Undoubtedly Liz Kennedy is a beautiful woman. She is tall, slender and fit, with perfect skin and hair. But the minute you speak with her, you realize that her outer beauty is the least interesting thing about her. Within two minutes of the start of our conversation, it became evident that Liz instinctively knows how to connect with people. Not only is she gracious, and intelligent, but she is also hysterically funny, and empathetic, topped off with an inner strength and resilience that Wonder Woman herself would admire.
Is it any wonder then, that Liz Kennedy is a widely popular beauty influencer and business entrepreneur with over 160,000 followers on TikTok alone, not to mention over 100,000 followers on Instagram?
However, Liz’s influence on women (and probably some men too) goes much deeper than that. She is acutely aware of the struggles that many women go through, as she has experienced some very difficult struggles herself, and come out the other side. As a result, she is genuinely working to help heal and elevate women’s lives from the inside out.
Her company Beauty Magnet is an extension of that mission. Liz explains, “My company @beautymagnet was developed and intended to not only create solutions and simplicity in the beauty space but with the power and mentality of BEING magnetic. It’s important that when we speak about skin, we speak about it as a healing practice rather than just vanity.”
Liz Kennedy is the real deal. Did I mention that she is a great cook too?
I understand that you were originally from the New York but now live in Los Angeles. What sparked that move?
Liz: We moved to L.A. when I started shooting the Steve Harvey Show. Everyone thought I was Latino, so then they wanted me to do beauty makeovers with big lashes and big hair, which I loved. It was so fun.
Steve is such a great guy. He’s so smart and such a pleasure to be around. And then I fell in love with California, and we (my husband and me) decided to take the leap and stay.
Cindy: Where is your husband from?
Liz: His parents are Russian, French, and Argentinian but he was born and raised in Muttontown Long Island with all Jews.. His best friend is Jewish. His love of Judaism is infectious.
Cindy: So you weren’t much of a stretch for him then.
Liz: No, not at all. I was born in Queens, and then I was in Israel until I was about 6 or 7. And then upstate New York until I was 18.
My father is Moroccan/Sephardic, Israeli, street kid. He grew up with 6 brothers. And my mom is Ashkenazi, NYU super- educated. They met in a Jewish nightclub in New York. They fell in love and had me. But unfortunately, they were two completely opposite human beings.
Liz: My parents had a very chaotic- abusive relationship-two people who were completely incompatible. When I was six or seven, my mom took my sister and I to the states, and changed our name to Kennedy, like the airport. A very American name. And to be honest, my very Israeli, hard-to-pronounce name would have been difficult as we tried to fit into American life.
In a sense, Liz Kennedy become my stage name.
Cindy: Do you remember moving from Israel to the states?
Liz: Not really. I remember being in kindergarten and everyone making in front of my Israeli name. And I didn’t speak English. I was really tormented in school and then tormented again when my name was changed in middle school.
Cindy: did you grow up in a Jewish household?
Liz: Hanukkah, always, Passover, always. My mom spoke Hebrew. But I didn’t really reconnect to Judaism until I returned to Israel to reconnect with my father when I was 21 or 22.
I was young and broke and was only supposed to stay for a week and a half, but I ended up staying for two and a half months. time. And then I would go back two to three times a year.
Cindy: What was the impetus for your career in beauty?
Liz: I’ve been obsessed with skin since I was a kid, I’ve always been fascinated by the skin’s ability to heal. I grew up so skinny, with big frizzy typical Jewish hair. I didn’t know how to do makeup, and grew up with a tomboy of a mom, so I taught myself everything. And then I came into myself and my body around the time I started college. There still are many days when I relate to that 13-year-old Liz though.When I was about 22-23, I said to my now husband that I wanted to get my license as an aesthetician, which I did. And then I went to nursing school because I thought I wanted to work with a plastic surgeon. But eventually I realized that I was more obsessed with the educational component of skincare.
At that point, I started to do a lot of TV. And while I was doing TV, I would listen to what people complained about. A lot of the complaints were about products and tools being scattered everywhere. So, I thought, what if I created something that was like a Swiss Army knife, something that could carry tools that is all in one. And then my husband’s best friend, connected me to an engineer to help me develop the product.
One of my investors told me that he invested in my company because I was so passionate about it. And he was the first guy who believed in me besides my husband.
Cindy: How many years ago was that?
Liz: Five years ago. It takes a long time to create a product- between the patents, the molds, the raising of money, the mistakes you make along the way. It’s exhausting. If it hadn’t been something proprietary, I would have just quit.
Cindy: So even though you were already in a very glamorous field, you still had this passion to create this product?
Liz: Yes, because for me it was more than just magnetized skin care tools, and eventually skincare, I wanted to create a legacy brand about being magnetic, and how to manipulate your brain to be more magnetic. We are planning a podcast that will tie into this.
Everyone is busy, so a long beauty routine just isn’t practical, but 10 minutes is. Some of the tools are made to change and improve your skin, but the other tools, like the eye roller are to help you to slow down and enjoy your life for 5 or 10 minutes. It may not be life-altering, but what is life-altering is showing yourself a little respect by taking time for yourself.
Cindy: You have a very holistic approach to your beauty segments.
On social media, you delve into healthy meals, skincare, makeup….
Liz: I think I am really good at getting a message across in 30 seconds, digestible segments.
Cindy: Why do you think your message resonates with so many women?
I’m pretty transparent with my followers about trauma or things that I have been through. And I have learned that there are many women that follow me because they realize that I am more than just this chick who is into beauty and skincare.
Liz: I’m pretty transparent with my followers about trauma or things that I have been through. And I have learned that there are many women that follow me because they realize that I am more than just this chick who is into beauty and skincare. A lot of the women that follow me are really struggling whether with debt, or postpartum depression or sexual assault, all this crazy stuff that happens to women.
