1. What is your background?

I was born in Israel in 1952. My family’s roots in Israel go back some 200 years. The parents of my grandmother were one of the 60 families to found the city of Tel Aviv. My dad was an officer in the army for some 18 years, and helped defend the nascent state. When I was 7 years old, my dad moved my mother, brother, and me to the U.S., the land of opportunity. We moved around quite a bit, but spent the last 40 years in Baltimore. I received a BA at the University of Pennsylvania, and a JD at the University of Maryland, School of Law. I met my wife in Paris, France and we’ve enjoyed 33 happy years together. For the past 30 years, as part of a family owned building business, I’ve worked to personally sell, design, and build some 1200 custom homes in the Baltimore metropolitan area. In the last two years I’ve worked on Selling a Vision of Hope.

2. What expertise do you offer that could help accelerate your vision and that could encourage cooperation from others?

More than anything, I am a good salesman, and while Selling a Vision of Hope is quite different from selling and building homes, still, “selling is selling.” People seem to respond favorably to some of these ideas. In addition, I know quite a lot about running a business, and this experience could come in handy as we try to create green technology businesses in places like the West Bank. I am also a lawyer, so this knowledge may come to play as we begin to maneuver through the various obstacles that will be in our way.

3. What credibility do you offer?

It is a sign of our times that people use expertise as a measure of credibility. But when it comes to peace, there may be no experts. If there were such experts, then where is the peace? My greatest source of credibility lies in my ability to convince you that Selling a Vision of Hope makes sense. Not because I say so, but because you come to believe it, based on your own common sense. I am also passionate about the cause, and that is at least worth something. But ultimately, it’s all about salesmanship, and my ability to convince others that Selling a Vision of Hope is the right answer for our time, and is at least worth a try. Hopefully, if an idea is good, it will be able to stand on its own, and gain some measure of credibility, and with that, the traction needed to makes something happen.

4. At what stage is your mission?

So far I have a vision. I wrote and published a book about it entitled, Selling a Vision of Hope: A Refreshing Alternative to Armageddon. I have a website http://www.sellingavisionofhope.org which my son-in-law created for me. I’ve been on the radio a couple of times. And I am slowly beginning to make the kind of contacts who could help me to put together an actual project on the ground. I could either create my own project, such as a factory, or I could help an entrepreneur to promote his project under the umbrella of Selling a Vision of Hope, if he or she becomes convinced that such an image would be good for PR, for marketing, and for attracting additional investment dollars.

5. Do you have partners, investors, any projects underway, or is this just a personal “mission,” vision/dream, you have?

It is still just a “vision/dream,” but to my mind, that’s a good start. Any movement for change must start with a vision. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. Ordinarily a non-event. But Dr. King was no ordinary man. He was a man with a vision, a big vision of hope, a dream of social justice and equal treatment under the law. He highlighted the case of Rosa Parks, and soon enough, the reality on the ground began to fill up the space created by the vision. Such is the dynamic of change in the world, and such is the prescription for change in the Middle East, and beyond.

I also have a strong relationship with Bar Ilan University. My parents are noted philanthropists there, and one of their projects is a department in nanotechnology, which has already developed some significant green technology products. Professor Kaveh, the president of the university, visited us recently and assured me that Bar Ilan would work with us, to bring new products on board, if we were able to line up the financing, even Saudi financing.

6. What kind of help do you need?

More than anything, I need contacts. I need to speak to people who know people. Ideally, for example, if I find a person who is ready to launch a green energy product, I may be able to convince him/her to locate at least part of the production facility in a place like the West Bank, and to use Selling a Vision of Hope as part of the PR/Marketing campaign. By doing this, an entrepreneur would be making his/her business to be about more than just making money, but about making a difference as well. Such an approach could result in worldwide attention, excellent PR, strong marketing, and could attract additional investment dollars.

So if you know of such people, or if you have any contacts along these lines, or if you have any ideas in this regard, then by all means, please let us know at http://www.sellingavisionofhope.org