As a young child my mom used to force me to go to classical music concerts. I am the only person in my family that doesn't play an instrument and while my sister has absolute hearing I am musically deaf more or less. None the less my mom insisted we both me and my sister listen to classical music and know the bios of the great composers. She had two methods of making sure this goal is reached - first she got me and her a subscription for 10 classical concerts a year (together with a friend of hers who had a girl a bit older than me) and forcing me and my sister to watch 3 hour documentaries about all the great composers (we had a set of video tapes of this at home).

After a while our joined subscription became two single one's - me and my mom's friend's daughter use to go alone (given we would talk a lot among ourselves but we would also listen) and I grew up to be a documentary freak.

This long intro is meant to explain why the two moment in my life when I felt most proud of my Israeli nationality and my Jewish heritage are connected directly to music. 

The fist moment was when I was working in TOP communications where my first client was the Klezmer festival in Zefad. This yearly festival brings together Klezmer musicians, young and old, from all over the word - many of whom come in order to meet the one and only Klezmer master: the great Giora Feidman. In spite of the fact I didn't get to study music from the master - I did get to meet him and work with him. Meeting him was a pleasant experience in it self and hearing him play was magical. I heard him play several times during the festival in Zefad but the one time I remember most took place in Jerusalem.

As a parliamentary event to the festival maestro Feidman played at Yad VaShem (world center  for   
Holocaust Research, Documentation, Education and Commemoration)  - Valley of Communities. The Valley is a massive 2.5 acre monument literally dug out of the natural bedrock. The names of over 5,000 Jewish communities that were destroyed or barely survived in the Holocaust are engraved on its 107 walls. The reason why this event was so moving to me is because I managed to get 3 tickets for it - one for me, one for my grandmother and one for my grandfather. Both my grandparents are Holocaust survivors from the Ukraine and  they ave lost many of their family members during the war.

Being able to stand with them at Yad VaShem, where our family members are commemorated in the archives (including my grandfather's father who was, according to eye witnesses killed by the Nazis while serving in the Red army), listening to Jewish soul music was amazing. I have never felt so close to my Jewish history as I did at that moment.   

The second moment was when I was working at TLV consulting group as part of a wonderful team that was in charge of fundraising for the Israeli Opera back in 2011. Not only was I lucky enough to sit in the first raw of the VIP section as part of my job (pic bellow) but I was also lucky enough to hear the great conductor Danial Oren conduct Ha Tikva (the Israeli anthem). I heard my national anthem many times before and in different constellations but when the crowds stood up on the tribunes in Messda (where in 60 AC more then 1000 Jews committed suicide in order to avoid falling into Roman hands according to Josephus Flavius) it was a moment to remember.

This pic is part of an exhibition made up by different PR and marketing consultants. Each poster in the exhibition portrays "favorite worst feedback from clients". 

After working in PR for a few years both during my army service in the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson unite, as head of the Russian Desk, and in my role as PR consultant at TOP communications I can promise you that in spite of the fact that some of the posters seem far fetched they are spot on. My personal favorites are: everyone knows girls under 25 don't wear skirts, can you make the pig sexier and can you turn it around in photoshop so that we can see more front

But misunderstandings, stress and frustration is not the case with all clients (from my experience I can say that it wasn't the case with most) and many times clients allow you to go absolutely crazy (usually with commercial products) and even make a statement (in the case of NGO's and such).

Some such crazy commercials are the well known old spice campaign, the commercial series alfa bank     and this wonderful smartwater commercial:

While thinking of making a statements in commercials usually we think of abused women or children as well as dealing with sickness. In the case of this commercial, fighting anorexia, the bottom line is so harsh because of the truthfulness of the massage. 

Note - at times a commercial product can also have a strong social statements. A great example of one such combination can be seen in the new Gatorade commercial.     

Last but not least I want to share with you an amazing commercial by Black Moon dealing with prostitution (it's on Vimeo so I can post it). In regard to this commercial I want leave you with a though - if there were women  in the commercial would you be so shocked? 

Alfa Bank in Russia has two really cool logos that they bring to life in an absolutely brilliant way in their commercials! 
The first one is honestly pays - "office" (below) is one commercial out of a series commercial that demonstrate this (with English subs)

The second slogan the bank uses is we speak the language of our clients and is demonstrated in this commercial which is also part of a series (sorry - haven't found one such commercial with subs but the gist is clear without words) 

One of the largest perks at my job is the fact I get to learn something new everyday. Many time I come across concepts and ideas that blow my mind. They don't always have to do with my job or my educational background but they can most defiantly be classified under the idea of "you learn something new everyday". Some such things can even make me question  my chose career path...
Though many of my family members work in the field of medicine I personally get so squeamish around blood that it never even crossed my mind to deal with anything to do with the human body until today.

Today I have discovered the amazing idea of encoding data in DNA.

What does thins mean? DNA contains genetic instructions written in a simple but powerful code made up of four chemicals bases. Now, Harvard researches have managed to find a way to store data on them and have even created a version of Moby Dick in DNA.  

Why use DNA to store digital data? Because it saves an ineradicable amount of storage space.

Learn more about this from Sri Kosuri's talk on - Encoding Stories and Big Data in DNA.

In my attempt to find cool things from my past to post on my bran-new blog I have found this cool video

Part of my amazing job at PresenTense is getting to know different social ventures world wide alongside with different communities and as a direct result of that some really interesting people.
One such community that is also a social venture that brings together very interesting people is Limmud FSU. 

"Limmud FSU brings together and empowers young Jewish adults who are revitalizing Jewish communities and culture in the countries of the Former Soviet Union, as well as in countries with Russian speakers around the world."

If you wanna read more about my insights of the Limmud FSU in Saint Petersburg, Russia feel free to check our my blog post on the PresenTense blog (alongside great posts by other members of the awesome people that make up PresenTense)

So after buying my own name I have to have decided it's time to use it to blog

What's my plan for this blog?

The five year plan is to be the new Huffington Post but for now as I hope to share my inspirations and thoughts with how ever is up for reading an all-over-the-place blog by a very not all-over-the-place person