VCinJerusalem

If A Man is Killed in Jerusalem, Do We Care?

As usual, the Israeli government and security apparatus, in their infinite wisdom, chose the day before Pesach to finally carry out the destruction order on the house of one of the "tractor" terrorists in the village of Tzur Bacher, just 2 kilometers from my house, on the Southern edge of Jerusalem.

Putting the issue of the timing (I can't even begin to write about that), and even putting aside the proven uselessness of house demotion as a deterent against future terrorism (numerous ISRAELI GOVERNMENT panels have concluded hosue demolitions have zero deterant value), want to address the fact that during this event a 20 year old Jerusalemite (resident of Jabel Mukaber, next door village to Tzur Bacher) was killed by the Israeli security forces, and you probably don't even know. It was not reported on even in today's Yediot Achranot, Israel's most widely read newspaper (it was on Ynet yesterday, their internet site). According to Israeli security forces, a man drove his car directly into a group of Border Patrol personnel, who were on hand to prevent a riot from breaking out while the hosue was being destroyed. According to local residents, the man was on his way to the post office to pay bills...

Who knows. Twenty shots were fired into the car, he died.

Another family in mourning.

Do we care?

As we head into Pesach, the holiday of liberation and freedom, just take a moment and think of all of those who do not enjoy basic freedoms. And think of the part in you that wants to be free of caring, and recognize that true freedom can only exist if we sacrifice a little of our individual "freedom," and care about our fellow people, our world and it's future.

Happy Holiday.

I Am Blessed (No Thanks to Madoff, Merkin and friends)

While we are still processing the bitter reality of having the bulk of our net worth wiped out by Madoff and his helper Merkin, I can say that I am blessed.

While we barely can digest the horror taking place (on all "sides") in the Gaza area (which is getting wider all the time, with rockets falling in Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Be'ersheva), I can say I am blessed.

While we begin 2009 no closer to a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian struggle for independence, I can say that I am blessed.

While our world is racing toward becoming more and more "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" (see Thomas Friedman's book for more on that), I can say that I am blessed.

Where are all these blessings you ask? Well, to my side stands my soulmate Haviva, who I love more than ever (and without her could not fathom facing any of the above). And then I look at our children (Michal, Adin, Meira, Hallel, Nachum, and Mishael. I think of my parents, Don and Esther, and my sister Phyllis and her family, my in-laws Dan and Ruth, Haviva's siblings, and our crazy network of friends all over the world.

We are living in Jerusalem, after 3,000 years of history, playing our part. We are truly blessed. Now lets pray that in 2009 we can put aside the curses of war, greed, jealousy, famine, and poverty and spread blessings of love, peace and prosperity.

Happy New Year -- and remember to count your blessings.

Mr. Abramowitz Goes to Jerusalem

Later this week, my friend and soulmate of more than 20 years, Yosef Israel Abramowitz will stand in the primaries of a new political party, the Green Movement. Hastily put together, as all activist endeavors are, in the face of the new/old political machines of the new/old State of Israel, Yosef and the other candidates are running on the winds of change.

For the first time since becoming an Israeli citizen (formally in 1996) I joined a political party, because Yosef, Alon Tal, and the other founders of this new party took the time to write a 17 page platform that speaks to the holisitic incredible potential of this experiment known as the State of Israel. (Yes...Israel is still very much an experiment, with many mistakes made along the way, in the search for the "right" formula -- more on that another time).

Not since the late Menachem Begin of blessed memory left the political stage have we been led by people with a Jewish world view. Gevalt, you say, how could I so easily besmirch leaders such as Rabin of blessed memory, Netanyahu, Peres, Barak, Livni, and more, who have devoted their lives to the Jewish people and State. Yes, they have, but unfortunately they do not think or express themselves in a deeply Jewish manner. Once in a blue moon Peres can pull from deep down, reaching back 70-80 years and express a Jewish longing, but most of the time he sounds like a nice UN diplomat with a funny accent. And the rest? Sigh...very shallow professional politicians that wouldn't recognize the Jewish people walking down the street.

