VCinJerusalem

Jerusalem, Tractors, And the Belief in a Better Tomorrow

As you might have heard, another attack occurred in Jerusalem today, with a resident of East Jerusalem using a tractor as a weapon of mass destruction.  The tragic irony of using a tool intended for construction purposes as an instrument of terror is not lost on anyone.

And as usual, only a few hours separated me from the awful events. Drove past with my daughter only few hours before. Was there yesterday. Barack Obama is there tonight, Gordon Brown was there yesterday. Literally at the crossroads of the [Western] world.

How do we in Jerusalem carry on? Well, part of us turns off. Grows numb. We built up these ways of coping with almost constant horror during the years 2001-2004, when barely a week went by without someone blowing themselves up, and yet we had lives to lead. But that is not all--if it was I and my family would have left here long ago.

There is also still a part of us that believes in a better tomorrow. And that somehow, in some way, we can help contribute to bringing that better tomorrow closer, making it a reality.

For now, let us pray that the dozens of innocent hurt in todays attack enjoy a speedy recovery, as best as science will allow (already a report that one person lost his leg when his car was crushed). And pray as well for a better tomorrow. And tomorrow morning, after a few hours of fitful sleep, may we have the strength to do something to make it a better day than today.

Mourning in Jerusalem...but also praying, singing, and yes, dancing

After experiencing the horror of yesterday's attack in Jerusalem, at a place I pass 2-3 times a week, I have no real words. Obviously allover the world there are individuals who due to mental breakdown act out in awful ways. But in Jerusalem, gevalt, in Jerusalem we feel the pain even more. So much destruction with an instrument of construction, intended to help create a better tomorrow for all of the residents of Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem we know how to mourn, but at the same time we know that we need to pray again, to sing again, and yes, to dance. Recognize the pain, the sorrow, the loss, but rejoice in the possibility of a better tomorrow.
Take a look at this yiddel, expressing in prayer all the emotions. May we only know joy from this day forward.

On Yom Hazikoron, It Hits Home

I was standing at our local community center Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) ceremony last night when I looked around and noticed my friend Aharon Horwitz (for more on him and his projects see here ) there as well, along with many other friends and neighbors, a true local community recognition of a national event. When I got home, and checked my email, found reflections that Aharon had already written and sent out, and far more articulate and personal than anything I would say. So Aharon is my guest blogger for the day:

Dear friends,

On Yom Hazikaron I try to personally honor--and ask those I know to as well--two soldiers from my unit (Nachal 931, August '99 draft) who died in service:  Dani Cohen and Shani Turgeman.

Standing tonight at the Baka community memorial ceremony my thoughts were already on Dani when, to my surprise, a boy from Bnei Akiva read aloud to the community about him. Dani, so it turns out, was a counselor at the neighborhood chapter. I didn't expect that, didn't even realize that I was daily walking the neighborhood bereft of Dani, the same neighborhood he'd invited me home to for Shabbat in the year 2000 (how I wish I'd taken him up on that invitation). Dani's name joined tens of others, sons and daughters of the assembled bereaved who sat among the rest of us mourners. Seeing the families and accompanying friends and community members reminded me that a soldier in Israel is never alone, accompanied as he or she is by the hopes and dreams of a country, and by the love and firm faith of a family. So much is risked on every soldier we send out. So much is lost when they fall.

I, like each of you, honor those like Dani and Shani who sacrificed for their friends, fellow soldiers, and for all of Israel, and pray this Yom Hazikaron for the day when no more soldiers will be added to the lists of fallen. The mitzva of Yom Hazikaron must be to rededicate ourselves to personally striving for that future day. As Dani wrote in a letter of premonition to his parents, "the point of life is to be the part of the puzzle you were meant to be to the best of your ability....to give rise to future generations better than yourself either by influencing your children or those around you. I, it seems, am destined to be one of those who had to make his difference by impacting those around me." To me that is the undying call to us from these who have fallen in service: one's life is to be spent--as theirs was--in pursuit of a better future for those who come after. And in that sense, both Dani and Shani lived life to the fullest.

Dani died in the November 2002 battle near Ma'arat HaMachpelah in Hebron. Shani, serving in the reserves, was killed near Lebanon during the attack that lead to the kidnapping of Regev and Goldwasser. May their memories continue to inspire the living.

Thanks for remembering with me,

Aharon

Sewing and Running, or The Jerusalem Half Marathon and My Daughter's Skirt

My father always says, when you want something done give it to a busy person to do...I've lived long enough to agree with him. But that doesn't mean that busy=efficient. I still am struggling with time management, as I have mentioned before in these "pages." In addition, there is a ordering of priorities that needs to take place, to find the place that best suits you in the life/work balance.

