Holy ice-cream, and other Israeli experiences
On a glorious sunny afternoon we saw an ice-cream store with a long line to go in. The people walking out of the store had such a floating-on-air expression on their faces that we had to go in. Arte Art is the purveyor of exotically flavored holy Italian ice-cream in Tel Aviv’s Carmel market. After tasting 8 different flavors ranging from peach to mocha, I finally got a cone with one scoop of Blackcurrant cheesecake and another spoon of lime ice-cream(!) Two scoops of heaven. It is the first place I’d recommend when you visit Israel.
A hundred and twenty four (124!) of us went to Israel for Spring break and saw most of the country over 6 days. We started in Tel Aviv, then went North to Nazereth and Golan Heights, before turning south to Jerusalem, Masada, the Dead Sea and back to Tel Aviv. I won’t go into the geo-politics or history of this land because I’ve only experienced the Israeli side of the narrative. Instead, I’ll briefly recount some stories from the trip and offer my biased perspective of Israel and Israelis. Let me start with Food.
Dining and Party Scene
We had some of the most exquisite culinary experiences of my life during this trip. I’m vegetarian, so believe me when I say that I’ve had a lot of salads in my life. But during our first big meal at Mashya, in Tel Aviv. I tasted salads so fresh that it was hard to believe that they were made of earthly fruits and vegetables.
It became obvious that we had to visit the other restaurant by Chef Yossi Shitrit soon after that meal and I’m grateful that Kitchen Market was already in the plan.
At dinner in a restaurant called Hasadna, we were waiting for dessert as the music slowly crept up in volume. The servers spontaneously broke out into dance and as we got up to join them, our dinner tables were sneaked out of some side doors. The whole restaurant became a party hall and dessert appeared on every flat surface that was visible. The result left us grooving to the music while we exercised our sweet tooth. I still can’t decide which side won — the taste or the delicate artistry that’s in the chefs’ hearts.
Since pictures can’t really illustrate the vibe in a party, let me just say that we were a little shocked by how good the parties were. Our trip started in the middle of Purim, an Israeli holiday that involves Halloween-like costumes and a half-week long celebration where alcohol is encouraged even by coffee-shops. Out in the streets of Tel Aviv, we experienced blocks full of people in zombie costumes, dancing on tables and singing at the top of their voices. It actually felt like a celebration, not just a forced tradition. But there are a few things in the country that are compulsory, military service for example.
Military Service and Startup Culture
Every Israeli is required to do compulsory military service when they turn 18. Men are required to serve for 3 years and women for 2. They get picked for different roles based on physical, IQ and other tests conducted in grade 11 (high school). I think this singular law has shaped a lot of this nation’s destiny.
Imagine joining the military when most people around the world are going to college. While an American boy would be figuring out which fraternity to join, or an Indian girl would be dealing with curfew hours at home, these men and women are training to be the world’s most effective fighting force.
It gives the youth in this nation an immense sense of patriotism, fearlessness and grit. I noticed that when an Israeli woman flirts, her eyes have a unique look — ‘if you mess with me, I could kill you.’ It is a very attractive attribute. The girls on my trip said that the muscular guys walking around everywhere weren’t lacking confidence either.
After growing up under a constant geo-political threat, these kids suddenly enter the zones with the bullets or the bombs that they read about in the papers. After life-or-death stakes at the age of 18, the risks of starting up must seem relatively benign.
After so much experience in putting their lives on the line for a mission, their approach to taking risks is very different that the regular Business School student. Most of the Israelis we met had launched or worked for a startup.
Given the reputation of Israel’s intelligence, cybersecurity and fighting force, they’re obviously ahead of the curve in these domains. It is no surprise that a lot of Israeli startups are built around products that evolved from military applications — including Waze (acquired for $1B) and MobilEye (acquired for $15B) both of which evolved, I’m guessing, from the target tracking and vehicle automation R&D required as Israel developed a world-class drone fleet. Israel boasts the highest number of startups per capita of any nation in the world and that trend isn’t going anywhere.
Initially, we were awestruck by these people. We met a fighter pilot who gave us a talk about how the air force is able to get aircraft in the air within 5 minutes of an alarm. He mentioned that if he takes off from the airbase and doesn’t turn his plane right away, he’s already atop the Gaza Strip, which is a hot bed of conflict. If a mission requires him to go to the northern border near Lebanon, he can reach it in 8 mins.
He’s a reserve pilot now who trains once a week, but he said that he works harder at the air-force on a daily basis than at both of his successful startups… which is saying something. Beyond his two companies that make money, he said he is exploring a third one to see if software can improve corporate culture. All that is beside the commitment he has to his wife and 3 kids. Oh! and he’s getting an executive MBA on the side.
Another example — the Mayor of Jerusalem (a former paratrooper) told us about the companies he has helped take public during his entrepreneurial and VC days and how he’s trying to scale up tourism in Jerusalem 5-fold using what he learned in the private sector.
