Rabbi Chananya Greenwald and Chana Shterna (Greenwald) Lewenstein – Ronnie

[Music] Welcome to Inside Art Scroll, where the books that we read and the people that write them come to life. It's a distinct pleasure to welcome Rabbi Kanana Greenwald and his little sister Khan Leuenstein to Arts Girl Studios. I'm here today to discuss probably one of the most fascinating books ever written. Um, and it just has one word title, Ronnie, and that was your father, Scarra, who was way larger than life. And no book could adequately articulate and describe. Um, I had this the opportunity to go through the manuscript before the book was even printed and it just a it's impossible to put down and b and b it's so multifaceted. It's it just it's a thousand people in one person's life whether negotiating with terrorists um being mkazic and giving strength to children building camp after camp going through challenging times and just always coming out ahead of it. So before we dive into his life a little bit what was it like growing up in Ronnie's house and I know you're allowed to call him Ronnie. That was one of his instructions and says in the book um what was it like growing up? Did you realize how great your father was or what he was involved with or at home he was just daddy or >> well he was tatty. The answer is yes and no. On the one hand like this is normal. He you know he would sometimes get up and speak someplace and my brothers and myself would look at each other. people are ready to be a micro of their firstborns to him because it was like the most incredible speech they ever heard and we looked at each other and said what did he say like this is this is what life is like he just described that this table is beige or it didn't have any so on the one hand okay he took it all for granted on the other hand we thought he could do anything and so yeah my father could do anything and you know we tell these stories and people thought we were lying and probably sometimes I might have been far a Oh, but I think >> you could fudge about him though. >> Yeah, but but it wasn't like like a the world of makebelieve. It was just I think we had almost like some kind of magical thinking about him that he he that he could do almost anything. He could solve almost anything. He could says says, "When I was a kid, I thought he could do anything. I thought he could do anything." When I hit 20, I knew he could do anything. So, yes and no. How about you as a as the youngest the youngest daughter uh the one who steals her daddy's heart. Um and you were probably born at a later time I'm assuming than than the big boys and more things had happened. Did you know your father was like negotiating with terrorists and and speaking to presidents and world leaders or you didn't even know that? >> Yeah, we knew a lot. We didn't know everything. A lot's coming out with the book and then still things after the book is even once we put into print we're still hearing oh we put that in we put that in like we're still almost every week we hear another thing and and some that we knew about some that we didn't but I do remember in high I think I started I just got this like little notebook I had upstairs in my room after Shabas a lot of stories came out on Shabas how that was when he was relaxed and me at a table and he would just tell us some of the things that happened during the week this crazy stories and I would run upstairs after Shabas and I would write it down something about It was like, wait, this is unbelievable. I have to write this down. Like, this is not regular. So, again, yes, cuz it was normal, but also no, I knew something wasn't regular. >> Do you still have that notebook? >> I couldn't find it. >> Oh, cuz it would have been so valuable for writing the book. >> Yeah. Just this little like I remember one chabas, I remember thinking like, okay, this is for the book. He told us that he was in some Middle Eastern country. I forgot where it was. And this he was walking along the street and this um couple came over to him and said rabbi you're a rabbi or something like he's like they said give us a blessing. I said so what'd you do? He said or they fell they fell on top of him. They like lean forward and I said what'd you do? He said I gave them a braha. They were mish on top of me like just um one thing that I I noticed over and over was that he cared so deeply about every person. It could be a child. It could be an adult. It could be a nebuck. It could be someone that was He just cared so so deeply. So Kanye, take us back. Where do you think that all came from? When was that moment in his life when he's like, I need to be there for any person that I ever meet? >> Can I one before you answer it? >> I'm going to say the same thing. >> Yeah, go for it. >> Never. >> Exactly. >> I use that word. >> There were no There were no >> It didn't see that way. My nephew actually said craziest thing was like you come to the house of somebody else living there all the time and it was never like oh this is a be nice to them there was he my father didn't feel bad for them he thought they were great and he thought okay I'm ready eats up sometimes so this guy needs help now there was no s we never heard the word >> I stand corrected >> everyone was great everyone was great >> that's yeah my father you know everyone was great but when there was something wrong he would he wasn't afraid to say it he didn't just soft soap but He he saw the