But first, I little bit about wine people. Yossi and I are wine people. No particular talent. We know what we like, we enjoy wine and enjoy talking about it. We fantasize about finding meaningful, remunerative work in the Israeli wine industry, despiteour lact of talent. In addition to Mitzvah heroes, hanging out with people who make wine is one of my favorite pasttimes. Last night, not a 5 minute drive from where I'm staying, we went to meet Avital Goldner, winemaker at his home winery in Katamon. Avital makes about 1500 bottles a year and he considers himself a "home" winemaker, even smaller than the boutique designation. We tasted two wines, his 2007 Merlot out of the barrel (he will likely give it another year, but it is already very good) and a 2006 blend that is bottled but not yet labeled, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (about 50%) Merlot (about 35%) and Cabernet Franc (about 15%). It is exquisite and he calls it his Grand Vin (great wine) though he is not yet sure if that is too pretentious. He is planning to put it one sale in the fall, and we are considering splitting a case of 6. Avital is also a sofer stam (capable of writing parchments for sifrei Torah, mezuzot and tefillin) and that is how he supports his family.
After meeting Avital (he was leaving to teach a Talmud study group on Tractate Shabbat) we went out for a late sandwich.
Monday has been an incredible day. Danny Siegel's Mitzvah Heroes Conference began this morning - I was at the opening but had to leave for my meeting at the Jewish Agency with the Ethiopian National Project. I was there with fellow Washingtonian, Jody Harburger, who runs our Federation's endowment fund, and it was a great meeting with Dr. Nigist Mengensha, director General and Grace Rodnitzki, Dir. of Int'l Relations. I was there doing some legwork for JYPI (the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute) to learn about programs in Beit Shemesh (and apparently also in Afula) that our community is already investing in, and that JYPI may support. With my Mitzvah Heroes hat, I was also intrigued by what I was learning. As I have 3 pages of notes, I won't go into detail now, but I willl eventually post a report about the work the ENP is doing and how all of us can help. I was really impressed.
Next I rejoined the Mitzvah Heroes conference, in time to hear Yael Rosen talk about her outreach work to the Righteous Among the Nations, living in Israel. Yael gets so ethusiastic when she talks about her work. I also got to catch up with my friend Eli Bialek at luch time. Lunch was a quick Shwarma from Moshiko (in pita, not laffa, no chips), then on to talk about Mitzvah Heroes Fund to the conference participants (including Shira Kaplan's aunt and uncle, Alida and Miles Bunder) and introduce my teacher and friend, Menachem Gottesman (pictured above). Menachem spoke for about an hour, and Elissa, the balloon lady of Jerusalem, talked about her mitzvah work as well. I did not continue with the group to the Diplomat hotel. I also met for the first time, in person, Mitzvah Hero Bradley Shaul Cohen of All for the Kids. What a great guy, getting Israeli (who love to visit Israel) to actually contribute to the care of Indian kids in orphanages in India. We helped facilitate a grant for All for the Kids from the non-scetarian section of the Joint Distribution Committee (known as the Joint or JDS) this spirng.
So that's been the day, better than I expected, to say the least. Tomorrow, a surprise last minute jaunt to Tel Aviv to visit the Palmach Museum, and who knows what else.
Until then . . .
After meeting Avital (he was leaving to teach a Talmud study group on Tractate Shabbat) we went out for a late sandwich.
Monday has been an incredible day. Danny Siegel's Mitzvah Heroes Conference began this morning - I was at the opening but had to leave for my meeting at the Jewish Agency with the Ethiopian National Project. I was there with fellow Washingtonian, Jody Harburger, who runs our Federation's endowment fund, and it was a great meeting with Dr. Nigist Mengensha, director General and Grace Rodnitzki, Dir. of Int'l Relations. I was there doing some legwork for JYPI (the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute) to learn about programs in Beit Shemesh (and apparently also in Afula) that our community is already investing in, and that JYPI may support. With my Mitzvah Heroes hat, I was also intrigued by what I was learning. As I have 3 pages of notes, I won't go into detail now, but I willl eventually post a report about the work the ENP is doing and how all of us can help. I was really impressed.
Next I rejoined the Mitzvah Heroes conference, in time to hear Yael Rosen talk about her outreach work to the Righteous Among the Nations, living in Israel. Yael gets so ethusiastic when she talks about her work. I also got to catch up with my friend Eli Bialek at luch time. Lunch was a quick Shwarma from Moshiko (in pita, not laffa, no chips), then on to talk about Mitzvah Heroes Fund to the conference participants (including Shira Kaplan's aunt and uncle, Alida and Miles Bunder) and introduce my teacher and friend, Menachem Gottesman (pictured above). Menachem spoke for about an hour, and Elissa, the balloon lady of Jerusalem, talked about her mitzvah work as well. I did not continue with the group to the Diplomat hotel. I also met for the first time, in person, Mitzvah Hero Bradley Shaul Cohen of All for the Kids. What a great guy, getting Israeli (who love to visit Israel) to actually contribute to the care of Indian kids in orphanages in India. We helped facilitate a grant for All for the Kids from the non-scetarian section of the Joint Distribution Committee (known as the Joint or JDS) this spirng.
So that's been the day, better than I expected, to say the least. Tomorrow, a surprise last minute jaunt to Tel Aviv to visit the Palmach Museum, and who knows what else.
Until then . . .
Awesome day - amazing what being in the presence of Mitzvah heroes can do for one's psyche, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to hear what you think of the Palmach.....
See you soon!