 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Welcome to Thursday, Community Matters. I'm Jay Fidel on Think Tech, and today we're going to talk about rabbis. Today's show is called Rabbis for the Rebbe. You will hear more about that. So sitting with me now is Rabbi Itchel Krasynchansky, and he's the rabbi for Chabad in Oahu in Honolulu. And the senior—am I right to say this? The senior Chabad rabbi in the islands, is it a fair statement? Well, look at my beard there. Okay, yeah, there it is. Chief rabbi. She's at an age anyway, huh? And next to him is Rabbi Levi Gurlitsky, who is the rabbi for Chabad in the Big Island, okay? And he's tall, so I guess there's some significance in that. And then we have Michael Goldman, Rabbi Michael Goldman, and he is the Chabad rabbi for Kauai. And there are congregations in all of those places, and the Chabad is all around the islands, and it's wonderful. And we have two more we're going to introduce after the break. So we have Chabad with us today. It's such a joy to see you and have you. But you've been busy this morning. This is not the first thing you've done today, Rabbi. What happened? Well, first of all, Jay, thank you for inviting us once again. And it's a great privilege to be with my colleagues from all around the islands. Yes, earlier today, we had a very, very special meeting with the governor, where the governor gave us a proclamation that is called, proclaims the celebration of Education Day USA, Education and Sharing Day USA. This is something that was established 40 years ago under President Reagan, that they both both houses, the Senate and the Congress, they all signed unanimously to proclaim one day as the day to reflect on the importance of education and how education shapes the lives of young people, and therefore the importance of having education, not just impart knowledge and information. I'll give you a big, big Megillah. Right. It was quite nice. It's framed and everything, and I hope you hang it somewhere important. We'll do. It's a statement about Chabad, and he talked about Rabbi Schneersen, didn't he? He's really knowledgeable about this, not only about education, but he knows about Chabad and Rabbi Schneersen. Right, so Rabbi Schneersen, who we call the Rebbe, the title of the book. That's why Rabbi's and Rabbi's for the Rebbe. Right, so the Rebbe is like a term of endearment, and it means like the Rabbi, capital letters, and the Rebbe was the greatest Rabbi of our time. He was a great spiritual leader, not only for the Jewish people, but also for all peoples of all faiths, and the Rabbi's message was... And his message, you had a tape of that, you had a recording of that. I have footage of this. It was really something where all the rabbis, all standing together with the governor, and you're listening to Rabbi Schneersen's message. That was powerful stuff. Yes, did you hear what the Rebbe said? Not very well. Why don't you tell us? Well, in short, this was the Rebbe addressing then-President Reagan, I believe, at the time, or one of the presidents. And everybody was saying is that an individual, that divine providence has destined to be in a position of leadership. It means that God gives that person the abilities to actually fulfill this great responsibility. And it was specifically talking about, in our context, the responsibility of creating educational materials that help shape the morals and values of the children. It was very touching to see that. I have footage of all the rabbis and the people, you know, standing around the recording and listening to it so diligently. And it was actually a work of art to see you all together doing that. So, should I call you Rabbi Levi? That works. That works? How are you normally addressed by the whole name? Rabbi Krasnichansky, Rabbi Krasnichansky, but that could be wrong. Maybe I should call you Rabbi Itzovat. Whatever rolls off the tongue. Okay, Rabbi Levi. Tell us about life on the Big Island. It's my favorite island, by the way. I have to add that. My favorite too. And Chabad came out to the Big Island and started actually previously with Rabbi Krasnichansky's son-in-law. Started about eight years ago. And it's really to be a home for the Jewish people, like an embassy, where you would have nothing to do with a state or government, but has to just do with an identity. To have a place where everyone can feel comfortable, regardless of their level of affiliation, or how much they grow up with, or their knowledge of Judaism. To have a place where they could come and celebrate and connect with God, whether it's through prayer, through a Shabbat meal, through celebrating the holiday. And it's really good. We're really enjoying our time there, having that opportunity of educating. And more than everyone, we feel like we're educating ourselves. We're learning so much from the experience. That's great. So, tell me about, you know, the way you