goodness in people. So where did it start? This is a theory because I don't even think he knows. But when he was a kid, his mother had tuberculosis. It was during the war. His father was fired every week at first uh because he would keep shabas. And so then he would find a job and then he couldn't you couldn't miss it. The orphanages back in the day were very tough institutions and a parent who wasn't managing. They had put him in an orphanage. They isolated them from their families. They were going to teach them, you know, how to be not unfortunate, you know, whatever it was. He was there for a few months. They asked them about what happened there. He said he had no memories of it. He once said maybe he wouldn't mind being hypnotized. Yeah. But he he had no memory of it. He said, "We don't I don't know that I completely understood that maybe it was a memory that I don't want to remember type of thing, but he said, my mom says, and this is kind of what we all believe. Um, whatever he went through, he said, if I ever have a chance to save somebody from being in that position, I'm going to do that." And so I think that that scared little boy uh rather than wrapping himself inwards kind of directed himself outwards and um >> and he never stopped. >> He till the night before he died I there at least nine people I know who spoke to him that night. Eight people I don't know what and uh each one he had a new program he was starting. He had a new system. We had a new now we're going to have Rabon meeting addicts for a program because because Rabonam need to know this population that the kids who were addicted need to have Rabonium you know he had all this stuff going on. He was 82 years old and he was busy on it the night before he died as well as dealing with an abuse case as well as dealing with a get on the phone with David Cohen on the on the phone with the rashiva of different yeshiva nonstop. Yeah he he was still very young. One of the things that I found so fascinating about the book was the period of time from probably when he was like 18 till 25. Seems like he it was a period when Claus was literally just being reborn after World War II and I don't know he just spent his time any person that he came across it didn't make a difference who they were making them happy. Um that tell us a little bit about what you know very briefly about that period of time and like how he impacted people. Well, that was way before my time >> and >> but I think it just to me it just makes sense. I don't see how he would be any different because he just was a connector. He loved people connected to people all the time. >> Guys in Yeshiva asked me he's so cool. He was speaking to he's so cool. Does he need an intern? Like how do I how do I do this? And I said, "Listen, you know what he does doesn't make money." And so he's certainly not paying an intern. I don't know how he does it, but I can tell you how it started. He looked at the guy next to him, saw a need, and tried to help him. And that just kind of kept growing. And as you do things, your skills expand, your abilities expand, you get better at it, you understand more. And he just kept developing. And eventually developments ends up being involved in local politics. It ends up being involved in national pol domestic politics national international and suddenly he's flying off to Africa you know to be at the coronation of the king you know and this is this is just part of I think a complete outgrowth of the roson to be made. I think he also had a joy for life, a love of life that he just wanted to share with people. Like it just overflowed, you know, like I used to think of like, you know, they say you sit next to a warm stove and you and you get warm. I think you sit next to a happy person like it overflow for him. So he would see people and he just wanted to make it easier for them a little happier like share the, you know, give someone this huge tip because he know that good things could happen in life. Like I think that time period when I see pictures of him at that you know in Brooklyn and it just was that joyfulness also >> zest for life >> and he was also Agibbar a very strong man. It says it multiple times in the book, if you messed with the Jewish Jews in the neighborhood, they called Ronnie. >> Right. And that was part of his like embracing life also. Like I don't know, to me it felt like >> afraid. He he wasn't afraid. I guess he once told me. I I was, you know, I talked to him about money. You know, we didn't have a lot. Um although he lived like we're millionaires. But what what you say the for every dollar in his pocket he gave away two. Um, I said to him once said, "Are you afraid of being poor?" He said, "I've been poor and I've survived it. I'm not afraid of that." I like, "Wow." >> Well, you say he's been poor. Let's understand that that means that he had to leave high school so he could help support the family. So, this was talking about really to bread on the table. The kids really understood what that meant. Really not have. >> Yeah. The first time he saw a carpet on a person's floor, he was 15 years old. He had never seen a carpet on a floor. The family was was poor beyond and then the mother got a job finally started to do some work. It it was a very slow laborious process and they never reached wealth and uh it might be a certain buff for my grandfather that we should be and not have wealth. I'm not sure it's work. I don't know if I I