Watch G2G — From Gangster to Ger

Every G2G episode and Short on YouTube: the memoir of Ariel Hanasi read by the author, with chapters and episode notes.

My Story Did Not Start When I Found Torah | G2G — From Gangster to Ger (Intro)

Why Ariel Hanasi is telling this story: who he was, what he lost, and why he has to share it — from the streets of Bogotá and Queens to Torah and teshuvah.

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Key moments

  • Opening
  • My story did not start when I found Torah
  • What I lost
  • The life I thought I wanted
  • Like Jonah: called back to serve
  • G-d was there from day one
  • This is G2G
  • Still walking the road
  • A son longing for a father
  • “I am Ariel Hanasi. Welcome.”

G2G Chapter 1 (Part 1): Born in Bogotá, Raised in Queens | From Gangster to Ger

Chapter 1, Part 1 of G2G, read by the author Ariel Hanasi: a grandmother’s hustle, a father in the military black market, “elephant eggs” in Queens, and a dead-end block in Supreme Team territory.

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Key moments

  • Intro
  • Family Roots
  • My Father: Manolo
  • My Mother: “La Mona” & the Queens Years
  • The Move to America
  • Torah Blueprint — Yeshayahu 5:20 · Daniel 2:22
  • Jamaica, Queens: The Dead-End Where Childhood Ended
  • Torah Blueprint — Mishlei 14:12
  • The War You Didn’t See
  • Torah Blueprint — Devarim 19:3
  • Next: Long Island

Shorts

“Elephant Eggs” — I was 4 and didn’t know what was on the table — Divine Providence File from G2G Chapter 1: what a four-year-old was told was on his grandmother’s table in Queens.

The Dead End Wasn’t Random — Divine Providence File from G2G Chapter 1: the quiet dead-end block in Jamaica, Queens that was anything but peaceful.

The Exit Before the Ending — Divine Providence File from G2G Chapter 1: pulled out of a war zone before he ever knew he was in one.

Read the G2G book