Author: hbelkin

Teacher: Bnos Rabbeinu Girls High School, 2006-2017

When the new girls’ high school was started, I felt obligated to help with it. So I got as involved as I could on a very part-time basis. In the very early years, I would have all email that was sent to the students directed to my computer and automatically printer so I could drop it off at the school each morning. (Students didn’t have email of internet access, and phones were still pretty rudimentary and were not allowed to have data plans)

I also took on the role of helping with the physical aspects of the student dorm — mostly safety, including locks, keycode entry system, stove gas line shutoff lock boxes, light bulb changing, electrical, air conditioners, laundry equipment, … you name it! Given that these kids were away from home with no one really looking after their day-to-day needs, and knowing that I’d want such care if my own kids were out of town, it felt right to provide this needed help.

Eventually I also started teaching one course per week to grades 11&12 — at first photography, then later a physics course that I really enjoyed. I found a great book call ” How Things Work” that was used as a basic physics course in some university arts streams, but I wanted it to be even simpler. In consultation with the author, I modified the course to remove all the math — creating a “conceptual” physics course. Wherever I could I’d merge Torah concepts or at least the amazing symmetries and workings of physics that could not be considered accidental.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching (as I had enjoyed teaching in University), and got special satisfaction from interacting with these young people and feeling like I was perhaps making a bit of a difference in their lives. Many of these kids were from difficult family situations, including broken homes, abusive homes, poverty, etc.

Teaching — even though it required a lot of preparation (I used to go to Starbucks for a few hours on Sunday to prepare my upcoming classes) — was a great source of satisfaction for me at a time when my career had taken a back seat due to being laid off and unable to get back into my field due to my age.

In the last few years, I taught a basic computer course, introducing such things as Word, Excel, and basic computer literacy in Microsoft Windows. I also gave a several-part seminar in internet and connectivity (cell phone) safety. My belief was that kids should be aware of all the dangers (spoofed emails, viruses, online bullying, dangers of chat rooms and groups, etc.) rather than simply being forbidden to use these services, because all kids will find a way to access them even if they are forbidden. For that class, I arranged for the school to get a number of refurbished laptops, which I then configured for safe classroom use.

Being the only technical person directly involved with this tiny school, I took on the role of technician for the annual production (after first getting approval from a Rav because of singing). I ran a laptop control of projected images and videos, and also helped set up all the rented audio equipment.

During a photography class exercise taking “advertising” shots, someone snapped a photo of me at my desk…


Setting up laptops, and a couple of class shots:

A few of the school photos (I was also the official school photographer):

2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

Photographer: High School Seniors, 2007-2017

Being that I was already very involved in Bnos Rabbeinu High School, and that I was a professional photographer, it was natural for the school to ask me if I would do the annual senior photos. Of course I accepted, although because of the low income level of most families involved, I set very reasonable prices.

I found this work to be very rewarding, both professionally and personally. On the professional side, it was a way to get lots of practice posing and executing individual portraits. On the personal side, I knew all these girls since I had taught them, and I also knew that their senior portrait is important to them — first, because the share it with tons of friends outside of the school, and second, because they very often use it as a “shidduch” (match) photo when they are looking to get married a couple of years later.

I found that I did, in fact, have the ability to create very good portraits. I also discovered that this was sometimes a way to improve a girl’s self-image and self-esteem, and that was very gratifying.

After several years of doing senior portraits for Bnos Rabbeinu, I was contacted by another local Chicago Girl’s high school, Bais Yaakov. This was a much larger school, and thus a much bigger job (although I discovered that the girls there were not as much into sharing their photos with as many friends.

Although there were hundreds of portraits done over the years, I am including just a sampling of what I would consider some my better ones. Also letters of recommendation from both schools for my use when I re-located to Florida in 2017.


As I noted above, there were times when I was able to help with self-esteem. The following two images were taken just minutes apart. The first is the way this girl showed up for her senior portrait — and the way she saw herself. After taking that shot, I asked her to let down her hair, and to not smile (because when she smiles her eyes squint). The next shot became her senior portrait — and she saw herself in a way that she didn’t imagine (as did her parents). I used these shots in a piece I wrote for a professional photography blog site, which I titled “Why we are photographers.”