don't know if the first time it's working but so far you don't know seems like it's working at least the >> what um he also besides you know his incredible global reach he was a master and an educator both in the classroom >> and out like who decided that they should give him a job you know >> he's always been a teacher he's always he always spread some light He always spread some illumination. He always had a way of making things make sense. And how do you navigate life? That was his great gift. Uh I think in no matter what the situation, just there's a way to make sense of this and to move forward. >> And I think I think the one of the biggest ways he did that, at least for us growing up and what I've seen him do is um to what whatever someone trying to figure out to help them learn how to figure out on their own. >> That was his big empowerment. >> Just really empower another person. And we let them see how they have the answers. You can figure it out. What do you think? What do you think will happen if you do that? Just really >> what next? >> Yeah. >> What next? He was super curious though. He was also curious. He didn't lecture. He didn't say, "Oh, this is the way you must and this is the way, you know, sometimes a person would ask advice from a very practical standpoint. He just, you know, but he was very curious. What are you thinking about this?" He was very curious. I wonder what would happen or what do you think like let's expl let's like think about this together. >> He wasn't Yeah. He wasn't afraid to >> I mean camp that's so important when kids mess up. Listen you the you were part of the camp. What you read the what did you you ran the pioneer? >> I ran the pioneer program. >> Can you explain to us what the pioneer program is because people who went there know the rest of us I don't know sounds like a law cabin. >> Well and and and less. Okay. And more but less. We had actually tens. But um it originally started because there were some we were needing more room camp. there just the numbers were overflowing and and there had been this area in camp that was we saw 10 plat platforms. Um there were also was also an area that had log cabins. So the 10 platforms came later but first a log cabin like oh how about this idea came from just seeing the log cabins and just being creative. What if we created an outdoor unit where they lived in log cabins they had facilities were outside of the cabins. They did more of an outdoors program. Then that became very successful and then it morphed into look at these 10 platforms. We need even more of them. What if we did an even stronger outdoor program and they actually slept in tents? >> No electricity. >> No electricity. Again, the bathroom is outside of course. And I think it also came from this understanding of how meaningful it is if girls from Houston used to say take a girl from Burough Park, put her in a tent. Like you love saying that like to have them appreciate nature and be outside and a appreciate nature and b see what you can do with less. Like you don't need so much. go ahead and go out into the woods and build a campfire and have your food over there and then just come back looking like uh you know you stuffed you know the ferns and the charcoal and just look how happy you are >> which is so valuable like I think today's generation of children like they want to go on the roller coasters and they want to do the you know the v virtual realities but they don't know what reality is and take them to a beautiful place and let them live in Hashem's beautiful world and it brings out such a high quality of life that they probably never experienced before. That's >> well the trips the trips in camps. So in some camps like this they're going to fivestar hotels or whatever it is they're doing. The girls are going hiking 27 miles. I mean the not all of them but you know >> the select yeah group >> and it's all about it's all about you know push yourself what are your limits take joy in yourself like if you're taking joy in things I mean we know this this is true from the we know this is true. We know all this. He never used those words. It was just the way kind of he lived in the message that he was expressing like there's joy to be found in yourself, in your connection, in your success, in your accomplishment, in just taking in the world. Just boom. >> And this is a guy who saw all the ugliness in the world. It all came to his door. The worst ugliness all came to the door. And he would say, "If you only look at this," he would tell therapist and nephesh every year, "If you only look at this, you're going to have a distorted version of the goodness of the world." Go to Lakewood, see the guys miss me majoring, go to Satma, go see the the Hosana rabba, go to see candle light in the mirror, doesn't go soul's all so beautiful and big and strong and life is also good and there's so much goodness in the midst of all the sorrow. So he never hid any of the sorrow, but it was never allowed to define how we perceived, you know, life and the world. And >> by the time you were you were a child ready, camp was a thing. >> I was six weeks old. The first will I remember it? Well, >> your father doesn't remember when he was five, but he remember when he was six. >> I was 6 weeks old. >> So, you literally the your summers every single summer of your life of of your formative years was in camp. >> Well, they kicked me out very had to go to mug and half. >> The