It's Summer - Break Out Your Coats!
The summer is heating up! Well, it's heating up somewhere...just not here, where it hasn't broken 72 degrees yet, it's been cold and rainy, and we consistently have to break out our light coats on cooler days. At the risk of repeating Alyson's post, I'll reiterate: "Hello, it's July, people!" But the job search has been heating up, as I've been talking with organizations in San Francisco, Cleveland, and DC with pretty good results so far. And there has been a slew of events and trips to report. It's been a crazy, interesting, and exciting week.
Let's start with Friday night, when the Reform synagogue here, Shaarei Shalom, said a final goodbye to its beloved rabbi, Michael Farbman. Michael is off to pursue new activities and opportunities in the United States, and it was a bittersweet moment as Rabbi Stas took over. Rabbi Michael has built a community from nothing to between 250 and 300 members, which is an amazing accomplishment. While the community will miss his leadership, and we'll miss his big smile and fluent English, his departure makes room for the community to mature and develop from a child into a teenager. We'll be looking forward to hearing great things from Rabbi Stas in the future.
On Saturday, we recruited our new friend Kristin to come with us on a field trip to two ancient forts, Shisselburg and Staraya Ladoga. Even though I'm a history geek, I didn't find the series of battles and ancient civilizations that lived in this area to be especially compelling. You see, after a year living here, we're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to sight-seeing. What was cool was a medieval fair that was going on a the second fortress, complete with battling swordsmen and cheering onlookers. Unfortunately, there was a small group of neo-Nazis hanging out around the fair (the "White Power" and swastika tattoos gave them away...), so we took a few pictures and left. You can see our pictures here: Shisselburg and Staraya Ladoga Pictures
On Sunday, we were called in to help out as YESOD held a big event, spotlighting Dr. and Professor Robert Aumann. I've been lucky enough to meet two other Nobel Prize winners (Elie Wiesel and Vernon Smith) but I've never actually hung out with one before. Well, all that changed when we spent four-and-a-half hours with Dr. Aumann and his wife Batya. I helped him put on his translation machine, assisted with translating some questions, and even made him a cup of coffee! Our boss Jonathan Porath joked, "Now you can put it on your resume: technical advisor and personal assistant to a Nobel Prize winner!"
If you've been counting, here is the third celebrity we've met this year (Amos Oz and Yo Yo Ma were the first two).
The Ribakoff Auditoriam was packed to the gills for the speech, which was on a pretty obscure subject: game theory. Since Aumann is originally American, the ironic thing was that, for the first time, we didn't need a translator! There was a nice reception afterwards for VIPs (whatever that means), where people got to ask him individual questions. The only problem was that many of the Russians thought that a Nobel Prize in Economics winner must have valuable business knowledge; they took the opportunity to ask about all their personal finance questions and talk about their company's individual issues. I guess they don't meet theoretical scientists very often in these parts.
Lastly, against my better judgment, I'd like to write a few sentences about my beloved Grandma Esther, who passed away this week. It's enormously strange to write my thoughts and feelings on a blog, but I'll give it a shot. I will deeply miss Grandma's wry sense of humor, her funny anecdotes, and her bemused outlook on life. She always described herself as a simple woman who did the best she could with the little she was given, but that never fooled me. I saw from the very beginning that she was an amazing person--she must have been to put up with my dad! Grandma's greatness came as naturally as her humility. She was my biggest fan, always reveling in my successes and brushing past my failures. She cared about others, loved her family deeply, and changed the world for the better. I can only hope that the family that Alyson and I will start (hopefully soon!) would make her proud.
Let's start with Friday night, when the Reform synagogue here, Shaarei Shalom, said a final goodbye to its beloved rabbi, Michael Farbman. Michael is off to pursue new activities and opportunities in the United States, and it was a bittersweet moment as Rabbi Stas took over. Rabbi Michael has built a community from nothing to between 250 and 300 members, which is an amazing accomplishment. While the community will miss his leadership, and we'll miss his big smile and fluent English, his departure makes room for the community to mature and develop from a child into a teenager. We'll be looking forward to hearing great things from Rabbi Stas in the future.
On Saturday, we recruited our new friend Kristin to come with us on a field trip to two ancient forts, Shisselburg and Staraya Ladoga. Even though I'm a history geek, I didn't find the series of battles and ancient civilizations that lived in this area to be especially compelling. You see, after a year living here, we're starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to sight-seeing. What was cool was a medieval fair that was going on a the second fortress, complete with battling swordsmen and cheering onlookers. Unfortunately, there was a small group of neo-Nazis hanging out around the fair (the "White Power" and swastika tattoos gave them away...), so we took a few pictures and left. You can see our pictures here: Shisselburg and Staraya Ladoga Pictures
On Sunday, we were called in to help out as YESOD held a big event, spotlighting Dr. and Professor Robert Aumann. I've been lucky enough to meet two other Nobel Prize winners (Elie Wiesel and Vernon Smith) but I've never actually hung out with one before. Well, all that changed when we spent four-and-a-half hours with Dr. Aumann and his wife Batya. I helped him put on his translation machine, assisted with translating some questions, and even made him a cup of coffee! Our boss Jonathan Porath joked, "Now you can put it on your resume: technical advisor and personal assistant to a Nobel Prize winner!"
If you've been counting, here is the third celebrity we've met this year (Amos Oz and Yo Yo Ma were the first two).
Lastly, against my better judgment, I'd like to write a few sentences about my beloved Grandma Esther, who passed away this week. It's enormously strange to write my thoughts and feelings on a blog, but I'll give it a shot. I will deeply miss Grandma's wry sense of humor, her funny anecdotes, and her bemused outlook on life. She always described herself as a simple woman who did the best she could with the little she was given, but that never fooled me. I saw from the very beginning that she was an amazing person--she must have been to put up with my dad! Grandma's greatness came as naturally as her humility. She was my biggest fan, always reveling in my successes and brushing past my failures. She cared about others, loved her family deeply, and changed the world for the better. I can only hope that the family that Alyson and I will start (hopefully soon!) would make her proud.
posted by Matt Fieldman at 3:51 PM
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