Business in the Jewish Community, Jewish News Supplement 10.31.22

Business in the Jewish Community

Dear Readers, My

first full-time job as an editor was with Tidewater Virginian, a business magazine published by the area Chambers of Commerce. There, I was introduced to the complex world of business and its many facets and stories—so many stories.

Like those multiple story subjects I was introduced to at Tidewater Virginian, this section contains articles on diverse topics. Not surprising, when covering business in the Jewish community, there seems to be no shortage of topics.

Gilbert Eyecare is our first profile. Established more than 50 years ago, David Gilbert clearly sees the family business side of vision. His interview begins on page 17. The Hyatt in Virginia Beach (page 22) and Cohen Investment Group (page 19) are also profiled.

“Quiet quitting” is a phrase that seems to be everywhere—emerging out of nowhere just a few months ago. Andrew Silow-Caroll offers his opinion on the concept, suggesting that the trend might even sound Jewish. Hear him out on page 24.

What’s business without a disagreement or two? On page 20, Brian Waigner of Kaleo

Legal offers suggestions for avoiding corporate litigation, while an article on page 26 highlights what happens when business feuds lead to lawsuits. This time, it’s a battle between two bagel shops in Columbus, Ohio. Oy.

The article, My father’s lesson: Jews must value labor, is written by a rabbi about her late father,

It’s

Seeing the business side of vision: Gilbert Eyecare

Debbie Burke

Gilbert Eyecare has been operating for more than 50 years and calls itself “your Hampton Roads designer eyewear headquarters.”

A family-run business with locations in Virginia Beach and Norfolk, each offer medical offices and a retail eyewear center under one roof.

Jewish News asked owner Dr. David Gilbert what they’re all about and how they’ve weathered the storms that busi ness owners have recently experienced.

Jewish News: What is your educational background and why did you get into this specialty?

David Gilbert: I spent my youth look ing up to my father, Mark Gilbert, as he opened and ran what started as the retail component of Gilbert Eyecare as a licensed optician 50+ years ago in 1971.

Seth Gilbert, my uncle, joined his brother in 1978, strengthening the family ties to eye care. Seth is still very much a part of Gilbert Eyecare’s daily functions today. It’s safe to say eye care runs in the family.

I grew up in Virginia Beach, attending First Colonial High School and my under grad at VCU. I attended optometry school

at NOVA Southeastern University College of Optometry in Davie, Fla.

When it came time to choose my direc tion in life, the clinical aspect of optometry naturally appealed to me; becoming an optometrist was a no-brainer. As an optom etrist, I’ve been able to continue to carry on my father’s values of excellent customer service and outstanding patient care.

I specialize in the management of patients with multiple eye diseases such as glaucoma, dry eyes, cataracts, macular degeneration, and much more.

While attending optometry school, I met Deena Falsetta, who later became Dr. Deena Falsetta-Gilbert. After optom etry school, Deena completed a residency in pediatrics and development optome try. This specialized training allows her to work with children as young as six months and as old as 105. Deena is the one to see for anyone who struggles with double vision and learning/developed delays (poor school performance).

I have my practice set up so when we schedule patients, I have extra time to allow me to review the findings and explain in detail all aspects of my patients’ eyes.

Gilbert Eyecare expanded once more when I brought in the talent of Dr. Rachel

Willcox in 2020. In one of the most challenging years of history, she came on board and has excelled in providing superb primary eyecare.

JN: Why did you decide to add a retail side with frames and lenses?

DG: We are constantly looking for a frame line that offers a great mix of fashion-for ward looks, high quality, and good value. We send our buyers across the country and to Europe on a regular basis looking for the world’s best eyewear. To help in providing a look that is unique to our patients/clients is one of the coolest things to be a part of.

JN: What are the trends in medicine that have resulted in you offering additional goods and services?

DG: Eye care is constantly evolving with new technologies and techniques. Gilbert Eyecare providers and staff strive to be on top of the latest and greatest. Over the last five years, GEC has invested more than $250,000 in upgraded technology, allowing us to offer a state-of-the-art eye exam experience.

JN: Are patients more informed today?