see your congregation. Can you define your congregation? How big is it? Who's in it? What's it like for you? And what kind of relationships you have with them? And they have with you. Yeah, so it's those all different types. And we have tourists that are coming. Some of them are fully orthodox. They just need some kosher food. We'll have some elders that are retired. Actually, just last night, I was helping one of the elder congregants in our community, Ted Leaf. He's a retired dentist. He lives there for many years. Helping him out in his garden. He had to do some work on his grass. So I went there to help him out. So it's really... With the role of a Chabad rabbi, it's pretty broad. It's helping out in any way. And it's not just in religious needs. It could be with kosher food, visiting someone in the hospital, on chaplain at the Kona Community Hospital. And I guess the congregants come in all shapes and sizes, all from all walks of life. And it's really, they tell us that what they like about it is that people that live on the Hawaii in general are away from family. The family is all on the mainland from New York or from another country. And they feel like Chabad gives them that opportunity of having a new family in Hawaii, where you're away from everyone. So I can just jump in for a second, following on the heels of what Levi is saying, Rabbi Levi, is that Chabad is different than your traditional congregation. And Chabad rabbi is different than the traditional rabbi. We're not a membership-based congregation. Like Rabbi Levi was saying, you reach out to all of the people in the community, regardless of how affiliate or not they are. So, you know, so there, hence forth, the rabbi is doing all these different things and depending on what the interest level of the people, the whole emphasis of Chabad is to reach out to everyone with love and sharing and bring them in and reconnect them to you know, with their Jewish heritage or in the wider message for the wider community is to the values that we find in the Torah for all people. That's my experience with Chabad. Chabad is very loha, very loving. And you don't have to be a regular member of the congregation. You can just sort of drop in and you'll find that love anyway. Nice. So, okay, we had this ceremony today. You flew in for this rabbi, ladies. And you're going to fly back and then you're going to have Passover. What's going to happen for Passover? It's only next week. It's coming soon. Yeah. So, Passover is probably one of the most celebrated Jewish holidays. People that don't attend anything else feel like they want to go to Passover, say, there, brings back memories from their grandparents and you know, family time. Yeah. So, we're going to have a Passover, say, there on both sides of the island because we're the only Chabad for the entire island. So, including Hilo, which could be a far drive for some people to attend. So, we have two rabbinical students coming in from New York to run a Passover, say, there. Oh, wonderful. So, two of them. Yeah. So, simultaneously, there'll be two Passover, say, there's an each one is for two nights. That's the tradition that we do outside of Israel. We have a Passover, say, there Friday night and Saturday night. Yeah. It's different in Israel. In Israel, they only do one day. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. It's because back in the day, they weren't able to communicate the correct day for Passover. So, out of doubt, outside of Israel, they would have to do two days just to be safe. Yeah. So, until today, we continue that tradition. Yeah. Mystically, the reason why in the diaspora, we do two days of the holiday is because the holiday represents light, God's light. And the darker the place, the more light we need. So, in the diaspora, we have two days holiday to be able to penetrate the darkness of our surroundings. It's really an interesting way of looking at it. I've heard that before. So, read by Goldman, read by Michael. So, Kawhi, different. My wife is from Kawhi. I spent a lot of time in Kawhi. I love Kawhi. It's got to something hearty and meaty and passionate about Kawhi. I love the Big Island, too. And second to that is Kawhi. But Kawhi is kind of special. And is your congregation special? Is what you do special in Kawhi? Everybody, every individual is special. And of course, every Khabarraba thinks the congregation is special. Everybody, you know. But yes, of course, I'm biased. I think it's a very special place, a very unique place. So, you flew in today also for the ceremony with Governor Igay. Correct, correct. And you flew in with Richard Siegel, who we're going to meet in a minute. Richard Siegel is a lay member of your congregation. Correct. What is that? Lay leader. Lay leader. Well, he's on the board of Khabar of Kawhi. But more importantly, Richard is a pillar of our community. He's there. Whenever something's happening, he's