boys a little less so, but yeah, >> the girls were there all the time. >> So, so what was that? What was this like? What was it like in camp? Did to be the the director's the founders's daughter? Was that like a badge of honor? Was it a responsibility? probably both. I never thought about it like that, but definitely a privilege to work with him to be able to come into his office any time and stop whatever he was doing always yes and say yes unless he doesn't know talking to somebody and even then he would acknowledge me and then just open anything I had any questions and again he would always say what do you think >> did he know every single camper's name? No, no, he didn't know that. He couldn't. There was uh what 800 campers and another like 500 staff maybe even 1700 people was the biggest. Yeah. Cooking for 1700 used to say. >> So he didn't know. He knew but he he could spot people that had leadership potential. He could kind of see them a mile away a little bit and tag them and say that person's going to work for us one day or be you know via DH or um we >> people who were suffering >> and people who were suffering for sure. if he had an eye for that that he could just pick a right out of a crowd. >> Yeah. >> And you had a zoo in camp. >> Yeah. See, this is this is part of what's so fascinating. I mean, one of the million things so fas my father like this creativity, this like being able to spot something that's going to be interesting. Oh, yeah. Let caving. Get that's a great idea. Let's take the kids splunking. Oh, a zoo. That would be great for other kids that need to connect in a different way. they need to connect to themselves in a different way and maybe you know more comfortable with animals and okay let's build them a zoo let's you know like just any opportunity for another way >> they were doing animal therapy >> before there was such a thing like in the world that we knew they would they'd have the kids come and curry the donkey by the way the it's a real thing obviously like horse therapy dunkey therapy it's a real thing they would anyway they'd curry the donkey they'd clean it the girl would leave they throw a bucket of dirt back on the dunkey >> next and they bring the next girl in. >> But you're right, it speaks to bigger picture. It's like, so what could I do that will help someone who maybe is not being helped? And I think that whole zoo thing started because he read an article somewhere, >> Liz. He read about he read in the Jerusalem Post an article about this Karedi woman who was a uh was a veterinarian and he there was already a nature hut in camp from the beginning but it was small some chickens some birds some whatever you know they had and he was like let's get her to camp she's not coming to camp anyway I call her up or my brother calls her up she's like I'm not going to camp just come meet my father anyway next 20 years whatever it was she was in camp and they opened the zoo and the zachimes put in the zoo and They they donated a zoo. They had an alpaca. They had >> they had a donkey. They I mean >> cow >> cow. One of a couple of girls became zookeepers in uh in Bronx Zoo >> from going to camp. >> Now I don't know how many people know this but the whole Sternberg Hower Muggan it all started because your father saw a need not just a need for quality Jewish camping but a larger need than that. What was the need? What pushed him to start? >> Wait wait wait. First Moganav started Mickey Weinberger. Bernard Weinberger he started he he did it wasn't going he brought my father in that's how it started and then Moanav started and he he's like he went to camp on good I think he said he was five or six years old for the first time and he said I think he said something like 72 of my 79 years whenever it was that he said this something like that or 73 of them have been in camp and leaving the city where it was hot and dirty and this city was the city and going up to the mountains he said that he said my he said my kite started in campa Um and he he you know he felt like that created this so he always believed that this was the way to to give kids a rest pit from >> what was going on >> but even more importantly kids who could wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to go to camp >> kids who couldn't help them get to camp they going to do >> so that's that's how we got the fed the federation got involved you give all this you know you've given all this money to all these causes what about to orthodox causes you want them to respect you and then from there he's like okay it's working for the boys, we need something for the girls. >> What about their sisters? >> What about the sisters? >> And like they say, the rest is history. And it's still going strong. >> Still going strong. >> We had a somebody here was just sharing that their daughter was in camp this past year and that like you walk into camp and 60 years of Ronnie Greenwald is every single they felt is in every fiber of how the camp runs. >> So his legacy obviously lives on in a substantial way. Um and and you I was thinking about that how many kids went through his camps from when they were opened until today? I think Sternberg alone they have a number something like 30,000 mAV also you know I don't it's less but it's also you know >> and and think about it it's not 30,000 because if you had a young lady who went there that was struggling and she found her voice and she found herself and eventually