Gazette Vol 1 No 4 - The Shealtiel Family Worldwide

december 1995 SHEALTIEL GAZETTE vol i no iv
A
nd so to matters electronical.
If at first blush,
these seem to have little to do
with the family, please bear
with me for a few moments.
M
”
ost of you will be aware
that the Gazette itself is
almost entirely an artefact of
the computer. It is selfevidently
typed up and laid out
on my machine at home. Those
who attended the Amsterdam
reunion will recall the handsome
print­outs from the genealogy
programme on Ed Motola’s
lap­top. The reunion
itself was administered by computer,
which produced the
hand­outs, as well as such internal
documents as budgets,
timetables, equipment schedules,
table­plans and checklists.
Avid readers of this column will
recall that the reunion video
was cut from a computer generated
schedule of material.
This is an immediate instance
of something we all know to be
the phenomenon of our age.
One third of American households
now have computers.
There are around two hundred
and fifty million of them in the
world— say one for every
twenty persons. Around one
hundred million will be sold
this year— far more than one
hundred million in 1997— and
more still in 1998. I expect that
every family household with a
colour television now will have
a personal computer in ten
years time.
A
nd so— inevitably— to the
Internet. Although well
over half the material I get
comes from the computers of
my kinsmen by way of floppy
disk, an increasing proportion
comes from around the world
by e­mail. I originally signed up
for this in order to bring down
my fax bills on family administration,
but I now use it also to
keep in touch with my expanding
network of kinsmen.
In the current Gazette, Vibeke
Olsen Sealtiel demonstrates another
use of the Internet— as a
research tool. I am a particular
devotee of this sort of thing as
it does away with what used to
be the overwhelming toil of
scholarship— months spent
poring over dusty shelves.
But— as a friend’s mother still
responds when presented with
confusing news— “Is it good for
the Jews?”, by which I take her
to mean “What does all this
matter to us?”
Q
uite a bit, I would say.
First of all the negatives. At
my place of work, I and my
computer do a better job faster
than the three persons (myself,
secretary and typesetter), involved
in the same endeavour
when first I started publishing
investment research.
This bears upon the remarks of
Maurice Saltiel to job­seekers.
In our lifetimes, whole classes
of employment have ceased to
exist. Not so long ago, workers
needed a strong back; their jobs
are no more. Until recently
many found comfort in the
thought that they had other, intellectual
skills; in fact these
were little more than commodities
and they are now rapidly
becoming obsolescent.
It is becoming clear that this
increasingly includes everyone
who is in the business of reprocessing
information; for example
draftsmen, typists, or
middle managers. Prosperity
lies in adding something to this
information, whether talent and
emotion (the entertainment
business), specialised knowledge
(engineering, medicine);
judgement (the law, my own
game); or most of the above
harnessed to strength of will
(leadership).
N
ow the positives: the computer
does seem to be
turning out to be what the enthusiasts
always said: a powerful
lever for those who seize it.
Many can, with age no barrier;
my family correspondents include
as many in their fifties or
later as in their twenties or
younger.
Friends have used the computer
wholly to alter their professional
lives. One has created
a business promoting privatisations,
with all his databases,
page thirty-seven
publicity material and administration
on his home computer
(admittedly a tad overloaded of
late). Another has used his
computer’s cd-rom encyclopaedia
to research a film script
he sold to Hollywood.
And perhaps this does mean
something for us. Our family’s
characteristic economic circumstance
over the past few
hundred years has been turning
up someplace with no capital. I
am not suggesting we are the
stuff of Rothschilds, but maybe
it’s the genes, maybe it’s the
Talmudic inheritance, maybe
it’s just that the penny keeps
coming up heads. The point is
that we do seem to sort these
things out— generally in a generation
or two, sometimes in a
lifetime.
M
y thinking is that computers
play to our strengths.
They add to brain­power, ingenuity
and enterprise, as well as
enabling those who are not
natural team players— a characterisation
which I fancy may
have resonance with some
readers— to get further on their
own.
And this may mean something
in particular to readers of Maurice
Saltiel’s exhortation to jobseekers.
Embrace the computer.
At the very least, type up
your CVs and resumés— add
graphics! Browse the jobseekers’libraries
for opportunities
and for hints about interview
technique and networking.
Set targets and monitor them;
keep a record of your activities
and diarise your plans.
Or you could start up a little
business of your own. Get up
the business plan and loan proposal;
canvass the customers
with sexy fliers and mail shots,
draft the contracts; send out
the bills. Play Hover; have fun.
M
”
aybe i’m a cock-eyed
optimist, but I like all
this stuff. It gives the ordinary
person more power and the
youngster more of a chance. I
think it should be good for the
Jews— for all of us.