 |
|
 |
Banking in a Time of War
August 15, 2006Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
 Bank HaPoalim interns: (from left) Batami Baskin, David Schneid, Vicki Korchagin, Talia Komorov, Daniel Hillman, Jonathan Hefter, Ben Bloch.
American college students, interning at Bank HaPoalim, (through a partnership with the Israel on Campus Coalition), experienced first-hand the impact of war on Israeli society.
Banking in a Time of War
By Ben Berg
On Rothschild Boulevard, the Wall Street of Israel, men and women in business attire, myself included, can be seen bustling to and from regularly scheduled meetings. Conference calls are held, trading is done and business lunches in crowded outdoor cafes are kept.
To an outsider, any noticeable stress would undoubtedly be attributed to the endless pressures encountered during a normal day in the office.
However, one glance at the news, one moment of listening to the hourly radio update, or even one phone call will snap one back to reality. Understandably, all the news briefs invariably include updates on the war: the newest Israeli military strategy; reports of damage done to buildings in the north; the number of lives felled. Somehow, the citizens of Tel Aviv take this information in stride. They mourn the deceased, contemplate the strategic war updates momentarily and continue with their everyday routine.
Working in the Platinum Banking division of Bank HaPoalim (a division of Private Banking focused more specifically on the elite Israeli customers) has enhanced my awareness of the amazing ability of Israeli citizens to lead normal lives while being ensconced in war.
An essential aspect of the service and benefit of becoming a Platinum member is the more intimate and personal relationship the client receives from the Customer Relations Manager. Accordingly, since the outbreak of the war and periodically thereafter, the CRMs have been calling their clients to see how they are coping with the extenuating circumstances in the north. After opening with war related questions, however, there is always a smooth, almost normal, transition to discussion of the client’s portfolio.
Further, the content of the CRM’s recommendations reflect this duality. They all revolve around one similar theme. If you think a rocket is going to hit Tel Aviv today, the CRM says in a half-joking, yet completely serious tone, then do not enter the market. Instead, the recommendation continues, buy “put options” in order to protect your portfolio from a significant market decrease. A client adhering to the CRM’s advice is essentially expressing doubt that the war will end anytime soon.
During a visit to one such client’s house in a Tel Aviv suburb, after an hour of sitting and dissecting his portfolio and investments, we began talking about more mundane things. We discussed the artwork decorating his basement, including a beautiful Van Gogh replica.
Afterwards, the client, with the same tone of voice, offered to give us a tour of his newly cleaned out bomb shelter. To me, the contrast was shocking: even as the necessity to prepare one’s shelter for protection from a missile strike increased, the client was nevertheless able to show off his bomb shelter as if it was merely another work of art.
Ben, a junior at Brandeis University, is majoring in economics.
La Tiyul Yatzanu
By Talia Komorov
At 6:30 a.m., my alarm went off. I woke up and prepared to depart for the north to visit different army combat bases.
As I arrived at my internship at one of the Tel Aviv branches of Bank HaPoalim, the largest bank in Israel, many thoughts began running through my mind. Numerous managers at the bank approached me, asking if I was aware of the dangers of this trip. Calmly I replied yes, and that I still want to be part of this experience. I knew that the trip was risky; I would be traveling to areas where countless Katyusha rockets have landed in the last two weeks. Yet I swallowed my worries and told myself that the Israelis in the north need us.
The bank prepared supplies such as mattresses, games for children, and kits for soldiers to donate to the citizens up north. I was put on the delegation that went to army bases to cheer up the soldiers.
We traveled to the north to Atlit, where the navy currently has a “Satil” ship docked (the same kind of ship that was bombed two weeks ago, killing 4 sailors), I look at the indescribably gorgeous scenery and think to myself, this is what we interns were supposed to be enjoying this week on a trip that had been canceled due to constant Hezbollah attacks.
As we arrived with two trucks full of supplies and two private vehicles filled with volunteers from the bank, the sailors on the ships stop what they are doing. They looked over with confused looks on their faces, but were very happy to see us. We unpacked 250 travel bags filled with supplies and briefly spoke to a few officers who jokingly asked if we were there to clear their overdraft charges at the bank. They graciously thanked us for our donation.
Our next visit was to see “Shayetet”, who are considered to be the most elite unit of the army (similar to the Navy Seals in the U.S.) Israel’s finest serve in this unit. Again, we were greeted with a warm welcome as we emptied another 200 bags full of supplies and goodies. We are invited into a “katzin” (officer’s) office, where he couldn’t thank us enough. Some soldiers joined us in the katzin’s office to thank us for visiting them.
As we rode further north, the scenery became more breathtaking. We stopped at the “Golani” base in the Golan Heights that houses an infantry unit going into Lebanon recently. We know the visit will not be as cheerful. As we get closer to the base, we were told that earlier that day, eight “Golani” soldiers were killed and another 20 were injured during a bloody confrontation with Hezbollah in Binat Jebil, Hezbollah’s “capital.”
As we approached, we saw soldiers were sitting on the ground with blank, emotionless expressions on their faces as the news of their friends’ deaths slowly sank in. Other soldiers greeted us kindly and helped us unload 500 packages and newspapers for their unit. They were so happy to see us and thanked us enough for bringing signs of civilization. The soldiers were mostly my age (21) and younger. As I interacted with them, I thought of two good friends I have known since middle school. They are serving in the IDF in Lebanon and on the Israeli-Lebansese border, (I got a text message from my friend in Lebanon later that day who wrote that Lebanon would be such a pastoral place if a war was not going on).
As we drove away from this base, we heard the artillery firing into Lebanon and thought of another good friend who is serving in that unit and prayed for everyone’s safety. On the way back to Tel Aviv, we briefly stopped at a border patrol base where we emptied out the last of our supplies and headed back to Tel-Aviv.
Talia, a senior at Florida Atlantic University, is majoring in business.
Being a Professional in Israel During a Time of Crisis
By Ben Bloch
I left work on a Thursday evening to venture up to Tzfat and Haifa to see the areas in the north bombarded by Katyusha rockets. As much as I wanted to do this, there were compelling reasons not to go. But after years of being an Israel advocate and self-proclaimed expert, viewing the events comfortably from the U.S., how could I not go? This was the real thing.
The experience of visiting the north during this time was not exactly as exciting as it sounds, nor did it feel dangerous as I thought it would be. Both Tzfat and Haifa were like ghost towns. The streets were almost totally empty, everything was closed, and the silence was ominous with the exception of an occasional boom from a Katyusha that landed miles away.
After returning to Tel-Aviv, I can only say, in a rather bizarre way, I was very disappointed to have not born true witness to a rocket attack with my own eyes. I should be totally grateful for not being so endangered.
The war in the north did have an impact on my work, but not as a real safety issue.
I had finished a research project on some banking products and services for a co-worker in my department and gave it to them to review. Naturally, I assumed this would be a quick thing but the reality is priorities shifted briefly from developing products and services to determining whether or not to keep branches in the north open.
As I write, the meeting where I will present my research to our department’s head manager is not for another two weeks. Since I wanted to get involved implementing my research, I asked what was being done with my work, the response was “its implementation had been put on hold due to more urgent matters concerning our branches in the north.”
Ben, a student at the University of Arizona, is majoring in business management and entrepreneurship.
|
 |
|
 |