she formed a family and she had children whatever camp they went to those are Sternberg an those are Sternberg grandchildren >> and and listen as somebody who's been in camp and part of the headstaff camp and you know in my own life a good for a bit of time as well um for certain kids camp is the two months in the year where they're truly lost. >> That's what they're that's what they're waiting for all year long just to get to camp. >> And that's why we never understand when the singing alma moers and kids cry. Why are you crying? >> You're here for two months >> because they think they have 10 months now without camp. And those 10 months for so many kids is such a struggle. It's literally living a leis life to make people. Okay, we have a lot of time. Let's let's transition to some of the craziness. Okay, >> where should we start? It's it's impossible to that's why this book is not really a possible book. It's just whatever you put in there probably 10 other things that you forgot like you were saying. So, >> yeah. >> Um, tell us a little bit about, you know, some how he ends up in Africa, in Guatemala, I don't know, all these group. What happens? How do you get a guy who's running a camp and caring about Kindle Cla all of a sudden running global negotiations with terrorists? >> There's a lot of steps. everything just kind of built one thing on another. But he uh got involved in a negotiation with uh between there was a Jew who was in Mosambique, Marin Marcus, Mirron Marcus uh whose plane crash landed in Mosambique. He had a business. He went back to Israel and South Ro South Africa >> Rodia. Anyway, they he they went astray. They crash landed. The plane was shot up. It's question whether this big makus they were shot up once. They were on the ground. They thought it was a spy aircraft or when it was in the air they got shot. His brother-in-law was killed. He was he was stuck uh uh in jail for 19 months in he was in a cage for like six months in the town square. I mean it was just crazy stories. And I found a bunch of this on Wikileaks because I found my father on Wikileaks and then I found a lot of interesting stories and you see how inaccurate much you know anyway the the he had an Israeli connection and my uncle my uncle my uncle Sydney who had built Liato hospital he had a lot of connections in there a member to Kesset Fat Chiron very powerful controversial gazillionaire uh approached him he says you have American connections can you help get this guy out of jail in South Africa in uh Mosmbique and he's like the one with the connections in the government is my brother. So they had a meeting, he got his congressman involved and eventually he ended up getting he ended up uh securing his freedom for a Russian spy Robert Thompson who was imprisoned for in Pennsylvania and him and and another person who was also got into it anyway for for this like Israeli South African guy, the Americans and the Russians. It all had to do with their struggle for world dominance, the Russians and the Americans, and what's going to push the buttons of each side. And he kind of worked out this negotiation. He spent I don't know, six, seven months on it. And uh so that was that was where it kind of started. >> Can you say the nice part on the bridge? >> On the bridge. >> When it was P. This was the base. >> This was before the bridge. This wasn't the bridge. >> This was the border. It was the border. >> So the border at the border. So this all happened on Araf Pesak. My brother has memories of it. I don't not p with seder and well it's a great story. You have to read the book by read. This story is unbelievable. The pieces of it I can't say it right now but they're there on the border. Someone had been shot there a week before my father. >> Two people have been killed before and and it was it's Pesak and he said to me Marquez he said do you know and he always said to him do you know what tonight is? He said I don't know the month. I don't know the year. or another day and he said and they raised >> my father who would cry wouldn't even tell the story there was also like I think it's this story there was another beautiful detail in this that he ended up at the seder in in Johannesburg sorry and then the part of me that like literally I had tears in my eyes when I was reading it was that like you know there was stuff going on even as he's there it's not a slam dunk or a done deal and then he finds out that the entire Janice Burkahila is domining for his success. >> Yeah. >> Is that not beautiful? >> It's beautiful and >> scary like anything. >> Scary like anything. And as they're trying to land towards the border, it was very tricky landing and the mountains were low and it was like a whole complicated thing. And Congressman Gilman who was flying with my father turned to my father and said, "Rabbi, you think those kids are still praying? >> You think they're still praying for us?" My father said, "We have Franc's braha." That's how we traveled by yontiff to do this. It was uh >> and Mosha said to him for he said three times >> for this and this and others I don't think he said and others he said three times like why say three times they didn't realize this was going to be his career for the next 20 years taking people out of prison you know and and prisoner swaps and whatever etc. as as a rashiva of a great yeshiva that does so much good for cl Israel I know personally um TJ Ferris that's what it's called >> ferris of deferris of um who meets many talim andem transforms their life with great reban like what do you you know as you as you walk into the bdish the first day of this man like is there rani in the back of your mind like what are the things that you're trying to bring to your yes yeshiva from your your mother. >> So the the strange thing is is that I kind of thought I was recreating the wheel and I was doing my own thing and I never understood the power of legacy of memory of training of everything that I had kind of grown up with. I never really understood that that was what was pushing me in that direction when I finally realized it. So it's like okay T I'm saying you know whatever this is the life >> you gave us this is this is what it means to be your kid like this is this is this is what we do >> a really powerful story about that um just after after the funeral uh after the leva so all the boys in yeshiva were there and we could only come afterwards >> right because in you can't go to you don't yeah they didn't want us to go so much to the kev at all but okay we're not that much you shaman. And so we went there and all the boys are coming out as we're going there with the whole family. And we're all, you know, pretty shattered. And every guy comes to her and give him a big hug. And um like one of the guys stops, she goes, "Rebby, shouldn't you be getting the hugs? Why are you giving the hugs?" I'm like, "Being Ronnie Greenwolf's kid means that when you give, you just get so much." >> That's so nice. So I want to push you a little further on this. Give us give us a nugget, a piece of an approach, a perspective that you have as a rashiva of yeshiva. Um like what's that, you know, direction that you you kind of like this is this is so important and I know really it's from my father. >> Okay. I didn't originally know this was from my father, but I knew then found out why it resonated. I worked na for a while said to me if you could teach a person he has free will you have changed his life and I thought like that's so of course every guy in yeshiva has a different story every guy even in the yeshivas that seem as if every guy is the same every one of them has a different story every person has to be encouraged to grow you have to believe that every person can grow. You have to really believe it. Like you have to look at him and see this guy. Wow. What he could do. What's his starting point? Where is he? Find out where he is. Be curious. Where is he? Start from there. Don't let him wallow in it. I would rather admire you for what you do than pity you for what happened for you. Let's see if we could create you and you're not you were in a house of of a school in my correct >> again leadership position. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Um what was your like how did you see your tati? Um on the first day of school the girls are all there. Is there something in the back of your mind? Is it conditioning? I think it's also kind of in a similar way just the excitement to see who they can be. Just not just seeing them as they are now and also what they can be. There's this moment now it's very confusing teen, you know, teenage it's not an easiest time and you don't quite know where you're going and who you are and but I can see that there's such gold and beauty and richness. So I'm just excited to see where it's going to go. It's like I was a high school teacher for two still for two two decades more than two decades. And like I think sometimes as teachers and as and as educators we're we're we're more excited for the kids on the first day of school than they are for themselves because we see that we see we're not just seeing the here and the now which is what teenagers are. It's the here and the now. >> We're like this this kid could become an amazing person and will become an amazing person. >> And that sounds just like your father speaking you know. >> Yeah. I want to share something about that though. In the old days, he would talk about the future. As he got older, he started talking about the present. He said, "You, you know, you see this kid, they have the piercings, they have this, they have that, and I see this kid's going to be, you know, one day this beautiful head of a family, etc., etc." He started saying, "No, there's gold in them right now. See it right now. See their beauty. Oh, what about that? Oh, see their beauty right now. There's so much ugliness in the Bria. There's so much ugliness in the world. See the beauty. If you could see the beauty of Hashem's creation, you have it all. If you can't, everything's terrible. You know, there's something in the book that touched me very deeply. And that is that if you look at your father's life, every time that he's having real, that he's really creating something special, somehow someone comes and try to take him down. