It’s summer, when most Americans take vacations (of course many others, including avid skier Ira Riklis, take winter vacations as well). And while we’re making plans, traveling and enjoying the warm weather, few of us stop to think about donating blood. The summer season also sees a great reduction in the number of high school and college blood drives, which account for some 15 percent of yearly donations in our country. But the need for blood, which is surprisingly high year round, is often even higher in the summer.
Regular donors, including Ira Riklis, strongly urge people to take time to donate blood at sometime during the summer months. An hour of your time can help save the lives of others. As the LifeSource organization notes: “Every day is a good day to donate blood.” After all, three gallons of blood are used every minute in the U.S. And with decreased donations in summer, levels of blood reserves frequently fall to dangerously low levels.
Ira Riklis still misses Dr. William Zucker, who passed away in 2006. Dr. Zucker was not only his advisor and mentor while he was in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, but who went on to become a dear, lifelong friend. While many business and economic professors focus on theory and academic learning, Dr. Zucker was well-known and well-appreciated by his students for applying his classroom teachings to real-life situations.
He particularly focused on promoting an entrepreneurial spirit in classes, which included “Entrepreneurial Decision Making and Land Development,” and “Entrepreneurial Inner-City Housing Markets.” The work placed exhaustive requirements on the young, aspiring entrepreneurs who took them. But those who persisted were rewarded for their efforts by gaining a deep theoretical and practical knowledge of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. It was in gratitude for his long relationship with Dr. Zucker that Ira Riklis recently endowed the Dr. William Zucker Entrepreneurial Intern Fellowship so that new generations of students can enjoy similar experiences and successes.
It’s a fact of life that’s probably as old as human civilization: even in the most-vibrant cities, there are pockets of poverty. It’s that way in every large U.S. city, and Ira Riklis can tell you that it’s true in Tel Aviv, Israel. Set on the beautiful shores of the Mediterranean, Israel’s second-largest city vibrates with life. There, you’ll find a lively arts scene, fine dining, world-class museums, parks and beaches. It’s also the center of Israeli business and commerce.
But away from the centers of art, culture and commerce, forty percent of those in Tel Aviv neighborhoods live in poverty. That’s why Ira Riklis and his family feel so strongly about their support for The American Friends of the Tel Aviv Foundation. The group engages donors in projects to improve life in the neediest areas of the city. They seek to create new opportunities for growth in all aspects of life from education, the environment and social service to the arts and sports.
Put a lid on it! Those five words sum up one of the easiest and most effective way to reduce bicycle-related trauma and death: always wear a properly fitted helmet when riding. Unfortunately, it’s often simple things like this that most often get overlooked. For those tempted to ignore the advice, Ira Riklis has one world: Don’t! He became aware of the importance of helmets more than 16 years ago when a child safety group came to him asking for help in providing helmets to local children.
From them, he learned that in 90% of bicycle-related deaths the victims were not wearing helmets and that helmets can reduce the risk of serous head injuries by nearly 90%. For Ira Riklis, the math was simple. He agreed to help the group in distributing and fitting 5,000 helmets for local kids. And ever since that time, he’s been a strong proponent in both urging others to wear helmets and in setting a good example by wearing them himself.
As Rabbi Karlibach wisely noted: “Every child needs one person who believes in him.” Ideally, each child would have two parents and an extended family who believe in him or her. That’s the premise that the staff at Emunah Bet Elazraki Children’s Home hold to in everything they do. And it’s something Ira Riklis wholeheartedly believes in as well. He might also extend that statement into something like, “Every organization working for the good of others needs people who believe in them.”
That’s one reason Ira Riklis makes it a point to support organizations like Bet Elazraki. He was impressed with them on his very first visit years ago when he attended the Bar Mitzvah of the son of a friend. It was immediately apparent that the home was just that—a true, loving and caring home for the disadvantage children placed in their care. Every child who arrives there becomes “their” child and will always remain part of the Elazraki family. Even when they grow up to be giving, independent adults with families of their own, they retain their life-long links with their home.
