From Bokritsome, Florida, this is Behind the Bima.

On this episode, the rabbis are back from summer vacation and kickoff season four with renowned Russian Refusnik Yosef Mendelovic.

Reb Yosef shares some of his incredible sacrifices to keep Shabbas and wear a yamaka, discusses how he tries to inspire younger generations, and talks about the joy of his hunger strikes. Also, the rabbis talk about how they spent their summer vacations and the progress they made on their goals,

plus how their rabbis decide when to interrupt their vacation and come back for the community.

And ideas for possible Behind the Bima swag.

All this and more on the season premiere of Behind the Bima. Good evening. It is Wednesday night at 9 p.m. I'm your host by Ephraim Gover, joined by my dear friends and colleagues. Rabbi Philip Moskowitz and by Josh Brody, and we are here to take you. Behind the Bima. I'm trying to lift up. I think. We're here to take you behind the Bima, clearly. Probably is a little out of practice here. We're a little bit out of practice. It is so great to be back together. I'll tell you, life felt different. Even though this whole behind the Bema phenomenon is fairly recent and new, it felt so different not having it, but it's great to be back together. That was still our old opening. Our new one is being worked on with our new logo. And

speaking of new logos, want to thank our generous sponsor for tonight. Our dear friend,

Alana Lando of Alana Landau designs. You can be in touch with her at Alanaelando at gmail.com or her

phone number 6462831091. Alana is a dear friend of Behind the Bima. She's not only a good friend of behind the Bima. She's a talented

graphic designer. And our brand new logo that we're getting enormous feedback on was designed by the

great Alana Lando of Alana Lando of Designs. She, by the other customer, behind the Bima. And who else?

Do you know who else she works for? Art scroll printing. The Russia Shana card for the last 17 years, logos, letterheads, brochures, different organizations. She's done bar, bat mitzvah wedding invitations. She's done monograms. Rabbi Moskowitz. Do you know whose monograms she did? I do. Moshe Moskowitz is monogram. Moshe Moschumowitz is monogram at motionmoskowitz.com.

But Alana Lando is a phenomenal talent, and she designed our new logo. We're really deeply indebted and grateful to her. Thank you so much for that. People are loving it. Which really brings us up to our... She works quickly, don't forget. I don't know. You know, if everyone knows, we said, She's when do you need it in a month, two months?

Like, how about tomorrow?

Yeah, she does.

She's quick. I don't know, you know, if everyone knows, we said, she's, when do you need it? In a month, two months,

we're like, how about tomorrow? Yeah, she does. She's quick. She's really, by hand, sketches things out. We decide which one online puts it together, really talented. It's a great new logo. Our friend Matthews having a heart attack because of the change in logo, but it was time for a change and update, a nice look behind the

BEMA. And that really brings us to our first topic, which was our summer. We all were spread

out all over the universe over the summer. We had a little vacation, took a little break.

And I don't know about you, but wherever we traveled, whether it was, whether it was the five

towns, TNEC or Pseic or Wyoming, people were like, you behind the Bima, I love behind the Bima. So I was like, do you listen to the Parshah class or Amunashir or you read the articles? They're like, I don't know what you're talking about, but I love behind the Bima. So I don't know if you had similar experience as gentlemen where you were. What was it like? Many. Lots of love. I was in the five towns for a week and a half this summer. Lots of love in the five towns. In fact, my kids were cracking up every time we went into a restaurant, came into Shul. There were comments. They were, is that the rabbi from behind the Bima? It was really funny.

And then there was once I was in a shul. And I didn't get an alia. No one recognized me. I was sitting in the back. It was such a machia just to be anonymous. And finally, I'm like walking out of show. I'm like, I made it an entire minion. No one coming over. And as I'm walking out the door, 20 guys come over to me.

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