The Coach Daniel Ratner Podcast

Gishmak Herring: From Street Interviews To Purpose-Driven Creativity

• By Coach Daniel Ratner

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Coach Ratner Podcast. I'm Coach Ratner, and today we have Jeremy Geschmack Herring. Yeah. Is in the house.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a pleasure. I love watching all your videos. You go around town interviewing all these nice young people, especially nice young women, obviously. Is that just an excuse to talk to women?

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's not. It's just I don't I honestly just go and it's whoever approaches me. You know what? It should be an excuse.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a great thing to do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it works well.

SPEAKER_00:

So uh are you obviously you're single, right? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Super single.

SPEAKER_00:

Have you ever um when you talk to these young women, have you ever, you know, asked them on a date, met them for coffee, anything like that?

SPEAKER_02:

Never once.

SPEAKER_00:

Never? Never once. You haven't taken advantage of the opportunity you have to go out there and do this.

SPEAKER_02:

No, it's like that's like for me, that's like my work, you know. I'm not gonna mix that with uh with play. But have you wanted to? Um maybe.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah, I don't know. It's uh I don't want someone to go out with me just because like I interviewed them or because like I'm I'm an influencer.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So how so how long have you been doing this this uh interviewing for?

SPEAKER_02:

Um well I've had the account for five years. Over the last two years, I started interviewing people on the street.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And first where in not here in first in Toronto.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, and then over like two years ago, I was in college in Canada my last year, and I would go to New York like a few times. So I would do interviewing on the street there, and I'll go to Crown Heights and all those videos will blow up because there's like all the y all the yid in there in Crown Heights, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So you brought that here to Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And um, so you said you had a date tonight, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So how did you meet this young lady?

SPEAKER_02:

Honestly, someone just sent me like a photo of her, and I was like, Well, yeah, she's cute.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, it's amazing. It's amazing. And um, are your parents together?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, particle sham.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. So it's amazing. Do you know how many people get divorced today? Like you have 100 marriages today?

SPEAKER_02:

50%, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

If you get if you get married today, there's a 50% chance of getting divorced. So if you have 100 marriages today, 50 of them are out the window. Wow. Do you know that?

SPEAKER_02:

I heard it but once before, like one of these Jewish dating things.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, and I don't I don't I don't mean to scare you, but I do mean to scare you. Of the ones that are not divorced, how many of them do you think are passionate, happy, loving relationships?

SPEAKER_02:

20%?

SPEAKER_00:

20% of the 50, that's 10, that's 10 couples. You walk down the aisle, you and you think you're gonna have a passion-loving relationship, you have a one in ten shot.

SPEAKER_01:

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00:

Not looking good. It's not no, no, no, but you don't have to be the statistic because most people have no idea what they're doing. Most people spend more time learning to get a driver's license, learning how to make videos, then what it means to be in a passion loving relationship. So, like you're gonna go on a first date today, and people always ask me, like, how do you know your first date's successful? Like, how are you gonna know? What's gonna be your clue to know that if I go on a date with this young lady tonight, it was a successful date?

SPEAKER_02:

Are you asking me?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm just curious. Like, do you have any idea?

SPEAKER_02:

I feel like it's just a feeling. Like it feels natural.

SPEAKER_00:

I you know, one thing I tell the young ladies is that it's do you feel safe? Right? Do you feel seen? Which means do you feel like that you want to talk to them again? Do you feel like you they heard you? That's the most important thing. I used to um date in my early 20s, and I wasn't observing then, and I couldn't get a second date, and I said to my best friend, how come I can get a second date? And he said, Stop talking and just listen. And that's my advice to you. Okay. Most young men think that they have to go out there and do you know, lead the conversation, which you have to sometimes, obviously they're quiet. But really, what they want is a guy that listens to them. Do you know that?

SPEAKER_02:

I I've heard I've I feel like it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but the problem is it makes sense to you, but you have to put into action.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I I think I'm a good listener.

SPEAKER_00:

You do?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So like in my videos, I kind of talk a lot and like I kind of play a bit of a character, but in real life I'm I'm sort of chill. Right. You know?

