:26,280 that you know, came up was the Israel bond sign right here 446 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:30,280 around the corner on 52nd St. Was he faced someone wrote 447 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,920 Israel bombs instead of Israel bonds and. 448 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:36,560 That you have to give credit for creativity. 449 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:38,760 Yeah. I mean, yeah, this is what they 450 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,840 want to be busy their time with. They want to climb up on signs 451 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:44,320 and write bombs at a bombs. I'm just picturing you like 452 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:48,080 showing up to work and the NYPD is like, hey, so like, you know 453 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,440 that sign in midtown Israel bonds way. 454 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:54,440 So now Israel bombs way. Yeah. 455 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,760 And I got that alert and we reach out to. 456 00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:00,680 So part of the role of the industry task force is that each 457 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,400 agency had their representative. So the Department of 458 00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,280 Transportation had representative on the task force 459 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:07,320 reach out to them. And we've regularly had to deal 460 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,840 with them because there was highway signs that were defaced. 461 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:14,760 There were banners brought up on top of like overpass street 462 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:17,000 signs were vandalized, and there's one of them. 463 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,120 And so they made a new sign. Let's make a brand new sign and 464 00:22:20,120 --> 00:22:21,760 they put it back up there within a few hours. 465 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:23,960 Yeah, I was going to say it was definitely same day. 466 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:26,200 Yeah, they, they, they moved fast and they understood that. 467 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,440 And that was the reason of creating a mayor's office. 468 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:30,880 You know, it wasn't to create extra layers of bureaucracy. 469 00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:33,880 The mayor's office wasn't to be this like a public facing like 470 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:35,200 we're going to end that exam with this in here. 471 00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:39,880 Our point of our office was that we have a role in city 472 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,160 government to making sure that we're doing our part and an 473 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,640 agency that is overseen by the city like department 474 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:47,400 transportation, their properties they faced. 475 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:48,560 We have to do something about it. 476 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,400 Another example on the parks want to park a playground with 477 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,680 you face with swastikas. We work in the Parks Department 478 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:57,680 not just to clean up the vandalism, but also to think 479 00:22:57,680 --> 00:22:59,720 about OK, who are the children that come here regularly? 480 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,360 What could we do to maybe put up cameras we could do to make sure 481 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:04,560 the park is closed when it's not supposed to be open making sure 482 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:06,480 that if there's a school nearby that we could work with the 483 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:07,800 park. Maybe that's where the children 484 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:09,240 are coming from or vandalizing the park. 485 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,840 There's like more like bigger ideas that you do that are all 486 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:17,040 in your control in government. And if you have a priority, say, 487 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:19,640 hey, we don't want Jewish people to be unsafe in our city. 488 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:21,200 We want to make sure the city is safe for all. 489 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,760 Then you want to make sure to use that office for its goals. 490 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,440 I want to ask you now that the dust has settled on Mamdani's 491 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,720 administration a little bit, obviously things related to 492 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:34,280 Jewish life in Manhattan, they're going to take time to 493 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,800 kind of unfold in front of us. Things happen gradually. 494 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:42,040 It's like 1 veto here, you know, 1 rejection there, changing the 495 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,080 definition of anti-Semitism. These are going to be changes 496 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,240 that we feel the effects of somewhat gradually while the 497 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,400 continuous like anti-Semitic incidents persist, right? 498 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:56,640 They've persisted for years now. If two Jewish New Yorkers, how 499 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,720 do you think we should be acting during this time? 500 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:01,040 How are we positioning ourselves? 501 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,160 What do you recommend? You've seen it from the inside. 502 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:05,960 Now, what do you recommend to the average Jewish New Yorker 503 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:07,960 civilian? I was on the train this morning, 504 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:10,840 bumped into a friend of mine by 72nd St. 505 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:15,240 Station, and I see he was wearing a baseball cap and not 506 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,040 someone who always wears a baseball cap, definitely not on 507 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:18,360 shul. He doesn't wear a baseball cap 508 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:20,600 and he's wearing 1. And I said, what are you 509 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,920 wearing? He's like, you know, I just on 510 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:26,720 the train, I was like, really, if we can't walk with our 511 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:29,720 Yamakas and our proud Jewish symbols publicly in New York 512 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:33,400 City, then we have a problem. And we have to really think 513 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,040 about, you know, what are we doing here in New York when 514 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,520 we're having this much hate and violence right towards us? 515 00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:41,720 To me right now, I walk with my Yamaka probably. 