there. He wants to be involved. He's very, he cares, he's passionate about what's going on in the community. And he shows up, you know, to learn, to dove in, to pray, to events. And he's very supportive, not just emotionally and spiritually and helping us to what we do. And he's a very big part of our community. So I reached out to him first, saying, will you come and join us, you know, proclamation presentation? You spoke this morning at the ceremony, Rabbi Krasnachansky spoke, and then you spoke too. We want to summarize your remarks that you made to the Governor. I met the Governor last year. He came into Kawhi for a town hall meeting where anybody could get up and ask a question. And I was actually in line to ask the question that I posed today. But the circumstances didn't allow it last week, last year. And we spoke about Education Day. So kind of picking up from that, one of the things that concerned me in the realm of education was that there was a lack, what I perceive as a lack of enough education in the realm of not just the Holocaust as an event, but with that, you know, the conversation that comes out of that, what that brings to tolerance and understanding of the need for different types of people and different religions and faiths and, you know, minorities. If we don't have that education, it's liable to recur. And I thought we said never again. We said never again, but there's a rise of anti-Semitism today in the world that's unprecedented in my generation. Sure, it's an odd issue in your times two weeks ago. And, you know, the statistics that are horrific, I think I saw statistically there was a 70 percent increase in the last five years or something crazy like that. So a few months ago there was an exhibition at the Veteran Center in Kauai and it was of a battalion, the 400 and what was it? 442nd. 442nd Infantry Division or something. And members, there was a military from Hawaii that went to rescue Dachau and they had an amazing exhibition which showed Hawaiian people in Kauai were tagging their family members in the photos and they were in, you know, in Europe rescuing Jews. So there's an interesting connection and it was underwhelming how little interest there was and people in the Jewish community reached out to the schools to say would you bring your high school students, obviously some of the pictures are graphic and young kids can't handle that, but the older divisions should come and see this and learn. It's not in the curriculum, so my best knowledge is not really presented well in the curriculum. I think some of the schools say they're like one day in the year there was like a couple paragraphs in a textbook where they spoke about it. It doesn't do justice. This is a subject and while there's so many more things that Judaism has to offer but this is you know a very important point for humanity not just for the Jewish people. So important now, we're sort of declining in our sensitivity to this issue and in fact Think Tech has a show called Bigotry in America where we cover examples of anti-Semitism but also white supremacy that's going on right now and then there was a piece not too long ago about the increase in that. So we want to cover that and I would like to actually have you on the show going forward. We can have you on the show while you're here in Oahu or we can have you show on the show by remote from Kauai because I know they have electricity there. So that's Rabbi Goldman and we're going to take a break now. Rabbi Mikhail Goldman, Rabbi Levy, girlist, girlist, girlist, girlist ski, girlist ski, I practice and Rabbi Itzel Karshenjansky. So the out of the neighbor island rabbis we're going to excuse and bring some other people in after this break. Rabbi Krashenjansky will stay here and help me navigate these waters with all these rabbis. Rabbis for the rabbi. Say it after me. Rabbis for the rabbi. We'll be right back after this break. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech, Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host Martin Desbang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live but other aspects of our life not only here in Hawaii but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech, Hawaii. Hi everyone, I'm Andrea Gabrieli. I'm the host for Young Talent's Making Way here on Think Tech, Hawaii. We talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m. about things that matter to tech, matter to science, to the people of Hawaii with some extraordinary guests, the students of our schools who are participating in science fair. So Young Talent's Making Way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. Only on Think Tech, Hawaii. Mahalo! Bingo! We're back. I told you we'd come back. Okay, this is Community Matters and we're talking about rabbis for the Rebbe. With the exception of one of our guests who is not a rabbi but he's a lay leader of the Kauai Havaat. Yeah, that's