Meaningful People

Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt grew up in Moscow as the son of the city's chief rabbi, trained in Bnei Brak and Ponovezh, and spent a decade as assistant rabbi at Manhattan's Park East Synagogue — until he was abruptly and very publicly fired. In this raw conversation with Nachi Gordon, he opens up for the first time about that moment: the New York Post headline, the car crash he got into reading about himself, and the isolation of losing not just a job but an entire community.
Out of that low point came Altneu, the congregation he and his wife built from nothing — starting with 40 people in their living room, then two and a half years of renting a different Manhattan venue every single week, never knowing until Thursday's email where Shabbos would be. Rabbi Goldschmidt walks through how that instability became the shul's strength, the breaking point that nearly ended the project, his father's advice that turned it around, and how it all led to buying a $35 million building on the Upper East Side. He also gets into what it's like leading a congregation through today's political climate in New York, and the loss of a beloved member that shook the whole community.
 
This episode is sponsored by:
 
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Timestamps:
 
0:00 Intro: A Shul With No Address
2:57 Growing Up in Moscow as the Chief Rabbi's Son
8:47 Sent to Bnei Brak and Ponovezh at Twelve
11:40 Choosing the Rabbinate and the Lakewood "Freezer" Years
18:28 Becoming a Rabbi at Park East at Twenty-Four
23:52 A Decade as Assistant Rabbi at Park East
26:52 Getting Fired: The Sudden, Public Fallout
33:47 Losing a Job, Losing a Community
36:19 His Father's Parallel Story and the Birth of Altneu
44:20 Building a Shul on Wheels Across Manhattan
54:48 The Breaking Point and His Father's Advice
59:05 Buying a $35 Million Building on the Upper East Side
1:01:28 Building Altneu's Identity and Culture
1:10:01 From the Pulpit to Politics: Life in Manhattan Today
1:17:50 Confronting Antisemitism and What Makes a Movement Survive
1:22:00 Remembering Wesley
1:24:37 Closing

Josh Livingstone is a husband coach who works almost exclusively with men, and in this episode he explains why so many well-intentioned husbands still leave their wives feeling unheard. He and Nachi unpack what he calls the real root of most marital friction: it's not a lack of communication, it's a failure to translate. Josh walks through the "headache test," the reason a wife asks her husband to do something 50 times, and why a woman getting controlling in a marriage is often a symptom of not feeling safe rather than a desire for power. He also explains why "I'm sorry you feel that way" is one of the worst things a husband can say, and lays out the right way to apologize: full ownership first, discussion second.
 
Josh shares stories straight from his coaching practice, including a wealthy client who was convinced a two-week trip to the French Riviera would fix his marriage, only to learn his wife just wanted a ten-minute walk around the block with him at night. He breaks down his four-step CORE method for turning insight into real change at home, and gets into why so many husbands were never actually taught how to show up for their wives in the first place. It's a candid, practical conversation about masculinity, leadership, and what it actually takes to make a marriage work.
 
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This episode is sponsored by:
 
► PZ Deals
 
Download the app and never pay full price again!
 
https://app.pz.deals/install/mpp
 
_________________
 
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
 
The easiest way to give Tzedaka
 
https://pushkapp.cc/meaningful
 
_________________
 
► Shopify Guru
 
Store looks great but not selling the way it should? Shopify Guru's Daniel gets under the hood and makes it actually work, no developer needed every time you want to make a change. Call 732-534-1404 or go to shopifyguru.io.
 
https://go.jcn.io/sgmp
 
_________________
 
► Ness Vacation Homes
 
EDEN GARDENS' LARGEST LUXURY HOME COLLECTION. Handpicked, high-end homes available exclusively through Ness.
 
https://nessvacationhomes.com/
 
_________________
 
► Rothenberg Law Firm
 
Personal Injury Law Firm For 50+ years! Reach out today for a free case evaluation.
 
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► Town Appliance
 
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Mendel Krashunsky is the founder of the Frum Health Club, a worldwide movement pushing Yidden to finally take their health seriously. He opens up about losing his father, an oligarch who lived a life of total luxury, to a preventable illness at just 38 years old, and how the grief sent Mendel into his own spiral of emotional eating that left him 70 pounds overweight and battling GERD before he'd even turned 20.
 
