ISAACS FAMILY NEWSLETTER JULY-AUGUST 2021

My late father deeply engrained into my psyche at a very young age a hatred of hypocrisy. This occurred when he recounted a story of his teenagerhood in which someone - who should have known better –said to him “Do as I say, not as I do”. I wonder if my father knew that this sanctified epitome of hypocrisy had an illustrious history. It first appeared in print in 1654 and was attributed – how ironically - to preachers. So perhaps I was breaking a family tradition when, after returning from a week’s holiday in the UK, I posted on LinkedIn my stern advice these days NOT to travel abroad.

The purpose of our trip (Judy and I travelled together, but only I published the hypocritical post) was to visit Ari who is stuck in the UK. We had not seen him for 18 months. At the time of booking, Covid had basically ended in Israel and was beating a rhythmic retreat in the UK. By the date of our flight, the Delta variant had reared its ugly spikes and changed Covid’s tune.  

By chance, both Ari and his girl-friend Shona were unexpectedly free during our visit, so our jaunt to London morphed into four days in the Lake District – which offered the dual benefits of much nicer walks and distance from highly populated areas. Guided by Ari and his apps, we took three memorable hikes – Stickle Tarn and Stickle Pike and related lakes on Day 1, a series of unpronounceable peaks and more lakes on Day 2, and a traipse to Wray Castle on Day 3. Wray Castle is on the other, preserved side of Lake Windermere (special thanks to Beatrix Potter who bought up the land and prevented it being commercialized). 

Drama hit on Day 4. To exit the UK you have to produce negative results from a PCR Covid tests called “Fit to Fly”. To cut a long story short our results did not arrive on time (thanks to the Royal Mail that took two days too long to deliver Judy’s test, and lost my test completely). We arrived at the airport despondent where it was confirmed we could not board our Thursday evening flight back to Israel. We would have to redo the tests and reschedule our return to Sunday.

Although it’s inconvenient having travel plans go haywire, there are worse punishments than a weekend in London. Ari and Shona gracefully invited us to their home so we gained three more days with the prodigal, and also now had time to meet up with family (who invited us to stay with them too). And I got to see, outside the local Walford Rd synagogue, an extremely rare Victorian hexagonal Penfold post-box (small things please small minds).

Now for some updates. We’ll do it bottom up, which is also ladies first in our family.

Elisheva the Swot

I am not one to brag about children’s achievements (well, maybe I am), but Elisheva’s school diploma for 11^th grade is rare – at least as rare as Victorian hexagonal post boxes. All her grades are “excellent” meaning 95 plus. And if I recall correctly, 7 out of 9 are 100s. Now, I don’t want this to go to Elisheva’s head, and she is still waiting for results from her bagrut which, who knows, could all be failures… in theory - so I won’t let her read this paragraph before I send off the newsletter.

Gapless Abigail

Abigail is rounding off her second year in national service and is burning off vacation days like there is no tomorrow. She frequently accompanies Judy on her trips to the north and to Eilat. Abigail belongs to a generation for whom Covid ruined the concept of a gap year. Her age group was denied the experience of backpacking round South America or the Far East before starting university. I don’t think Abigail ever had an actual desire to do those things, but I will defend her democratic right to complain about it till my dying breath.

Mother Orly

When gorgeous grandson Ram was 5 months old, Orly returned to work part-time. This made us grand-parents also part-timers – part-time baby-sitters. My shift is half-day Sunday while Judy does Monday. I am not sure if caring for babies keeps me young. Maybe when I have to romp with five-year olds on the grass or play football with 10-year olds I will learn. PG I will let you know when the time comes.

Naphtali the 6% million dollar man

Naphtali is getting great experience in his start-up, although working obscene hours in the process. He leads a team of developers including off-shore workers from Georgia. Start-up nation is famous due to a a few dozen companies gobbled up by Google, Microsoft and the like for a fortune. But start up nation is actually composed 99% from a long tail of thousands of startups. Some are bought up;  some go public; some turn into profitable concerns; others close down. With every day that passes Naphtali’s company (Juno) takes another step en route to the big exit. There are great investors behind it and a growing list of customers. I guesstimate their chances to make it big are now up to about 6%.

Elon the Optimist

As I have mentioned before, Elon’s magic business takes a hit every time Covid numbers rise. But he never complains, and always focuses on what he has and not what he has not. This is an excellent quality which he has exhibited since the age of about 3 when he would return from shul proudly waving 3 sweeties he had caught at a barmitzva scrum, while the bigger kids were guzzling 30. The current fourth wave of Covid has washed over Elon’s business more gently. Not because there are fewer sick. I think that people simply cannot resist Elon’s incredible performances.

Ari the Ascender

If hobbies are the spice of life, climb on. Ari’s latest pastime is climbing. The huge popularity of the Ninja warrior reality TV show - had absolutely nothing to do with it. In a good week, Ari would go climb 3 or 4 times – until he moved to Oxford, which is a place more known for its rowing (I believe there is a university there as well). Apparently, just to join a rowing club in Oxford, you need to rob a bank – a proposition to which Ari gave deep consideration, before rejecting. You see, with the growing popularity of virtual currencies and digital payments there isn’t much cash left to place in the vaults these days. To make ends meet, bank robbers have been retraining in cyber.

That’s enough nonsense for now. Shana Tovah and lots of love from:

Judy, Michael and all the family

Elkana