A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of spending a few days at Mishpacha’s headquarters for the annual winter meetings. Yerushalayim. What could be better?
Big beautiful windows looking all the way out to Kever Shmuel Hanavi the chance to brainstorm with colleagues and superiors — some of the most talented and creative people in the frum world. That Israeli instant coffee which when purchased off a grocery shelf in Lakewood or Monsey just doesn’t deliver the same kick.
But the thing is that meetings — lots of meetings sometimes for several hours at a stretch — are not really my thing. I remember how a few years back our publisher Eli Paley presided over a seemingly endless meeting from nine o’clock in the morning until close to two in the afternoon. Finally when I felt like I was going to burst I sent him a note. “If I were able to sit for five hours at a stretch I would have stayed in kollel.”
That’s why one of the sessions was so refreshing: Instead of another discussion there was a game. Not a real game like baseball or basketball (note to Eli: there’s an idea no? Instead of fighting about Trump et al in the pages of the magazine let’s take it to the court). The managing editor Mrs. Friedman handed out papers and markers challenging each person to create an original slogan and logo for the magazine. (Some submissions were funny. Eytan Kobre wrote “Mishpacha: Make Yiddishkeit ‘Breit’ Again ” while creative director Menachem Weinreb wrote “Mishpacha: We Photoshop Pictures of Women.” Other entries included “Mishpacha: We Subscribe to Your Issues ” and “Mishpacha: From Our Dysfunctional Family to Yours.”)