516 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,280 And I think thank God we could still do that in New York. 517 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:47,440 And as long as the NYPD and those who are, you know, 518 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,240 assigned to making sure that criminals are prosecuted and 519 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,400 making sure that people who are consistently making it unsafe 520 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,440 for the Jewish community are not being able to propagate that 521 00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,360 hate. I think, you know, we should be 522 00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:01,720 able to be faith here. And if we can't be, then we have 523 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,280 to reckon, you know, what are we doing in in a diaspora? 524 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:06,920 We are. We can't be safe and live as 525 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:09,920 proud Jews. So now antisemitic incidents 526 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:15,120 represent 55% of all incidents in New York, which if you it's 527 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,200 like greater than any other group by exponents. 528 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:21,800 OK, at what point does it become? 529 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,600 Too much like how do you know when it the problem has gotten 530 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:27,400 out of control? Because, some might argue it's 531 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,000 now. I think look, I think Graham 532 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,240 numbers are a snapshot of what's going on in the city. 533 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:33,520 I mean, we're talking about, you know, a few crimes every month 534 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:35,680 that people understand that, you know, these, some of them are 535 00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:38,280 violent, some of them are vandalism, some of our super 536 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:41,800 dangerous, like scary. They're ramming into 770. 537 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:46,160 I mean, Buffle, you know, a guy with a T-shirt with the Iranian 538 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:48,880 Islamic Republic flag was busy assaulting people in 539 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:51,280 Williamsburg this past weekend. These are real incidents, and we 540 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:53,280 have to address them appropriately. 541 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,440 But I think as long as we could walk publicly in New York City 542 00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:01,240 and be, as you know, walking through Yamaka, be able to go to 543 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:06,240 our our synagogues and our Jewish institutions, then I 544 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:08,040 think people must continue to do so. 545 00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,760 Live as proud Jews. I mean, is there a barometer of 546 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:13,160 like this is too much? I mean, I think it all, of 547 00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:14,600 course it's too much. I mean, that's why we started 548 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:15,960 the mayor's office, common Semitism. 549 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,840 And that's why I'm, you know, my full time capacity is working on 550 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:23,560 these type of issues and making sure that we are able to live as 551 00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:27,440 Jewish people in America. I want to ask about the more 552 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,600 observant community because I find that when I go like I was 553 00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:33,760 in Crown Heights, if you talk to like a very from kind of 554 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,120 Orthodox person and I asked them like, are you concerned about 555 00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:39,160 anti-Semitism? I find that they're like, no, 556 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:44,240 surprisingly, they're like, no. And I, I'm trying to understand, 557 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,520 you know, why that is. And the sense I get is that 558 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,480 because they live in a strong community where they're feeling 559 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:55,040 Jewish life every day prevalently, they can kind of 560 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:59,880 not get bogged down by the chaos that be because they feel 561 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:03,240 supported within their net. And that's all great. 562 00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:06,760 But sometimes by the time you wake up from that kind of 563 00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:10,560 insular view, the disasters at your doorstep and you've missed 564 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:12,200 the chance. And so I struggle with 565 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,400 understanding like, where is the the fine balance there? 566 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,640 What do you think? I love that you brought that up 567 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:19,880 because I think not enough people understand this. 568 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:23,320 There's a massive differentiation what's happening 569 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:27,640 within like Yeshivish Orthodox communities, communities and 570 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,720 others in the US, especially in the tri-state area and almost 571 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:34,160 everyone else in the space. I grew up in Kensington in 572 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,320 Brooklyn, you know, leans more to Yeshivish type of community. 573 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,880 I went to yeshivas most of my life and so I definitely 574 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:43,200 understand the community very well. 575 00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:45,560 At the same time, you know, I lived up aside and we're working 576 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:47,960 with, you know, the institutional Jewish world and 577 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:49,760 the wide range of, you know, Jewish life in New York City. 578 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,960 So I understand and talk to just about everyone in this space, 579 00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:55,280 and it's a very interesting phenomenon where you're 580 00:27:55,440 --> 00:28:00,880 describing is that within the very, you know, from spaces, 581 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:04,280 we'll call them, it just doesn't faze them like for two reasons. 