#Herzl100 Featured with David Matlow on JM in the AM

And this is America's one and only Jewish moments in the morning radio program heard on listeners sponsored digital radio around the world web.com and the single network and of course the beloved NSN app. David Matlau is with us live via telephone. He has started a brand new series available to all around the world. We'll explain in a moment. He is of course the world's expert and most amazing collector of an incredible collection of Herzel items. Theodore Herzel. If you're not familiar with Theodore Herzel, Google him, read up on him. um the person who dreamed of a state of Israel and never lived to see it. But uh of course his remains are on her Herzel next to the remains of those of our beloved soldiers who have uh given their lives to defend the state, the land, the nation, the people of Israel, both in Israel and frankly around the world as well. David Matlau, a pleasure to welcome you back to JM and the AM. >> Thank you very much. Good morning. It's great to be back. >> Appreciate that. I would hope that as you make your way around the different schools and synagogues and organizations, you don't find too many people who haven't heard of Theodore Herzel. It makes your job even more challenging, doesn't it? >> Well, it does. People know the man with the beard, the man on the balcony. uh but don't really know all that he did. They may know that he was the visionary of the state of Israel uh but they would have no idea of the history uh that that ensued as a result of his work that led to the creation of the state a short 44 years after he passed away. And um I I don't know. I mean, we haven't discussed every item in your collection. That would be impossible. But just remind us how many items there are in the David Matlau Herzel collection. >> I have over 6,000 items. Frankly, I've lost I've lost count, but I can tell by the number of of FedEx delivery couriers that come to my house, there's probably more than 6,000 by now. What have you gotten recent? I know we have a lot to talk about your new series and more. We'll get to everything. What have you gotten recently? Like you just said, FedEx. In the last week, has anything arrived at your home/herzel museum of note? >> Well, not in in the last week because I started a different series, not the one that we'll talk about today called Herzel Break. And I put that on the summer hiatus because I'm focusing on the Herzel 100. But in the Herzel break, just like in the opening of of baseball card packages that are found, I open a new package of Herzel items. So there's about 10 of them sitting in my home that I'm waiting when for when I resume the season in the fall. >> And give me an example of something you opened during a Herzel break recently. Is there one that stood out to you? I I purchased this large sculpture. It's probably 2 feet tall. It's over 100 years old. It's a wooden sculpture of Herzel. And he's holding the hand of an elderly Jewish man. And there's a debate. Is that Moses or is that an elderly Jewish man? He's holding his hand and they're walking forward and Herzel is leading this person to Eritz Israel. It's it's um as I said hundred years old wooden sculpture and I I find it quite quite striking and beautiful and that came in a big box. >> Do you know do you know who the sculptor is >> there? There is a debate about who the sculpture is and I um the current thinking is I believe the man's name is Kand Kandeski. He was an artist who lived in Israel. >> Wow. >> Um a woodworker. Uh 90 seconds into our conversation with David Matloward. We're already fascinated to say the least. He's got the world's largest collection of Herzel items. I've seen it up close and personal. It is amazing. And I remind the audience that David did all of us a favor by bringing an exhibit to New York. You may recall he brought an exhibit to New York. And he has exhibits that are traveling exhibits that he could bring to different schools, organizations, etc. And I do want to recommend to everybody, we have a lot of principles and faculty members uh who are listening to this broadcast. They do so every single day. And now during the summer months, you're thinking about who to bring to your school to make special days regarding Israel even more special or just in general to bring a special guest with some amazing artifacts. If you want to get in touch with David Matlau, you make sure uh to let us know and we'll make sure to put that together because they're just it's just too much valuable information, too many amazing things that he has that really need to be seen uh by people who are both young and older. All right, so you alluded to the fact that you've got a brand new series. Explain to everybody how they could access this and what it's all about. >> The the new series called the Herzel 100. So it's # Herzel and the number 100. And what I am doing is I am showing the hundred greatest artifacts in my collection. It's almost a virtual exhibit. So if you can't get the exhibit to your town and if you're a principal or a teacher, you can see by the time the series is complete, which will be right before Rashashana, you will have see 100 items in my collection explained by me in vignettes that