It occurred to me that there are two ways that you can go. You can either totally not take care of yourself and fall into this deep dark hole, or you can do what I did and use it as a weapon and create self-care and mentally alter the way you perceive yourself while respecting yourself. I feel it is important to be transparent and share our struggles. I don’t want someone to look at me and think this is not attainable, because it is.
Cindy: Did you ever want to give up during the process of developing the Beauty Magnet?
Liz: There were so many times when I felt like giving up. It was very difficult raising money during covid. My TV work dried up, and I had just had my son. But what kept me going was the knowledge that I was creating a legacy brand and that it was more than tools and skincare. And that the reason that women will use this and continue to do so is that we are changing their skin and manipulating their brains to be more magnetic.
Cindy: What has been the biggest challenge for you as an entrepreneur?
Liz: There is definitely sexism and inappropriate behavior, but once someone gets to know me, they realize that they don’t want to mess with me.
Cindy: Have you had to deal with antisemitism in business?
Liz: I deal with a lot of it online-horrible stuff. But when I was a naive kid, in upstate New York, I thought that everyone liked us and wanted to be like us. I never knew the rest of the world didn’t like us. Jokes on us.
Cindy: I read somewhere that you said, “Even the people who believe in you and even invest with you, can doubt you. You must keep the vision alive.”
Liz: Yes, it’s true. One of my investors told me that he invested in my company because I was so passionate about it. And he was the first guy who believed in me besides my husband.
Cindy: It is interesting that your investors are two Muslim men.
Liz: They are great business partners. To be honest, they cared enough to invest in me. I get a lot of added value through their consultations and knowledge as well.
Cindy: What has been the most rewarding thing about creating a successful product and brand?
Liz: The messages I receive from women. I want to help simplify women’s countertops and brains and to help maximize their time and self-esteem. Everyone is magnetic, but they have to feel it. We want to bring this message to the consumer in a simple, digestible, and relatable way.
There are many ways to bake challah and Mandy Silverman offers no less than 370 varieties. Her sweet and savory braided loaves are topped and stuffed with ingredients you never imagined, like caramelized onions and brisket, molten peppermint chocolate and rainbow cupcake batter.
Known as the “Challah Guru” this Massachusetts baker offers recipes, guidance and endless inspiration for challahs. She shares her creations with 40,000 followers on Instagram.
“I started off as a local business in 2013, Mandylicious, cooking from my home,” said Silverman, a wife and mother in her early 40s. With only a year of practice, she began turning out challahs with “crazy, fun things. I had so much experience with all this weirdness.”
From her home, she sold 30 a week. Then she took her baking business online and became an Instagram influencer. Her posts went viral. She showcases her challahs and answer questions about making them. “Word of mouth has been really helpful. I realized that my platform was better served there, as a way to teach people how to make challah and give out recipes.”
Silverman has made every baking mistake, “so I was really able to help people.” She also teaches classes on Zoom in the past few years and more recently returned to in-person classes.
Her mother inspired her to start with the basics – a slightly sweet loaf with a shiny, golden crust and pillowy-soft interior. Mom longed for a neighbor’s honey-layered challah, but was told it was a secret recipe. “I said, Mommy don’t worry. I will figure out how to make it. After several attempts, she got it right. “At some point, you get exhausted from failure because it’s not like making a pancake. You know right away, but a challah takes hours to see if something is wrong with the taste or the texture.”
Then came buffalo chicken (her husband’s favorite), Indian food (a friend’s pick) salami and cookie dough, to name a few. She would make special flavors for friends for their birthday and a Thanksgiving variety braided to resemble a turkey beak and feathers.
The biggest challenge in making a challah is getting the dough texture right. “When you make the dough you want it to end up being tacky, but not sticky. You don’t want it to be too dry because the dough doesn’t have enough leeway to rise. If it doesn’t have enough give, it will taste doughy and dense.
“With a challah, you have to use your own judgment because the dough will change consistency depending on humidity levels outside if it’s raining.”
Silverman uses King Arthur bread flour. “If you use all-purpose flour you are going to have to use a lot more flour. Or sometimes you have to add water to get it just right.”
Silverman is modern Orthodox and says she connects to her Judaism through challah baking. She grew up in St. Louis and went to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was in the public relations field before she turned to challah baking.
She has no immediate plans for a cookbook. She feels like there are too many out there and recipes are widely available on the Internet.
She looks forward to teaching more classes in the fall. “I’m doing a Rosh Hashana meal, the whole meal which I’m very excited about.”
Silverman said that teaching first-timers is personally rewarding. “It’s the most amazing thing to be able to teach people like that. They think they can’t do it, like they’re very scared. When they’re successful and happy that’s like the best gift you can give someone.”
To reach Silverman about challah-baking opportunities, follow her on Instagram at @mandyliciouschallah or email her at mandylicious@mchallah.com.
Equipment needed (many available from the Mandylicious Amazon store): bowls, measuring cups and spoons, scale (optional), towel, rolling pin (or round object for rolling like a glass or can), basting brush (or paper towel), baking sheet or loaf pan, parchment paper (optional), bread machine (optional)
Traditional with Vegan Option Dough
1 1/3 cup water
4 ¼ cup high quality bread flour
1/3 cup canola oil
Generous ½ cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon *instant* yeast
2 teaspoons table salt Extra water and flour as needed for consistency
To make vegan: in place of egg yolks, increase water amount to 1 1/2 cups and oil amount to 1/2 cup
Directions:
Add dry and wet ingredients to a bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer. Set machine for “dough” cycle.
Or
If not using a bread machine, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and knead for 5-7 minutes by hand or by using the dough hook in a stand mixer. To reach desired consistency: if sticky, add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time; if dry, add additional water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Allow to rise in a large bowl, covered with a towel for 1 ½ hours.