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> It could be hashkafa. It could be leadership. It could be competition. fear. >> Yeah. Always something is trying to take him down. Did you see that or you didn't even know about the what was going on behind the scenes like the politics or the school politics or camp polit did did you know anything about that? >> Um when I was young we were really protected from it. Um when we got older yes definitely. Uh, and we would hear things and my father's kind of approach was don't engage in an argument and just like keep your head low, work hard. >> Just hold on, keep doing what you do. Get more creative, get more proactive, do another thing and another thing. >> If you are Yes. Today's newspaper is tomorrow's toilet paper. It people forget about it. And don't don't allow it to have life. If you fight, it will stoke the fire. Just keep doing what you do. >> He didn't believe that people could really hurt you. Like you do your thing. You keep he told me a few times, keep just do what you do. Just keep doing the good thing you're doing. Just don't look right or left. It just >> and what's so inspiring about was that when there was challenge of in camp there was some politics and stuff like that and people didn't send their kids back the gym >> Kameki their kids stayed in this camp I mean they knew obviously >> they knew they were big enough to see >> as did your father >> you know I grew up in Cleveland and that's off very much off the beaten path I knew as a child that there was a man named Ronnie I never heard of Sternberg. Never heard of Mug and Av. I never heard I knew as a kid that there was a man named Ronnie Greenwald. I don't remember the context. I knew he didn't have a beard and >> and I knew that he was a he was a special person. Where I heard about it, I don't know. I don't even know. And it's pretty amazing. You know, we're pretty disconnected out in the boondocks. >> Yeah. No internet. >> Yeah. Like where would I know about him? I'm assuming that probably at some point in my life a Rebby, an educator, someone in camp said a story about him and it stuck and it stuck and like I'm I'm reading this book and I'm like, you know, I knew this guy, you know? >> Um, can we just take a moment, if you're comfortable doing this, like his children, you know, before we get to that, I think we cannot have this interview without talking about your mother. >> Absolutely. >> No way, no how. Tell us tell us about the greatness behind the throne or I don't know if you ever heard this before. Where does the word rebbitson come from? Most people don't know this. So my grandfather was at a kiness of rabundam in Europe 200 rabundam. He turned to the rabban was rabbanum and rebbitson and he's like what's the shyish? What's the root of the word rabbitson? And no one knew and he says I'm a babbas but I'm going to teach it to you. It's reb >> it's the rabbi in height. So talk to us a little bit about your mother. You see in the book that she's always, you know, hovering somewhere there and that a lot of the that he's having probably is because of her. >> So >> it's it is funny because like she's like I didn't do anything. >> Right. Right. >> That's why she's successful. >> She's just her support her her support her first of all keeping the home front going you know first of all and being supportive of Yeah. She was always there. She was always home. She didn't really work outside of the house except for a brief stint. She was always there when he came home, always, you know, food, happy, calm, >> guest for shabas, the whole vibrant, a vibrant home. And the support, I think the way I felt the most was when every time my father spoke, he would always come over to my mother afterwards to check in with her. How was it? And it just told me so much about how much it gave him, just to have her support, just to know that that she was encouraging him, listening to him, waiting for him to come home. Like that's just huge. >> And their shik was very unlikely. >> Very unlikely unlikely. >> Very unlikely. >> Go ahead and share with us. >> So uh he my mother uh when she was she grew up in a traditional home and she found Yiddish guide and she's 17 in college and she joins the hill >> and there's no voucher movement there. >> There's no movement. It doesn't exist. >> No iss nothing nothing. And she she's like, I I feel like I'm standing before a well with a teaspoon. That's the way she described it. There's so much Torah here and I don't know any of it. I can't read it. There was in English. Not the most inspiring safer that one, you know, would look forward to, even though she probably went through it many times. Um and so she asked is grandma. Uh she's like, Izzy, I need someone to teach me. Would you learn with me? He was in Hilo. He had gone to yeshiva and he was also he went to her for a little bit and then he said I got a shik for Ronnie this is a sh for Ronnie and he says to my father he said Ronnie I got a sh for you and my father's like I'm not dating he's like no Ryan this is a sh but no no it's like one second you got to teach this girl she needs I'm not teaching a what are you talking about >> I'm boy I'm not teaching a girl talking no this girl is going to be your I'm telling you and it kind of went like that and event and he didn't there's a whole story about how he ended up the book we also have to understand that the times >> were different >> were very very With that being said, with that being said, listen, Hashem knew what he was doing. >> He became her tutor >> and and but she wasn't interested in him. Anyway, he eventually got interested. She eventually got interested. It's a good story. Kare >> and and we should not say the story, but there's a beautiful moment the day after they met the first day of Shabbraus. What your father is morning. >> So, we should say the story even though we shouldn't. Um, >> listen, you're you're the son. You get the chance. my mother's uh father and stepmother. They weren't from and they have this daughter who's becoming