Richard Siegel over there. And next to him is Mendy Deshort from Mendo. Yes. I never met Mendo. I didn't like. My father's name was Mendo. Okay, Krazin Jansky. That sounds so familiar. In fact, you guys look a little bit alike. And Rabbi Mendo is in Maui. Mendo for Maui. Welcome to the show, you guys. Thank you. Nice to be here. Nice to have you here. So Rabbi, can you go Rabbi Krazin Jansky? You can talk about Passover coming soon. It's only a week away. What does it mean in Jewish religion? It's really wonderful that Rabbi Schneersen's birthday and Passover is one of three or four days away is all it is. Correct. So it actually ties into the celebration that we just had earlier today, which is about education and the importance of education. The holiday of Passover is the most important Jewish holidays and the most joyous and beloved of Jewish holidays. It's a time when families gather together and do what we have in the meal and the traditions is called a Seder, right, as we all know. And every Jew, regardless of how an affiliate or not comes to a Seder, because a Seder is not only the highlight of the holiday, but it also, in a sense, captures the whole message of Judaism. And the Seder night and Passover night is when it's all centered around the children and we pass on the traditions to the children in the form of the four questions that the children ask and the four sons. And you know, the youngest person at the table asks the four questions. I'm in my 70s. I always insist on asking the four questions. Okay, there you go. You probably don't settle for just any answers. No, no, no. So Passover is a very, very special time, family time, time of sharing. And it's a time where we teach, we pass it on, pass it on. But there's a lot of, obviously, a lot of traditions associated with Passover. You don't need any bread for Passover. Passover commemorates our exodus of Egypt, the time when the Jewish people, times of Moses, biblical times when we were enslaved in Egypt and through great miracles, God took us out of Egypt. That's the most important thing, isn't it? Yes. We were slaves in Egypt. There was oppression, intolerable oppression. And we remember that year after year through our lives for thousands of years. Passover celebrates the idea of freedom. And freedom, as we all know, is ear, like ear. We need it to survive. And from the very beginnings of our Jewish faith, this is like the foundation. It's a very important holiday because of that. Because those are basic tenets of the religion, the history, the culture of the people. So my question for you, Rabbi Mindy, is Passover different in Maui than it is in Oahu? It's the same all over the world. But the truth is, I'll have to let you know in a week, because my wife and I, we just arrived in Maui six weeks ago to start with the Maui. Okay, okay, fair enough. So, but no, it's the same exact all over the world and the same as it has been for the past couple thousand years. And that's exactly what we intend to do, is to bring all the Seder and all the classic traditions to Maui. That's great that you're the Rabbi in Maui. Where were you before? I was born in Oahu, obviously, and then I went for Yeshiva, which is rabbinical schooling. I received my rabbinical ordination in South Africa and married and my wife and I were living in Israel. And then we decided to, you know, I bought the chief rabbi of Maui, who I happened to have a connection with. Lovely opportunity, right? To know someone who knows someone. Yeah, really? So, yes, they were looking for rabbi for the island of Maui. And we thought that it was something we wanted to dedicate our lives to. So, you're part of a big mishpochah. Seven children already with Rabbi Krasnowski. You're one of them. And there were nine grandchildren, but who's counting? This is very nice to be in a family like that. So, what do you, you know, what's your agenda, if I could ask that in Maui? How are you going to proceed as the chief rabbi in Maui? So, our agenda is that we have no agenda. It's just to, as Rabbi Levi was mentioning before, my father mentioned that Chabad is a home for Jews, right? Everywhere, either the Jews that are living there or passing by or just visiting for a short couple months. And rarely to just interact with all the Jews and share and love with them, share a tradition and accept them of wherever level they're holding and to learn with them. And that's how we've begun just in the past couple of weeks that we've been there. Thank God we've met hundreds of Jews and there's thousands more and to proceed in that fashion. And that's, that's very nice. So, you were, of course, you are here and you were, of course, at the ceremony with David E. Gaye this morning. What did you think? I thought it was incredible. I thought it was fascinating. And I thought also it was, my father touched upon, it's truly correlates to Passover because Passover, as the