are available on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook. So I'm counting down from number 100 to the greatest Helil artifact in my collection. I say it's the greatest Herzel artifact of all time. I'm onethird of the way through. I started on June 6. So today I posted number 67. Recall I'm counting down by 100. And each one is a a one or twom minute video of me explaining the item and why it's important and how it fits in to Herzel's story of seeing a problem anti-semitism worrying about the future of the Jewish people and the essentially the building blocks of what he did to start the Zionist movement inspire people to to follow him and ultimately led to the state. So there's artifacts about the Zionist congresses. There's his book um the Jewish state which was number 92. Believe it or not, when I posted the Jewish state is 92, someone wrote me to say how could there be 91 more important items than that. >> I stay stay tuned for that. So, one second. And all they have to do is search either your name or Herzel 100 on all those social media outlets. >> Correct. And it it's also on X and threads. Yes. If you search Herzel 100 or you search my name, David Matlo on Instagram or Facebook. On Tik Tok, it's Mar Davidid. M A R D A Ve D. Um if you search that you will see one and through that you can see all of them there. They don't disappear. So there's 34 online now and I post them uh late in the day. So for instance number 66 I don't want to ruin the surprise but that's going to be posted uh later today and this will follow all through the summer. >> All right. to those who would like to see or will see uh at some point today your most recent video uh number 67 has a special distinction that you're on on the day that 67 was released. So let us know what is it that number 67 is in terms of the top 100 herzel artifacts. >> So the number 67 which is um online right now is a Russian hatika. So, not that Hatifa isn't in Russian, but it was actually printed in Odessa in the early 1900s. It has a picture of Herzel on it, and it includes all nine verses of the Hatikva in Russian. >> Two verses of the Hatikva, but there are nine, >> right? In Russian. >> It's a it's an Hebrew with Russian translation. >> Ah, got it. Wow. So, the first of all, so look at this. Every time you do anything having to do with Herzel, you teach us something. Uh we all know there are two verses to our tikvah but you say no there's actually nine and the first two have been designated as the uh national anthem of the state of Israel. >> Correct. And I'm also trying through the series to educate people. I dare say that your listeners do not need an education of what Zionism is. But when I launch this out into the world, anybody can see it and either e even those who are Israel's detractors and I can tell there are many out there by the comments that I receive to explain to them what the idea was that Herzel had the right of the Jewish people to live freely and safely in our ancestral homeland. It's as simple as that. And the media and our haters would suggest it's something much more malevolent than that. It isn't. So through these items I explain what Herzel's vision was. And um for instance for for the 4th of July I uh your 250th birthday I posted a postcard from 1910 with the US flag and the Zionist flag later the flag of the state of Israel which and that got a quite a good reception and and was shared quite broadly because of the festivities of the birthday. America's birthday. But it also explains that the the alignment of interest between the United States and Zionism and later Israel, uh, which continues to to this day gets sometimes it's rockier than other times, but about the desire for freedom, a more perfect union, a better to purs to pursue liberty, to be an example to the world. Those kind of things are are not just nonsense that that people say it. It's based on the building blocks of Zionism from more than a hundred years ago. And these items show that. >> And and sadly, you can confirm, and I'm just reiterating what you said, but I just want to make sure people heard it. You can confirm that there are plenty of people who have a lot to say, negative things to say about Zionism, negative things, negative comments. I'm I'm sure very hateful comments because that's the way social media works whenever you post anything. So you can you can confirm that we're in another period of time, an extended and what seems to be continuous period of time of anti-semitism. And number one, I remind everybody that you're in Canada and not that you're any different than what's going on in the United States, but there are cities in Canada that are getting a lot of attention when it comes to anti-semitic episodes, etc. And the second thing I would say is that how many times David Matlo do you do you think as you're as you're posting and as you hear about anti-semitic incidents and you see all these comments that are coming through on social media, how often do you think about how Herzel was affected by all this? how a major anti-semitic episode spurred him on uh to uh to dream about and to put into practical purpose um a a an action uh that would eventually lead to the state of Israel. I'm sure that whole