Reflections on Living in Israel (Part 1)

I have been a technologist from an early age. When I was eleven, I was already writing complicated programs in a language called mIRCScript. What fascinated me about computers is their ability to calculate at a speed and precision beyond that of humans, or even the sum of all humans at the same time. Computers are precise and fast, and can do things no human can do on their own.

I also have an Israeli background. My parents moved from Israel to America before I was born. Because of this, most of my extended family lives in Israel. When I was younger we used to visit Israel and our relatives here very often, but I stopped going when I turned fourteen. That last time I lived on a kibbutz for an entire summer, and I had the best time of my life. I write a little about that here.

Fast forward to recent times. I started working in venture capital for the strategic venture capital firm In-Q-Tel. Now, as I was deep into venture capital and startups, Israel was a common topic of discussion. Israel is often called the Startup Nation, a well earned reputation given that the country has the highest per capita venture capital funding in the world, the highest per capita spend on science and technology R&D, among countless other metrics of technology and entrepreneurial excellence.

Israel, this highly entrepreneurial country to which I am connected, started to look very interesting. I went into venture capital not because I am specifically interested in it. I wanted to learn everything about making a startup. When I was in high school, I already had a business called Computer Commandos (intended as a competitor to the Geek Squad) doing IT work for people and companies. I had fun with it, always showing up to the work site in full khakis. I enjoyed working for myself. By the end of college I was already building my second company. But after that didn't work out, I pursued the comfort of salaried jobs and stable pay; however, I always posited that I would try this again and always treated my salaried jobs as training programs for becoming a startup founder.

Around this same time of working at In-Q-Tel, there was also a huge rise of antisemitism in the USA. For most of my life antisemitism felt like a non-issue in the USA. Antisemitic politics started to emerge around the time of the last election and presidency, and we start seeing a sharp rise in hate crimes directed at Jews. Including the worst mass shooting of Jews in US history. This was accompanied by industrial scale antisemitism on the Internet. I wish I could tell you this had no effect on me, but I was terrified. I remember sitting at work that Monday after the Pittsburgh shooting, dazed and confused, unable to work or think of anything else, and then going to the National Mall (the main park in Washington DC) and just sitting there on the grass until late at night with a deep feeling of hopelessness and dejection.

I started listening to Hebrew music on YouTube. It dawned on me that I understand Hebrew. Realizing you understand a language may seem bizarre. But for most of my life I never heard a word of Hebrew. My parents spoke to each other in Hebrew. That was the extent of my training in the language. Once I left the childhood house, I virtually never heard Hebrew again. And here I go on YouTube and pick out random Israeli music and realize I understand all the lyrics, and I really liked them. This started an obsession with Israeli music - it was the only music I listened to. I write a little bit about Hebrew here.

All these strings began to take me out of assimilation. For most of my life I was effectively not Jewish. I didn’t celebrate any holidays. I didn’t even think of Israel. I was totally estranged from my relatives there. But the realization dawned on me. That I am Jewish. That I even understand our ancient language. That although my command of it is imperfect, it is actually my first language. That Israel is the Startup Nation, a technological power, which is also my big interest.

It became obvious to me. I had to figure out a way to go back to Israel.

This was easier said than done. It seems for the majority of Americans, even those who might otherwise support Israel, it is a scary country. The reputation is that of a war-torn desert wasteland with camels, tanks, and bombs. But in reality, Israel is this and so much more.

Israel is also often seen as the provincial Jewish country. So all the stereotypes of Jews also apply to Israel. In this vision, Israel is comically powerful and sinister. So if you ever dare step foot in Israel, obviously you’d get a Mossad chip implanted into your brain. Nobody said that exactly, but it felt that many otherwise reasonable people in my circles believed some approximation of stuff like this.

So it was very hard to get into the country given my professional background. But I managed. First I got into a Taglit Birthright trip. Normally, I'd be too old for it, but this was a special pilot program for senior citizens like myself.

Visiting Israel on this trip converted my feelings of dejection about antisemitism into anger. I don't know exactly why. But reflecting on this, perhaps it's because I experienced what the Jewish people look like at the height of their normalacy and power. That is the Israeli Jew. It made antisemitism feel ridiculous in my mind. What spending time with Israelis during that week taught me is that antisemitism is not something that should be feared but fought.

After this trip, I kept going back to Israel on business trips. In my last trip to Israel before I moved here, I met Mati and his team at AION Labs. They offered an astonishingly good opportunity. You have to understand, I did not know Mati. I cold e-mailed him. Getting a job in America like this in venture capital by a cold e-mail is not something that ever happens.

Israelis are profoundly interesting people. Israel is a distinctive yet familiar country. It's a very religious country, a very traditional country, while at the same time so progressive, so forward thinking. It puts all of Silicon Valley to shame in this. This feels like a contradiction. To be conservative and traditional yet progressive and innovative in the same people, sometimes the same person, this should be a contradiction. But in the case of Israel it is not, it makes perfect sense. Maybe it’s the Jewish identity itself that has this character. It’s the old-new country, that is what Israel is. The name Tel Aviv, the very name of the city is a representation of this, something new springing out of something old.

Israelis are also very direct yet very compassionate. They are ridiculously direct. Comments like "that will make you fat, you must stop eating it". Israelis can be direct to the point of rudeness. I have experienced this. But they are incredibly compassionate. There is no getting lost in the system here. People want to help you. Even government bureaucrats. Even the cashier in the minimart: "my brother, if you bought one more of this item, you'll get a 20% discount". There is no benefit for him to do this. Israelis genuinely care about each other. They call me brother not because it's polite, because they mean it. Israels are a very practical people, they get things done. "Oh the rules say this, but forget the rules". Government bureaucrats talk this way!

Having conversations with taxi drivers and random people about really consequential things here is normal. Some of my network in AI Safety was already based in Israel. These are people with PhDs. But I had the most complex and philosophical conversations about the technological singularity and cosmology with the most random blue collar people here. I had a thirty minute conversation of extreme thoughtfulness on the nature of AI with a local rental car broker.

Israel is a Jewish state. It may feel like I am saying obvious things, but this is very meaningful. It means any random person off the street is likely to be Jewish. This is really novel to me as an American. Being Jewish in America is a rarity. In America, the second most Jewish country on Earth, being Jewish is still a rarity. In Israel, Jewish holidays transform the country. Everything changes for Hanukkah, for Yom Kippur, for Sukkot. In America, Jewish holidays are a footnote tacked on for mostly politically correct reasons.

Israel's Jewish identity made me also realize that creating a society around Jewish identity creates a potent society. Israel is a technological and startup powerhouse because it is a Jewish state - these facts are connected. Jews intuitively understand the Silicon Valley misfit culture because this is what we are, the odd ones out, the misfits. Even in Israel, which is majority Jewish, the country is still the odd one out in the Middle East. And this Jewishness itself feels like an experiment because it doesn’t exist in most of the world. But in Israel, it feels like a successful experiment.

That’s it for now. I'm going to make a second post about the experience of living in Israel during October 7th, but that is a heavy topic that will take more time.