Aish HaTorah (which means “Fire of Torah”) was founded in Jerusalem by Rabbi Noah Weinberg in 1974. A world leader in Jewish educational programs and leadership training, this international organization is dedicated to revitalizing the Jewish people by providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover their heritage in an atmosphere of open inquiry and mutual respect. As a long-time supporter, Ira Riklis particularly likes the group’s open-minded approach to the study of Judaism. While the group is founded on strictly Orthodox principles, it holds as a central tenet that “Every Jew is worthy of profound respect, no matter their level of observance, knowledge or affiliation. We never know who is a better Jew.”
The name Aish HaTorah was inspired by the Talmudic story of a shepherd named Rebbe Akiva. In the story he came across a stone into which a hole had formed by a slow-but-steady drip of water. In a flash of insight, he saw that just as soft as water could carve a hole in solid rock, so then could the Torah—which is fire—make an indelible impression on his heart. Inspired, he committed himself to study the Torah, and went on to become the greatest sage of his generation. Ira Riklis appreciates that the group holds to the essence of that story in their teachings. For him, as for them, Judaism is not all or nothing; it is a journey where every step counts, to be pursued according to one’s own pace and interest.
If you own a ski shop, who are your customers? Like other ski shop owners, Mike Bartasuis and Ira Riklis—who own the Charter Sports chain of shops in Colorado—know that the people who walk in their door to rent gear and buy supplies and accessories are their end customers. But one secret to their success is that they realize they have other, equally important customers—the resorts where their shops are located.
When people plan ski trips, they’re not basing their decisions around what ski shops they want to visit. They’re looking for the places with the best resorts and the best skiing. And Ira Riklis knows that the main goal of resorts is to put “butts in beds.” Only once the skiers are there do they interact with the ski shop. That’s when Charter Sports has the chance to serve both the resorts and the skiers. The quality of the service they provide to the skiers reflects positively on the resorts. By providing the best service possible, they help keep the resort’s customers happy, and that encourages repeat visits both to the resorts and to Charter Sports.
The Central Synagogue Caring Committee derives its sense of purpose from a passage in Nehemiah 2:18 that reads: “Let us rise up and rebuild lives.” As part of that mission, they’ve been serving hot, nutritious breakfasts and a take-out bag lunches on Thursday and Friday mornings for the past 27 years. To make the most of their limited resources, they rely largely on volunteers such as Ira Riklis to help prepare and serve the meals and to clean up afterwards.
The Caring Committee first opened their doors in 1983 after the mayor made an urgent appeal to nonprofits to help the city’s hungry and homeless. They served 6,800 meals that year, but the need has grown dramatically over time, and they’ve been working hard trying to keep pace and they now serve some 16,000 meals each year. In the twelve years he’s been volunteering on most Friday mornings, Ira Riklis has seen the difference the program can make in helping people make it through difficult times as they try to rebuild their lives.
When Mike Bartasuis and Ira Riklis joined forces to create their Charter Sports ski shops, they wanted to create the best shops possible, ones that would help make their customers’ ski excursions that much more enjoyable. That they’ve succeeded in doing so is evident in telling ways. Their shops are the only ones consistently mentioned each year in Travel Y Leisure Magazine’s annual subscribers’ survey of the fifty best ski resorts in North America.
One reason for this is their focus on keeping customers happy. Mike and Ira Riklis firmly believe that good customer service is a key to running a good business and in encouraging repeat visits. If a customer comes in to report a bad experience, they get the full attention of shop staff, who do everything they can—up to and including providing free rentals to the customer’s entire family for a week—to resolve the problem. These customers often become the shops’ most loyal and vocal advocates, providing the word-of-mouth advertising that brings in new customers.
Americans respond in times of crisis such as the recent earthquake that has devastated Haiti, or in New York after the 9/11 attacks. But what about at other times, when nothing big seems to be happening? Ira Riklis knows that even then people face crises in their lives and need the help of others to see them through. That’s one reason he makes it a point to donate blood on a regular (or at least semi-regular) basis. He donates each December as part of his synagogue’s annual blood drive, and he tries to make two or three additional donations throughout the year.