anti-semitism piece comes to your mind a lot. >> I think about it all the time. the the Drifus trial that took place in in 1894 with a Jewish officer in the French army that was wrongfully charged and then convicted of treason spying for Germany. This is what um really sparked Herzel to do something about anti-semitism. he wrote his book the UN staff the Jewish state number 91 the list um to as a solution to anti-semitism and I think about that um for us in Toronto not they're dissimilar to how Parisian Jews must have felt when an event happened in their case Drifus in our case October 7th and anti-semitism which we thought was in the dust bins of history was clearly percolating under the surface and came back. But Herzel teaches us that we can do something about it. That we are not saddled with the conditions in which we find ourselves. And this comes up a lot in in the Herzel 100. It's not simply about noting something and fetching about it and whining about it and hoping it will be better. We can do something about it, whatever that might be. And it's clear from from the the series that Birch was a journalist and a playwright um and a lawyer and he threw all those skills at trying to solve for anti-semitism. He was a guy. He was a person just like us. He was not some superhuman. So all of us can have uh the capacity to make a little bit of a difference and not just resign ourselves to the trouble. Whether it's in our home community, it's in Israel, in in the world, we have the power to change it. >> Yeah, excellent point. I I got to say it again to the to the principles, to the educators, to the faculty members. David Matlo has done a lot of the work for you. Uh school year begins in September. you're looking for projects that have to do with Israel, Zionism, especially during these times. Uh he's outlined on social media all these items. Uh you literally could have um uh students in a class just, you know, write about some of the items, explore them, research them, put together their own lists, etc., etc. And I highly recommend you do it. Search Herzel 100 on all all the social media sites. And of course, David Matlau, you can search his name, Mat L, and get to all of this uh and get a real education when it comes to the history of Zionism. Uh, and now my fun question, of course, uh, David, is um, will will we find the Herzel socks? Will we find the Herzel socks among the top 100? Well, I had a debate about whether socks should be included and um of course it's my own list of a hundred and frankly I have so many that I wanted to use the um the series to to educate and as interesting and as fun as the virtual socks are it would be a lost opportunity to share something more uh meaningful So Theo the Herzel mascot will show up. So there's uh >> and I think the bobblehead is on the list. There's a Herzel bobblehead and and and I didn't want to put socks in because I had run out of them. I had made 5,000 and they lasted me to hand out to people to help share the story. The idea of the socks is you look at the socks and there's Herzel. >> You don't have people would say, "Well, who's Herzel?" >> You don't have an extra Herzel bobblehead, do you? I'll have to look through my inventory. Did um you're missing one? >> No, I'm not. I never got one, but I would love to have that. You've given us some amazing Herzel items. The bobblehead I'd love to have. That'd be so cool. >> I will look for one for you. That that that is on our list. So, if people have no idea what we're talking about, they're going to have to uh wait. Um it's coming up probably in a month and a half. >> Wow. It got that high in the list. Bobbleheads have a way of doing that, huh? They are real collectibles. Absolutely. They they get People love bobbleheads. They really do. They get very, very high on the list. And what was the hockey thing? Was there a puck or a jersey? What was it that was hockey related with Herzel that you had? >> And yeah, that was number 99. A puck from the from the Herzel Cup. Um, and it and it was really an example of how Herzel's name and likeness and his vision appears on so many different things. In this case, a hockey puck. He didn't know about hockey. And I say that in Canada, if you want to get someone's attention, connect it to hockey somehow. >> Oh, good point. Good point. >> It's the national pastime up north. >> So, that's the way that's the way to really get people to focus on it. What a delight to speak to you as always. Everyone check out Herzel 100 online on all the social media uh outlets. Herzel 100, literally the the number 100 online or just search David Matlau M-at L as the series continues. A great opportunity during the summer uh to really brush up on all things Zionist. And David Matlau, a pleasure to speak to you again and big, it's a great series. You're always coming up with something original and we love following you. >> Thank you so much. # Herzel 100. Really appreciate you help spreading the word. >> Oh, a pleasure. Hashertzel 100 everybody. Oh, maybe Rammy will put today's uh today's video uh number 67. Maybe he'll put that in our newsletter as well. That'd be great. Um but yes, yes, Herzel 100. More coming up. You're listening to a Monday morning edition. JM in the A.M.