When the dough cycle is complete, remove dough from the bread machine or bowl, and divide into 6 equal portions. On a floured surface, roll three portions into long ropes, then carefully braid together, then place on a greased loaf pan or greased cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover with a towel and let rise for an additional 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To Finish:
Brush with an egg wash (Vegan: use oil or melted margarine)
Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Dough Pointers:
Please note that the recipe calls for bread flour and instant yeast.
Bread flour is more glutenous than all-purpose flour so it helps the dough ball up easier. You can use all-purpose flour but be prepared to use a considerable amount more and the texture will not be quite the same.
Instant yeast does not need to be proofed. This means that it can just be added in with the rest of the ingredients in no particular order. Avoid quick rise or rapid rise yeasts, but if you are only able to get active dry yeast, you can use it you just have to proof it first.
To proof active dry yeast use the same amount (1 tablespoon) but add it to 1/3 cup 105 degree water and a pinch of sugar, and mix. When it bubbles the yeast has been activated and can be added to the rest of the ingredients. Use 1/3 cup less water in the rest of the recipe.
Dough consistency is CRUCIAL! Dough that is too wet will be hard to shape and won’t bake properly. Dough that is too dry will not rise well and taste dense and floury. The goal is to create a cohesive ball of dough that is not floury to the touch. Dough consistency can vary from kitchen to kitchen based on weather, humidity levels, and type of flour used. You can get your dough to the proper consistency simply by adding four or water, one or two tablespoons at a time, as the dough comes together, BEFORE the first rise (dough consistency will NOT improve as the dough rises). If you live in a particularly humid area or are finding that you are having to add a lot of flour, try using 1/3 cup less water at first and adding more as necessary.
After the first rise, dough can be refrigerated for up to five days or frozen for up to a month.
If you have any problems or questions, Direct Message @mandyliciouschallah on Instagram!
“When Jews are united, when Jews are able to empower themselves and fill their purpose, we succeed. We are the variable that changes the outcome of our situation.”
RUDY ROCHMAN WANTS TO BRING JEWS all over the world together. To simply call him a pro-Israel activist undermines the heroic work he undertakes. His bold mission to combat global antisemitism, to empower students on college campuses, and his unwavering commitment to tell the true story of the Jewish people, make him a force to be reckoned with. In a time of Israeli separatism, internal political divide, and rampant antisemitism, Rudy Rochman wants to empower every single Jew to own, understand, and affirm their Jewish identity.
Cindy: You are often referred to as an Israeli- Jewish rights activist, is that how you would define yourself?
Rudy: Yes. I see a difference between an activist and an advocate. A lot of people talk about Israeli advocacy. And when I look at advocates and what they do, which are important things, they’re usually more focused on supporting a cause. Like a fan of a sports team rather than a player on the field. An activist is someone who understands the current problems and how they fit into the context of the Jewish people: What are the problems that we face? What is the next chapter of Jewish history? How are we trying to move forward? How are we trying to create coalitions? How are we trying to raise the younger generation? And, how are we trying to find a mission statement that allows us to move forward? That’s more of the mindset of an activist, I think.
Cindy: What problems do you see facing the Jewish people today?
Rudy: I see five major problems facing the Jewish people. The first is antisemitism, the constant movement against the Jewish people that has existed within the extremes of every society, throughout history. The second thing is a lack of identity for a lot of the younger generation of Jews. There is a lack of empowerment, not knowing how to stand up and be ourselves, and learning to practice Judaism rather than to put Judaism into practice. Praying behind closed doors rather than putting into practice the things that we’re praying about. The third is a lack of a mission statement. There’s no conversation or direction for the next generation. Previous generations had a mission to come to Israel, to liberate Jerusalem, and everyone was united behind that goal. What’s the next chapter of that conversation-? We need to figure out where we’re going. If we don’t know where we’re going, we’re not going anywhere. The fourth is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of Jews and Palestinians being completely divided and seeing this reality as a zero-sum game. There’s no reality where Israelis or Palestinians will disappear. If our mission as a Jewish people is to do tikkun olam-to heal the world, and to empower and enlighten other nations, that definitely starts with fixing our own home with our own cousins first. A lot of people look at the issue of the Palestinian conflict as it’s either us or them. But the reality is that today we do have the power and thus the responsibility to change this. If this is our land and our home, we have a responsibility to fix this land and home. In the Palestinian society, they don’t have the power. They don’t have freedom of speech. They don’t have the ability to speak up and, to add to the issue, they’re going through a lot of brainwashing growing up. And lastly, the fifth issue concerns the Tribes of Israel being displaced to the four corners of the earth. There are so many members of our “family” that are disconnected from us and still suffering in North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Everyone has heard of the Lost Tribe’s concept from a historical level. We know they exist. On a spiritual level, we talk about them three times a day in the Amidah, that they need to come home. If the situation was reversed, that we were the ones suffering and dispersed, wouldn’t we expect them to come for us? In order to do that, we have to shift the consciousness of the next generation and to understand who we are. It is difficult to do a puzzle with so many pieces missing. Bringing home the Lost Tribes gives us the missing pieces which helps the greater collective that we’re meant to be. And in so doing, we become stronger through that collective identity.
Cindy: Talk to me about your documentary, We Were Never Lost.
Rudy: We Were Never Lost is a tool to bring awareness of the Lost Tribes. Season one takes place in Africa. This past year we were in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Madagascar. On our way to visit the local Jewish community in Nigeria, the Igbos, we were arrested and imprisoned. The government is very much against the local Jewish community. So by association, they saw us as enemies.
Cindy: I like how you just like skipped over the part when you were in prison. Were you aware of how many thousands of people were behind you, how much activism was going on to try to get all of you out?
Rudy: We had no idea of anything. We didn’t have our phones. We didn’t know if people knew. We had no connection, understanding, or awareness for three weeks. We were completely disconnected. It was really beautiful to come out and to see how much effort was made on our behalf. On the other hand, our mission was to tell their story, not to become the story.