DG: Absolutely! People are taking better care of themselves, there’s the internet, and people talk about their experiences more than ever. We specialize in taking all that information and packaging it together for our patients so that they can take all of what they have learned and see how it applies to their ocular health.

JN: Are there new medical and vision issues you are seeing more of than in the past?

DG: As our population ages, we are seeing more patients who struggle with the effects of cataracts (poor night vision and reduced quality of vision). With all of us spending more time on computers, we are seeing a much higher prevalence of dry eyes related to computer use and focusing disorders.

JN: What are some of the tools you use in business?

DG: We pride ourselves as a practice in having the best support team including the front desk, technicians, billing team members, and sales team.

I would do a disservice to our patients if I did not take a moment to talk about our optical staff and processes. The value of shopping for a new pair of glasses with a skilled optical representative is unmea sured because not all glasses are the right glasses depending on the prescription. Our opticians can not only find a pair of new frames that look great on the patient, but also work best with the prescription. Our optical staff takes pride in styling patients in a perfectly paired set of frames so when they walk out of here with their new glasses they are looking and seeing fantastic.

JN: What challenges have you faced as a business and how have you successfully dealt with them?

DG: Navigating through COVID, staffing shortages, an uptick in online purchasing options, and ongoing construction. When COVID hit in 2020, like all businesses, we had to find a way to provide a service in a manner that was safe for all parties in a very abbreviated capacity. We had to suspend staff hours and hoped they would return when things started to return to normal. We lost valuable employees during this time.

Drs.Deena Falsetta-Gilbert and David Gilbert.

When the world started to re-open, people were still scared of COVID-19, and finding staff was an ultimate chal lenge. In addition, patients were turning to the internet more than ever for their

glasses and contact lens purchases. With the ever-growing presence of online ven dors, this continues to be an obstacle even years after the pandemic.

On the flip side of these obstacles, we have really grown to be a solid unit of

staff and doctors with the best patients in the 757! There is no better feeling when a patient comes in and leaves with a smile on their face, a great new pair of glasses, adjusted glasses bought online that now are working beautifully, or a repaired

pair of glasses.

For information, visit gilberteyecare.com.

Gilbert Eyecare in Norfolk.

Gilbert Eyecare in Virginia Beach.

Investment firm earns positive returns on apartments and storage facilities

Cohen Investment Group (CIG) is a

privately owned commercial real estate investment firm specializing in multifamily apartments and self-storage properties.

The firm’s strategy is to identify and acquire well-located real estate assets below replacement cost while engaging the firm’s third-party property managers to improve operational efficiencies. This practice is continuously implemented to increase net operating income in order to

best time a disposition event with opti mal risk-adjusted returns.

Founded in late 2013, Norfolk-based Cohen Investment Group began acquir ing assets in 2014. Since its inception, the company has transacted on almost $1 billion in capital activity, which is acqui sitions and dispositions combined. The company currently owns 68 properties in 13 states across the U.S.

“We work primarily with accredited investors, single and multifamily offices,

ultra-high net worth investors, registered investment advisors, and private equity,” says Hugh Cohen, president.

“Our investment thesis is simple, to acquire investment-grade real estate, ideally below replacement cost in the Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, and Mountain range. We are continuing to underwrite and evaluate properties across the country in an ever-changing economic climate. Our investments are an excellent recessionary hedge and offer diversification from a challenging and fluctuating stock market environment.”

For more information, visit coheninvest mentgrp.com. Hugh Cohen.

AUTO ACCIDENTS

WRONGFUL

Business

BRIAN WAINGER

Soundbite: Corporate litigation today

Debbie Burke

When it comes to corporate litigation, one question looms large: How to stay out of court? There is a simple answer, according to Brian Wainger, principal at Kaleo Legal (Virginia Beach and Richmond): “Do your best to work out your problems amicably without calling one of us!”

Wainger attended the University of Virginia and University of Richmond School of Law and has 25 years of experi ence. Initially a prosecutor, he says that it was “tough to make a career” that way and soon came to the realization that commer cial litigation was a “natural career move for me.”

The most common types of cases under this umbrella in Tidewater are busi ness disputes that companies have with competitors, vendors, employees, etc.

