From the CEO

Last year so many of us gathered in synagogues to pray on Rosh HaShana for a sweet, healthy new year. Little did we know that a few short weeks later we would be facing the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Inviting General Tibon to Aish, I did not know what to expect. The General identifies as a secular Israeli Jew and I was unsure of how many values we might share. I found a warm hearted Jew and a new friend who inspired me completely. It was the same with the Imam and the Minister.

One of the reasons that the Jewish people have survived and thrived for so long has been our ability to stay committed. This past Tuesday night, I saw this commitment firsthand as I ran back and forth between events in the Old City.

September is wedding season. I have been to many weddings over the last few weeks and all of them have been beautiful and moving. There has been one constant to all the weddings that I have attended.

It is hard to remember a week that has been this difficult. The entire Jewish people feel broken. I feel broken. The brutal murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lonanov, and Carmel Gat has affected all of us.

One of my favorite tasks at Aish is meeting with our students to hear their ideas about how to change the world. Many times they have become so passionate because our current Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits, shlit’a, is constantly telling them that they must take responsibility for the world around them.

I am writing to you from Austria where I have had the honor of being the scholar in residence for an amazing Jewish heritage tour in Western Europe. There are so many lessons to be learned when walking in the footsteps of our forefathers.

I was so proud of our Aish team for producing the groundbreaking documentary “Voices of Pain, Hope, and Heroism.” It details the events of October 7th from the perspective of five Israeli families.

We are a Nation of heroes. From Ambassador Gilad Erdan to the Aish students we all must step forward and work together to strengthen our Nation.

I was particularly crushed by the horrific slaughter of the 12 young Druze adolescents murdered by Hezbollah while playing soccer. I had met the leader of the Druze community, Sheikh Muafak Tarif recently at a World Zionist Organization event. I immediately sent him condolences on behalf of the Aish global community.

The hate we are encountering is unprecedented in our lifetime. Yet, if we stand together united by the bonds of family we will emerge stronger, joined by the unbreakable bond of love. The love that I saw last week among the couples on our Aish Mission. The love that I saw in Tel HaShomer Hospital. The love that I saw between Dvir and Shalev.

We have a dynamic couples Aish Destiny mission which has come to spend time in Israel connecting with each other and the Almighty. I was asked to speak during the visit to the holy field where so many young Jews were slaughtered by terrorists.

This past week the executive team of Aish, together with many members of the senior leadership team, gathered in Ashdod for our Annual Strategic Realignment Meetings.

I had the honor of spending time in the Knesset this week. I spoke with my longtime friend, MK Yitzhak Pindrus. As we spoke about some of the many different challenges facing Israel he stated simply that normal rules don’t apply to the Jews. Everyone constantly predicts our demise and we always beat the odds.

This past week we met in person to talk about how to bring more partners into our circle in an official way. It was a day filled with much discussion on the makeup of who might fit the criteria. We were joined by Aish COO Hillel Scheinfeld and Aish Executive Director Rabbi Ben Gonsher.

My wife and I have been blessed to marry off our second child in six months. The experience has been one that in many ways escapes description.

October 7th has redefined us as a people. Our Aish Rabbis on campus have had to retool and deal with issues of anti-Jewish hate that we never could have imagined. At the concert, the Israelis in attendance were strengthened by knowing that American Jews are standing shoulder to shoulder with them.

Aish Israel has been bringing groups of Israeli entrepreneurial millennials to the United States for the past few years. Fresh from their service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) these young Israelis spend time getting to know leaders of American Jewry.

My day in Washington was truly a day of love. It was a day of focus on how to inculcate the love of the Almighty in young Jews. It was a day of receiving love and support from Senators in Washington. It was a day of hearing about a Catholic and former Marine’s love for Israel and the Jewish people.

Nas came to film at Aish and featured Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen giving pearls of wisdom throughout the 11-minute video. My favorite part was the focus on how Jews argue when they study Torah.

This past week the entire Jewish world commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah. For so many years the Jewish community has focused on this date to remember our six million murdered brothers and sisters.

This is not the end of our story. This is a challenge to be sure, but the Jewish people are resilient. We will find our way through these difficult times and will emerge stronger than ever. We must continue our efforts to stand by one another.

While I have been doing this for years, one of the media articles from this past week moved me tremendously. I was asked by Greg Wehner of Fox News to join a conversation regarding the attack on Israel by Iran.

Already for more than half a year Israel has been at war. Last night something unprecedented took place. Iran, for the first time in history, directly attacked Israel.

The headlines are full of declarations by Iran and its proxies to attack Israel in horrific ways that have not yet been seen. Many are asking me what will be with the future of Jewry and Israel. It is within this spirit that I want to depart from my regular style of reporting on the important work within Aish and tell you what’s in my heart.

Later in the week, I attended the Hertog Forum for National Security war briefing by American and Israeli political and military leaders in Washington with my good friend Dr. Avishai Neuman.

We reached out to the group that is representing the families of the hostages to suggest how important it would be to try to get the entire Jewish world to pray together for their loved ones. The result was a program that brought Jews from every corner of the globe to say the Shema prayer, the central prayer of the Jewish people, together.

Reconnecting with old friends is one of my favorite parts of my job. There is nothing like revisiting someone or a group from your past to see how they’ve grown and where they are today.