Cindy: What kept you and your colleagues going? Did you ever lose hope that you wouldn’t be freed?
Rudy: We were kidnapped on our third day in Nigeria. We didn’t know when it would end. We had no idea if it would be days, weeks, months, or years. But we definitely knew we would get out of there. We went through a very harsh experience, especially in the last two weeks when we were jailed with Boko Haram terrorists. But what we went through is a small drop compared to what the Igbos have experienced. It was definitely not easy, but at no point did we lose hope. And there were constant miracles happening in front of our eyes that kind of kept us going.
Cindy: Can you give me an example?
Rudy: When we were taken to prison, they took everything away from us except my tefillin. They didn’t even open my tefillin case. It could have been a gun or a knife for all they knew.
From left to right: Filmmakers, Edward David Benaym, Noam Leibman, Rudy Rochman in Nigeria.
One day, we (Noam, Eduard, and Rudy) heard that a protest was being planned and Noam suggested that we should participate wearing our tefillin. On the back of the Shema Yisrael packet we had received from Chabad, it said that it is written in the Talmud, that when you wear tefillin in times of war, it strikes fear in the hearts of your enemy. So, we did just that and we saw how frightened they became. Another miracle occurred when we were taken into interrogation. There was this long hallway of hundreds of rooms where all of these different people were being interrogated. They would always bring us to the same room, room number 18. And for the Jewish people,18 is a very powerful number: Chai-Life. The room right across from us was room number 26, which is also a very powerful number for the Jewish people, which represents Hashem-G-d. But I still wasn’t understanding yet that out of hundreds of rooms, the two room numbers connected to us were the two most important numbers for the Jewish people. I kept wondering what was trying to be communicated here? 26 is Hashem-G-d, and 18 is life. Then one day as I’m walking down the hall and looking at the doorknobs, I saw Hebrew writing on each door. Ironically, an Israeli company, named Magen (which means shield or protect) had sold them the doors. And then it dawned on me: HaShem (26), is protecting (Magen) your Life (18) HaShem is protecting your life. There was a reason why we were there; we had to stay strong and we would be able to overcome. There were constant little miracles like that. That’s also a mindset that I’ve always had my whole life for whatever situation.
Cindy: What do you feel is the largest threat to Jewish life in the United States and in Europe today?
Rudy: If we look at Jewish history, every single genocide, massacre, pogrom, inquisition, Holocaust, has happened when we were divided. Even before the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temple, the Jewish people were divided. And to the contrary, when we look at the opposite, when Jews are united, and empowered, when they know who they are, and are fulfilling their purpose, we overcome. Every single challenge we have faced, when powerful nations came to destroy us, miracles happen, and we survive. Many say that the creation of the State of Israel was a miracle. But the miracle only happens when this equation happens; when Jews are united. When Jews are able to empower themselves and fill their purpose, we succeed. We are the variable that changes the outcome of our situation. Clearly, Jews are not the only minority that have faced hatred. It’s usually one group against another group, not all groups. What is unique to the Jewish people though, is that the extreme of every hate group believes that we are the problem. But It’s not something we’re doing. We’re not making these problems. So I started thinking maybe it’s something that we’re not doing. And what are we supposed to do in this world that we’re not doing? What is our mission statement? Tikkun Olam/Repairing the world, and being a Light unto other Nations has been our mission statement, our purpose for thousands of years. We can use the analogy of the immune system in the human body. The immune system’s responsibility is to heal the body and to empower the other organs to function. If the immune system does not work right, the body becomes sick and all the other organs blame the immune system for the diseases. It’s not because the immune system created the disease. But rather, because subconsciously, the organs recognize that it was the immune system’s responsibility to prevent it. In my opinion, that is why these different groups throughout history conclude that we are the problem. Because deep down inside of them they recognized that we had a responsibility to prevent these problems from happening and we did not. So now we’re being blamed for them. And that’s something that many Jews are not yet ready to hear because we’re too comfortable, we’re too traumatized, and we’re too victimized. And we think that the way to succeed is by getting the rest of the world to save us. It’s also a process of decolonization. We’ve been through mental, psychological, spiritual, and physical colonization for 2000 years and we need to undo those things and figure out who we really are and figure out as a generation where and how we move forward. The problem is that we’re not even conscious of what our responsibility and abilities are. These things are happening, not caused by us, but could potentially be prevented by us. For thousands of years, our ancestors have been saying our responsibility is to heal this world and to enlighten and free the other nations from whatever slavery, mentally or physically, that they’re living in. So that’s our goal and our responsibility.
Jewish rapper Nissim Black @nissimofficial, and Israeli activist, Yirmiyahu Eliya aka @that_semite with Rudy Rochman @rudy_israel
Cindy: How do you make this relevant today, especially for students facing antisemitism on college campuses?
Rudy: It’s still relevant to fight on campuses and to debate and to shift the pop culture narrative. Part of the reason we’re doing this documentary is to reconnect today’s activists back to the greater whole. But for us to be most effective in the short term, we have to understand the long term. It’s just like playing chess. You have to know where you’re moving your pieces in order to get to your end goal.
Cindy: What are effective steps that college students facing antisemitism and antizionism can take? Rudy: I think we can learn from examples throughout history like the Civil Rights movement. The black community was able to get their rights by fighting for them, earning them, and shifting pop culture. And as that younger generation grew to a strong enough demographic, politicians had to take them seriously and eventually those individuals also grew up and became the next politicians. And I tell the Jews living in Europe, where antisemitism is systematically much more developed, they either need to stand up for themselves and fight back or leave. They don’t have the option to stand down or ignore what is happening. And as the Jewish younger generation grows to a strong enough demographic and politicians start to take them seriously, and they grow up to become the next politicians, we will hopefully see that same pop culture shift. Because if we don’t stand up and fight back, it’s only going to lead to what we’ve seen happen many times in the past. This applies to America too.