My hope for the Green Movement, is that like Greens all over the world, they go way beyond formalistic "environment" issues, and speak to the Jewish hope for a better world. Starting here, and then speaking out to the world. As Jews. Creating a Jewish State. To me, the ultimate Green is someone who is concerned about more than him/herself. Which is the Jewish ideal. 

Why aren't I running for Knesset? Nu, my father asks the same question. For now I am supporting Yosef Abramowitz and the rest of the Green Movement in their knesset bid.

If you have the time, come this Friday morning to the Kibbutz Seminar campus in Tel Aviv to watch history in the making, as the Green Movement holds it first primaries (and if by chance you are a member, vote for Yosef!).

Happy New Year

While I wish for all of us a Shana Tova Umetuka (Happy "Sweet" New Year), want to send thoughts especially to Gilad Shalit and Jonathan Pollard. They will not be able to celebrate the new year tonight with their families, may this be the last Rosh Hashana they spend in captivity.

V'shavu Banim L'gvulom. This year. Amen.

Closing The [Venture] Gap: From Silicon Wadi to Silicon Valley

Over a cup of coffee this morning discussed with a super smart visiting entrepreneur (and professional angel investor) from Silicon Valley the remaining differences between the Wadi and the Valley--or in other words, start-ups here in Israel and those found (and backed by investors) in the Bay Area.

Bottom line, I believe a gap does still exist, but it's closing, and there are many of us working to close the gap completely.

But a word to the wise for Israeli entrepreneurs, investors in Israeli startups, as they say in the London Tube:

MIND THE GAP!

Where are the main remaining differences (well, beyond the better weather here in the Middle East, better food, and the Power That Is being a local call...)?

Over time I will revisit this, but let me just highlight a few areas worth further exploration:

1. We started later. Well, we started way before, like, say, three thousand years ago...but then took a break (for about two thousand years). Silicon Valley got going in the 1960s, hit its stride in the 1970s, and has never looked back. And that was on the base of a country that has enjoyed a somewhat stable government for 200 years. We are operating in a political reality formalized 60 years ago (that has never enjoyed more than a week or two of stability). Our start-up culture really only got kick started  about 20  years ago, in the late 1980s. Really picked up only in the 1990s. 

2. We Speak Hebrew. We really do. My mother still can't believe it (really, she asks, "what do the kids speak in school to each other?" I say, "Hebrew." She says, "and they understand each other?").  You see, we literally had to recreate a society  after two thousands years of exile  --  part of that was breathing new life into an old language. Maybe you haven't realized it -- but not too many people speak Hebrew...which means at first we were a bit cut off from the global culture. Now many of us speak English as well...but we still think in Hebrew.

3. We are far away.  OK,  so no matter how much my friends in Tel Aviv  or Long Island pretend, Israel is in the Middle East. We are not in Europe, we are very far from the US, or any other market for our companies. Sure, its a lot easier to connect today, but air travel costs are going up again, and people still want to see people when they do business together.

4. We know what's best. Maybe as a result of that whole "chosen people" thing, or being on edge for 60+ years, Israelis have a "we know what's best" attitude, that sometimes makes dealing with us...a little rough. But we are learning, at least in our public behavior, to become more "American" (as my partner Lior says). At meetings we now say things like "how interesting" when really we mean....

These are just some highlights -- and we are quickly closing the gap. I will write more on how and why that is happening. But until it's completely closed, take someone's hand to make it across.

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

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.

Gary Snowman Comes to Israel

Once again, we have to thank our friends at Blueprint Ventures for making us laugh (at ourselves) in a wonderful holiday spirit. And a special thank you from this Israeli VC, for bringing Gary Snowman to Israel...and allowing us to help launch his latest adventure. Happy Holidays to all!