Meir Kalmanson

In his viral YouTube video “High Five New York,” Brooklyn-born and New Haven-raised Hasidic Jew, Meir Kalmanson, runs around NYC high-fiving New York natives and tourists alike who have their arms extended an attempt to hail a cab. The video, set to upbeat music, has received over two million views to date. Since then, Kalmanson’s YouTube channel, AMK Productions, (launched about a year ago) has grown to 19,000 subscribers. The Crown Heights resident has always been drawn to the dramatic arts. As a child, he performed in school plays and at summer camps. While on shluchos (performing Jewish outreach) in Singapore, he began a program to help the children there connect with Pesach by creating an interactive story. He wanted to help the kids relate to their Judaism in a way that brought joy as well as purpose.

Today, he continues his own unofficial “shluchos” by spreading simcha and meaning to people through a medium made famous for cat videos. However, he brings more than just one dimensional comedy to the internet. Many of Kalmanson’s videos have a common thread between them: reaching out to others. Two other of his viral videos follow a similar theme: one showcases Meir dancing behind unsuspecting strangers in New York City, the other is about a man (him) falling asleep on strangers in the subway.