A community of one-on-ones
The Birthright Excel community is a community by many definitions. It is first and foremost a Jewish community, one comprising of young adults, many of whom are still in the process of searching for their Jewish identity. Beyond the initial Jewish characterization, it is also a professional community made up of young professionals just starting out on their inevitably long and meaningful careers. Lastly, the excel community can be described as a social community, one full of budding and life-long relationships.
Regardless of how one chooses to define the excel community, it is certainly one composed of individual relationships, many of which overlap between professional and social. Despite religious, professional, and often social similarities, excel fellows are geographically diverse, thereby demanding individual relationships that are strong and can be maintained across thousands of miles. It is this geographic diversity that perpetuates such a robust community, a community of one-on-ones. Here are a few examples in no particular order.
My Roommate
Jason Spector is my roommate by chance, so thank God for chance. He is a fantastic roommate, friend, and fellow explorer. We spend ample hours exploring the different beaches Tel Aviv has to offer, as well as the many bars and cafés scattered throughout the city. Not only is Jason a friend in a social sense, but also in a professional sense. Many nights we find ourselves discussing the latest hot acquisition or the future of certain industry trends. Jason pushes me to question my knowledge on various topics, both those that I am quite familiar with and others that are foreign to me. Together, we created a bond that will surely last.
My Israeli Peer
Alon Malin is a soldier in the Israeli Intelligence Corps. However, like the excel community, that is just one way of describing him. He is fantastically quirky and an interesting conversationalist. For me, he is a great way to connect with Israeli life and culture. We discuss everything from the enigmatic projects he works on in the IDF to the lectures he gives on curiosity at local libraries. My relationship with Alon is one that I will always cherish in both a social and professional context.
My Madricha
Shani Pereg is perhaps the most amazing madricha I have had on any organized trip or experience in recent memory. She is again another invaluable ticket to a more authentic Israeli experience and a constant support in times of need. When I was unable to load my bus pass for over a week and I let Shani know, she immediately called me out of concern to inquire about my situation. Regardless of when or where, Shani and I always throw jokes at each other and continue to foster a relationship that brings us closer together.
My Mentor
Ido Pollak is a Partner and Group CTO at TheTime, the Israeli venture capital firm and incubator where I work. He is an exceptionally knowledgeable investor with a rich technological background. Ido and I built a relationship that is founded on solving a fast stream of problems related to internal investment research, as well as portfolio ad-hoc projects. Although Ido is new to the excel community (as this is his first time as an excel mentor), he is seemingly well-versed in providing me with a constant stream of interesting problems to tackle. I trust that my work will demonstrate that TheTime should continue to work with excel fellows in the future.
As I write this piece, I am sitting with a good friend of mine from excel who is also writing alongside me. Our individual relationship is just one of many other examples of one-on-ones within the Excel community.