In addition, corporate litigation has definitely felt the effects of the pandemic in ways that might not be immediately apparent through “the effect of COVID on case filings, docket pace, and man agement, and the reliance on alternative dispute resolution methods such as arbi tration,” Wainger says.

According to the American Bar Association, the Lex Machina 2022 Law Firms Report points to other current trends that business owners should be aware of, such as employment and civil rights cases involving the ADA, remote employment, changing government man dates regarding the vaccine, whistleblower retaliation, lack of protective equipment, and product liability, among others.

For more information, visit americanbar.org and search for “2022 litigation trends report.”

My father’s lesson: Jews must value labor even when they become management

Rabbi Rachel Timoner

(JTA)—Last year, when my father was in the last weeks of his life, he told us a story that none of us knew or remembered. In the 1960s, when he was running a regional roofing company in Florida that became a multistate, multimillion-dollar conglomerate, he saw that his unions were weaker because they were racially segregated.

“It didn’t make any sense,” he told us. “These guys would have been stronger if they worked together.”

So, he went to the head of the Black union and then the head of the White union and told them they needed to inte grate. And they did, he said, making his company the first in its industry and in the South with an integrated union.

Some unions were integrated in the late 19th century, so I have no idea if my dad’s story was really a first in his industry. But what I do know is that as a business leader in Miami 60 years ago, my Jewish father was a staunch supporter of labor unions—even though he was management, not labor. Throughout his business career, which included founding an airline in the 1970s, he championed the rights of workers to organize. It was evident to him that the success of his companies was dependent on the suc cess and satisfaction of his workers. This position strengthened his bottom line by creating a loyalty and devotion among his workforce that is rare today. Air Florida employees—from flight attendants to pilots to receptionists—continue to hold reunions where they speak of him with love, and many lit candles and came to his memorial service when he died.

I’m now a rabbi, and I can quote the Mishnah about our obligation to workers, but the truth is that my father was my primary teacher here. My dad taught me that businesses thrive when the dignity of every human being is honored—workers, customers, and shareholders alike. He taught me that there is no contradiction

between being pro-business and prounion. He taught me that our economy and society can be both prosperous and caring. He taught me that standing for the rights of workers is what it means to be a proud Jew.

I thought about my father’s lessons several times last year, especially after labor leader Randi Weingarten in a JTA interview used language to suggest that the modern Jewish community was less likely to support unions than it had in generations past. In response to criticism, Weingarten conceded that she could have expressed her point more artfully, but her essential point stands: that “historically, there was much less equivocation about whether to be pro-union in the Jewish community.”

As we’ve watched Amazon spend huge sums to defeat a union-organizing effort in Alabama, and as we debate the Jewish community’s changing relationship with labor organizing, let’s remember the entire generation of Jewish business leaders, like my father, for whom unions were essential. We often tell the stories of the immigrant generation who were the labor leaders. Their children, many of whom went on to sit on the other side of the negotiating table while valuing labor rights, are also part of the Jewish people’s legacy and identity. Not just mine, but ours.

As I mourn my father, Eli Timoner, “zichrono livracha,” one way to honor his memory is to champion labor organizing efforts as he did, and especially to stand with all front line workers—everyone from teachers to nurses to delivery work ers—all those who keep the world moving even in a pandemic. Another is to hold up his example and the promise it con tains—of businesses that care for people, an economy that values workers, and a society that works for all.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not nec essarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Business

The Hyatt in Virginia Beach: A new property and its cousin in Town Center

Debbie Burke

The former Belvedere Hotel motor lodge at the Virginia Beach ocean front was replaced by the new Hyatt Place Oceanfront beginning two years ago, with the Hyatt opening its doors this past June. Within four days of opening, according to Matthew Krogsund, the hotel’s general manager, occupancy was sold out.

“Being in a seasonal market and on the north end of the strip (from 31st–40th Streets), where it is family-friendly and well-maintained, is great for us,” Krogsund says. “Our guests are first-time travelers as well as staycationers, and we have also seen a revitalization in corporate travel.”