Letters of recommendation received from both schools:

Photographer: Hershel Belkin Photography (take two: Kids, weddings, events), 2007-2020

As I continued to improve my photography skills, my kids’ portraits definitely got better. My experience doing high school senior portraits led to a request by a former student to shoot her wedding in 2007, in Cincinnati.

I had not considered shooting weddings; it seemed like a daunting task. But I accepted (as I said at the time “just this once”), and found a photographer in the Cincinnati are who I hired as my “second”.

The experience surprised me. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the photographic aspects, but I was struck by how the photographer (at least in an orthodox Jewish wedding) is the ONLY person who gets to experience EVERY part of the wedding. I also found the connection to the kids getting married, and their families, very rewarding.

After that experience, I pivoted my business to specialize in Jewish weddings, although I still did some child portraiture, and also some other events, like Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.

Progression of business cards over the years

Here are just a few samples of my later years portrait work…


This was a challenge — how to do a portrait of a triplet bar mitzvah?! I decided to pose each boy depicting the three pillars of Judaism: Torah, Tefillah (prayer), and Tzedakah (charity). The I took the one image from each and combined them digitally, resulting in a single portrait:

I also had the opportunity to shoot a couple of concerts. Here are just a couple of images of Matisyahu, and Cheap Trick…..

But my main focus during these years was weddings…

Swipe to see samples of wedding images

Entrepreneur: Search Engine Optimization, circa 2009

As I developed and marketed my photography website, I dug deep into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques, and even purchased some tools to help with those efforts. Over a short time, I seemed to get quite proficient, at least with terms that were fairly well focused.

Having achieved first page organic listings for myself on most major search engines, I though that maybe I could do the same for others… so I purchase the URL SEOmaven.com, and build a simple web site.

My first client was someone I knew in Chicago, and within a few weeks his site was getting MUCH better listings in Goode, etc. and he was seeing increased sales. He was thrilled!

I did a bit of SEO work for a few places, but decided it was more work than I was really interested in doing — not that the SEO itself was that complicated, but dealing with clients who really didn’t understand my requests for various simple changes to their sites was annoying.

Searching web archives, I found a few samples of my old SEOmaven site…

Filmed talk (and Rebbe story) of Dr Ira Weiss, 2010

In 2010 I was contacted by N’shei Chabad to ask if I would take a video of a speech that the Rebbe’s doctor, Ira Weiss, had agreed to give for their annual convention in New York.

Since I knew Dr Weiss personally, and although I had done almost no video work, my pro camera was capable, I readily agreed.

We arranged a time, with Dr Weiss preferring to do it at his home in Skokie, a few blocks from where I lived.

The house was simpler than I had expected — in fact much looked like it probably had been unchanged in many years. The dining room, however, looked very nice, and this is where Dr Weiss wanted to record his talk.

As I set up my lights, camera, and off-camera microphone, Dr Weiss surprised me with a little — but never before shared — story. He started by pointing to his beautiful inlaid-wood dining table, and saying “You know, the Rebbe bought this table for me.”

(I didn’t record his story, so this account is my paraphrasing of it…)

“On one of my regular visits to check on the Rebbe in the years following his heart attack, the Rebbe asked me what was new in my life, as he always did. He showed a real interest in my life, my wife and kids. On this occasion it happened that we had been considering the purchase of a new dining room table, so I shared that with the Rebbe.”

“He said that was very good, because it would make it more pleasant for me to have guests on Shabbos. However I explained that we were hestating because the table my wife liked was quite expensive and I felt that it was too fancy for our simple dining room. The Rebbe asked how much it was, and that was the end of that conversation.”

“I didn’t think much more about it until I received in the mail a note from the Rebbe, saying that the table my wife had picked out went perfectly with our dining room — which of course he had never seen! He said that he wanted us to get that table, as a gift of appreciation from him… And there was a check enclosed for the exact amount!”