Cindy: How effective do you think the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) movement against Israel has been?
Rudy: BDS is a big distraction strategy. It’s trying to get us to focus on attacking a resolution rather than attacking the shift to pop culture. The moment that it’s brought up every single year in this BDS campaign, whether it passes or not, is irrelevant to the fact that it’s even spoken about. It shifts the mindset of the future political and intellectual class of the next generation so that when they get into positions of power, they look at Israel wrong. And then I realized that the greater problems were not how strong the movement was, but how weak our own movement was or how nonexistent it was. So it’s a shift in mentality that I’m trying to help spark, especially amongst the younger generation. Dealing with the symptoms is not usually curing the actual problem that you have. We need to understand that the most important thing is to deal with the actual cause of this. I don’t think that I’m the first person to come out as an empowered individual. I think that the Jews fundamentally are empowered. But in my opinion, when you hide your identity you’re partaking and investing in a reality that you should be afraid of, which only gets exponentially worse and is far more dangerous than the potential danger you could have faced as an individual or on the collective level. And so we need to understand that regardless of us seeing ourselves in a very hyper-individualized society, we are a part of a collective and based on how we function, that collective will be targeted in different ways and then it impacts the individuals. So again it’s another shift of mentality about understanding how we need to see ourselves. Again, that is the reason I went to Columbia. To prove that I could go to the number one most antiSemitic school, revolutionize the campus, and bring up a movement that was strong enough to inspire another 50 different campuses to do the same. I’m trying my best to give tools to the younger generation in ways that I wish I would have had or understood or known when I was younger before finding them myself. I try to reach as many people through my videos. A lot of people that see these videos are able to see how they can stand up for themselves, they can be smart, reasonable, calm, and articulate.
Cindy: Today, if a young person didn’t grow up in a particularly religious home, or a culturally Jewish and/or Zionist home, what do they hold onto?
Rudy: Someone can have the sense of identity if you understand that you’re a part of a collective, you’re a continuation of this history. On top of that, if you add the layer of understanding our collective purpose, then you’re able to be strong regardless of your spiritual level. Although I do think the spiritual element is a huge part of our culture, a very important part of our culture.
Cindy: Is there anything you would like to add while we are on this subject?
Rudy: If we don’t respect ourselves, we can’t expect the world to respect us. If we want to change things, it’s up to us. It is also true that Jews tend to go and help every other minority group, because it’s in our culture, it’s in our nature to do so. But we can’t do that at the cost of forgetting to stand up for ourselves. I’ve been faced with thousands of antisemites from every single corner of the world, and I can tell you that when you are strong and empowered, but also respectful, and not coming from a place of attacking but enlightening, it shuts down the antisemites every time.
Cindy: When did you know you would become an activist? Rudy: My undergrad degree was in political science technically, but in practice, it was really fighting antisemitism and helping the Jewish people move forward. That’s really what I was learning there. But even at 7 years old it became clear to me that I would live my life to help the Jewish people move forward. Cindy: What triggered that epiphany?
Rudy: When I was seven, I took a trip to London with my mom and brother. We were on a bus when the driver asked my mom if she was Jewish, because of the Hebrew writing on her shirt. He literally threw her off the bus. That moment changed my life. That experience made me realize that the next time I go through something like this, I have to be prepared. Even at seven, I realized that the attack against my mother was also an attack against my people. I knew that I would always be a protector of our people.
Cindy: Where do you see yourself in 10 years or what are your goals for the future?
Rudy: Personally, I hope to be married with at least five kids and living in Israel. My professional goal is to activate the Jewish people and to use my potential and the abilities that I have to fix the problems that I see. I’m doing my best to achieve that.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE that a loving devoted 85-year-old grandfather, once considered the Jewish Mafia’s father of an illicit gambling syndicate, partnered with Simon Wiesenthal to track down Josef Mengele in Paraguay? We sat down with Myron Sugarman and learned about his past mob ties, his efforts to defeat antisemitism, and his historical Nazi hunting experience. And we learned a lot more than how to say “Stick ‘em up” in 30 different languages.
Mac: What inspired you to write a book about your life?
Myron: I thought about it when I was in jail. I realized that I had all these tremendous life adventures. So when I got out of jail, I started to write my memoir. And then several years ago, I decided to turn it into a book. After the book came out, I received invitations to speak all over the United States and the U.K. from synagogues, and Jewish institutions and then from YouTubers. They wanted me to explain the history of the Jewish mob. In the last several years, I must have done hundreds of speeches.
Mac: What year did you get out of jail? Myron: November the 13th, 1996. I went in April 18, 1995, I did 19 months. 555 days of pure rest and relaxation on vacation. Mac: You enjoyed it?
Myron: You make the best out of everything as far as life is concerned. If you have the right attitude and are healthy that is a big help. In prison, we played a lot of sports, got into physical and mental condition, read, and met a lot of different types of people. At the end of the day, you learn how to say “stick’em up” in 30 different languages.
Mac: What was the most difficult part of being in jail?
Myron: The most difficult part is being separated from your family. You want to take care of them, and you’re deprived of that opportunity.
Mac: I heard that Raman noodles are like currency in prison.
Myron: Well in my time, it was tuna fish.
Mac: What was your childhood like growing up in an old Jewish neighborhood back in the day? Myron: It was fantastic. We used to go to the playground behind the grammar school with kids from all the neighborhoods in the district. The Italian neighborhood was behind the school. The Jewish neighborhood was in front of the school. We played stickball, football, softball. And everyone had a basketball net off their garage.
Mac: Did you grow up in an observant home?
Myron: No, there were no orthodox Jews where I grew up. When we moved from Hillside, New Jersey to Maplewood, New Jersey 1944, there wasn’t a temple or synagogue. So, the local rabbi of the conservative synagogue would pick up a bunch of us kids from the neighborhood and take us up to his synagogue to give Hebrew lessons.