582 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,000 And and you brought up a very good point as well about, you 583 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:08,480 know, but when should it faze them? 584 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:12,640 Because they live their lives mainly surrounded by other 585 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,040 people within their community. If you grow up in a huge 586 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,480 community and you're going to school with other Jews, you're 587 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,560 going to college with other Jews, your workplace is mainly 588 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,840 Jewish or very friendly to Jewish, you know, interests, 589 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,120 then you're not going to have that much interaction with 590 00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:28,640 anti-Semitism. You're just not, you're not 591 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:30,680 going to be in a campus, you're not going to be in a workplace 592 00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:32,840 environment that's hostile. You could be at some point in 593 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,560 your life and some, some are. But even when you are, you have 594 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,520 this understanding of like, we are a Jewish community. 595 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:39,960 We know what we're supposed to be doing. 596 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:44,080 We have a very strong sense of, I mean, I guess it's ego when it 597 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,560 comes to Judaism, I would say. Like pride? 598 00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:49,440 That's pride, but it's more of like, this is how we're supposed 599 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:50,800 to live our lives. Like I'm going to be wearing my 600 00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:53,000 yarmulica. I'm going to be dressing the 601 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,600 way, you know, from girls to be dressing. 602 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:56,560 I'm going to be doing this. I'm not going to be changing it. 603 00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,960 It's not going to change. And therefore, yes, people are 604 00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:01,560 not going to have understanding of what it is. 605 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,440 They're not going to. But I don't know if we have to 606 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,480 assimilate to their interests. We don't have to be accepted by 607 00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,640 the wider society. And we have this attitude. 608 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:10,040 We're going to be living our lives. 609 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,360 We're not trying to gain any acceptance. 610 00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:14,720 We're not trying to gain any favor from, you know, the wide 611 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,920 world. And I think to me as when it 612 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,880 comes to advocacy, I still have that like perspective of we have 613 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,480 to live as proud Jews do things that we think are important to 614 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,200 us. And yes, there's a storytelling 615 00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:28,520 of, of what the Jewish community mean. 616 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:31,240 What does it mean to be attached to your homeland? 617 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,640 What does it mean to be a Jewish person who's on a college 618 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:35,080 campus? And what does it look like? 619 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,160 And other people should care about it too. 620 00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:40,400 But I think for the individual Jew, I think that having that 621 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,000 pride in your own Judaism and having that ability to say, this 622 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,600 is who I am, this is what I care about, this is who we are as a 623 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,240 people. I'm like, I don't know if I care 624 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:50,520 about the haters. And that's an attitude I've 625 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:51,680 always had. And that's I think why I was 626 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:53,560 able to get things done the way I've done them. 627 00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:56,880 And I think that I want to be able to instill that also for 628 00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,680 others, you know, in my and I think we're seeing that more 629 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,920 among like Gen. Z, you know, Jewish community 630 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:04,920 from all faith and all backgrounds. 631 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:06,480 They're seeing it. They're they're, they're having 632 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:08,280 a lot of pride in who they are as a people. 633 00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:11,040 And they're saying, you know, other communities are not going 634 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:12,880 to accept us the same way that we've always had. 635 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:15,120 And maybe we should just stand up for ourselves. 636 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:18,040 And I, I think that's super. Important there is kind of a 637 00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:21,200 divergent I would say in the community is you're either 638 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:24,320 seeing people drop off and become an engaged all together 639 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,760 or worse yet become like anti Zionist or you know, join that 640 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,200 camp of thought. Or you're seeing people double 641 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,520 down and the people that are in the middle are a little stuck 642 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,720 because they don't know what to do. 643 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,280 They don't feel comfortable either way. 644 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:42,760 So it's just refreshing to hear somebody who is so close to all 645 00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,520 of these different incidents, you know, in Manhattan 646 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:50,160 especially, have such a like a just confidence in that things 647 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:52,480 are going to be OK. I, I was surprised to hear it. 648 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,320 I thought that you would come in and, you know, be very gravely 649 00:30:56,320 --> 00:31:00,160 concerned about what's ahead. I mean, I would confidence in 650 