From there, Mendel and Nachi dig into why health gets treated as optional in frum life, even though it's a mitzvah straight from the Torah, covering ultra-processed food, GLP-1s like Ozempic, how to talk to kids about it, and the viral 10,000-steps-a-day challenge that's grown into a global movement with tens of thousands of followers. It's a raw, practical conversation about food, faith, and why taking care of your body isn't a contradiction to Yiddishkeit, it's part of it.
 
Join the Frum Health Club 30-Day Step Challenge!
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frumhealthclub
 
This episode is sponsored by:
 
► PZ Deals
 
Download the app and never pay full price again!
 
https://app.pz.deals/install/mpp
 
_________________
 
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
 
The easiest way to give Tzedaka
 
https://pushkapp.cc/meaningful
 
_________________
 
► KTYT – Win $1,000,000 for Your Shul
 
Take on a Kabbalah to stay quiet during a specific part of davening, and you're entered to win $1,000,000 for the shul, yeshiva, mikvah, or Torah project of your choice. Head to KTYT.org, make your Kabbalah, and pick which part of davening you're committing to.
 
https://ktyt.org/en/mpPOD
 
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► Shopify Guru
 
Store looks great but not selling the way it should? Shopify Guru's Daniel gets under the hood and makes it actually work, no developer needed every time you want to make a change. Call 732-534-1404 or go to shopifyguru.io.
 
https://go.jcn.io/sgmp
 
_________________
 
► Ness Vacation Homes
 
EDEN GARDENS' LARGEST LUXURY HOME COLLECTION. Handpicked, high-end homes available exclusively through Ness.
 
https://nessvacationhomes.com/
 
_________________
 
► El Al
 
From the Hebrew announcements to the Israeli atmosphere onboard, flying EL AL feels like Israel before you even land. With nonstop flights to Israel and Jewish comfort from takeoff to landing, there's nothing like hearing: ברוכים הבאים לישראל. Book your next flight with EL AL:
 
https://www.elal.com/eng/usa?utm_source=meaningful&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=gcny_incoming_usa&cid=s:el%7Cm:what%7Ccp:gcny%7Cct:incoming%7Cau:usa
 
_________________
 
► Rothenberg Law Firm
 
Personal Injury Law Firm For 50+ years! Reach out today for a free case evaluation.
 
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_________________
 
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Visit the website or message them on WhatsApp.
 
https://www.townappliance.com
 
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Claire Blumenthal Zeitler was adopted into an Orthodox Jewish family as a baby — until, a year after her wedding, her biological mother tracked her down and revealed something nobody could have prepared her for: her biological father is part of the deposed royal family of Bahrain. In this deep dive with Nachi Gordon, Claire walks through the whirlwind of discovering she's half-Arab, the isolation of hiding it from her Chassidish community, and the identity crisis that followed — a woman raised frum and Ashkenazi who suddenly had to reckon with being 50% something she'd always been taught to fear.
What follows is a wild journey: years spent chasing that other half of herself through the Old City, a Palestinian university, and life in Egypt and Dubai — dating across cultures and even studying as the first identified Jew at a Palestinian school. Then came October 7th, a devastating gut-check that forced her to confront who she really is, and the slow, incremental return to Shabbos, to her family, and ultimately to Israel. It's a raw, unbelievable story about identity, belonging, and finding your way home — literally and spiritually.
 