Mac: Would you mind explaining a little about the origins of the Jewish Mafia?
Myron: They evolved from gangs. At the turn of the 20th century, many of the Jewish immigrants lived in ghettos. Some of the gangs were like clubs but many evolved into gangs that were really brutal. And they were involved in the dirtiest of all crimes; drugs, violence, prostitution, extortion, and hit crimes. And then with prohibition, the gangs become gangsters and they eventually became businessmen, but not in legitimate businesses. The Jewish mob went out of business in the 1940’s. I was born January 12, 1938. I’m 85. So, there were hardly any of the old timers around when I got started. The Jewish mob was absorbed by the Italians after the end of the of the Jewish era.
Mac: So how did you get your start?
Myron: When I came out of university, where I studied political science and languages, I went to work for my father, who had a large distribution business. He distributed and operated jukebox machines, vending machines, pinball machines, and eventually gambling machines. Though he wanted me to start a legitimate export business, which I did. I took a tremendous liking to it. I was not supposed to be a gangster. But my father passed away in 1964. I was 26 years of age. I’d only had five years in business with my father. My mother eventually sold out of the family business. And I went out on my own. In the process, I evolved into an outlaw. I was involved in contraband, meaning slot machines and illegal gambling devices that were prohibited for shipment in interstate commerce. I started to traffic in the illegal machines, including overseas.“From 1959 going forward, I traveled for business in 70 nations. And I lived all over the world from Africa to South America. So I had a tremendous international experience.” Over the period of years, we evolved from slot machines into video poker machines. And then I really got the reputation for being the founding father of the illegal gambling machine business in New York. I knew every gangster and every gangster knew me. It became a very profitable business. We put machines into laundromats, bars, and bodegas.
Mac: Was it dangerous for you in terms of the authorities? Didn’t they try to stop you?
Myron: Yes, I had three state cases and three federal cases against me. Then finally, I went to jail after many years of battling with the government. You see, what people need to understand is that you can create a monster. Everybody wants to create something which is gigantic and successful as a businessman. But in reality, when you create the monster, you don’t own the monster. It’s reversed. The monster owns you. I can’t even begin to tell you how many people depended upon my existence. Because you’re the engine to an industry and you have all the ideas and all the connections. You’re key to that business. But these people helped you to create the empire and you have a moral obligation to continue the business. You cannot just step away.
People would say to me ‘why didn’t you walk away?’ How are you going to walk away when you got hundreds of people who feed their families as a result of your very existence? The fact of the matter is when you go to jail, they have to make it on their own. And most of them couldn’t. Basically, the government put us out of business when I went to jail.
Mac: Would you have made a better life for yourself being legitimate? Myron: Probably. But by circumstances of life, you become a vortex. You’re pulled into it. All of a sudden, you’re operating in a different world with a different set of rules. It’s a different government. In fact, it’s two governments. You have what’s called the underworld, and you’ve got the overworld, so you are operating in two worlds. You have two forces pulling at you from both ends.
Mac: During your time traveling overseas, did you take your family?
Myron: I only took my family with me to Nigeria.
Mac: What was Meyer Lansky like? Did he teach you anything?
Myron: I believe it was in 1970 that I spent the entire Shabbat with him in Tel Aviv. He had just escaped the United States at that point because of an impending indictment (on tax evasion). He ran to Israel. Lansky told me that he knew my father and said very nice things about him. My father was one of the original investors in the Riviera Hotel in Havana, Cuba, together with his partner Abe Green. He had endless advice. I remember that he told me, “If you start to see your name and photo in the newspaper every day, get yourself up and run. They made me bigger than Al Capone.” He feared that the charges against him would result in an excessive punishment because the Nixon and Mitchell government wanted to come down hard on organized crime as a way of distracting the masses from the Watergate affair.
Mac: What is the best advice you have received?
Myron: There wasn’t one piece of advice that was exceptional, but rather, several things, like “timing is everything.” It’s important to understand when your time is up. And I knew at a certain point it was my time to put the key in the door and take off for Israel or go to South America. But as I said earlier, it is not so easy to run away. There was an old-time, legendary Jewish bookmaker from Newark who told me, “I made one mistake. I stayed on the block one year too long.” If I would have gotten out the year before, I’d never have gone to jail. But I stayed that one year too long and the world changed, and I wasn’t changing with it.
Mac: Were you cognizant of timing?
Myron: Yes. Nobody ever beats the system. Sooner or later the system beats you.
Mac: Were there any rules or guidelines specific to the Jewish mafia?
Myron: There wasn’t a rule specific to the Jewish mafia. But there was a golden rule that applied to anyone in organized crime, and that was, “Don’t snitch. Snitches get stitches.” Mac: Was there anything that distinguished the Jewish mafia from other mafia organizations? Myron: The main difference is that the Jewish mafia was a one-generation world. We did not pass it down to our children. My father had dreams of me going into the legitimate world, corporate, making all kinds of money, and so forth, being very successful.
Mac: It sounds like you lived in a world that was not black or white, but somewhere in between.
Myron: Life is gray. There is a Talmudic truth that says, “That for the human existence, there is no such thing as pure white and pure black, It’s all shades of gray.’” If you want perfect truth, you’re not gonna have perfect justice. If you want perfect justice, you’re not gonna have perfect truth. There’s fluidity.”
Mac: Who had the strongest leadership skills: Carlo Gambino, Meyer Lansky, or Jerry Catena?
