I read today that, per capita, more Israelis have
cell phones than any nationality on earth. Several people I know have 2 cell phones, one
for outgoing calls and one for incoming calls and, of course, they don't like
it if you call them on the wrong one, because it ruins their carefully
orchestrated mobile phone calling plan (I learned the hard way).
For lunch I had the pleasure of meeting Eran
David and Sharon Schwartzman who both work at the Jewish Federations of Canada
office in Jerusalem. I was impressed with their professionalism and their deep understanding
of the issues Canadian Jewish Federation offices face. They really want to help
Canadian Federation organizations and we had a great conversation about their online strategy.
Eran and Sharon. Donors, your money is in good hands! |
I mentioned to them that it is my perception that
we Jews in North America telescope all issues with regards to Israel to include
Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas yet Israelis just don’t come across as concerned about it
all, and asked them what they thought about it.
“Denial” said Sharon.
As an example, she mentioned that yesterday, YNet News (Israel’s
most popular news website) had absolutely no news items covering the continued
bombing of southern Israeli towns from Gaza because, well, because a cease fire
had been established so the news
source moved on (Gazans are either unclear of what ‘cease fire’ means or Hamas
cannot deliver it; either way, the barrage of rockets continues in the South –
39 km from my apartment – and children are being kept from school by their
parents).
And what do they think about Hamas?
The Egyptians are
strengthening Hamas' breakaway organization, Islamic Jihad, so they themselves become
politically respectable (just like the PLO did, I guess). They believe the wall
Israel is building along the Egyptian border will help immensely. Right now the
Egyptian border is very “porous” to the point that over 20,000 Sudanese refugees have
managed to sneak into Israel (and are now a huge problem in Eilat; but that was
another discussion).
I very much look forward to seeing them again in a couple
of weeks in Jerusalem.
Later in the day I met with an Israeli VC and
while I don’t want to discuss specifics on the blog, I cannot contain my
excitement about what I saw and heard.
Israel seems to me to be a finely tuned machine
creating and nurturing and encouraging and rewarding entrepreneurs to start new
companies. There are variuos business models to do this and make it a win-win-win
for everyone involved. the models continue to evolve and everyone here seems open to the
next and better way of trying things. Something I have not seen much happen
back home are the Accelerators and Incubators (not the same thing, I am
learning) which provide the right amount of support to meet both investors’ and
entrepreneur’s needs.
For dinner I met an old friend from Vancouver,
Steven Shamash, and his family. Steven lives in Netanya, about 30 km North of Tel
Aviv. Netanya has 14 km of
beaches and it is a very popular tourist resort as well as residential community.
Real estate there, like in most of the country, has skyrocketed. Steven told me that the land of a Kibbutz located just outside the town, now
turned into a hotel complex, is worth $1 million an acre. That is a lot of oranges!
On the way we stopped at a natural preserve and
saw some beautiful wild flowers.
Type of wild flowers to be found at the preserve |
Flowers we actually saw |
What we really looking for were Black Irises,
which only bloom once a year, and just for a month. Unfortunately we were too
late.
Flower we did not see |
At Steven’s home I had the pleasure of meeting
Toni, his wife, originally from South Africa, as well as his very, very
talented and engaging kids. His daughter Eliza is only 18 and a rising star in
the music world. She played a few pieces on the piano that literally took my
breath away. Do yourself a favour and click here, and here and here to hear what I mean. I also met Elad, who is 15 and has just taken
up strength training (and it shows!).
Eliza Shamash |
Before I left, Steven and Toni gave me a great gift: a whole box of halva!
"How did you know I love it?"
"I read your blog"said Steven.
Wow, this hard work every night is paying off.
Raquel, I am riveted to every word you write. What an incredible trip you have. I still have not heard much about shopping and fashion. Or did I miss that day? The Black Iris is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words of encouragement!
DeleteFor you, I will start my in-depth, empirical research on shopping and fashion this week :>)
at this rate of "Halva consumption".... by the time you leave Israel.... you may actually hate halva!!! (ha ha ha )this is a good thing!!! It actually happened to me . I ate so much of it while I was there (hey we come from the same family dont we?) I think I got the cravings for halva out of my system -for life.
ReplyDeleteI had to hide the box. (But I may remember where it is "in case of an emergency")
ReplyDelete