From an event point of view, this speaker was perfect, he completely connected with the audience and succeeded by providing the most important ingredient for the event to be a success:  "Emotional Connection"

This is the story of an amazing man whose journey and lessons need to be heard and learned from. A man who lived in a country where the hatred between two cultures caused political turmoil; a man whose identity changed due to the hatred among the races.  

Surrounded by young adults, where I couldn't help but feel 100 yrs old, just based on the fact that I was on one side and the "kids" all together on another. That in fact was the idea of the event. Kspace, where the event was held, has brought together over 12,000 young adults  with one thing in common, meet each other and respect your values and your tradition, while being in a safe environment. With a very spiritual leader, Rabbi Yossi, treats these kids as his friends; for them, he is their best friend, forget for a second he is an orthodox Rabbi, he is one of them, they hug him and love him and have come to appreciate and trust him.

After an array of food, that totally identifies with our culture, more food than people, we met Dr. Bern.  Born in Germany to a father that was very proud of his country, very proud of serving for his country, and proud to have been under Hitler's regime. Dr Bern's  story went from simple curiosity, to questioning his spirituality, his value,  and his beliefs. A story that took him from learning  a hard truth  to actually finding his place.

In his own words, and what stayed with me the most was that throughout  his life he came to the conclusion that it is not about good people and bad people, it is about people who create HATE and how through education they spread hate. People like to follow others, identify with their peers, and also be a part of something. The problem happens when that is based on hate.

Growing up as German, he was raised by his father with the concept that them the war were the glory days. According to his mother, this was the dark period and, his neighbor, who he was not supposed to talk to because they were the traitors, it was a shameful and sad period.

Upon finding the truth about his father and how he was proud to have given the Cross for his bravery in the war from Hitler himself, he became obsessed with the Jewish people and their culture. His turning point was when Germany hosted the Olympic games  and he saw how the Israeli athletes were killed just because they were Jewish. At this point his knowledge of the Jewish people was none, he thought they were bad or something was really wrong with them. To his astonishment, he was surprised to find that they were normal people like any other and began to wonder why.

A few years later, he met some students coming from Israel for a cultural visit to Germany. He could not understand why his people and his country, with a civilized and intelligent population would like to abolish other human beings. This curiosity led him to Israel, where he was fascinated by its people, its culture, and how they build a whole country after going through the Holocaust, something he was taught was only Jewish propaganda.

Spirituality was something he had never thought about or even was connected to, and after praying at the Western Wall he felt a connection that he had never thought existed, a connection that led him years later back to Israel as a Jew, having converted under all the restrictions of the rabbinical court, to serve in the Israeli army in a country he learned to love.

The emotional connection is more than just words, it can move mountains and give you the strength to reach any goal you set your mind to.