Doing so sets him apart from most of us: fewer than one in seven people eligible to donate blood actually do so. Perhaps that because, caught up in our daily lives, we fail to see the daily crises that go on all across the country as victims of trauma, injuries, and illnesses which require surgery, desperately need blood. Perhaps if we were aware of the magnitude of need—43,000 pints a year, 30 pints a minute. Knowing that, do you think you might make time, say half an hour or so, a few times a year to make a donation yourself. Ira Riklis certainly hopes so.
After their first lesson together, Mike Bartasuis quickly became Ira Riklis’ ski instructor. And as the two got to know each other better, they found a real camaraderie between them and they soon became good friends. The friendship continued after Mike left his job as instructor and pursued other opportunities in Vail. And the two continued to ski together whenever they could.
Mike decided he wanted to operate a ski shop and went into partnership with another person to open Tech Sports in Lionshead. It was actually a confused situation since Ira Riklis had hoped to be Mike’s partner in the venture and had sent money for the purchase of the shop. Eventually everything worked out. Mike’s new partner couldn’t support his ambitions for growth. When the opportunity arose for Mike to buy another store, he and Ira teamed up to create the Charter Sports chain which they’ve since expanded to include a number of shops.
On the surface, the city of Tel Aviv seems to be a prosperous modern center of commerce, the arts and education. It’s home to Israel’s only Opera House, a symphony orchestra, a dance troupe, and numerous museums and theater groups. But Ira Riklis has seen the other side of Tel Aviv where 40 percent of the city’s residents live at or below the poverty level. That’s why he’s long been a supporter of the Tel Aviv Foundation.
For nearly a quarter-century, the Foundation and its international supporting groups have been funding and developing projects designed to improve the lives of Tel Aviv’s disadvantaged residents. To date, it’s established more than 300 projects and raised $300 million to bring them to fruition. Ira Riklis, who serves on the Board of Directors of the American Committee for the Tel Aviv Foundation, has focused his projects on a single neighborhood—Schoonat Ezra—where he and his family have helped create parks, playgrounds and educational and science centers.
After 20 years of skiing and countless lessons, both group and private, Ira Riklis had become a pretty good advanced—but not expert—skier. By that time, he’d pretty much resigned himself to the feeling that he might not ever reach the next level of expertise he aspired to. He could handle pretty much any slope, but not with the degree of confidence or elegance he wanted. Like many people trying to improve in their endeavors, he’d reached a plateau, and had gotten stuck there. Then, during a trip to Vail, he met instructor Mike Bartasuis.
Unlike most instructors, Mike focused less on teaching every move and technique at once, placing the emphasis instead on the one single item in your technique which was most interfering with your rhythm. He’d get you to understand what you needed to change then had you practice that one move over and over until it was ingrained in your muscle memory. Then he had you move on to the next most important skill you needed to learn. Under Mike’s tutelage, Ira Riklis was eventually able to break through the barriers that had been holding him back and reach the level of expertise and grace that he had been aspiring to for so many years.
Often, when we give of our time or money to a worth cause, we give ourselves a pat on the back for being so generous and virtuous. We tend to call such acts “charity.” But in keeping with Jewish tradition, Ira Riklis believes that it is a privilege to give. In this view, giving is an important part of living a spiritual life and is a way of restoring justice and fairness in the world. The “gifts” you give weren’t yours to begin with. They rightfully belonged to the recipients who were in need of them.
It’s not only important to give, it’s also important how you give. Jewish scholars have long recognized different levels of honor in how gifts are presented. When one gives grudgingly, or only when asked, that’s considered a lower form. Giving gladly, generously and anonymously in a way that helps those in need achieve self sufficiency so that they now longer need to rely on gifts is considered much more honorable. Ira Riklis gives with gratitude in his heart for having been granted the means to help others.
Jean Claude Killy, whose father owned a ski resort, began skiing at age 3. By the time he was 18, he was a senior member of the French national team. But it was his performance at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France that made him a hero to Ira Riklis. A daring athlete with superb reflexes, dazzled the world that year, becoming only the second skier to win the Olympic skiing triple crown—downhill, slalom and giant slalom. No one’s done it since.
Killy dominated men’s skiing at the time, having also won two World Cup Championships. Many younger skiers attempted to emulate his brash, instinctive, speed-at-all-costs approach to the support. Ira Riklis even went so far as buying the same skis as those used by Killy, a pair of Dynamic VR17s. The move turned out to be a bit premature. Nowhere near ready for true racing skis, Ira broke his leg within the first week of using them. It took him many more years of practice and learning to be able to handle skis like that.