Being political

Wednesday was a very busy day. I met with my first female start-up president, "S." followed by a meeting with the two principals of a company that matches Israeli start-ups with US investors (I am getting clever now, and scheduled the meetings back to back in the same cafe). 

From there I went to meet with the team at another start-up that I have already been helping, to complete a workshop we had started. While we spent a fair amount of time working, my favorite part was our long talk after about Israel, politics, and its ethnic composition.

The four guys at the meeting were all a lot younger than me, and while all are of Ashkenazi background and as paleface as me, they have all married women whose family provenance is countries such as Morocco and Irak (therefore Sephardic). As a result, their children are the "new face" of Israelis. I could have stayed forever chatting with them - but apparently they have a life and I don't. At least not here.

In the evening, I was invited for dinner to Lea Simonson's, one of my Chilean schoolmates, in Ramat Aviv Gimmel (a suburb of a suburb?). Lea recently qualified as a Chinese medicine practitioner, after a career in high tech. At her place I met her husband and her daughter, as well as her daughter's boyfriend. Lea's beautiful daughter (who looks like I remember Lea looking, but with straighter hair), is working on a degree in bio-tech, for which there seems to be a huge demand here. At first I tried to have our conversation only in Hebrew but after they politely pointed out they speak English AND Spanish too, I figured I had given them enough of a headache (I think I am not conjugating properly... I must sound like a retarded tourist most of the time).

I was enjoying our lively dinner conversation a lot, and (thought) I was showing off about how much I now knew about the Israeli political system; the economy; changes to how unemployment figures are now being reported; employment trends within the religious community; the strength of the Israeli banking system... 

Eventually, I shut up and asked Lea's husband Haim what he did. Well, until a few months ago he was the Ministry of Finance Director General. In other words, he was the de facto Israeli Minister of Finance!

(Yes, that was embarrassing. I should have known that he wasn't just your run of the mill Israeli interested in politics when he was able to list off the top of his head all the parties with and without representation in the Knesset.)

Thursday I spent most of the day fretting about my speaking engagement at The Junction. 

The Junction is an open house for entrepreneurs, or an "Accelerator". Any active entrepreneur (regardless of his/her idea) is welcome to join, be a part of, and work there. It is sponsored by Genesis Partners, an Israeli Venture Capital firm. Every Thursday they bring a speaker on a topic of interest to entrepreneurs -- and today it was me!

But before my speech, I met up for lunch with Michael Gally (aka, "M" in previous blog posts; I have now asked him for permission to use his name).

We met at 12:00 at Toto, a trendy restaurant close to the Tel Aviv Museum, just a few blocks from my apartment.  Unfortunately, only the cafe was open (good enough sandwiches, but not quite what the gourmet restaurant that the restaurant guide had promised). I didn't realize the restaurant only opened for lunch at...12:30.

(At some point I will figure out the answer to the question, "When do people eat here?")

To make up for the average food, I invited Michael and his wife to join me and Rafi at the "real" Toto next time.

Michael and I were supposed to work on planning a few client engagements where he has been kind enough to introduce me, but I could not hold back asking him a few more questions. He is quite a sport and shared with me what he thinks is happening.

Michael Gally

I wanted to know why are people I meet in Tel Aviv so adamantly and aggressively anti-religious. I told him about how, when I tell people here my personal story about my own relationship with Chabad in Vancouver and how wonderful I think the rabbi and his wife are, it elicits a virulent and angry response. Here, people tell me Chabad are trying to brainwash and kidnap me.

 Why the anger?

Being Orthodox is political. Michael believes that in Israel secular Jews are angry at the religious Jews because they, the secular, are the ones who end up paying the bills.

Ultra-religious men do not work (they study Torah full-time instead) and go on welfare and drain the country's resources. And worst of all, they do not serve in the Army (and this is unforgivable to a Tel Avivian). In addition, the religious are disproportionately strong politically as they hold the balance of power in most if not all coalition governments. This results in funds not going to education and infrastructure, for example, which would benefit secular Israelis. Additionally, secular Israelis are more open to compromises with the Palestinians, which the religious parties adamantly oppose (yet they don't serve in the Army...).

That is why secular Israelis see any outreach activity to other Jews by the religious, such as Chabad or Eish HaTorah, as kidnapping.

Michael believes that economic issues aren't a Left vs Right thing the way we understand it in North America. The only issue of Left vs Right is compromise with the Palestinians - or not. On economic matters, the overall consensus is that "Right" is right (and that would explain why so many people I talk to in high tech actually vote Labour).

The average secular Israeli feels very, very little in common with an ultra religious Jew in Jerusalem. In Israel, being an Orthodox Jew is a political statement unlike anything in the Galut where one'as religious affiliation is detached from political power.

Being Orthodox here is political. That's all. And so, suddenly, an off the cuff remark I heard someone make recently about someone's son becoming religious and moving to Israel ("Right, he will stay here and after two years he will be on welfare and we will pay for him too") made a lot of sense.

My speech at The Junction was scheduled to start at 4:30 pm and I was told to be there at 4:00. Of course I was there at 3:30 and the presentation didn't start until 4:50. Regardless, I think it went well, I wasn't pelted, got great questions and met some really, really bright young people developing some very interesting tech solutions to real, everyday business problems.

Yours truly at the (informal) podium

People mingling before the event

With Yuval K (check out www.joytunes.com)

The Junction’s workspace is located in Florentine Neighborhood, in the southern side of the city. The area has a combination of Industrial and Residential, young and old, trendy and poor (yes, a few drunks there). A few years back, apparently, Florentine was really expected to flourish after a very successful television series chose the neighborhood as its location.  Since then, Florentine has established its reputation as a cool place, trendy and modish, loved by the young, bohemian and reckless.  Many students and artists have set up shop here, enjoying the inspiring atmosphere and cheap prices. Perfect workplace location for start-ups. 

Industrial view of Tel Aviv, from The Junction in Florentine

Bragging moment: The Junction's capacity is 70 people. For my presentation, they 'sold out' within 10 minutes of sending out the promo email two weeks ago, and there were over 130 people on the wait list.

I think I will sleep soundly tonight.