verse says, he got to tell Lebincha that you should tell your children and the Passover satyr is, as you said, that the children always ask the questions and to have a day of education right before Passover is most fitting of things. And especially at Hawaii is geographically the farthest place on earth from Israel. So this is rarely spreading to the whole world, which is the redemption, the freedom going out of slavery is to cross all the world in the seas. So that's truly, I thought, is very fitting and inspiring. Yeah, well, you know, it strikes me that Judaism, of course, is global because of its long history. What year is it now? Five thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight. Wow, God, it's by Mitzvah and fifty-seven-twelve. I don't know if it's a long time ago. But, you know, Habad, Habad is also global. I mean, I sense in Habad a kind of global consciousness more than most people have and talk about education such as we discussed this morning. Education is important to educate people on global awareness and get a feeling for that. So Richard Segal, you were a pilot, was it? I was a Marine pilot. You look just like a Marine pilot. Thank you. You're welcome. I take that as a compliment. So tell us what you're doing as a lay leader in Kauai and the Habad congregation there. Thanks for having me here, Jay. And it's a pleasure and I'm in good company. I'm retired. My wife and I are retired on Kauai. And Rabbi Nicole Goldman is the Shliach there. That he's the emissary for Habad. And we are part of his congregation, my wife and I. So I don't know exactly what the answer to your question is, but it's nice to be there and it's nice to be a part of the action and what's happening. And I guess Habad's been very important to me in theory and in fact around the world. They're anywhere and everywhere if you're traveling, if a person's traveling a Jewish person and they want camaraderie or a feeling of resonance or something where it seems like Habad is available and offers those things that are important to some of us, many of us. So you flew in with Rabbi Goldman this morning? We flew in together this morning. So you flew in primarily for the ceremony with David Ike. What did you think of it? What did you take away from it? I thought it was very nice. I was honored to be there and to see the governor. I've seen him lots of times before, but this is the only time in real life that I've seen him. And to hear him make that proclamation, he sounded connected to the Lubava Chereve and to the communities in Hawaii. And I was comforted by listening to him and seeing him. He seems like a real person and it was nice to be there. It was impressive. He knew a lot and he was certainly into education as he always is. So we have about a minute left. I'll let me just say something. I want to offer you the opportunity to comment on what these guys have said and to close. Okay, so just for the audience's edification about Chabad, the Rebbe, Rabbi Schneersen was the leader of Chabad, but he was, as we mentioned before, a truly global leader with a global vision to actually nothing short of transforming the whole world and making it a better place. The Rebbe initiated what is called the Shluchim emissaries. And today you have about 5,000 Chabad emissaries all throughout the world in every country and every city in the world almost. I don't think we have it in North Korea, but in neighboring China there is. And it's, you know, we, as you know, the Jewish people are scattered throughout the world. And this is what the Rebbe set up is to be able to reach Jews wherever they are and with a very, very powerful message, a very uplifting and powerful message of Judaism. And there was a Rabbi, Chief Rabbi of England, his name is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. He once said something very interesting, that the Rebbe came on the world scene on the heels of the Holocaust from the ashes of the Holocaust in the 1950s when the Rebbe became a Rebbe. And just like, so how do you heal or how do you fix the world after such a catastrophe like the Holocaust? So the Holocaust is where the Germans in Makhshema, which means may the name be raised Hitler, the Nazis, they set about to hunt down Jews wherever they were able to in hate and to kill and destroy. And the Rebbe's mission in life was to reach out to Jews, every single Jew in love and to embrace and to share and to connect with every single Jew. And that's the message of Chabad and that's the mission of Chabad throughout the world. All connected. Well, thank you very much gentlemen for coming down and thank the other two rabbis who were on before Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Michael. And I just want to say that after the show I fully intend to grow a beard. Thank you, Jay. Thank you, Jay. Thank you. Thank you all. Pleasure as always. A little harsh. A little harsh. Thank you, thank you.