is marrying the yeshiva guy and they were so worried that they were going to lose her that there wouldn't be a connection. You confirm you hide your you hide the skeletons in the closet. You know, this is a problem even today. And um and you know, so somebody said something to my mother about she was like that's ridiculous. She was a real daddy's girl. She was so close with the father. They spoke every day till he passed away in his 90s. I mean, but uh so the first day afterwards, my father says, "Um, let's go visit your parents." Says, "Why? We'll see him in." And he's like, "Didn't you hear your father's worried that he's going to lose you?" Says, "That's ridiculous." Says, "But he's worried that he may lose you." How could he be worried? Doesn't matter. He's worried. They went to the house and when they saw them at the door, they were so full of joy and so grateful. And that was really the the relationship with all the relatives continued all the years like that, religious and not religious. There was there was never a barrier respect in terms of our love for them, their love for us, the connection. >> And that's so precious because it's much easier to to the world around you. >> Yes. But to be tuned in and sensitive to the people who are in your life, not not everybody does that. Okay, just let's take 60 seconds for this. It's fair to say that like your all your siblings are doing things for others. That's what they spend their life doing. Whether it's rashiva, therapist, >> whatever. >> And probably that's that's probably was something that gave your father tremendous nas. >> Yeah. I hope so. I I hope so. >> He seemed very proud of us. >> Yeah, he seemed proud. He wasn't the type like to say, "Oh, I'm so proud of you." That wasn't like his >> But he introduced you with pride. >> But he'd introduce you with pride. >> This is my daughter. She This is my son. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> My son Shiva. >> That's right. >> Yeah. But no matter what it would have been, it would have been the same. Like >> it doesn't didn't matter. >> It doesn't matter. >> It wasn't about it wasn't about what we were doing. It was about who we were. The same way somebody said to me like, "So he was there for the whole world. Like what about for his kids?" I was like, "I think he was just trying to give the world what he had tried to give his kids. like we have this good life over here. Let's just share it, >> right? Totally. >> And I kind of feel like that's what it was all about. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Like if we went out to eat, who could come with us? If we went on a trip, who could come with us? Like we got it. And then who else can we share this with? >> I felt that the book has 400 something pages. It's a pretty thick book. >> 500. >> 500 pages. Counting. >> Art is counting. >> And Art Squirrel is our masters at really at biographies. They're the ones that wrote the biography about biographies. Um, did at some point in the whole process you're like, "There's so much more. We we we can't get it into 500 pages." Did that thought ever cross your mind? >> Not just the thought, they actually had it. >> Yes. Yes. Constantly. And it was like, "Okay, it's just going to have this will be >> started out much bigger if we had to tone it down. We had to cut it. Cut it." My brother cut it cut. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yes. The answer is yes. And wouldn't it be great if we do a volume two? We're probably going to do a website just you know we had 400 pages of emails that girls from Sternberg had sent in about him >> just came >> and every one of them was about a life-changing event in her life. So >> I'm pretty confident that this book is going to be bought by a lot of the people who were recipients of of your father's >> and that's going to open a whole new channel of communication and you're going to hear stories which there there could be a volume too potentially. Who knows? >> Thank you. We have to put an email address in at the end of the book to say if you have a story to share, please send it to that's well done. >> Oh yeah, thank you. Um but most importantly I I always like ending with a braha that I think volume two is the two of you and your siblings and your mishbahas because he passed away and very suddenly on some level. He was mil. He was too many. He was too busy to but the next chapter or the next volume is being written by the people who live his life and the thousands or maybe tens of thousands of people who are emulating his qualities and trying to make it theirs. And thank you so much for giving this gift to Khal Israel. It's it's a really beautiful gift. Um, I just want to warn people who buy the book that make sure you have time to read it properly because it's extremely compelling and just when you think it can't get any crazier, you read the next chapter, you're like, "What? >> Is this really happening?" >> But but most importantly, and I'm still kind of turn trying to wrap my mind around it, you can't read this book and just put it back on the shelf. You need to say, "Okay, what how could I ran my life? What could I do?" And uh that's my braha. Keep his legacy strong and keep spreading the beautiful qualities that he had and you know that next volume will be with him with the gul. Thank you so much for coming. It was to meet you and uh we should continue to to share in his heritage. Amen. >> Thank you. [Music]