FACE TO FACE: 23 Questions for Ordinary Israelis

1. Name Sarit Chalamish
2. Born in Petach Tikva, Israel
3. Moved to New York in Sep 2005 after having graduated from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. In the US since late 2002.
4. I live on the Upper West Side and adore this area. People are nice, there is a strong neighborhood feeling, and being so close to the park is priceless. Another major advantage is the richness of Jewish life and activity.
5. For a living I do marketing strategy consulting. I cover multiple business issues, ranging from brand identity and inter-brand alignment, to market entry decisions, to competitive analysis. I’m currently working on a project at Christian Dior.
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Blood Suckers Beware of Sweet Tooth

I thought mosquitoes were meant to disappear as the temperatures drop. Why then last night was I was awoken hourly by their high pitched drone, forced to switch on the light, grab a book, and swat another one? Not the stuff of a good night’s sleep. My dreams were wrecked by fears of West Nile Virus.

So, in wanting to ‘know thine enemy’, I’ve been reading up about the little suckers today. Apparently, it is their rapacious sweet tooth that drives them.

Some science bUffs at Hebrew U (recently ranked in the top 100 Universities in the world by Newsweek) decided to exploit the mosquitoes’ thirst for sweets to bring about their demise - by spraying acacia trees with a sugar solution that had been spiked with the oral insecticide Spinosad. Bill Gates et al, listen up, this research promises to show how we can eliminate almost the entire mosquito population in a particular area, potentially saving millions of lives.

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This ain’t your Momma’s Manischewitz

We love our friends at Israeli21c for making our job that much easier. Check out the article about the recent discovery of Israeli wine. A good read for all you lushes…

Israeli boutique wineries make the grade
By Karen Kozek

Once upon a time, the words wine and Israel conjured up syrupy, sugary, red concoctions. But those days - and those wines - are nearly a thing of the past. Wine is now big business.

According to information on the Israel Wines website, the country exported nearly $13.8 million worth of wine last year. More than 80% of the exports go to North America and Western Europe.

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Yoni Went to a Concert and He Was Happy

I was at this concert a couple of nights before Halloween – I wasn’t really up for going out but a friend had hooked me up with free tickets to see this Israeli band called Fools of the Prophecy, and though I only knew a couple of their songs, I figured the price was right and it was something to do on a Saturday night.

When I got to the club they were playing at in Chelsea, I realized that it wasn’t going to be some dinky little concert. There was a line stretching down the block, a small crowd of people arguing with the bouncer about getting to tickets someone was holding for them inside, and police barricades to keep everyone out of the traffic. When I finally got inside the building, I started to realize how big the concert would be – there were masses of people pressed up against the walls of the hallway just inside the door, pushing their way through the small corridor to the room where the concert was about to start. After picking up my tickets I pushed my way towards the general direction of the tuning up I could hear and, using my elbows perhaps a little too violently, managed to get into the main room and find a spot right in front of the soundboard.
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You Tubies Rock the Pixies to Stardom

I’m thinking the same thing…How did this happen? It’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but 10 million, 10 million views? The power of generation y-zers to propel two Israeli girls to internet stardom is still baffling. Forget internet, they’ve already been contracted by Israeli ad firms and have had dozens of top billing interviews with the Israeli media. I guess when you get more views than there are people in your country you’re a global star by default.
However, being that they’re from Ramle, a mixed Muslim/Jewish/Christian town in Israel, it makes much more sense. After I went to the Ramle municipal website I began to understand the power of the ‘Hey Clip’…
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