Asher, we walked together in uncharted waters and paths, we sowed in tears and reaped in joy. We believed and traversed the land from place to place. How can one sum up 40 years of consultations, arguments, decisions, changes, and revolutions? How can one recap 40 years of friendship? Your life story ended suddenly at the dawn of the Jewish new year. When the holiday was over, I saw that had missed a call from your daughter Einat; it was a bad omen.
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"The thing we feared most happened," she told me. It's hard to put into words all the stages in life we shared: from the Bnei Akiva youth movement; to Bar Ilan University, vacations, working at various high-tech companies, and much more.
When our time at Teldor came to an end, we both decided to collaborate. You were exemplary in your loyalty, integrity, modesty, and love of people. You never took credit. You always said this was because of me or because of someone else. You just "happened to pass by."
In 2006, the Adelson family instructed us to set up a newspaper in Israel. Not just any daily, but a leading one. We immediately began making calls and engaging in endless talks and musings into the night. The first task was to do what we know how to do best: gather the best and brightest, and most importantly – the people who have integrity, decency, modesty, and unrelenting dedication ingrained into their DNA.
We embarked on a new path, and also reaped the dividends every six months when the national media survey showed the positive numbers. We loved the Adelson family; we loved the employees; we loved our readers, and we felt this love reciprocated. We went on to expand the Israel Hayom family with Makor Rishon and later also had the Maariv printing press become ours.
Even 12 years after the first edition came out, when someone asked you what you know about journalism, your response was, "I am still figuring it out." Because that is who you werw. We left the paper some five years ago, but we never let go of the people dearest to us, who continue navigating the paper with great success and in accordance with its values.
And today, it is still hard to see all the articles on your passing pop up everywhere. The look is the same look that had: grace, humor, modesty – and above all love and generosity to a fault, both to the half of the world you know and to the other half you wanted to get to know (you coined this phrase).And the eyes in the photos, as if saying, "Guys, have you gone mad; I don't like being in the headlines; I don't like goodbyes, calm down."
A wise man once told me, "Happiness is like a hot-air balloon; try not to make sure the rope is too short." It is too bad I didn't have a grip on the rope this time. I would have not let you go. You went up and took the rope with you.
You were my mentor, my cheerleader, and my source of strength in our early days of professional collaboration. Later on, you were the ultimate colleague. You were very dear to me, you impacted so many people and your soul will forever be written in their book of life, in our life, in my life. May you rest in peace.
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