The last time I addressed everyone in this conference room
when I launched my new book, I started by asking, “How many of you have been to
Bulgaria?” and “How many of you have gone on relocation?”
This time I’m starting with the question, “How many of you
have retired?”
Well, for me it’s the first time as well.
When I joined Net-Bet in 2016, our website was available in
14 languages, and our launch in New Jersey seemed to be just weeks away. There
was also talk about launching a new website. One day.
Jackpots rolled over and jackpots were won. Licenses were
achieved but also markets closed. Languages were discontinued and scratchcards
and casino games were introduced. And a new website finally became a reality.
It’s truly been a rollercoaster of ups and downs.
During the past 9 years I wrote and edited, coded and
uploaded, managed the frustrations of working with Management and Dashboard,
and introduced the XTM translation platform before closing it down when we had fewer
languages. And finally, I learned how to work with Lokalise. The ‘Content Guide
to Working with Lokalise’ that I wrote is available on Confluence.
At Net-Bet and in TheLotter Group, I have worked alongside very
talented people, learning from them and working together as we moved forward on
varied projects. I won’t begin naming names, I'll only thank those who are
sitting here in the room..
Today I’m leaving the Content Team, part of the Marketing
Division. I thank my team for their help, support, and companionship as we
worked on new and ever-changing challenges, successfully maintaining,
improving, and advancing our many websites.
My hope is that the contributions I made to the team will
serve as a sound launching pad for their future endeavors. I am confident that
they are capable enough to handle anything and everything that will come their
way.
Finally, going back to how I started this talk – this is the
first time I’m retiring, so what exactly will I be doing with all my free time?
I will be devoting more time to my family, that’s for sure, and even my dog
will appreciate my being around the house more. I’m looking forward to
volunteering, to finding ways to help improve Israeli society. I’ll have more
time for writing and for learning new things. There will be plenty of ways for my
wife and me to enjoy the next chapter of our lives.
I thank Net-Bet and its management for giving me the
opportunity to be part of the rollercoaster world of online lottery. I wish you
all huge success in the years to come.
In the Fall of 2022, my story "The Table at the Back of the Coffee Shop" was published by New Plains Review, a student-run literary journal at the University of Central Oklahoma. The journal was published as a paperback and is available for purchase at Amazon. Yesterday I received in the mail a contributor's copy of the journal.
I spoke to the Qesher Book Club about my book Rakiya - Stories of Bulgaria. Qesher features books with Jewish themes, both fiction and history, so the first thing I said to my audience was "You’re probably wondering why a collection of short stories set in Bulgaria would be featured on the Qesher Book Club. I’m hoping that by the end of this evening, you will not only understand why, but you’ll also learn about the fascinating story of Bulgarian Jewry during the Holocaust."
In the talk I told about growing up in Sioux City, making Aliyah, founding Kibbutz Yahel, setting up a home on Moshav Neve Ilan, starting a career in marketing online poker, a job that took me to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, to Macau, and finally to a two-year relocation contract in Sofia.
I spoke about my books and short stories, and how my experiences on a kibbutz led to The Virtual Kibbutz and how our life in Bulgaria resulted in my writing Valley of Thracians, The Burgas Affair, and Rakiya - Stories of Bulgaria.
I gave details of my research into the subject of Bulgarian Jewry during World War, and how that fascinating period of history compelled me to write my short story "Forgiveness".
The online talk was attended by 89 people from all over - there was even someone joining in from Bulgaria. After my talk ended, there was time set for questions.
Surprisingly, many of the questions related to my growing up in Sioux City! How did my childhood there influence my writing? How did my parents end up living in Sioux City in the first place? Did I know that was where Dear Abby came from? (And Ann Landers).
I think everyone enjoyed themselves - I certainly did!
Maya Arad is a leading author of Israeli fiction, but she doesn’t live in Israel. Arad, who grew up in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, has been living in California for the last twenty years. The Hebrew Teacher, her collection of three novellas−the first of her books to be translated into English−won the National Jewish Book Award for Hebrew Fiction in Translation in January 2025. Now readers have the opportunity to read one of her novels in English.
The annual mail starts with a recap of the episodes
mentioned in the letter dated the year before, to remind both recipients and
the novel’s readers of their importance in Leah’s life. An update on these
milestones in Leah’s life follows, and then there is her news. Leah informs her
friends of developments in her love life, stories of her children growing up,
and accounts of her career changes.
Her best friend, Mira, is the recipient of postscripts with
further insights into Leah’s true feelings about where her life has taken her,
complete with apologies and confessions. “To you I can write what is truly in
my heart, with no masks and guises,” Leah notes.
“I came to America on an educational mission, to teach
Jewish children who, one day, may themselves make Aliyah,” Leah writes in her
1970 message. “I am living in the United States for now, and who knows what the
future will bring?” Two years later, Leah mentions that she and her husband are
considering Aliyah. “The circumstances are finally ripe for making a
significant change in our lives.” Yet her Aliyah plans fall through. “I’ve
built a life for myself here that I’m unwilling and unable to walk away from,”
she writes in 1986.
The yearly Rosh Hashana messages recount Leah’s ups and
downs, and one can see how she matures through the years. This epistolary novel
succeeds in telling her story, and readers are compelled to turn the pages to
learn whether she will find true love or successfully handle the challenges she
faces.
Still, there are parts of what Leah writes in the narrative
that will frustrate readers. Detailed reports of what it was like to fly in an
airplane for the first time, an explanation of why Chicago is called ‘the Windy
City’, how daily life in America is easier because of dishwashers, and the
advantages of working with a computer–these elements show the passage of time but
not things anyone would naturally include in a Rosh Hashana letter.
Still, this is a minor observation as the overall format of
the novel succeeds in telling a story of a woman’s life; her struggles, loves,
and growth; the friendships she makes and the friendships she loses; and how
one can still be an Israeli even while keeping a permanent residency overseas.
Leah ends each mail with a message marking her unwavering
optimism about the Jewish New Year. “May it be a year full of dreams!” she
writes. “May it be a wonderful year, a magical year, a year of change and
growth!” Readers will share Leah’s positive outlook on life with eager
anticipation of her next Happy New Year letter.
Maya Arad is the author of twelve books of Hebrew
fiction, as well as studies in literary criticism and linguistics. Born in
Israel in 1971, she received a PhD in linguistics from University College
London and for the past twenty years has lived in California where she is
writer in residence at Stanford University’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
Key to the defense was locating the tall, gaunt man
sporting a maroon Basque-style beret who had allegedly been in the convenience
store at the time of the robbery. That man was said to have witnessed the three
teenagers hassling the cashier just after ten pm, forcing him to hand over the
few bills in the register, threatening to return and cause havoc to the place
if he called the police, before escaping down the windswept street.
If the tall man could be located, he could identify the
teenagers, who hadn’t bothered to wear masks or disguise themselves and should
therefore be easy to identify. The cashier couldn’t give the police any clues as
to where they had come from, and where they were going, their pockets full of
his evening’s hard-earned revenues.
But the man with the beret had seen everything. At least,
according to Philip, who had been loitering outside when the teenagers robbed
the store.
Philip, who planned to purchase a pack of cigarettes, claimed
the man had been standing at the back when the teenagers rushed in. The man
came down the aisle but did nothing to stop the teenagers or protect the
cashier, Philip said. The cashier had raised his hands in defense even before
the youths announced their intention to rob the establishment. But, as Philip
tried to explain, the tall man could certainly pick out the boys in a lineup.
That’s what Philip told the police officers who arrived
at the scene twenty minutes later, but they didn’t believe him.
Read the rest of the story on Written Tales Magazine.