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,800 what though? I'm confident in the Jewish 651 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:04,240 people. I'm confident that we're going 652 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,680 to stand strong. I'm confident that, you know, 653 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:08,240 we've done, we've went through much worse on this. 654 00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:09,680 Let's be real. I mean, we've done, you know, 655 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,640 there's crusades, there were a Spanish Inquisition, there have 656 00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,480 been expulsions from just about every single place that we've 657 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:20,200 been in the past 2000 years. And you know, that's actually 658 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,440 sadly checker like it's, you know, the eternity of the Jewish 659 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,200 people doesn't lie. Like we're here, we're going to 660 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,320 be here. Young Jewish people are already 661 00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,120 getting more passionate, more invested. 662 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,920 They're doubling down on their Judaism, as you talked about. 663 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:34,880 And therefore, I'm confident. I'm confident in, you know, what 664 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:39,040 it means to be a Jew. And I think others are realizing 665 00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:40,760 that, too. And I think outside the Jewish 666 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:42,720 community, people also realizing it, they're understanding that 667 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,080 Jewish community is a force that should be reckoned with. 668 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,560 We contribute a lot to our society. 669 00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:53,240 American values have been based on a lot of our traditions and 670 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,720 ideas, especially through the Christian world. 671 00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:57,680 Whistle through the biblical world. 672 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:01,000 I was going to say the world's civilization has been based on 673 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:03,680 our ideas. Yeah, and, and we've been a 674 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:08,360 great, you know, contributor to the ongoing, not just, you know, 675 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,760 in the ancient times, but ongoing throughout throughout 676 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,360 the years, been a major contributor to New York City. 677 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:17,240 I'm saying like we live in New York, which has, you know, most 678 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:18,960 of, you know, the cultural things in here to talk about New 679 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:20,320 York. We're like a bunch of Jews who 680 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,520 got together and said, hey, we want to create this. 681 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:25,680 We want to make this happen. And I think everyone should 682 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,400 appreciate it and they will appreciate it when, you know, 683 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,440 when they're not being influenced by the ridiculous 684 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:32,840 propaganda coming out against them. 685 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,880 And I think it also is part of like a larger phenomenon as well 686 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,320 that we talked about for young people who are unsure, you know, 687 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:41,400 which direction they're going. And you mentioned because 688 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:45,440 there's a much larger issue going on in America where you 689 00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:49,920 have this is, you know, studies that were done on the GOP and 690 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:54,000 the Democratic Party and their youth, basically anyone of the 691 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,280 40 has vast conspiracy theories. I mean, they believe like, moon 692 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:00,320 landing was fake, 9/11 was inside job. 693 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:04,480 They will talk you about, you know, how political violence is 694 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:09,200 justified in like 3040% numbers in some in some of these 695 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:11,920 categories. And what these studies also show 696 00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:18,120 is that it comes from this perception that your history, 697 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:26,360 facts that you don't believe are like a given or historical, you 698 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,160 also often don't have a relationship with your church, 699 00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:31,600 your synagogue, your House of worship, You are, you know, 700 00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:34,480 church going. And conspiracy theory is people 701 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,240 who believe in conspiracy theories correlate. 702 00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:39,400 And it's it's amazing that people who are just unmoored 703 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,400 from society in different ways, they are going to continue to be 704 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:43,640 unmoored. And they sometimes it comes from 705 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,120 mental health issues. And especially, you know, some 706 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,480 parts of the party, you'll see that it's tied to mental health 707 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,680 issues and other ties, just tied to just your lack of family 708 00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,560 ties, traditional ties in any sort of way. 709 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:55,160 And therefore, they're believing all sorts of crazy things. 710 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:57,000 And they believe these things about Israel. 711 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,600 They believe these things about Jewish people and also believe 712 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,000 these things about America. Like 911 was in his high job. 713 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,160 So we have a problem. We have a problem in society 714 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,040 right now where people are being fed crazy information. 715 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,400 They don't feel deep connections and ties to anything. 716 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,159 And it's coming out in our political system. 