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So you have to listen to them, engage with them, so like not not that the their their conversation goes in one ear after the other, that you internalize and understand it, and respond to what they're saying. And they're gonna love you. I'm telling you, the most important thing is she for you tonight is that you should be listening to the person that you're that you're in front of.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And she's no matter what you look like, she's gonna be like, ha ha ha ha ha. Right? Because really, because what they want, you I ask these young ladies in my classes all the time, you have a choice, you go with a guy who's six foot two, good looking, big muscles, uh, but doesn't l understand you, doesn't listen to you, doesn't engage with you, doesn't understand your jokes.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_00:

You're you're a comedian a little bit, right?

SPEAKER_02:

I guess, yeah. I just have fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you you don't naturally, it's not like you're telling jokes, right? Or you have a choice to go with a guy who's five foot six, twenty pounds overweight, but understands you, listens to you, engages with you. Which one would you rather go out with? What do they say?

SPEAKER_02:

They probably say the one who listens.

SPEAKER_00:

They sometimes say somewhere in the middle. Because unfortunately, uh the short guys we were we're discriminated against. You know that? Yeah. It's ridiculous. Like a woman can ask how tall you are.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's like also the I guess it's also kind of like weight. Like you can't ask a woman how much she weighs.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you can't do that, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Does height play?

SPEAKER_00:

Can you ask a woman how tall they are? Uh you can ask a woman you can ask a woman how tall they are. I guess I don't think that's really a big much of an issue. Yeah. It's the weight that's an issue. So tell me how you got into all this filming the the on the street.

SPEAKER_02:

Basically, like uh my whole life I loved making videos. Even when I was little, I would used to make videos around my house at school and high school. I was involved in the student council. And like I'll just make videos uh where we just ask people questions in the street in the in the hallway of the school. Like I did this one video, it was during exam time, and I would just go around and I'd ask people how stressed they were. And then before winter break, I did a video like, where are you going for the winter break? And then, you know, over time it kind of evolved into me making this account, Kishmah Karing. Pretty much I went to Yeshiva in Israel at Yeshiva at Ashreinu for a year, and then it was the COVID year, so it was 2019. I had to leave early, and then I started college, and like everything was online. Sure. There was nothing to do. So I started this Instagram account, Kishmah Hering, and I just basically just started posting D vrai Torah videos of myself saying D vrai Torah. And then these uh Chabad Schluchem came from like this random town in Ontario, and they brought herring. And we we did a video where we reviewed the herring and like we spoke about the herring and we spoke about each other.

SPEAKER_00:

So funny.

SPEAKER_02:

And then my friends were like, keep doing this herring review. So I did these herring reviews, and over time, like I got more followers, and then different people came on the show, some bigger people, and then I got all this uh new equipment and I started just doing interviews in the street.

SPEAKER_00:

That's great. Do you know that? Do you know have you thought about just doing reviews on food on the street?

SPEAKER_02:

Um not just that. Like, I want to do everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah. Well, you know, food's a big thing. Like it's not if you if you focus, people love food. Yeah, and they love videos of food. So if I'm just curious, have you thought about like going around to different, you know, these uh in the Shuk and different restaurants and just did videos of in your microphone?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, the other day we me and my friends went to the sushi place and invited us to go, Saga Sushi in Yerushalime. It's a brilliant okay. Best sushi I've ever had in Israel.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, where is that?

SPEAKER_02:

It's uh it's kind of uh the Iria light rail stop. It's like right there.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I know where it is.

SPEAKER_02:

Right across the street from Mojo's.

SPEAKER_00:

So you started interviewing and doing these interviews, and it became is this now like your passion to do interviews on the street?

SPEAKER_02:

I just like I don't know, I love making videos in general, but the the interviews in the street, it's uh it's great content, people love it, and I can meet people that way, and it's fun. Yeah, you know, but I also do other stuff, and mostly before I was in the army, like I was a lot more of a content creator. I would keep up with the trends and like I would do something different every day. Me and my friends would travel places. But since I started basic training, I really haven't had any time to do that. So when I get off, I go to the Shook because like I like to go out in the Shook, it's fun.

SPEAKER_00:

What day do you like to go to the Shook?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, what honestly depends when I get out from the army. Ideally it's Thursday night. Thursday night, Friday is uh to film is great. Sometimes a ball of gun. Friday morning is also great in the Shook. Sure. Air of Shabbos, the vibes are immaculate, right? And yeah, those are the best times. What was the question you just asked me?

