Just days ago, 150 Jews stood together in Auschwitz and sang Am Yisrael Chai.
The Nazis built Auschwitz to be the final chapter of the Jewish story. Instead, eighty years later, an AISH delegation stood in that place and sang that the Jewish story did not end there.
Rabbi Elliott Mathias, Rabbi Daniel Rowe, and Rabbi Isaac Oziel led AISH’s Living Legacy Experience through Poland, bringing participants to the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, Majdanek, the Krakow Ghetto, and Auschwitz Birkenau. Most participants came expecting to learn about the Holocaust. They left with something much deeper. They left with Jewish pride.
They learned Torah in Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, experienced Shabbat, cried together, sang together, and danced in places that once stood silent. They came home understanding that our enemies can persecute us physically, yet they can never take away our connection to one another, to Eretz Yisrael, to Torah, and to the Almighty.
That is what AISH exists to do. We do not simply teach Jewish history. We build Jewish destiny.
This October, AISH’s Living Legacy Experience will return to Poland with more than 350 participants from communities throughout North America. Living Legacy, founded by Rabbi Isaac Oziel, is now part of the AISH family because it represents exactly the kind of transformative Jewish identity experience that can change lives.
That same vision was reflected this month through AISH Partners in Torah.
Partners in Torah recently completed its Jewish Wellness Challenge, which brought Torah wisdom to people searching for meaning, purpose, and emotional well-being. More than 1,800 people joined, the response was so overwhelming that enrollment had to be closed, and twenty-five percent of participants are now continuing on to weekly Torah learning.
One participant wrote, “It was my first time diving into Torah like this, and it was so fascinating.”
That simple comment says everything. Jewish wisdom continues to speak powerfully to people searching for meaning, purpose, and direction.
Partners in Torah, founded by Rabbi Eli Gewirtz, became part of AISH because of its remarkable ability to connect Jews to Torah through meaningful personal relationships. The Wellness Challenge was coordinated by Tehila Friedland, COO of AISH Partners in Torah, who has also taken on an increasingly important leadership role across our broader organization.
Living Legacy and Partners in Torah reflect a larger strategy. AISH is finding extraordinary programs, extraordinary leaders, and extraordinary opportunities, then helping them grow so we can reach more Jews with wisdom, love, and responsibility.
As we enter June, we find ourselves in one of the busiest and most exciting seasons of the year. Students who spent the academic year learning at AISH are preparing to return home, and thousands of new students are arriving from universities across North America and around the world.
Looking back on this academic year, nearly 30,000 students have participated in programs at our physical educational institutions. Despite war, uncertainty, and the challenges of travel to Israel, tens of thousands of young Jews still chose to invest in their Jewish future. By the end of the summer, we expect that number to approach 35,000 students.
Those figures do not include the millions of people we engage online through classes, content, social media, and digital learning opportunities. Every number represents a person, every person represents a story, and every story represents a soul.
The question that occupies my mind every day is how we reach even more Jews, how we ensure that every Jew has access to authentic Jewish wisdom, and how we help the next generation become knowledgeable, proud, and responsible Jewish leaders.
Those questions were at the center of an incredible gathering this week in Manhattan.
I was privileged to sit together with Rabbi Meyer May, our Executive Vice President, and an extraordinary group of partners and lay leaders. In the room were Ivan Kaufman, Yaakov Gade, Azi Mandel, Dr. Bari Erber, and others who have dedicated enormous time, energy, and passion to strengthening Jewish life. Joining remotely were Chairman Stuart Hytman, Phil Lieberman, Jonathan Tratt, and members of our team from around the world.
I am deeply grateful to Jordan Slone and Harbor Group for graciously hosting us. Their hospitality created the setting for a conversation that left all of us energized and inspired by the possibilities before us.
What moved me most was hearing people speak about their personal connection to AISH. Jonathan Tratt reflected on the impact AISH has had on his family. Others spoke about decades of friendship, learning, and partnership. Listening to these conversations reminded me that AISH has never simply been an organization. It has always been a community of people who believe deeply in the future of the Jewish people.
