There is an old adage that goes "Don't judge someone until you have walked a mile in his shoes." I have a simpler litmus test that does not require finding an individual who does not wear high heels or have extremely small feet. You can learn a lot about people by being different. In a sense you become like an anthropologist and a test study in one. A few months back I received a ride back to ...
While usually quite verbose, I find myself at a loss for words. How can one describe immensely personal feelings in an extremely public setting? For every word below, there are thousands more that I am choosing not to write. Ten years ago, there was a plane crash on Sept. 7, 1998. The 10th Jewish Yahrtzeit is today. On that plane was a man, Stanley Klein zt"l, who was larger than life. But he enjoyed life. ...
I will always remember Friday night. I came to a realization, an understanding, the veil of darkness was lifted from my eyes. I recall the mad dash before leaving for my brother's house, seeing online that McCain had chosen Sarah Palin for the job of VP, in the likely case that he won. Immediately, I started researching the future Veep, with much gusto and fervor. I wanted to know everything I could about her, so ...
Israelis are full of ideas. The Silicon Wadi is only behind the Silicon Valley in terms of sheer numbers startups. One guy, Shai Agassi, is working on a viable electric car, hoping to make Israel (and the rest of the world) no longer dependent on oil. But this summer, this same guy was the Chief Scientist at eCamp Israel. The place where young Jewish geeks go to spend their summer creating, learning, networking, and a ...
Over the past few months, I have been consolidating my life into my new home. I combined my office and my home into a new apartment. First, I moved the critical items - the clothing that I love, the computers I need, the books that I must have around (although I lack the time to peruse them), etc. As the weeks went on, I transferred like piecework additional parts of my personal history, more books, more ...
A challenge is to talk about a movie without divulging any information about said movie. That is the problem with "Waltz with Bashir", an animated movie I saw last night about the first Lebanon War. I cannot morally speak about the movie. Any words I would say would ruin it for you. I just can say that it blew me away. It touched upon every single emotion that my being knows how to emote. I walked out of ...
Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I turn in Jerusalem, I am sucked into a conversation about wine. People who know me professionally lament to me, asking "Why doesn't Israel market itself through its wines?" My friends will either tell me about their favorite wine store (and physically take me there), or have a nice bottle with me (lately, its been on my porch, with perfect Jerusalem summer weather). And many of the wine ...
MashBash TLV the Official Jewneric.com Media Partner Report Last night, as previously reported, I had the pleasure of being a sponsored guest to MashBash TLV. For those who still don't know what Mashable is, go to their website (Mashable.com). (Hint: it's the Social Networking news source.) 800 people mingled for many hours, including a 3 hour open bar. As part of my contract, I have to give a write-up ...
Thomas L. Friedman wrote an inciteful (or insightful - I'm still trying to decide) article in the NYTImes on May 18th. In fact, over a day after being published it is still the most popular article emailed (but not blogged, go figure). The title: Obama and the Jews. In my estimation, he could have left out the word "Obama" and still retain the spot of the "most popular article emailed". "And the Jews" is a device ...
Jewneric treats its bloggers really really well. You should blog for them. For instance, I received a beautiful trip to MashBash TLV (the first international MashMeet!). It is going to be full with all the movers and shakers of the Israeli tech scene, and Jewneric just happens to be a media partner! So I get to go, mingle, talk up Jewneric, and enjoy the beautiful June Tel Aviv weather. MashBash TLV is just a ...