In a post-pandemic climate, he notes, the hospitality realm has been on the upswing. Safety and health are always important to guests, and such protocols continue to be a part of life at the hotel. The Hyatt is a GBAC STAR-accredited facility, an industry standard for healthy environments. “If COVID has taught us anything, it’s flexibility,” says Krogsund. “No trash cans sit unchanged for more than eight hours and extra care is paid to high-contact public areas. And we no longer assume that a guest wants us to enter a room for housekeeping, but when we’ve asked, many guests would like to see their rooms cleaned again.”

In looking to grow its corporate traf fic, the facility now views additional, previously ignored spaces as feasible for meetings. For example, open spaces such as those in the lobby are offered for meeting,

training, and recruitment purposes, as well as the con ference rooms. Many corpo rate guests are “burnt out” on remote travel, he adds, and they are excited to be back to convening face-to-face.

Other guests come from social events such as family and military reunions, wedding lunches and dinners for the wedding party (for groups under 64 indi viduals), and hosting of small events. Still, other guests stay at the Hyatt because of the hotel’s ability to provide blocks of rooms for sports groups such as sand soccer players and those who come to the area for the sportsplex that the city just built, according to Libby Ross, the hotel’s director of sales.

The owners also have the Hyatt Place Virginia Beach Town Center, named #1 Traveler Ranked hotel in Virginia Beach on Trip Advisor for a year and a half.

Brooke Coyner, the sales manager, says, “Virginia Beach is a tourist destina tion, so naturally, occupancy declines after Labor Day. With leisure travel decreasing, we are able to take more sports and tour groups than in the summer. Wedding season also peaks in the fall, so we part ner with local venues nearby to be offered as a ‘preferred vendor’ for their clients’ wedding guests.”

For more informa tion, visit hyatt.com and search “Virginia Beach” or call Hyatt Place Virginia Beach/Oceanfront (757-300-5045) and Hyatt Place Virginia Beach Town Center (757-431-7000).

Ron Spindel

rspindel@spindelagency.com

a member of The Frieden Agency

Jody Balaban jbalaban@spindelagency.com christopherlyon@friedenagency.com

Chr is Lyon

Matthew Krogsund.

Hyatt Place Oceanfront.

New indie production company Leviathan will make Jewish stories for film and TV

Andrew Lapin

(JTA)—A new independent production company aims to “ensure the Jewish tra dition is carried forward” on TV and film, as Jewish stories continue to be a hot property in Hollywood.

Sefaria.

Foer is also one of the people behind a new “Jewish tavern” in the Boston area, which like the projects on Leviathan’s docket, aims to situate Jewish content in a space that is accessible to Jews and nonJews alike.

The company has moved quickly to acquire a number of upcoming projects with Jewish themes, including planned adaptations of Photograph 51, a play by Anna Ziegler about Rosalind Franklin, the British Jewish chemist who played a central role in discovering the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, and viruses; The Secret Chord, a novel by Geraldine Brooks about King David; and The Pledge, a 1970 nonfiction book by Leonard Slater about the U.S.’s role in Israel’s 1948 war for

independence.

“Jewish stories have incredible reso nance because they explore ideas that are universally identifiable,” Cosgrove told Deadline. “Everyone knows what it feels like to be the underdog, the outsider, or the immigrant. Jewish stories tackle these ideas with humor and drama, and people around the world see themselves in our stories.”

The launch of Leviathan Productions comes soon after this summer’s launch of Reboot Studios, a funding initiative for Jewish entertainment that brands itself as “the Sundance Labs of the Jewish world.”

Both projects are concurrent with a notable uptick in Jewish content from major streaming platforms. Netflix is prep ping an American remake of its hit Israeli

import Shtisel, in addition to an upcoming reality show, Jewish Matchmaking, both joining a suite of Jewish-themed programs that include The Club, Heirs To The Land, My Unorthodox Life, 13: The Musical and The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

In addition, HBO Max is developing content based on Hasidic rapper Nissim Black and the Yiddish folktales of Chelm; Hulu recently acquired the Israeli series Hazarot (Rehearsals); Amazon recently produced Yosi, the Regretful Spy in addi tion to its ongoing hit series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; Apple TV+’s Israeli spy series Tehran is on its second season; and two recent European period dramas, Ridley Road on PBS and Paris Police 1900 on MHz, boast strong Jewish themes.