Listening to such accomplishments thrown about casually again and again changed my perception of the Israeli population. No longer were they normal people with a religious fervor and nationalism packed into their daily lives. Suddenly, they all seem like Einsteins with a six pack. Fun fact: Einstein was offered the chance to be Israel’s 2nd President. He refused.
Spirit and Israeli Women
We had the honor of listening to two amazing women near Jerusalem — Rina and Huda.
Rina
We started the day at the holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. A sweet old lady was standing at the center of a synagogue and beaming at us approvingly, as if we were just some friends of her 24 grandchildren or 21 great-grandchildren. She cracked jokes, and eventually got around to the question — does anyone have a relative who survived the holocaust?
We had two hands go up, someone’s grandfather was a young boy who survived the holocaust and was liberated from Bergen Belsin. Another student’s grandfather survived the death-march post Auschwitz. The speaker nodded and said ‘Oh, I was at Bergin Belsin too, and somehow, even I survived the death-marches. But I don’t know how or why.”
From the age of 6 to 9, Rina cheated death on a daily basis till world war II was over. Along the way, she lost her mother, her father, her brothers, her aunts, uncles and friends. She was adopted 5 times during the war and spent some 40 years with her ‘sixth mother’ after the war in Brooklyn, NY. Then she moved to Israel.
The story was told with an optimism and a strength that felt like it was someone else’s story, not Rina’s life experience. Like she had told it a hundred times. Like she was doing it to help us reconcile with the past, because she was plenty of steps further along in the journey than her young audience of business students. And at the end, amidst a stream of tears, the young girl whose grandfather escaped from Bergen Belsin raised her hand to ask a question, “My grandfather escaped, but he never spoke of it. Not once. He died with his feelings clenched tight in his chest. Never spoke of it, not once. But you do. How do you find the strength?”
And Rina said ‘Like all things, it gets easier the more you do it. I’m telling you the story because it’s a story that needs to be told. And there are very few of us left to tell it. So do me a favor, don’t forget it.”
We then went on a 2 hour tour of the Holocaust museum. And heard story after story of the most tragic years in human history. 6 million is the anchoring number. 6 million Jews were murdered in World War 2 and so far, almost 4.7 million of them have been identified. 70 years after the war, the effort to find the names of some people’s lost grandmothers is still underway.
Huda
That evening, we got a chance to listen to the life-story of a Bedouin woman, Huda. Huda’s parents couldn’t pay the wedding dowry so they had an exchange wedding arranged. Family elders made a deal according to custom — Huda married a man and her brother married the man’s sister. Both the families accomplished two weddings and so neither had to pay much dowry.
According to Huda, Arab men are allowed to treat their wives as they please. And when someone is part of an exchange wedding, the wife is subject to treatment based on her brother’s behavior. If her brother beat his own wife, Huda’s husband would beat her too. Huda’s brother had 10 children with his wife. But then he married a second woman and moved in with her. Just months after, Huda’s husband married a younger woman and moved in with her too.
Hungry, poor, and disillusioned, Huda began serving people in the ‘hospitality’ industry (I think she opened a sort of coffee-shop.) But Bedouin women aren’t allowed to show their face in public, so there was outrage when she started serving people in the open. She stands by the idea, and ignores the death threats. She says she has three wishes in her life — one was to fly abroad once, another was to make a movie about her life and the third was to write an autobiography. She got to fly for her son’s graduation in America and there was a documentary made about her life. Now she’s working on her book.
We were given a chance to ask her questions. I asked her a simple one — — “Are you happy?”
After a pause, Huda said-
“Yes and no.
Yes, because I’m not standing in a corner, I’m doing something about it. No, because I didn’t have a childhood. I didn’t have that much choice in how my life would turn out. I didn’t get to choose whom I married. I could have run away but that wouldn’t solve anything. So, I’m here, changing the system, from the inside.”
The night ended with a musical concert. In a Bedouin tent. With a theramin, some electric guitars and traditional drums. The entire crowd clapped their hands and laughed. We marveled at the Bedouin tea and the tasty food. We marveled at the Israeli story. We had started the morning with our heads bowed and ended the night on our feet, dancing.
Rina brought us to tears out of deference. Huda made us hold our heads higher out of defiance. The one thing I took away? — Life moves on.
Some more pictures
Conclusion
So yes, it was an emotional trip. Amazing food, brilliant people, and more poetic beauty than I expected, surrounded by an aura of historic reflection.
I’ll sign off by quoting Ari Shavit, from his honest book about Israel — “What this nation has to offer,” Shavit concludes, “is not security or well-being or peace of mind. What it has to offer is the intensity of life on the edge.”
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* Names have been changed for anonymity. But if you liked what you read, please hit the little ❤ button below. Most pictures are mine.