With six kids, multiple civic commitments, and running a start-up venture fund, I know what busy is -- and I know what can happen when you lose control over true priorities.

Anyway, yesterday was the annual Jerusalem Marathon, which is really a half marathon (21.1 kilometers). I pledged I would train, I told myself to get to bed early the night before. I didn't train at all, in fact only ran twice in the past month. Work, new baby in the house, etc.

The night before the race, I said, ok, now I need to get to bed early. My 9 year old daughter comes to me at 10 PM and says, "Abba, you need to sew my skirt -- my dance recital is tomorrow and we need to wear THIS skirt." I thought, oy, a button fell off, who has time for that...but then she held up a large piece of cloth, a strip of elastic, and scissors. I have never made any article of clothing before, let alone a skirt. I took a deep breath, and having realized that my highest priority at that moment was my beautiful daughter, I sat down with her and a needle and thread. After half an hour, threaded the needle. 2 hours later, we had a passable skirt.

Time management is important, and I need to get better at it, but priorities need to be order. Nothing was more important than that skirt.

Oh, and how did I do in the [half] Marathon? My best time ever in Jerusalem, 1:56. I guess sewing helps running...;-).

Shabbat Shalom. Spend some time with your family.

Where Google Goes, the Dollar is Not Far Behind

Google has represented the decade we are now winding down, and tracked the resurgence of the American economy after the blows of NASDAQ implosion in 2000 and then of course 9/11. With the succesful growth of Google, its IPO took off, and while I thought it was a short at 80, stock price continued to climb.

While the dollar did not follow the same meteoric rise over the past 6-7 years as the Google stock price, Google is many ways was keeping the dollar propped up, overshadowing the many serious problems in the American economy and government (not the least the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, costing the American taxpayer, which includes me, more money than it would take to feed all the hungry people in the world).

Clicks. Click throughs. PPC. Adwords. Adsense. These are the ingredients of Google's billions of dollars of profits (and still insane valuation). What it boils down to is the ultimate American value point: marketing. The Google guys convinced the world that clicks=$$, and until the emperors cloths start to fade noone knows he is standing there naked (or nude, if you prefer). But how well tested is the core Google theory? What are conversion rates really like? None of "know," tremendous amount of guesswork involved. Look back to my post on Jaxtr for a taste of emptiness of usage--10 million users and no revenue to speak of, in my eyes that is not a business.

Now, let me stress that while I know little about the public markets, I know far less about the global currency market. When my children ask me about the dollar falling in value against the Shekel, I blabber for a bit about "shakiness in the American economy," but actually have no idea what I am saying. I do know, however, that much like Google, America marketed itself well, even in the face of some astonishingly stupid moves in the world. In 1990 we defended one dictatorship from another (to this day not clear why). In 2001, in response to 19 Saudi men bombing New York and Washington the US went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Go explain that one to your kids.

Now people are losing confidence in Google, and in the Greenback. As long as you cashed out and your life is all in dollars, nothing to  worry about.

For those of us who live in the world, and I mean in the world...multi-currency,  multi-lingual,  multi-national,  the  rapid deterioration of the  Google stock price and  the dollar  remind  us  that we cannot rest  all our hopes on one player. Going global means being global, and even living in Jerusalem (in the center of the world) I am feeling left behind. Time to move savings in multiple currencies. Time to figure where the next waves are coming from -- because Google Greenbacks are so....what do we call this decade?

When I have None, Rely On Other's Words

When I am lack for words for myself, as I have been the past few days (really weeks, but hit home more this past Thursday night), as I passed the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva minutes after 8 teenagers were slaughtered while they studied in the library. I again passed there yesterday morning and afternoon. And then word came our that their killer was a Palestinian Jerusalemite from Jabel Mukaber, a village less than a mile from my house.

With so many conflicting thoughts racing around in my brain, trying to stay focused on my immediate family, my venture business, was so moved to receive the following note from a friend in California, for whom we are her only connection to Jerusalem:

 

Jacob, I just had to write to tell you how sad I was to read today’s news about the murders in Jerusalem.   I know how hard you and your family have worked for peace, and how especially devastating it must be to see it eroded within your own city, and in such an ugly and senseless way.  I am praying for reason and a shared humanity to prevail over ignorance and hatred, and am ever more grateful to know people like you and Haviva who live your lives in peace and teach your children love. 

           Wishing you the best,
            Martha

I certainly could not have said it better. Amen Martha. Amen.

We Even Make Good Wine

While the usual discussion in these pages is about start-ups, and how Israel is an incredible breeding ground for tech entrepreneurship, we have also gone back to our roots.