Myron: All 3 of them. They all had natural leadership. They were gifted with natural intelligence. It’s one thing to be smart, but what we all want to be is wise. Smart leads to wisdom. So, you take your experience, and you are able to see things that other people can’t see. That’s leadership. Someone like Ze’ev Jabotinsky (journalist and founder of the Zionist Revisionist movement) didn’t lead by fear, but with principles. He acted with the same principles that he spoke. At that time especially, the mentality of a patriot and a gangster was very similar. As an example, the Jewish mob in the 1930s, throughout the United States, fought the American Nazi Party, and the head of the German American Bund Party, Fritz Kuhn. They fought the Ku Klux Klan. They fought antisemites in Chicago, in Minneapolis, in North New Jersey, in New York, in Los Angeles. Wherever there was antisemitism, there was a feeling of Jewish patriotism that manifested itself by actually beating up the Jew haters. In the 30s, it was strictly American Jews (outlaws, prize fighters, factory workers) who beat up the American Nazis.
Charlie Lucky Luciano, the boss of the Italian mafia, even told Meyer Lansky that he would send him all of the Italian kids that he needed to help in the fight. Meyer Lansky’s response to Mr. Luciano was that though he deeply appreciated the offer, it was a Jewish problem and was going to be resolved by Jews, and only Jews. So when people ask me what kind of a Jew Meyer Lansky was, I say, he was a very patriotic Jew. He was a patriotic American.”
Mac: What caused the downfall of the mafia?
Myron: The government. They’ve got all the money, all the time, all the personnel, all the structure, all the informers.
Mac: You seem very knowledgeable about Jewish history and Judaism in general. How did you gain your knowledge?
Myron: Jewish pride was transmitted. It was the inheritance from my family. The home that I grew up in was typical of its time. My father was a combination of American-born, roaring 20s, and the child of religious parents. His parents were extremely religious. My mother did not grow up in a religious home, but in a home filled with Yiddish culture. I heard my mother speak Yiddish frequently. Being proud of being a Jew first manifested itself in college because I took an interest in Zionism. I graduated in 1959. My final paper in political science was on the anatomy of the Jewish state, which at that time was just a little over 10 years old. As I traveled all over the world from 1959 on, I realized that I didn’t know anything about the Jewish religion. And that bothered me. I began to realize that they’ll never be Jews without Judaism. If there’s no religion, you’re not going to have Jewish people. They’re just going to be a one-generation people. They’re going to integrate, they’ll assimilate, they’ll disappear. So, I made a concerted effort to learn about Judaism, and to expose my family to the religion.
I have three sons, and when our son Benny was born in 1974, I made a decision to send him to Jewish day school. Today he’s an Orthodox Rabbi and Talmudic scholar in Boca Raton, Florida and has eight kids in Yeshivas.
Mac: With antisemitism/antizionism being at an alltime high, do you have any advice for how young people can deal with it?
Myron: The problem really boils down to a question of ignorance. If you’re ignorant, you’re going to be bamboozled by others, especially when faced with antisemitism or lies about Israel. You’re in a situation where you don’t know what the hell is going on. If you don’t know your own religion, you’re going to be susceptible to becoming anything except being a Jew. My father’s generation was a terrific generation in terms of its Jewish identity and pride, but most of them failed to raise their kids to continue to be Jews. That’s why today, 70% of the non-orthodox world intermarries. If you ask a Jewish person in the secular world, what’s the name of the mother and father of Jesus Christ, everyone knows the answer. But if you ask those same people if they know who is the father and mother of Moses, very few will know. If we are ignorant of our own world and religion, like I said before, you can be easily bamboozled. People always ask me how I managed in a business that was dominated by Italians. Well, one thing that they knew and were very clear from day one, I was a proud Jew. I made that point without sticking my finger in their eye. They just knew that I took pride in being a Jew. And I was confident. Confidence comes from knowledge. Knowledge is power. And the power of knowledge mixed with experience, results in the ultimate achievement of all mankind, which is wisdom. That’s what King Solomon said, didn’t he? It’s all about wisdom. ♦
TALKING TO ELON GOLD was like having a conversation with a cousin I hadn’t seen since his Bar Mitzvah in the early 80s. We’re both Gen X Jews (in fact, we spoke the day after he turned 52) from the Tri-State area (he grew up in the Pelham Parkway area of the Bronx, while I was a 15-minute drive from the Jersey shore), and we both agreed we came up in the “prime time” for Jewish comedy.
Before we got going, I warned Elon–who is very observant, down to the daily tefillin–that I am a self described “Bad Jew,” but this didn’t faze him at all, because Elon Gold embraces literally all humans at any stage in their belief systems. We actually did not linger on the topic of religion, sticking more to how our similar backgrounds informed our cultural Jewishness, specifically our humor. It’s our defense mechanism and our great strength. There’s no one funnier than Jews, we agreed (comedy is just tragedy plus time, with additional suffering for us), and Elon Gold is one of the funniest.
One of three creative and talented sons who tried the typical straight-and-narrow paths taken by a lot of smart Jewish kids (medicine, Wall Street) only to eschew it for show business (his brother Steven Gold is a composer and music producer, working primarily in the areas of television and film; his youngest brother, the prolific artist/rapper Ari Gold, who was also openly gay, passed away in February 2021 after a long battle with leukemia), Elon was obsessed with comedy from a young age and never once shied away from his Jewishness when performing. In fact, he learned not only to embrace it, but he made it a central part of his stand-up after he inadvertently learned an important lesson in embracing his Jewishness from his father.
Elon’s father worked as an assistant principal, but he and his wife loved Broadway. So with the little bit of extra money he had, he would go to “backer’s auditions” where he could invest in plays and musicals before they got to Broadway. “So I invested in many shows that opened and closed,” Elon says, relishing the eventual punchline that only he knows is coming. And then there was one show he saw before it ever went to Broadway and he said, “This is an amazing show. It’s probably the best show I’ve ever seen, but it’s too Jewish. I’m not going to invest in it.” Then, after the perfect dramatic pause for effect: “Of course, that was ‘Fiddler On the Roof,’” Elon delivers. “And thanks to that decision, we grew up in an apartment in the Bronx instead of in a nice house up in Westchester. That taught me a lesson. Never be afraid to be too Jewish or to invest in anything that’s too Jewish.”