717 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,080 And it'll be coming out in, you know, crime levels, I'm sure. 718 00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,719 And Jewish community is just, you know, a victim of that. 719 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:22,840 And I think that we have to do is, OK, I understand. 720 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,320 How do we build our ties to our communities, to our young 721 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,400 people? How do we build those traditions 722 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:30,960 and ideas to keep these people completely more to reality? 723 00:34:31,639 --> 00:34:34,719 And that should be a big focus of, you know, what the Jewish 724 00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,679 community should be doing now. So I think the correlation that 725 00:34:37,679 --> 00:34:41,400 you talk about that people that are less susceptible to buying 726 00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:44,600 conspiracy theories have some kind of like religious anchor. 727 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:47,920 A couple of weeks ago I did an episode with a guest who talked 728 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:50,520 about the explanatory power of anti-Semitism. 729 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:55,120 So for most people, everybody wants an explanation to why is 730 00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,440 it that the world is the way that it is, right? 731 00:34:57,720 --> 00:34:59,320 Why is it that I'm living this way? 732 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,680 Why is it that I can't afford health insurance? 733 00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,920 And we can go on and on and off. Why, why, Why? 734 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:08,680 For people who have a religious anchor, that explanatory power 735 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:11,400 comes from their religion, their faith-based community. 736 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:15,120 When people feel no connection to such a community, they need 737 00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,640 to find that explanatory power elsewhere. 738 00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:22,600 Conspiracy theories often offer that explanation where there 739 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,920 might be none. And anti-Semitism becomes an 740 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:31,520 explanation for why I'm poor or why my life sucks, or why the 741 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,360 media is crooked and why the president is who the president 742 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:36,840 is. It becomes like the thing, the 743 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:43,000 common denominator between all of us and it's that's really 744 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,360 what it boils down to. And so whenever I see, you know, 745 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,160 legacy Jewish organizations or Jewish influencers talk about we 746 00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,400 need to combat anti-Semitism or we need to focus on changing 747 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,360 people's minds about how they view the Jews, anti-Semitism is 748 00:35:56,360 --> 00:36:00,560 often a symptom, not a cause. And so if you want to stop 749 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:04,520 anti-Semitism, you often have to look further up the chain to see 750 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:06,600 what is really causing it and work on that. 751 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:09,360 And anti-Semitism will be reduced as a byproduct, as a 752 00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:13,200 second order effect. So in our society today, that 753 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,880 can be like, you know, demoralization or what kids are 754 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,560 learning in schools, loss of trust in our government, loss of 755 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:23,600 trust in Western values. If we deal with those things, 756 00:36:23,800 --> 00:36:26,720 anti-Semitism will be reduced as a second order effect and it 757 00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:30,320 will be more effective. I think that it's a key piece of 758 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:33,280 what we're seeing is that anti-Semitism is just the oldest 759 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:36,320 conspiracy and therefore it's consistently used to address 760 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,080 people's grievances. We have a society right now 761 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:41,120 where there are a lot of grievances based off, you know, 762 00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:43,120 they'll say that the government's job is to fix our 763 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,160 economy or the government's job is to give them social, you 764 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:47,600 know, benefits of different sorts. 765 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,120 And when you say, oh, well, it's because of this war that's 766 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:54,280 taking the money away, or it's because of the Jews because XYZ, 767 00:36:54,560 --> 00:36:57,840 then that becomes their life basis of, you know, OK, This is 768 00:36:57,840 --> 00:36:59,880 why my life is bad. No, your life is bad because 769 00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:02,600 you're sitting in your mother's basement not doing anything with 770 00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:05,880 your life. But they'll use that as their 771 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:07,680 key to understanding. And I think you phrase in a 772 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:09,600 really good way of how, you know, you need to have some make 773 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:11,680 some sense of the world. And that's how they're doing it. 774 00:37:11,680 --> 00:37:13,240 And people have done this forever. 775 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:15,200 I mean, Jews have always been blamed for whatever I'll of 776 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:17,920 society, whether it was capitalism or socialism, whether 777 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:21,480 it was anything that was going wrong, the Jews fault. 778 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:22,520 And that's how we've always been. 779 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:27,920 And I think that one of the ways to the IC that we can actually 780 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:32,000 change that is we should look for aspirational leaders. 781 00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:33,520 They're not grievance based leaders. 782 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,720 You know, a lot of politics that we're seeing right now is a lot 783 00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:38,840 of grievance based. So how bad they are, how bad 784 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,560 this is and how, oh, we're going to fix these problems for you. 785 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,400 But every once in a while there is going to be a leader who's 786 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:46,720 going to come and be like, no, life is great. 