An inside look into the life and background of a gadol was an offer we couldn’t refuse
Boruch Goldberger is one of my closest friends in the business. He’s a top-of-the-line marketer, overflowing with creativity and always pushing the envelope with original campaigns. Today he’s pretty well-known for launching successful campaigns like the Vzakeini project for Bonei Olam, but back in 2019, he was still relatively new to the marketing scene. Someone had introduced Boruch to Rav Shlomo Kanievsky, who was looking for assistance fundraising for his yeshivos, Tiferes Tzion (a mesivta) and Kiryas Melech (a beis medrash), both in Bnei Brak.
Boruch pitched the concept of putting together a full-feature documentary about Rav Shlomo’s father, Rav Chaim Kanievesky, and then ending the video with a brachah for those who help with the campaign. Rav Shlomo was very enthusiastic about the idea, explaining that fundraising aside, it would be a tremendous benefit for the world to get an inside look at the gadol hador.
Boruch then called me. To say the idea of building a documentary about the gadol hador was daunting is the understatement of the century. It would be a tremendous responsibility, with care taken with every line of the video. It would also be highly challenging, as the “main character” or focus of the documentary, Rav Chaim himself, wouldn’t be giving any sit-down interviews. On the other hand, I knew I’d regret turning down this opportunity, so with some level of trepidation we agreed to produce the video.
We realized early on that the spine, or the central piece of the documentary that would carry it, would be Rav Shlomo’s perspective as a child growing up in the home of Rav Chaim. This would both provide us the necessary content, as we wouldn’t be getting it from Rav Chaim himself, and connect the video to Rav Shlomo’s yeshivos. We also prepared extensive narration pieces, ranging from 30 to 90 seconds each, which would allow for seamless transitions between the different chapters of the storyline.
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