Don’t we all wish the world made a little more sense? And don’t we all get a least a little put off by the absurdities and inconsistencies that arise in daily life? Ira Riklis feels that often. When he does, he’s come to realize he has two choices: try to reason with whatever or whoever is being illogical, or, if that’s not possible, just grin and bear it. (Which is by far the best approach in most cases, one has to put their energies where they will really do some good.)
A case in point is donating blood. Why do the technicians wait until after the’ve pricked your finger to take a blood sample before taking your blood pressure? Of course your pressure will be higher after the event (which is really the only time you might feel any discomfort at all during the donation process). But trying to change the system as a whole would be a lost cause. So several times a year when Ira Riklis goes to donate blood, he just keeps quiet and keeps smiling!
“To be or not to be– that is the question: / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer /
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And, by opposing, end them.” This remarkable passage from Shakespeare’s great play Hamlet are perhaps the most famous lines ever written in theater. And as Ira Riklis can tell you, they’re ever bit as relevant today as they were when they were first written.
The world faces a seemingly never ending sea of troubles these days. So much so that, like Hamlet, we wonder whether we can successfully end them. When Ira Riklis feels those doubts, he pauses to remember a parable told to him years ago by his Rabbi. A young man, walking along the shore of a real sea after a storm is picking up starfish and throwing them back in the water. When asked why by another beach walker, the boy replies that he’s trying to save the starfish by returning them to their home. He knows full well he can’t save them all. But one by one by one, he is opposing outrageous fortune and making a difference, however small, against a sea of trouble.
When speaking of Aish HaTorah, an organization dedicating to teaching others about the Jewish Holy book, the Torah, Ira Riklis recalls first and foremost the warmth and support they provide. He presented it this way in an interview several years ago: “Particularly during low periods in my life I have been able to turn to Rabbi Clyman for guidance. He has helped me to interpret my own beliefs, integrate and accept my failings, and find wisdom in the Jewish texts that help to inform my own path in life. Rabbi Clyman, and through him Aish HaTorah, has truly enriched my life.
One of the things that most impresses Ira Riklis about Aish, which has educational centers around the world as well as an extensive website, is how they welcome all who come to learn. Some religious groups attempt to convert people to their point of view. But Aish, which is intrinsically very Orthodox, follows the belief that Judaism is not all or nothing. Instead, it is a path one follows throughout life at one’s own pace. And everyone is accepted as themselves on the road to understanding.
Many of us have been fortunate to have participated in the early brainstorming phase of a project. It’s an exciting time, everything still seems possible and ideas are flying right and left. Often called ‘Blue Sky Planning,” it’s the time where every idea is welcomed without question. But like Ira Riklis, most of us know that this phase is followed by the more sober process of sorting out those ideas and looking at the realities involved in bring them to life.
The same principles apply to skiing. Avid skiers (or those involved in any other sporting endeavor) like to dream of the big runs, the remote bowls and unspoiled slopes waiting just over the horizon. A case in point is Blue Sky Basin in Vail. This remote spot offers some of the most exciting skiing on the mountain. But Ira Riklis is well aware that it takes a long time and a lot of effort to make it out there, and an equal amount of time and effort to get back. So when idea of Blue Sky pops up, serious considerations follow behind. Is the weather suited to a long, demanding day of skiing? Will the weather hold? How is everybody feeling? If the answers are positive, then off the party goes. If not, then it’s a day for runs closer in. That’s not all bad; it leaves time for enjoying a toast fire and some hot chocolate back at the lodge.
There are many paths to success and many traits that a person needs to achieve their goals. But no one doubts that a good college education plays an important role in this complex, modern world. That has certainly been the case for Ira Riklis and his wife Diana. They both earned their graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She attended the Graduate School of Education and (as should come as no surprise when talking about a very successful businessman) he graduated from the prestigious Wharton School of Business.
Both are fully aware that they benefitted greatly from the generations of successful graduates who came before them and who made it a point to support their alma mater. In keeping with that long tradition, Ira Riklis and his family have been more than happy to give back to keep their schools strong and thriving into the future. They’ve been most focused on supporting the School of Education, which they perceive as having the greatest need.