Leviathan Productions will specialize in developing content based on Jewish history, literature, and folk tales, as well as stories about Israel, Deadline reported.

Leviathan is founded by Ben Cosgrove, a film and TV producer whose credits include the Oscar-winning Syriana and the recent Black Christmas remake; and Josh Foer, journalist and co-founder of the adventure travel brand Atlas Obscura, as well as of the online Jewish text repository

incredible

they explore ideas that are universally

OPINION

“Quiet quitting,” the sudden trend in work, sounds sort of…Jewish?

(Hear me out.)

Andrew Silow-Carroll

(JTA)—I hadn’t heard of “quiet quitting” until about 10 minutes ago. Since then every major news outlet has done a story on this purported trend, defined as a movement among office workers to draw firmer work-life boundaries by doing less work. It means closing your laptop at 5 pm when your cubicle-mate is staying late to finish a project. It means turning off notifications on your phone so you can’t check your work emails after hours. It can mean doing the bare minimum and still hanging onto your job.

On a grander scale, it means cooling your hottest ambitions in favor of a saner work-life balance.

Of course, to a certain kind of devotee of the attention economy, this sounds like nothing less than slacking off. “Quiet quitting isn’t just about quitting on a job, it’s a step toward quitting on life,” huffed Arianna Huffington in a LinkedIn post. Fox News host Tomi Lahren said it’s just a euphemism for being “LAZY” (she added an expletive).

I don’t have a dog in this fight, since I am not a “quiet quitter.” (I am more a “person without any hobbies or little kids, who if he closes his laptop at 5 pm doesn’t know what to do with him self.”) But I understand the impulse. Technology and corporate culture con spire to blur the lines between work and office. The demise of unions has shifted the workplace power balance to employ ers. For those who could work at home, the pandemic obliterated the boundaries between on and off hours.

“Quitting” is a terrible way to describe what is really doing your job, no more and no less. It only feels like “quitting” to a culture that demands that you sacrifice private time to your employer or career. This peculiarly American “ethic” shows up, for instance, in vacations: Americans get on average 10 fewer vacation days a

year than Europeans because, unlike the European Union, the United States does not federally mandate paid vacation or holidays.

Just reading a New York Times article about how eight of the 10 largest private U.S. employers are using tracking soft ware to monitor their employees made me feel guilty and anxious—even though I was reading the article as part of my job.

If quiet quitting were actually slack ing, it would run afoul of Jewish law. “Jewish employees are obligated to work at full capacity during their work hours and not to ‘steal time’ from their employers,” writes Rabbi Jill Jacobs in a responsa—legal opinion—called “Work, Workers and the Jewish Owner,” written for the Conservative movement in 2008. And yet this warning aside, Jewish law is much more concerned with employers who take advantage of employees rather than the other way around.

Jacobs—now the executive director of T’ruah, the rabbinic human rights group—describes nine principles of workplace justice in the Torah, and nearly all are addressed to the employer. These include treating workers with “dignity and respect” and paying them a living wage and on time.

“The ideal worker-employer rela tionship should be one of trusted

partnership,” she writes, “in which each party looks out for the well-being of the other, and in which the two parties con sider themselves to be working together for the perfection of the divine world.”

This is not exactly what we now know as the “Protestant work ethic.” The rabbis of the Talmud did not tie hard work and economic success to divine salvation. No doubt, they understand that people need to and should work for a living. “In tra ditional sources, work is often regarded as necessary, and certainly better than idleness (which can lead to sin),” accord ing to a helpful article from My Jewish Learning.

And yet, because the study of Torah is considered the ideal use of one’s time (assuming you are a man, anyway), the rabbis were clearly wary of occupations and ambitions that demanded too much of a worker. In Pirkei Avot, the collection of ethical sayings from the Mishnah, Rabbi Meir says, “Minimize business and engage in Torah.” The rabbis, My Jewish Learning explains, “were clearly wor ried that excessive pursuit of material well-being would distract from higher pursuits.”

The artist Jenny Odell’s 2019 man ifesto about quitting the “attention economy,” “How to Do Nothing,” sim ilarly rejects “a frame of reference in which value is determined by produc tivity, the strength of one’s career, and individual entrepreneurship.”

