He taught himself programming in an Aroma café and sold a video game.
1. Jewish Philanthropy Podcast frames this episode around Menashe Kestenbaum’s shift from the Mir Yeshiva to entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
2. Host David M. Cohen introduces himself as a rabbi, lawyer, fundraiser, therapist, and author, and he interviews Menashe Kestenbaum as a recent friend and guest.
3. The episode asks how a man formed in chinuch and yeshiva values ended up building companies, raising money, and funding mental-health work.
4. Menashe describes growing up in Toronto in a family where his father, grandfather, uncles, and aunts were all involved in chinuch.
5. He says his family had deep ties to the Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi Brodsky, Rabbi Sheinberg, Rav Nassim Tzvi, Rabbi Shemelowitz, and Rav Osher.
6. He recalls eating every Shabbos by the wife of Rav Nacham Pertzavetz and absorbing a value system that pushed away materialism.
7. He says those years taught him that Torah and Jewish values matter more than vanities or extravagance.
8. Menashe says that when he started to get more involved in education, he could not pay his bills.
9. He describes learning in Israel for about eight years, including two unmarried years and six married years, while his wife’s savings helped support the family.
10. He says he moved back to Toronto when the money ran out and realized the cost of living there was far higher than in Israel.
11. He then taught himself programming in Aroma café for about six months and made a video game that he sold for money.
12. He started a video-game blog while still learning in the Mir Yeshiva at night and says the blog reached a million readers within a couple months.
13. Menashe says the blog eventually became his full-time work and grew 400% year over year for the first five years.
14. He says Jewish investors in Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles helped support the company as it moved toward institutional financing and a NASDAQ listing.
15. He argues that helping a business grow can be a higher form of tzedakah because it can make the recipient self-sufficient.
16. He says his current work is split between Glimmer, a for-profit mental-health startup, and Yadavid, a not-for-profit local organization.
17. He says Yadavid is named for Fifi Zahler, a beloved Toronto classmate who died due to mental health a year into his marriage.
18. He says Yadavid focuses on training therapists to reach an elite level, while Glimmer aims at a co-managed, multidisciplinary mental-health model.
19. The conversation is conversational and reflective, with David M. Cohen frequently interrupting to translate terms and draw out practical examples.
20. Listeners interested in Torah values, Jewish giving, and startup stories will likely want this episode; listeners looking for a short, purely technical business interview may skip it.