787 00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:47,840 We're going to make it even better for you. 788 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:49,840 We're going to give you the best jobs and the best society. 789 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,520 We're going to make sure your roads run well and your, you 790 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:57,360 know, the economy is running efficiently and life's going to 791 00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:01,760 be good because America's great. And you need people that are 792 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:04,520 aspirational to be able to do that and not just go into the 793 00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:08,440 dirt muddiness of grievances which consistently feed off of 794 00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:12,520 this terrible mentality. I just for anyone listening, 795 00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,480 that's in Jewish legacy institutions, you know, 796 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:19,200 influencers, academic scholars, I really challenge you to 797 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:24,400 reframe anti-Semitism from being a racism or prejudice to being a 798 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,560 mental model that people use to try to understand the world. 799 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:31,760 Because once you make that shift, you can be a lot more 800 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:34,680 productive and solving problems. And I still think in the 801 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:38,400 community we are missing that even like anti Zionism is a form 802 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,840 of racism. All of these, it's not, it is a 803 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,640 mental model to try to make sense of the world is the first 804 00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:48,920 history's first conspiracy theory that is a lie. 805 00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:53,040 And that's really like what we're reckoning with now as a 806 00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:56,400 community. I'm curious to know you're a 807 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,720 former kiruv, right? You have this element of 808 00:38:59,720 --> 00:39:02,000 persuasion, inspiration. What do you think your message 809 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,040 is for Jewish people today, especially Jewish New Yorkers? 810 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:10,480 Be loud and proud. We have a great religion, a 811 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:16,200 great faith, a great culture, and we're part of this awesome 812 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,960 nation of AMI Saal. And lean into it, learn more 813 00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:24,880 about it and then be loud, use it. 814 00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:26,680 We have so much to teach to the world. 815 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:29,760 We have so much that we can be as as inspiration to others. 816 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,520 And more specifically, get involved in your politics, get 817 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,200 involved into the local level. Go work for government office, 818 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,720 go intern for your local Congress member. 819 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:46,280 Like there's so much that could be done if people are willing to 820 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:48,080 do the work. And that's what I've seen in, 821 00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:49,520 you know, my couple years in government. 822 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:52,680 Do the work and get things, make things happen. 823 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:54,920 And I think that that's my message. 824 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,720 If people cannot leave their full time jobs to get involved 825 00:39:57,720 --> 00:40:00,600 with government, is there anything you recommend like as a 826 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,640 side hustle? Yeah, there's campaigns that are 827 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:06,600 taking in volunteers on a regular basis. 828 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,000 You're look at, you know, who's running for your local assembly 829 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:12,240 races, looking for council races, Congress, congressional 830 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:15,000 races. There is so much just everyday 831 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:17,720 people who are have full time other jobs and they're going to 832 00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:19,560 make some type of commitment to be able to be involved in 833 00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:22,440 government. I think that people have all of 834 00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:24,520 a sudden, you know, use a lot of their advocacy in the social 835 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:26,520 media world. I don't it's not where I live my 836 00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:28,360 world. And I think that sometimes you 837 00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:30,720 need to live it in the streets with the people who are doing it 838 00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,480 in your government. Show up at meetings, go to, you 839 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:36,240 know, folder people who are working full time jobs but will 840 00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:39,800 go to Albany like once a month or a couple times a year even 841 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:42,320 and push for something that is important to them. 842 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,800 And that makes a difference. Like people need to show up to 843 00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,720 these meetings, to these events and to advocate on behalf of 844 00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:51,960 things that you care about. And there's a lot of ability to 845 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,240 do that even if you're working. And the same time, I also think 846 00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:58,000 that it's a great job for many people, you know, especially 847 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,880 when you're first starting out to start in government, it's a 848 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,200 great way to get experience. It's a great way to understand, 849 00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,520 you know, how many things work, especially in a city level, 850 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,640 national level, and highly recommend it. 851 00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:13,120 Happy for people to reach out, help them get get there. 