I was first introduced to Castel Winery  by my good friend Elie Wurtman, and we actually entertained the thought of opening a winery ourselves. Probably good that we stopped at the drawing board with that one, but Eli Ben Zaken and his peers have blazed a new trail for Israeli wine. Yet another example of the "new Israel," as a center of creativity and a global sense of the aesthetic.

Take a look at this story from this past weekend's Wall Street Journal (thanks to Jules Polonetsky for pointing it out):

Israel's New Revolution in Quality

By WILLIAM ECHIKSON
SPECIAL TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
February 22, 2008

It started as a hobby. Eli-Gilbert Ben-Zaken, an Israeli restaurateur and poultry farmer, planted a few grape vines on a hilltop next to his house in the Judean hills in 1988. He chose the name Domaine du Castel after a nearby crusader fortress and, starting with a mere 600 bottles, attempted to make high-quality, French-inspired wines.

In the beginning, Mr. Ben-Zaken's quest looked quixotic. Wine was produced in ancient times in Israel -- archaeologists have found antique wine presses in the Galilee and Judean Hills -- and the Rothschild banking family reintroduced grape cultivation at the end of the 19th century. But for most of the country's history, the Israeli industry was dominated by sweet wines of poor quality that taste like alcohol-tainted grape juice -- tired red wines with cooked, herbaceous flavors.

Israeli winemaker Eli-Gilbert Ben-Zaken in his cellar

Today, Mr. Ben-Zaken and a small group of other Israeli pioneers are creating world-class reds and whites that are gaining increasing recognition from critics both at home and abroad. Ever more-prosperous Israelis are demanding better drinking choices, while connoisseurs in the U.S. and Europe in search of something different are intrigued enough to taste these "new" world wines from an ancient land.

"We were real pioneers -- the Israeli market used to be a prisoner market for poor-quality kosher wine," Mr. Ben-Zaken, 63 years old, recalls. "It's different these days. Everybody is trying to make something good."

Traditionally, Jews drank mostly for Shabbat blessing and this wine was made sweet because a bottle had to last for several days and still be drinkable. In modern Israel, winemakers had a captive market that demanded kosher wines and little in terms of quality. Israelis traditionally put little emphasis on gastronomy.

The country's economic boom over the past two decades has changed that, creating more of a market for the finer things in life. Israel's reduction of travel taxes prompted a wave of visits to Europe and exposure to good food and good wine. Import taxes were lowered and many of the world's most famous international wines finally began to become available in the country. Annual per capita consumption of wine has doubled in the past two decades to about seven liters.

A new generation of wineries and winemakers has emerged to satisfy Israelis' new appreciation for quality wines. Before 1980, Israel counted only about 20 wineries. One company -- Carmel -- dominated the industry, vinifying about 70% of the country's total grape harvest. Today, more than 200 smaller wineries are spread across the country, from the Golan Heights in the far north to the Negev Desert in the far south. Sweet wines now represent a minority of the market.

In Europe, supermarkets still tend to stock the mainstream Israeli brands. But increasingly specialty wine stores or Jewish stores are carrying a wider selection of highly rated Israeli wines. (For details on some stores in Europe and tasting notes on some wines, see accompanying article.)

In addition to Castel, some of the best names to look for include Margalit, Tzora, Chateau Golan and Clos de Gat. Even Israel's largest and oldest wineries, led by Carmel, have invested in new production of high-quality, European-style wines. Carmel has launched the well-respected wineries Ramat Daltan, Zichron and Yatir.

Mr. Ben-Zaken's Domaine du Castel was the first winery to plant vines in the Judean hills, in the center of the country. Now, more than 30 wineries flourish there. The Judean's Mediterranean-style hillsides -- where olive groves also flourish -- benefit from relatively cool summers, which make them suited to quality winemaking. For his wines, Mr. Ben-Zaken has given the hills a French name: Haute-Judée.

Domaine du Castel regularly ranks among the best Israeli wines in international tastings. Its wines are exported to the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Bottles sell for €30 or more. Mr. Ben-Zaken often shows off his wines in St. Emilion during the Bordeaux region's annual primeur tastings, and he recently traveled to Brussels.

"Castel is the king of Israeli boutique wineries," says Philippe Weinberger, an Antwerp-based importer and wine-shop owner who sells a wide range of top-ranked kosher wines. "He was the first one to do this and he pushed the big guys -- the big companies such as Carmel -- into making better wine." At his Antwerp shop, Mr. Weinberger says, he sells top-flight Israeli wines to Jews "who want to taste great kosher wine" and non-Jews "who just want to try something new."