SPEAKER_00:

Has anyone offered you any um to do videos for their like offered you free stuff for like hotel stage or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, hotel, yeah. One time we stayed at a place uh for in Svutt because uh we went around to we went to go film there, promote their hotel. Right, that was a lot of fun. I've gotten lots of free stuff, like over since I started Gishma Kering, tons of free stuff. Yeah, tons, yeah. A lot of clothes. Okay, there came a point where I I could stop like buying clothes because I would just get Jewish themed clothes.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, because they want you they want you to wear it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. And I was amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Do you do it bringing with you when you film?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so right now it's my friend Shia, who you know. He's here in Israel, you know, holding down the fort. But when I started, it was with me and my friend Ovi. And he would he would be my videographer and he would travel all over all over with me. We actually went to we were talking about Washington, DC. Oh. You're from there. We went there and uh after October 7th, there was like a big rally. There was, yeah. So me and Avi went there. We like just like took off school. We just took a day off from school, golf lights, to Washington, and we spent filming the whole day. How was that? It was great, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, more more uh you know, Maryland, Virginia people than you know, having here in the here in Jerusalem. Obviously, it's it's people from all over the world. Do you have a list of questions that you asked before you walk out there?

SPEAKER_02:

No, it honestly whatever comes to my mind.

SPEAKER_00:

Really?

SPEAKER_02:

There's some like classics, like there's um obviously when is a mashiach coming? You know, you get some crazy answers from that. Right. Sometimes like I throw them off and I ask them if they think the mashiach will like herring.

SPEAKER_00:

I assume yes. I'm I'm gonna make something yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I I I like I assume yes also. But one time, like when I just made Aliyah, I asked these two guys in the coatel, and like they weren't like the friendliest, they were Arsim, and I didn't really know I wasn't like they were what they were Arsim, like you know, these Israelis that aren't they don't they don't like smile a lot, they're kind of short-tempered, you know, pretty like spiritual and religious. So I went up to them at the coatel, and it was just after I made Aliyah, I wasn't so familiar with Israeli culture, and I was like, You think the the Mashiach's gonna like herring? And they were like, You making fun of us? Like, are you uh you messing with us? Like I thought he was gonna hit me, and I was like, No, like I'm I don't know Hebrew, I'm just uh Alechadash so had it so the herring thing started because Chabad came in.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's funny because like I know when I lived in in Maryland, I I used to eat herring, and I got tired of it because we only had Costco herring, and that's all we had. The one kind of you know, the white in the white wine sauce, and there was it with onions, and there was no choice. You come here to Jerusalem, and I mean like you get so many choices of herring here, yeah. And it's delicious.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a whole sea of herring out there.

SPEAKER_00:

It is very and they have people make different kinds, and and you have the with with onions and some with salmon and some with different fish and tuna there's tuna herring also. And uh I've ever thought about like throwing a herring party.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, we've uh sponsored kiddishes at Schules and uh different like back when we were in Toronto, there was there were different kiddish clubs, they would just host me and my friends to come and they would have tons of herring. And anytime I kind of go to an event or somewhere, I usually bring herring or they'll get herring, and so it's always like a herring party.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Do you think women uh don't enjoy it as much as men?

SPEAKER_02:

If they do, they're if they say that, they're lying. I mean, like I've my mom and two sisters, they love herring. They do. Yeah, of course. My whole family loves herring, even my cousins, even the women's cousins. Yeah, everyone loves herring.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, is that a Jewish food or is that just a Eastern European food?

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's just an Eastern European food. Right. Um, yeah, it's uh because the the herring fish is from like the North Sea, so all those Europeans, they eat it. It's actually called the bread of the ocean because it's so abundant.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, what did how did herring come to be? Like, how did someone start making herring?