852 00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:15,600 What's next for you? What are you working on now? 853 00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:20,280 So I started an advocacy group specifically for the purpose of 854 00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:22,720 advocating for national legislation, similar things we 855 00:41:22,720 --> 00:41:25,760 were doing in the city level and making sure that Jewish 856 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:27,680 community is safe. It becomes a blueprint, you're 857 00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:29,920 saying for other places or like other states? 858 00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:31,040 Yeah. I mean, we're going to work on 859 00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:33,560 other local cities, but also working on national level 860 00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:37,240 legislation, things that need to happen from the State Department 861 00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,920 on levels that we need to make sure that Jewish community is 862 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:43,400 not just safe, you know, just in New York, but across America, 863 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:45,720 across the world. How can people connect with you 864 00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:48,120 and keep up with your work? I do have to add that I think 865 00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:51,840 you are under serving our Jewish community by not being on social 866 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:53,680 media. I do have a social media 867 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:56,360 account. I you climbing X under score 868 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:58,920 Moshe Davis. You can send me messages there. 869 00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:00,200 I'd be happy to respond to people. 870 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:04,520 To me, my voice isn't the, you know, be the storyteller. 871 00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,280 I think you have great storytellers in the Jewish 872 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,120 community. I think my role in policy, you 873 00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:12,440 know, talking to the people that are we're going to be making 874 00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:14,400 decisions, that's where I generally focus my time. 875 00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:17,480 So that's what I do. But yeah, I mean, there's people 876 00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:19,680 like you who do great job on in the world of the media. 877 00:42:20,040 --> 00:42:21,200 Well, thanks. OK. 878 00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:22,800 I have one final question for you. 879 00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,720 It's one that I ask every guest who would you like to nominate 880 00:42:25,720 --> 00:42:26,880 for people? Do you want to? 881 00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:28,960 Know. So for that I think I would pick 882 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:31,360 my father-in-law, maybe David Foreman. 883 00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:36,440 He is the head of all of beta. It's a great platform for Jewish 884 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:40,200 learning for all types and backgrounds, and he's actually 885 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:45,960 now advising AI companies on morality on what it means to. 886 00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:49,680 This is such a hot button topic. Yeah, and he's, he's really, I 887 00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:52,000 mean, he, he teaches Torah. He literally just teaches Torah. 888 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:54,720 And he's a really sincere person. 889 00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,760 But it's like the secrets of the world, unlike that's what's in 890 00:42:57,760 --> 00:42:59,800 there. And he's he's showing it to you. 891 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:01,160 So he's a great person for people to. 892 00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:05,000 You're really selling him. OK, You know what I was actually 893 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,080 thinking about this morning? I got a newsletter from Dan 894 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:11,080 Ariely that talked about morality and AI and how AI is 895 00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:14,000 trained to like, compliment you and to say you're right so that 896 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,280 you keep using it. And if you really want like an 897 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:21,240 honest opinion from AI, what you can do is a small trick to 898 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:24,800 correct for. That is to say, my friend is 899 00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:27,880 planning to do this and that is that a good idea? 900 00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:31,400 So if you talk about someone else, then AI is more likely to 901 00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,040 tell you something honestly instead of flattering you with 902 00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:35,920 compliments. And that's a good heuristic. 903 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:37,840 Cool. I mean, I find that AI is a 904 00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,040 great tool to be able to get stuff done and make things 905 00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:42,680 happen and like, you can use full teams of people, right? 906 00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:44,520 You know, doing research, writing code. 907 00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:46,240 And you could also do it yourself. 908 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,920 I, you know, generally wouldn't like it for advice because 909 00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,240 again, you're just asking yourself like what your thoughts 910 00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:57,960 are and it's not a, you know, an outside sense and other people 911 00:43:57,960 --> 00:43:59,200 who are a lot of arguments about it. 912 00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:01,440 And maybe have my father-in-law and he'll have a good discussion 913 00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:05,960 to talk about it. But to me, you know, as we are 914 00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:08,880 entering the stage, I think people have to realize like what 915 00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,400 it shifted is. But it's just an amazing, 916 00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:14,840 amazing way of being able to get things done that you never been 917 00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,200 able to do before. Thanks so much for doing this. 918 00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:19,880 It's really a treat and I'm very excited to see what's ahead. 919 00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:23,600 It's been a delight to get to know you, and this is just the 920 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:25,000 beginning, really. Great. 921 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:25,960 Thank you so much for having me on. 922 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,680 If you've enjoyed this podcast, please go ahead and. 923 00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:31,000 Rate US five stars. 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