The diminutive, bearded Mr. Ben-Zaken grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, having no experience with wine. In the 1960s his family moved to Italy, where he acquired a taste for fine food and wine. Both he and his wife Monique, also from Egypt, attended the University of Geneva, which nurtured his Francophile tendencies.

In 1970, the Ben-Zakens settled in Israel, on a small farm with a chicken coop about 17 kilometers from Jerusalem, where Mr. Ben-Zaken opened a restaurant called Mamma Mia. "It was the first restaurant serving fresh pasta in Israel," he says. The restaurant required a wine list. He began to taste seriously, traveling often to French and Italian wine regions, and was inspired to plant his initial vines.

During a 1985 trip to Burgundy, Mr. Ben-Zaken was staying in Puligny-Montrachet and asked for a bottle of the local wine at the hotel's restaurant, not knowing the village was home to one of the world's most famous Chardonnays. When the wine was served, it proved a revelation -- "the first time I tasted a white wine aged in oak that was not just fruity but had much more complex flavors."

For his own wine, Mr. Ben-Zaken has adopted a similar French style. His reds blend the five Bordeaux grape varietals led by Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. His whites are 100% Chardonnays and are crafted to resemble Burgundies. One of his two sons, Ariel, joined the winery after studying oenology in Burgundy. His son-in-law also works at the winery. All Domaine du Castel wines are aged in French oak barrels.

The winery now has 15 hectares under cultivation and produces about 200,000 bottles each year. Mr. Ben-Zaken has stopped raising poultry and turned the old chicken coop into a modern cellar and winemaking facility. When in 2002 the intifada put his Mamma Mia restaurant on the front lines of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, forcing him to hire security guards and chasing away many of his customers, he closed it and concentrated full-time on making wine.

Mr. Ben-Zaken is a secular Jew, and at first, he didn't make kosher wines. But many of Domaine du Castel's customers began asking for wines that respect Jewish dietary laws, so Mr. Ben-Zaken changed his production process to get rabbinic approval. Although much debate continues to swirl about what makes a wine kosher, most insist on rabbis or their assistants supervising the wine's production and prohibit the use of animal byproducts such as gelatin, which is used to clarify wine.

The domaine's wines are intriguing -- impressive but not always successful. At a recent tasting in Brussels, the 2005 Chardonnay, which costs €39 a bottle, seemed crisp and cool, with a nice buttery finish. But one of the tasting participants, Brussels wine-seller Paul van Dievoet, said too much oak masked the fruit's full flavors. "It's hard to justify such a high price," he said.

The reds received similarly mixed reviews in Brussels. Both the 2005 Petit Castel at €32 a bottle and the 2004 Grand Castel, at €54, are clean, impressive wines, with full flavors -- from floral violets to fruity cherries -- with licorice, clove and other spices in the finish. "These are more Bordeaux than real Bordeaux," said a surprised Mr. van Dievoet. Despite the high quality, he remained dissuaded by their high cost.

None of the criticism matters much to Mr. Ben-Zaken. His wines' high prices reflect the low output and strong demand for top Israeli wines. Most of his vintages are sold out and he has begun mimicking Bordeaux growers in selling them en primeur -- before bottling, while still aging in barrels.

Accolades continue to pour in. Wine author and expert Hugh Johnson awarded the domaine his highest four star rating and named the red Castel Grand Vin one of his 200 favorite wines in his 2008 pocket wine book. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate magazine gave the domaine many of the best notes in its December, 2007, Israeli tasting. Mr. Parker grades on a 100 point scale, with anything over 90 considered superb. The red 2005 Grand Castel received a 92, the Petit Castel received 90 points, and white 2005 "C Blanc du Castel" won 91 points, with the Advocate reporting "generally good balance, some brightness, some depth, and a respectable finish that lingers and has some intensity."

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Israel last year, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert served her Castel. She liked it -- and placed an order for several cases that are now being delivered to Berlin.

A Bright Spot in Israeli Politics: My Friend Shlomo

In the midst of all the frustration of stalled out peace talks (once again), the biting self-critique of the state of our army and military decision making process in the "Winograd Report," and the general lack of charismatic leadership in the Israeli political pantheon, there are my bright spots.

One of the them is Shlomo Molla, as of yesterday a new member of Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Shlomo replaced Avigdor Yitzhaki, who resigned in wake of the Winograd report. Shlomo is the only Jew of Ethiopian origin in this Knesset, and only the second in history of State of Israel.