This episode is sponsored by:
 
► PZ Deals
 
Download the app and never pay full price again!
 
https://app.pz.deals/install/mpp
 
_________________
 
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
 
The easiest way to give Tzedaka
 
https://pushkapp.cc/meaningful
 
_________________
 
► KTYT – Win $1,000,000 for Your Shul
 
Take on a Kabbalah to stay quiet during a specific part of davening, and you're entered to win $1,000,000 for the shul, yeshiva, mikvah, or Torah project of your choice. Head to KTYT.org, make your Kabbalah, and pick which part of davening you're committing to.
 
https://ktyt.org/en/mpPOD
 
_________________
 
► Shopify Guru
 
Shopify store looks great but not selling the way it should? Shopify Guru gets under the hood and makes it actually work, no developer needed every time you want to make a change. 
 
https://go.jcn.io/sgmp
 
_________________
 
► Ness Vacation Homes
 
EDEN GARDENS' LARGEST LUXURY HOME COLLECTION. Handpicked, high-end homes available exclusively through Ness.
 
https://nessvacationhomes.com/
 
_________________
 
► El Al
 
From the Hebrew announcements to the Israeli atmosphere onboard, flying EL AL feels like Israel before you even land. With nonstop flights to Israel and Jewish comfort from takeoff to landing, there's nothing like hearing: ברוכים הבאים לישראל. Book your next flight with EL AL:
 
https://www.elal.com/eng/usa?utm_source=meaningful&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=gcny_incoming_usa&cid=s:el%7Cm:what%7Ccp:gcny%7Cct:incoming%7Cau:usa
 
_________________
 
► Rothenberg Law Firm
 
Personal Injury Law Firm For 50+ years! Reach out today for a free case evaluation.
 
https://shorturl.at/JFKHH
 
_________________
 
► Town Appliance
 
Visit the website or message them on WhatsApp.
 
https://www.townappliance.com
 
https://bit.ly/Townappliance_whatsapp

Moshe Tischler and Shloimy Zaltzman, two of the biggest names in Jewish wedding music, sit down with Nachi Gordon to trace how they broke into the industry, from meeting as yeshiva teenagers to Shlomi's near-miss record deal and the emotional moment years later when he watched another bandleader step into that same opportunity. They open up about what the job really costs, the travel away from their kids, showing up at full strength no matter how sick or drained they are, and the odd reality of being shy, private people who perform in the most public, high-stakes moments of other people's lives.
They also dig into where Jewish music is headed, from the flood of new releases on platforms like 24Six to AI-generated singers (including a story about a bride who fell for a song by an artist who doesn't actually exist), and land on the same conclusion: raw, honest, unpolished authenticity beats anything overproduced. A warm, funny, surprisingly candid conversation between two friends who built parallel careers making other people's simchas unforgettable.

Exclusive content on: www.mmplus.org
 
This is episode is brought to you in part by:
 
► PZ Deals
 
Download the app and never pay full price again!
 
https://app.pz.deals/install/mpp
 
_________________
 
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
 
The easiest way to give Tzedaka
 
https://pushkapp.cc/meaningful
 
_________________
 
► ArtScroll
 
ArtScroll is celebrating 50 years of making Torah learning accessible to everyone, and they're marking it with a massive giveaway: $10,000 every single week for the next few weeks, adding up to over $50,000 total. No purchase necessary, just head to the link, scroll down, and fill out the short form to be entered. While you're there, check out the rotating weekly sale, with so many ArtScroll items at 50% off.
 
https://artscroll.com/50years
 
_________________
 
► Ness Vacation Homes
 
EDEN GARDENS' LARGEST LUXURY HOME COLLECTION
 
Handpicked, high-end homes available exclusively through Ness.
 
https://nessvacationhomes.com/
 
_________________
 
► El Al
 
From the Hebrew announcements to the Israeli atmosphere onboard, flying EL AL feels like Israel before you even land. With nonstop flights to Israel and Jewish comfort from takeoff to landing, there's nothing like hearing: ברוכים הבאים לישראל.
 
Book your next flight with EL AL:
 
 
https://www.elal.com/eng/usa?utm_source=meaningful&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=gcny_incoming_usa&cid=s:el%7Cm:what%7Ccp:gcny%7Cct:incoming%7Cau:usa
 
_________________
 
► Rothenberg Law Firm
 
Personal Injury Law Firm For 50+ years!
 
Reach out Today for Free Case Evaluation
 
https://shorturl.at/JFKHH
 
_________________
 
► Town Appliance
 
Visit the website or message them on WhatsApp
 
https://www.townappliance.com
 
https://bit.ly/Townappliance_whatsapp