Menachem's Stories: Where am I? or perhaps Who am I?

Welcome to
Menachem's Story Blog

Where am I?
or perhaps Who am I?

I haven't written anything since I flew to the U.S. in late November. That's a long time. And there really is a lot to write. I've got lots of ideas spinning in my head.

I arrived back in Israel a couple of weeks before Hannuka, the Feast of Lights. I was in the middle of a mailing for PizzaIDF.org, the pizza project we started in 20002 to increase contact between Israeli soldiers and their many, many supporters around the world. It's really been a very gratifying involvement with lots of interesting people.

We generally send out a mass mailing to previous contributors before the Festivals of Purim, Rosh haShana and Hannuka, when we send special holiday packages.

When we first started, I used an automated answering system -- who doesn't right? -- using my own homegrown software. (I knew my degree in Computer Science would be of use sometime.) A year ago I decided that generous people deserve more than that, so I started answering each message personally. And I think many people appreciate this. I admit to cutting and pasting from basic texts, but there are variations, lots of them in fact. There are many wonderful people who return often, and you start to get to know them and friendships blossom. I know that this has happened between some contributors and soldiers as well. I really believe that this, the meeting of people in Israel with those, Jews and non-Jews, outside Israel, is important, no fantastic. Dialogue is important.

Chanukah was basically over and I was getting to ready to write, and then the war hit us. We have two sons in the army right now, so it hits hard. And then all these well-meaning, friendly people from literally everywhere, start bombarding us with requests to send pizza to our soldiers on their behalves. People really step to the forefront at the important times.

So currently I am spending most of the waking day responding to the large volume of requests for pizza, burgers and other delicious goodies that we are receiving. Writing a story for this site can take a number of hours, and, apart from the lack of time in any one day, letter writing also saps (I'm not complaining) my creativity -- I'm not even photographing, or even working on photographs I have already taken. (I did manage before the pressure managed to put up a gallery of photographs of New York City. It's a different style -- you can compare these to my work of the previous year. Let me know what you think.)

It's now two in the morning and I wanted to go to bed early (famous last words -- L.O.L.), but I also really wanted to write something. Some of my readers have been complaining that I am letting down my audience. (At least new readers have plenty to consume in the meantime.)

My regulars may not be to happy with this humble posting, but it's a promise that I'll be back with more shortly. (I pray this war ends very soon -- victoriously of course, but quickly -- I'm all ready for miracles). The you'll soon see the latest escapades from Sef, Bentley, Hadley and the other characters who inhabit, and enhance, my space.

Please feel free to and don't forget to stop by my site to look at my latest (and classic) photographs.

Enjoy!

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