Dear Aish Family,
One of the most interesting aspects of traveling to Jewish communities around the world is seeing how they have fared through Covid. The strength of the Jews has always been that we tend to thrive through adversity. The Bible is filled with the many challenges that our forefathers went through. They always came out stronger. It is not by coincidence that AishVision2030 came from the depths of Covid; It is just how Jews are wired.
This past Tuesday I flew to spend time with Aish Mexico. This was my first return to Latin America since before the pandemic. So when I heard that there was going to be an Aish dinner in Mexico City, I jumped on a plane. I started my visit by having lunch with the two architects of Aish Mexico, Dr. Sergio Kershenovich and Moises Rabinovitz who met and decided thirteen years ago to build an Aish location there. They are two of the Aish partners worldwide who I most admire. Seeing our long hugs after being apart for so long, someone asked if we are old friends. I corrected them and said “We’re not friends. We are brothers.”
We were then joined by the newly installed leader of Aish Mexico, Rabbi Abraham Cohen, and long-time Aish Rabbi Jaim Leizorek. The five of us immediately launched into strategic conversations about AishVision2030 and Aish Mexico. We spoke for a long time about our successes in social media and how we can all work together. Aish Mexico is embarking on a 5 million dollar building project to build a state-of-the-art facility. The clarity of vision at that table was breathtaking.
We established two actionable ideas at that meeting. The first was that Aish Global would establish an office at the new Aish Mexico building so we can better influence all of Latin America. Mexican Jewry is so strong that it makes sense for it to serve as the hub for our work in Spanish. The second idea was to establish a broadcasting studio there. We are embarking on plans to build a broadcasting studio in Jerusalem that will operate in English and Hebrew. The studio in Mexico will serve as the producer of Spanish language content.
We then spoke about the dinner that night. Aish Mexico had put together the leadership of the entire Jewish community to come together and hear about the challenges faced by the youth of Mexico. They asked me to speak at the dinner and to emphasize that Aish is a big umbrella organization that can include everyone. As I spoke that night I wanted to make my point as dramatically as I could. I asked the crowd towards the end of my talk where they thought I would want all the Jews reconnecting under AishVision2030 to go to synagogue. I answered my own question by saying “I don’t care where they go to synagogue; as long as they are going.”
Aish is not an organization. Aish is not a synagogue. Aish is a movement of love. Aish is the place where Jews can learn about their heritage with zero judgment. Aish is the way to build a strong passionate inspired Jewish future. I am so proud that Aish Mexico is part of our family. Let’s learn from their energy and build, build, build.
