Five Things on Ukraine, Skin, Democracy, Walls, Cricket - Issue #617
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I spent most of this week in Tel Aviv and I'm really fascinated by how much I love this city. I feel a very strong sense of connectedness to the country and its people. I'm not religious at all, I don't understand the language a bit, although it sounds very melodic to me and this has only been the third time I've traveled to Tel Aviv. And I've never been outside of the city as I always went there on a business trip (on my first trip the guy at the border control asked me: "what business are you in?" and I said: "I'm an investor and I invest in Israeli startups." - he looked at me, put on a big smile and said: "welcome to Israel!") . I don't think I have any jewish relatives at all, but I've long noticed then whenever I travel to a foreign country, it's the jewish culture that creates a familiar connection for me. Which is weird, as I grew up in Northern Germany in the 70s and I cannot think of a single person I knew that was jewish. That is unfortunately no surprise after the Holocaust. And even now only roughly 100.000 jews live in Germany. My parents knew some older people who survived concentration camps, but they were in a KZ because they were members of the Social Democratic Party. My dad, who was born in Stargard, which is now Poland, but had to flew from the Russians together with his mother and is brother when he was four years old, sometimes refered to our family as mischpoke and oftentimes called me meschugge, but other than those two yiddish words, I cannot recall any other references to jewish culture. But still, the last few days I felt very much at home in a foreign place. Weird. My 10 year-old daughter called Israel "the place where God was invented" when she was 5 or so and I first visited the country. I still think that's very poetic, but all this religion stuff is not something I deeply care about. I'm so indifferent, I even sent my 10-year old to a catholic school for fifth grade, because she wanted it. I guess I have to dig a little deeper where this sense of connectedness to Israel is coming from. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older and I'd like to retire in a place where I can wear t-shirt, shorts and Birkenstocks all year round without all the alligators and the humidity. Probably it's the food, the wine and the people. Yes, you should go visit Israel. Tell them I send you, maybe I get a discount the next time or so.
Five Things on Ukraine, Skin, Democracy, Walls, Cricket - Issue #617
Five Things on Ukraine, Skin, Democracy…
Five Things on Ukraine, Skin, Democracy, Walls, Cricket - Issue #617
I spent most of this week in Tel Aviv and I'm really fascinated by how much I love this city. I feel a very strong sense of connectedness to the country and its people. I'm not religious at all, I don't understand the language a bit, although it sounds very melodic to me and this has only been the third time I've traveled to Tel Aviv. And I've never been outside of the city as I always went there on a business trip (on my first trip the guy at the border control asked me: "what business are you in?" and I said: "I'm an investor and I invest in Israeli startups." - he looked at me, put on a big smile and said: "welcome to Israel!") . I don't think I have any jewish relatives at all, but I've long noticed then whenever I travel to a foreign country, it's the jewish culture that creates a familiar connection for me. Which is weird, as I grew up in Northern Germany in the 70s and I cannot think of a single person I knew that was jewish. That is unfortunately no surprise after the Holocaust. And even now only roughly 100.000 jews live in Germany. My parents knew some older people who survived concentration camps, but they were in a KZ because they were members of the Social Democratic Party. My dad, who was born in Stargard, which is now Poland, but had to flew from the Russians together with his mother and is brother when he was four years old, sometimes refered to our family as mischpoke and oftentimes called me meschugge, but other than those two yiddish words, I cannot recall any other references to jewish culture. But still, the last few days I felt very much at home in a foreign place. Weird. My 10 year-old daughter called Israel "the place where God was invented" when she was 5 or so and I first visited the country. I still think that's very poetic, but all this religion stuff is not something I deeply care about. I'm so indifferent, I even sent my 10-year old to a catholic school for fifth grade, because she wanted it. I guess I have to dig a little deeper where this sense of connectedness to Israel is coming from. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older and I'd like to retire in a place where I can wear t-shirt, shorts and Birkenstocks all year round without all the alligators and the humidity. Probably it's the food, the wine and the people. Yes, you should go visit Israel. Tell them I send you, maybe I get a discount the next time or so.