One of the most powerful moments came when Ivan Kaufman spoke. Ivan has devoted much of his life to building Jewish educational institutions in Great Neck and helping shape transformative initiatives such as Birthright Israel. Birthright has brought nearly a million Jews to Israel and changed the trajectory of Jewish life for an entire generation. It was also originally modeled after Aish’s fellowship trip which was trailblazing and very popular over 30 years ago
Listening to Ivan describe AISH’s opportunity was inspiring. He spoke about how previous generations built schools, synagogues, summer camps, and community centers that transformed Jewish life. Our generation has something entirely new. Through technology, social media, artificial intelligence, AISH University, and our growing educational platforms, we now have the ability to bring Jewish wisdom directly to every Jew, wherever they live.
His message was clear. We are living through a moment unlike any other in Jewish history. For the first time, it is possible to place timeless Jewish wisdom on the doorstep of every Jew in the world.
Listening to him, I found myself thinking about Rabbi Noah Weinberg’s dream. Rabbi Noah zt”l began with a handful of students in Jerusalem. Today, because of technology and because of the incredible people who have joined this mission, we have the ability to reach millions.
Immediately afterward, my friend Yaakov Gade, CEO of Cross River Bank and one of AISH’s most committed partners, challenged us to think equally boldly and practically. Vision alone is never enough. Yaakov pushed us to think carefully about execution, strategy, discipline, and scale. Great missions require great planning. Great dreams require clear roadmaps. If we truly believe we can reach every Jew, then we must build an organization capable of accomplishing that goal.
Listening to Ivan describe the horizon and Yaakov describe the pathway to reaching it, felt like watching two halves of the same conversation come together. One was describing what is possible, and the other was describing how to get there.
The discussion that followed included passionate conversations from Azi Mandel and Bari Erber about the future of our yeshiva and seminary programs. Ideas were shared, assumptions were challenged, and new possibilities were explored.
What made the experience even more meaningful was that while we were sitting in Manhattan, half a dozen AISH staff members in Israel were participating over Zoom between one and four o’clock in the morning. They were there because they believe in the mission. They believe in the future. They believe that reaching every Jew is worth the sacrifice.
Sitting there, I found myself reflecting on why I came to AISH in the first place.
I came to AISH because I believed we could engage every single Jew in the world.
For the first time in human history, that goal no longer feels impossible.
Technology has opened doors that previous generations could not have imagined. Our partners have helped build capabilities that did not exist a decade ago. Yet as much as I believe in planning and execution, I also believe in something else. I believe God’s hand is helping guide this moment.
Recently, while writing an article that will be published in the coming days, I found myself reflecting on two commencement addresses delivered at Harvard years apart by two very different people, Conan O’Brien and Jamie Dimon.
Both made essentially the same point. No matter how talented, driven, or successful a person may be, humility requires acknowledging that there is an element of luck in life. Opportunities appear. Doors open. Circumstances align. Success is rarely ours alone.
I found that observation fascinating because Judaism agrees with the humility but disagrees with the conclusion.
We do not believe in luck.
We believe in God.
We believe in Divine providence.
We believe that behind what others call luck stands the guiding hand of the Almighty.
Looking at the Jewish story over the last two years, and frankly over the last two thousand years, I find it difficult to reach any other conclusion.
AISH is ultimately not built on technology, strategy, artificial intelligence, or even great leadership.
AISH is built on faith.
Faith that every Jew matters.
Faith that Torah changes lives.
Faith that God continues to guide the Jewish people.
Faith that our responsibility is to do everything we can and then trust that He will help carry the mission forward.
The Rosh Yeshiva of Aish, Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits, often reminds us that many Jews today lack a meaningful connection to God. Our mission is to help rebuild that connection. The pathway begins with wisdom. People discover Torah, meaning, purpose, and ultimately God.
Love must accompany that wisdom every step of the way. Jews need to know that God loves them, that they matter, and that they belong. Responsibility naturally follows, because when people understand who they are and what they are part of, they begin caring about something larger than themselves.
That is how leaders are created.
Wisdom.
Love.
Responsibility.
Those three words are far more than organizational values.
They are the blueprint for the Jewish future.
Thank you for helping us build that future together.