Below is Shlomo's formal bio, but let me add a few words. I first met Shlomo in 1988, four years after he arrived in Israel as part of "Operation Moses." Shlomo literally walked to Israel, trekking 600 kilometers across Sudan to reach Israel from Gondar. He saw many fall along the way, and knew little Hebrew when he got here as a teenager. Within four years he was not only fluent in Hebrew (and English), but organized and led the Ethiopian Students Association. I helped organize Shlomo's first trip to the United States (to speak on college campuses), and remember how amazed he was at the skyscrapers (we didn't have those back then in Israel, and certainly not in Gondar...).

What connected Shlomo to me then and now is the belief that through the modern State of Israel we make this world a better place. Sometimes that belief is shaky, and sorely tested, but we [still] believe. Shlomo has devoted his life to the Jewish people and tikkun olam--I am so glad he is now in the knesset, representing not only the success (with all its warts) of the aliya from Ethiopia, but so much more.

I look forward to his service in the Knesset, we are a better people for him being there!

Shabbat Shalom.

Mr. Shlomo Molla (WZO) Board Member

Shlomo (Naguse) Molla  was born in Ethiopia and made Aliyah to Israel in 1984 from Sudan in "Operation Moses". He is a member of the Zionist Executive and heads the WZO Department for Zionist Institutions.   Prior to his current position, Shlomo was the Head of the Ethiopian Division of the Aliyah & Klitah Department in JAFI. In the past he was the Supervisor of Ethiopian Immigration and Supervisor of Absorption Centers and Ulpanim in Northern Kibbutzim; he also served as the Head of the Absorption Center in Tiberias and the Coordinator of distressed population, WUJS.   Shlomo has a LLB Law degree from Kiryat Ono College and a BA in Social Work, from Bar Ilan University . His Volunteering activity included running to the Knesset as a part of the Kadima Party in 2006; he was a  Member of the advisory committee for civilian opposition at the Ministry of Interior; Treasurer of non-profit organization for defense law in Ethiopia; Member of committee to advise Ministry of Health on war conditions and Co-Chair for the Organization of Ethiopian students.   Shlomo Molla is a member of the Board of Governors since June 2006.

You're No Friend Of Mine: "Friends" on Facebook, Or Bugs In The System

I receive "friend" requests every day on Facebook, as I am sure many of you do. Often I ignore "spam" friends, this time the name was so interesting I decided to ask this stranger was that was asking to be "friend" (see my opening line below). Now, I leave it up to you to figure out how the story below even got started...how does one ask to be my friend without knowing? Unless of course Facebook has been ridden with bugs, viruses, hacked beyond belief, which I am sure is the case. With a few more stories like the one below, Facebook will start to fade, and todays $15 Billion valuation will be tomorrow's Pointcast (for those of you that remember that story). Can Marc Z and his "friends" prevent the downfall? Possibly, but they need to get serious about stopping the friend pollution.

who r u? why r u friending me?

Between Edye Cook-Skidmore and You

 

Jacob Ner-David

2:26pm Jan 25th

<no message body>

 

Edye Cook-Skidmore

7:36pm Jan 25th

Report Message

I have no idea how I requested you.  I am new to facebook.  My son is Seth Cook are you at Aish?

 

Jacob Ner-David

11:17pm Jan 27th

no, not at aish. And I do not know your son...

 

Edye Cook-Skidmore

Today at 6:03pm

Report Message

Sorry I have no idea how I would have requested you. I get to Jerusalem at least once a year to see my son. Maybe we have a friend in common? Take care!

Death Over Life? Auschwitz Gets More Tourists Than Jerusalem...

OK, so maybe I exaggerated in the headline, but not by much. Unfortunately the Jerusalem municipality doesn't have very accurate tourism statistics (ok, they have no statistics at all!), but a fair leap to say that Jerusalem did not get much more than 1 million tourists in 2007.

And the former Auschwitz Death Camp , which today is a Polish government run "museam,"  collects tickets at the "door," and they know exactly how many  people visited: "a record number visited....more than 1.2 million in 2007." According to museam spokespeople, the biggest group came from Poland itself (many Polish schools today require students to visit Auschwitz).

It will take me some time to process this, but immediately what I thought when I saw this headline is to think that the real living Jerusalem has to compete with a former death camp for tourists...

Some more food for thought: on the holiest day (or at least the most celebrated) of the Christian calendar, Christmas, the grand total of tourists visiting the birthplace of Jesus (Bethlehem, about ten minutes from house by bicycle) was...around 22,000. And see here for how proud the Israeli foreign ministry was about that!

While I could go on about the culture of death, and the negation of life in favor of a worship of persecution, I will not. I simply would like to hope and pray that 2008 will bring peace to Jerusalem the living, and many more tourists celebrate life. Amen.