The Israeli Frame

( August 5, 2010)

The frame matters. We bring our perspective, biases, judgment, and experience with us. We can't escape it, and shouldn't try. We are and become who we are through the frames that encompass our lives. Husband, Father, Son, Friend, Executive, Partner, Business Owner, American, 50-something, Jewish Community Lay Leader...I know all of these frames. I do or have worn them all.

The frame of "now" is unusually powerful. This is especially so during moments of great change or stress. My business as a value investor is actually built on this very real human tendency to overweight the present. Making good investment decisions requires a willingness to examine the investment from all sides, from near and far, and most importantly with facts. As with investing, so too in life.

Our "pilot trip" a couple of months ago coincided with the flotilla incident surrounding the issue of the Gaza blockade. Tragic loss of life, caused by a premeditated attack on the Israeli soldiers who boarded the ships. Seven ships, one partially loaded with armed members of a terrorist group aligned with Al Qaeda, nine people dead, two Israeli soldiers badly injured.

While we were there and the details were beginning to become known, it was clear that as I observed this incident from my Jewish American lens, my perception was vastly different than that of most Israelis. We all were sickened by the unnecessary loss of life and the disdain for life inherent among these terror groups. But Israelis viewed their military as having terribly botched the situation. Their frame told them that their military must not be anything less than perfect, and when they are less so, the fault is theirs.

Over the last year Israel has been beset by an internal conflict that risks tearing the societal fabric of the country. One woman was arrested for wearing a tallit. Another women was arrested for carrying a Torah. Women riding on government funded buses have been physically and verbally assaulted should they dare to sit in the front of the bus. The debate about "who is a Jew" was reopened in the Knesset and tabled only after Prime Minister Netanyahu received over 50,000 emails from American Jews concerned for their rights as Jews.

My Jewish American lens sees basic issues of religious freedom that I cannot believe exist in the country that was established for all Jews after 2000 years without a homeland. Ask most Israelis about this dilemma and they wonder what we are talking about. They have lived in a country where everyone knows there is a state-sponsored religion, and if one isn't ultra-orthodox then they are simply not welcome in the religion.

The Masorti Movement in Israel today has 55 communities spread throughout the country. The opportunity exists to build upon this and offer the 85% of the people who are not ultra-Orthodox access to Judaism in a modern context. Connection to a spiritual base while living in the modern world. The Israeli government has a religious affairs budget of over $450 million. Of this only $100,000 is dedicated to non-Orthodox streams. I look forward to helping to support the enterprise of expanding access to modern, Israeli forms of religious expression through Masorti. I look forward to engaging in dialogue with others about the imperative of religious freedom. Israel must not be allowed to become a Jewish version of the fundamentalist and religiously intolerant states surrounding her.

We teach our children about Am Yisrael...the people Israel...it is with great fear that as our family prepares to enter Israel, the country is devolving into Shtai Am Yisrael - the two people of Israel. I hope and pray that will not be the case. One Israel for the haredi and one for everyone else must not be an acceptable outcome.

So as I write this blog I knowingly bring my life's experiences, my perspective, my biases into this journey. I look forward to building on those experiences and see life through an Israeli frame.

Moving to Israel – What are You Doing!?

Moving to Israel - What are You Doing!?

(July 9, 2010)

I was always fast. Really fast. As a kid, our games of choice had no wires, no components, and no bandwidth requirements…we played tag, we played pick-up games in the park until it was too dark to see, or your mom was yelling so loudly that even from two blocks away you heard her all too well.

But speed was my thing. I still recall the moment I realized that I was fast…I was about 9…funny thing is, I have never stopped running. Until now.

I have this image in my mind of a train. Traveling along the fixed tracks. Moving with certainty and purpose; no deviation. The train stays on its tracks. It’s not a prison train, it’s a nice train. Very posh inside, lots of services for the rider, speeding on to fantastic locations and destinations. I love the ride. I am blessed to be on this train. But still, I can’t help but notice those amazing sites racing by outside the windows. Sure, I know, “the grass is always greener…” But while the grass may not be greener, it is likely to be different. Maybe not even grass; maybe forest, maybe rivers, maybe people, maybe horizons…

Speed can be deceptive. Sometimes you can’t tell you’re going so fast. Traveling through a cloudless sky on a jet, even 500 miles per hour feels speedless. No reference points, no speed. Yet there we go, racing through space nonetheless. Too often, life on the train desensitizes us to speed. You don’t even notice time is going by so fast, until it already has.

A couple of years ago our son Josh (then 9) and I went to Kennedy Space Center in Florida with my dad. We had lunch with a rather remarkable guy named Story Musgrave. Among other things, Story is an astronaut who at the time had logged more hours on the Space Shuttle than any other pilot at NASA. His life story is inspirational. Born in 1935, he grew up on a farm in Kentucky and during his life of exploration he has earned master’s and doctorate degrees in math, physiology, medicine (surgery), biophysics, literature, business, computer programming and an undergraduate degree in chemistry!

I read an interview with him this month in “Flying” magazine on the dilemma of missing the forest for the trees from a pilot’s perspective. He described the pilot’s imperative of strict adherence to detailed checklists versus missing the miracle of flight and space travel and the experience of just looking out the window. The pilot’s dilemma that Story describes, just like the sole destination while on the “achievement train” helps me define the impetus driving me to pursue this year of exploration and adventure in Israel.

My friend and teacher, Rabbi (about to be Dr. too!) David Hoffman, shared some of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s thoughts on this topic with me last Thanksgiving. I have kept these words on my desk since he shared them with me because the message is so fundamental and yet so easy to miss.

Heschel said; “Indifference to the sublime wonders of living is the root of sin.”

As David wrote in his lesson; “an unwillingness to identify the wonders and acts of kindness present in each of our lives creates an obstacle for us to bring more loving-kindness and peace into the world.”

The writer who interviewed astronaut Story Musgrave reflected on the pilot’s dilemma as follows; “it involves balancing a left-brain, checklist focus with a far more right-brain immersion in a moment of experience. One might think that accomplishing that balance – in space or as a pilot within our own atmosphere – would be fairly straightforward, since we all have right- and left-brain functions going on within us every day. But…that balance can be hard to achieve.”

I look forward to engaging in the struggle to achieve more of that balance. I am asked frequently, “What are you going to do while you’re in Israel?” My answer so far is to be open to the experience, to explore the world, and to allow myself the privilege of seeing some of what’s going on outside the train. I’ll keep you posted.