SPEAKER_02:

I guess Hashem made it on like the fourth day or whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

Who got the obviously the fish, but like the f herring is just not fish. It's not like you know, teriyaki salmon. Yeah, and it's not like sushi. So how did it it's made through through um the it's it's just the herring fish.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so you can prepare it in vinegar. Um you can also just put it in oil, sometimes pickled. It's all all different types.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you know vinegar cooks is considered cooking?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and pickling, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so like on chavez, you can't not just play you can't just put vinegar on vegetables because it's considered cooking. Do you know that? I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. And if you wanna if you wanna uh salt salting is the same thing. When you salt, like herring obviously is very salty too. You can't just salt raw vegetables on chavez because it's considered like cooking. You can put oil in it first, like olive oil, and then you can put salt.

SPEAKER_02:

Interesting. Yeah, I'll remember that when I when I learned to cook.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And oh my gosh, laws for Chavez cooking are so in depth, so deep, that you can never, never learn them all, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, it's it's almost like that's part of the beauty of it, though, because there's always like there's always more to learn.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's crazy. I just learned the whole thing about I like I like to know for me personally, I like to know the reason why I do everything. I like to like have clarity. Like, I'm gonna ask you a a clarity question. You're going out doing all these interviews, and it's fun. But what what's your main purpose for this?

SPEAKER_02:

My main purpose is to entertain people, right? To like make them enjoy their lives more, open their phone and see something that's uh you know, holy and like makes them laugh.

SPEAKER_00:

So, Jerry, what's your plans for the future?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, well, whenever people ask me that, like I just want to say bring the shiach, because that's like the overall goal.

SPEAKER_00:

So, how are you gonna do that?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, hopefully just by making Yiddin proud, you know, proud of their heritage.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm being honest with you. I'm being honest, because if we want to ha do something in life, we want to, you know, bring God down to the world, we want to bring Mashiach, we want to make the world a you know, world peace. How can we, as an individual person, you know, w do that? How how what is what is something that we have to do in order to for the Mashiach them to have world peace, for there to be peace in the world? How do we do that? What's the step? It's not just it's not just making people happy, it's not making people proud, because really proud is just an eternal feeling. I call it like you singing the proud line. It doesn't do anything. I can be proud about being a Jew, I can be proud about being Israel, I can be proud about being an American, whatever. But if I do nothing about it, it does no good. Right? So how do you make how do you take that from a feeling into actual action?

SPEAKER_02:

So I think like from my videos, people see my videos and they're like, oh wow, being a Jew is so cool. And then they can learn about more about being a Jew, and like they could step into their identity as a Jew and then come to Israel and then do mitzvot. Right and bang.

SPEAKER_00:

So that will one but the idea is that you usually when one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah, that's the idea. And I know I tell like I teach my kids all the time, really, is that it's your job to inspire to change the world, not the world change you. So I personally believe that giving to others is one of our purposes in life. And obviously, you're giving you when you're when you're interviewing people, you're inspiring them, obviously, to do better, become better people and and obviously be proud. But like, you know, what it what's an action item that you're gonna do as you age, because you're still kind of young, right? You still have a whole life in front of you. What's an action on it you're gonna do to help change the world?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, my end goal is I want to have a podcast one day. That's great. Like in your shellyam.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And you can do it right now, you know. It's not so hard. I guess, but I don't have so much time because I'm in the army, so it's like I don't I don't think I can start a podcast yet. But I think after the army, I want to go on tour also. Yeah, like North America camp tour, summer camp tour. Right. Just like meet all the yidden.

SPEAKER_00:

Like a Charlie Kirk?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh um, like kind, I don't know. Like I guess so someone I don't want to be like uh that kind of, you know, the asking stuff and you know being provocative and whatever. Like I just want to go and fire up the Yiddin like wherever I can.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, but shout out to Charlie Kirk. I'll uh quick side note. You know what Sha Tosh is in the army? No, I think so. Pretty much in training, um, every day you get an hour called Shautosh when you basically like have your phone and the rules are off and it was nuts. We were at like some random place. It was actually we were in this place called Mini Gaza. It's like a little replica of Gaza, and during Shautash, Charlie Kirk died. Oh no, it was insane. It was horrible. Yeah, especially because since like we started the army, we would never know live events as they happened because we didn't have our phones, except for this one time we had our phones when Charlie Kirk died in Shautash.

SPEAKER_00:

I never heard the final thing. He had a bulletproof vest on, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe, but he was hit in the neck.