Elon’s first special, which was released in 2014 on Netflix and is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, is called “Elon Gold: Chosen & Taken.” He equates his comedy to how Jennifer Lopez has albums in both English and Spanish for “her people.” Elon has one act where he has bits about being Jewish but then he has another act that’s so Jewish that non-Jews would not understand many of the references. “Sometimes I put on a warning label, ‘Some material may not be suitable for gentiles,’” says Elon. “We did that on a poster of my first one-man show that premiered at the Montreal Comedy Festival, which was called ‘Elon Gold Half Jewish, Half Very Jewish.’” “I never shy away from my Jewishness in my comedy, in anything I’m doing in show business,” Elon said. “Over the last decade or so, I’ve had two careers and certainly two acts. I call it showbiz and shul biz.” *rimshot*
Aside from his acting work on the 11th season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as “The Hulu Executive,” Elon also starred in the sitcom “Stacked” with Pamela Anderson, guest-starred in “The Mentalist,” “Crashing,” and “Frasier,” and has appeared on “The Tonight Show” an impressive 10 times. But for me, the first thing that pops into my Gen X brain is Elon’s spot-on impression of Jeff Goldblum, which is absolute genius. He also does killer impressions of Howard Stern, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Alec Baldwin, and more. And leave it to a smart, creative, and clever son of an educator to figure out a great way to maximize his time during a time of historic stagnancy: the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not only did Elon use everyone’s forced captivity to his advantage, he somehow managed to become somewhat ubiquitous while never leaving his LA home by turning his back office into a makeshift studio with cameras and lights and started “My Funny Quarantine” on Instagram Live. Every night, Monday through Thursday at 7 pm, Elon hosted A-list guests for much-needed comic relief. He also created another show on Instagram Live called “The Bachor” – a Jewish dating show that started as a suggestion by his friend, screenwriter Jeremy Garelick (“The Hangover”). One favorite guest: the 60-year-old woman who only dates 35-year-old men. “It’s almost too easy to mock the situation,” says Elon. “My favorite line was when she took out a cigarette, and I go, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t smoke. You have your boyfriend’s whole life ahead of him.’” At this, I casually mentioned that at 53, I’m the most single woman alive. “Oh, I’ll have you on next time we do it!” he promised, and I’m now lamenting I didn’t make a Yente-Fiddler joke there at his father’s expense. It certainly sounds like a fun way for those of us who actually enjoy being shut-ins to pass an evening, I told him. “It’s a very weird thing. It’s this fascinating train wreck – like what is going on here? These people are just such characters,” Elon laughed. “I’m having a drink. I’m smoking a cigar, and I’m just cracking jokes and having fun. So it’s fun for me, and the audience loves it.” And if that wasn’t enough to do, Elon also lends his talents to Merry Erev Xmas, a cross-cultural holiday show aimed at making everyone laugh–mostly at themselves–during an otherwise stressful season.
Despite the levity in his work and the obvious joy he takes in bringing joy and laughter to others, Elon has also unfortunately experienced Antisemitism, both personally and professionally. While Jews have always been a target (not for nothing is our non-official slogan, “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!”) and we’ve always had to have a thick skin, nothing can prepare you for the kind of hate incident Elon and his family experienced as they simply walked home from a Shabbat dinner at a friend’s house in Los Angeles in late August of 2014. They were waiting to cross a street when an SUV with four Middle-Eastern men in it pulled up alongside them. The man in the back rolled down the window and yelled, “Free Palestine!” Then another man opened the car door, stepped onto the street and yelled at the family, “I hope your children die! Just like you are killing children in Gaza!” Elon wrote about the impact on his very young children for the Jewish Journal. “We all know too well that “Free Palestine” means free Palestine from every Jew,” he wrote. “As they chant ‘Free Palestine, from the river to the sea,’ that doesn’t mean they want a two-state solution — they want Hitler’s Final Solution and a Jew-Free Middle East.”
We talked about how hard it is to watch our children learn that not everyone in the world is going to love them, and that some people are going to simply just hate them. But my two half-goyishe sons aren’t going to be targeted in the same way the children in an observant family are. And they aren’t targeted online like their Jewish mother is.
“Your kids were so young at the time,” I said to Elon. “What did you tell them, how did you explain that there is so much hate in the world?” “I told my children that there are just some really bad people out there who don’t have what our family has,” Elon replied, “which is love in their hearts for all people. They just have hatred. And they’re mean people who are just mean to anyone, like bullies.” Elon and I both have had to explain to our kids, like all Jewish parents, that some bullies are mean to people within their circle, and then others “express their hatred by attacking someone because they are gay, or black, or just different in some other way,” he said. “The bullies that yelled at us, their tool of bullying is antisemitism.” “And all bullying is rooted in jealousy,” I added, and he agreed vigorously.” So they see what they don’t have and attack us for having it.”
Aside from never hiding his Jewishness, Elon is incredibly proud of his family’s deep connection to Israel–even though it took him 30 years to return after having his Bar Mitzvah there. Once they made a trip as a family, he admits they became “addicted” and go every year or every other year. His son had his bar mitzvah there, and two of his kids have already spent extended time there – one for a gap year and one for the summer- with another one heading there soon, giving him another reason for another visit.
Elon has done tours in Israel and has even become quite the celebrity. His videos have gone viral in Israel and he often gets recognized on the street whenever he’s there, and remaining connected to the Israeli culture is one of the most important parts of his life. “I went from just being a tourist to selling out theaters there,” says Elon. “And now when I go there, I’m always performing and enjoying and touring. So now Israel’s a regular stop, and we just love it. We’re all about Israel in our family. We are a big Israel-loving family.”
As we wound up the conversation, I asked Elon what he wished for his children’s future. “I wish the same thing for your family, for my family, for everyone’s family. “Love and peace. Joy and happiness. All of that good stuff. All of it.”
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