Easier said than done, however. Her antidote—to “stand apart,” to embrace “solitude, observation, and simple con viviality”—is perhaps more feasible if you are an artist rather than an office worker, let alone a factory worker, home health aide or Amazon warehouse runner. (She spends a lot of time bird watching and retreating to mountain cabins.)

To her credit, Odell quotes Samuel Gompers, the Jewish-British immigrant and labor leader who championed the eight-hour workday as far back as 1886. In an address asking “What Does Labor Want?”, Gompers answered by quoting Psalms: “It wants the earth and the full ness thereof.”

What most people want, I suspect, is simply more control over their time and

mind-space, and to keep work from leak ing into their private lives — and maybe vice-versa. They want to do work that matters, and the private time to decom press, reconnect and take care of stuff.

It’s telling that there is no command ment in Torah to work, but there are plenty to rest. Shabbat is a literal day of rest, but it is also a mindset. It strictly defines profane productivity, in order to carve out space and time for the sacred. This Jewish attitude toward work and rest is not about quitting, but it is about occasional quiet.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

“Quitting” is a terrible way to describe what is really doing your job, no more and no less. It only feels like “quitting” to a culture that demands that you sacrifice private time.

A bitter battle between two bagel shops boils over in Columbus

Andrew Lapin

(JTA)—A feud between two Jewish bagel shop owners in Columbus, Ohio, has spilled out of the oven and into full public view, resulting in a lawsuit and restraining order.

The Columbus Jewish News reports that earlier this month the owner of Block’s Bagels, a local Jewish deli mainstay since 1967, sued former business partner Jeremy Fox, owner of the Fox’s Bagels & Deli chain, after the latter moved to rebrand two shops the parties had been

Local Relationships Matter

operating jointly.

The judge in the case ordered two Fox’s locations to continue purchasing products from Block’s, saying the latter “has met its burden to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that it is entitled to a TRO [temporary restrain ing order],” the Columbus Jewish New s reports.

The Fox’s locations, which opened in 2017 and 2020, had been jointly operated and branded as Block’s Bagels shops until earlier this month, when Fox announced on Facebook that all locations would be rebranded under the Fox’s label and that the Block’s shops would be “closed.”

According to the lawsuit, this change—which the Block family said they only learned about from Facebook— also meant that Fox would be sourcing his bagels and other food products from a different supplier, sticking Block’s with $10,000 in nonreturnable perishable goods and violating their supply agree ment in the process. Fox had purchased another local bagel maker, Sammy’s Bagels, earlier this year.

The 10-count suit names more than $800,000 in total damages, including unpaid performance bonuses, equip ment costs, and sales losses.

“Jeremy Fox’s actions as it relates to the Broad Street bagel shop formerly named Block’s Hot Bagels risks the live lihoods of my employees,” Hal Block, the 89-year-old owner of Block’s Bagels, told

purchased a competing bagel production facility “behind our backs” as Block’s son Steven, who had taken over the business from his father, was dying of cancer ear lier this year.

“Originally our license agreement was intended to be a short-term solution,” Fox had told the Columbus Jewish News about the rebranding prior to the lawsuit. “It’s been nearly six years now and it was time for us to go our separate ways.” Fox said the change would give the chain “more freedom to operate and expand our menu to better fit the community and its ever-evolving needs.”

The Block family has long been active in Columbus’ Jewish community. Steven was a board member of Congregation Agudas Achim and the family supports the Columbus Jewish Center, known for donating bagels to various Jewish events. Both Steven Block and Jeremy Fox had their bar mitzvahs at Agudas Achim, according to CJN

“I’m 89 years old,” Block told the CJN “My plans at this stage of my life didn’t include a legal fight to try and obtain what is owed from a business partner who we helped establish and set up for success.”

Columbus isn’t the only place where bagelers have feuded recently. A Jewish deli in Hong Kong was at the center of a social media uproar this summer. And to come full circle, a Hallmark Channel movie this Hanukkah will center around warring Jewish deli owners who fall in

MEET: Jonathan Jacobs, MD, DMD, FACS