SPEAKER_00:

I heard it hit the vest and bounced off to the neck. I don't know if it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe maybe it's a conspiracy. Who knows? Some people say the earth is flat.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's kind of funny. Jews always knew for thousands of years that the earth wasn't flat. Do you know how they knew that? How do we know? Shabbos tines. Because if you go exactly north, yeah, you know, the sun rises uh earlier rises earlier than it does the closer to the equator because the earth is round. So the sun comes up earlier. If you go directly north, let's say from here in Israel, all the way to let's say Georgia, this country, Georgia, the sun's gonna rise earlier there than it does here. It's the exact same longitude or latitude. I don't know what the difference is. Because the earth is round. So we knew that.

SPEAKER_02:

We figured it out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and if it was flat, it'd be the exact same time. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, it is interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a bit where I used to think the earth was flat, like when I was younger.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You did?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, because but we don't know. You know, yeah, I live in Santa Claus, right? Yeah, you're little, you have you're very gullible.

SPEAKER_02:

Can we talk about Cupid? Like, because you know Cupid is like the the symbol of love or whatever. Yes, right. Is there anything like that in Judaism?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think there is. I I I don't Cupid is the idea. I don't know where that comes from. I guess it comes from uh ancient Greek in mythology where he shoots you in the arrow, you fall in love with somebody, and love is a choice. I mean, obviously, you just don't fall in love. And that really, when they when Cupid hits you in the tush, that's called infatuation, right? Because how do you love someone after meeting them one or two times? It's really infatuation. You love what and we the way it makes you feel. You infatuation is a momentary desire in the brain that someone has something you want. And people confuse the words love and infatuation. And I'm gonna give you some advice. Okay when you go into the dating world, you're gonna, you know, think you're in love or you know, I mean you might be in love, right? But you better define the word love and marriage with the person that you're gonna marry, which means you better have a common definition of those words before you go into a relationship. Because if you don't, you might have a hard time. And most people can't define those words. Like you use the word love, right? We use the word love for many things. You know, you love interviewing people, you love herring, right? You might love your dog, you might love your sister and your parents, and you might love your wife in your future, but that word love gets completely abused because it's the same exact word. And I mean that you're from Canada, Northern Canada, they knew it had 50 words for the word snow. Really? Yes, because there's 50 different kinds of snow. There's thick snow, there's there's there's wet snow, there's slippery snow, and we have this one word for love, and it gets completely abused, and then this is why there's so many bad relationships. They don't understand what it really is.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh what's like the official age age um limits that you're allowed to go? Like how old like this guy be can be, the girl can be. Like how old is too much of an age?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, like how much is too much. I think that the older you are, the wider that can be, obviously. So someone who's how old are you? I'm 24. 24. So you're not gonna date a I it'd be weird if you dated a woman who was 17 years old. I agree. But if you were, that's what a seven-year difference. But if you were 30 and she's 23, that plays. It's fine. And I think that the older you are, the wider.

SPEAKER_02:

So right now for me, you'd say the cutoff is 18 and up.

SPEAKER_00:

I think the cutoff is 18. The problem with 18, there's just so still a little bit immature. And you've lived so much happens between your 18 and 24 that you really need someone in your 20s.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Well, I feel like it's gonna help like a lot of people watching. You're like the official love coach.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not, I don't I don't want to be official, I just like I like clarity. Yeah. I like clarity. And when you see a guy who's 40 dating a girl who's 21 years old, it's that that does not work out very well. Yeah, you know, it's uh basically coming from low self-esteem. He's supposed to have a pretty girl in his arm.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe she he has a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00:

And he has a lot of money, right? And that's not that's not gonna lead to a passionate, loving relationship for a lifetime, which I want to build. And I want for you also. Because if we all have loving relationships and we all make the world a better place, we're gonna fill what your shirt says. We'll bring my shiach. Amen. Yeah, I want to thank you for being my podcast, it's been great.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_00:

Keep going, doing what you're doing in this world, make everyone happy, bring joy to the world, and maybe you will bring my shiach.

SPEAKER_01:

Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, thank you for listening to the Coach Ratner Podcast. I'm Coach Ratner. This is Jeremy, my guest today from Geshmakh Herring, and we'll see you next time.