“So we purchased the table, but then had doubts because whereas the table top was made with beautiful inlaid wood, our dining room looked old and shabby. I decided that perhaps we should replace the carpet, which was the original carpet from when we bought the house. “

“So we had someone come in to pull out the old carpeting, and discovered to our astonishment that there was a hardwood floor underneath — with a border of inlaid wood that looked much like the table! We had the floor refinished, and suddenly the table looked perfect in that room — exactly as the Rebbe said it would!”

I felt very privileged to hear such an amazing story first-hand. Especially one which Dr Weiss said he hadn’t shared.

In the video, Dr Weiss is sitting at that very dining room table.

I.T. Manager: Jewish Educational Toys, Chicago, circa 2004-2017

A friend of mine in Chicago owned a small manufacturing and wholesale business that was one of the first Jewish Toy companies. It was a very small business: He ran the Chicago office (2-3 people) responsible for product creation, art, sourcing manufacturing from China, and sales. His twin brother ran the warehouse in Pittsburgh (1-2 people) responsible for receiving and warehousing product, and packing and shipping all orders.

It was actually quite remarkable that they manages to build this business basically just the two of them, with a few other mainly part-time or seasonal employees.

Knowing that I had been out of work for a while, they asked if I’d be interested in helping them in the office during the upcoming busy Chanukah season. Figuring that I had nothing better to do at the time, I agreed.

As a former IT manager, and someone who had been involved with computer systems for many years, I was appalled at what I found — they were using an inventory and sales system that looked to me like it was from 1980! Let me note a few examples:

** Each person’s desktop computer had a COPY of the company database. They were not interconnected or synchronized in any way. Ever morning they would get a copy of the database MAILED to them from Pittsburgh on a CD, and they would each have to update their local database. At best that put them a day or two out-of-date. If one person made a sale, none of the others could see it until the next synchronization!

** Order fulfillment in Pittsburgh (remember these were wholesale orders only) was done by printing out the orders, the using them to pick the products and package them. Once the order was printed, the only way to check status or progress was to find that piece of paper in a huge stack. If a wholesale customer called in for status, or to make a change, we would have to call Pittsburgh, and they would have to rummage through the pile to find the order. Something as simple as getting a delivery date would typically take two days!

In order to run the business, Chicago and Pittsburgh had to be constantly on the phone!I was amazed that they were actually able to keep the business going in such an inefficient manner.

So I quickly embarked on a search for a good inventory and sales fulfillment software package. This wasn’t something that they had even considered — having been convinced (duped) by a sales person at a trade show some years earlier that their system was the best out there for wholesale.

After some investigation I settled on a package called Acctivate (by Alterity). Not only was it very comprehensive, it seamlessly integrated with Quickbooks, which is what they were already using for accounting.

It did take some convincing to get them to agree to purchase both a new server, and this not-cheap software. They were afraid of the change, and neither brother was very technical (to say the least). But I did manage to convince them, and worked quickly to adapt Acctivate to their particular manufacturing and wholesale business needs.

After the slight learning curve, they began to see huge advantages. Tasks that used to take 2-3 days were now 2-3 minutes. Everyone had instant access to all the data in real time, and became much more productive. It was funny — after some months using the new system, they were afraid that their business was failing because they used to have 4 phone lines ringing off the hook and now it was mostly quiet. But the reality was sales and inquiries were being handled so quickly that they were doing more business with much less “busy” work.

So… what began as a simple “come help us do some phone sales during the busy season” progressed into a role as IT manager, as well as sales associate. Normally this would have been very boring to me, but I found ways to make it interesting — like creating valuable reports in Acctivate to help them understand and grow their business, building them a functional wholesales web site and creating the processes to keep it synchronized with their back-end inventory system, and eventually convincing them to abandon their error-prone manual catalog creation in favor of a catalog that I programmed as a report. The catalog creation time went from a couple of months to a few minutes, with all data, images, etc. coming directly from the inventory system, ensuring 100% accuracy. For the first time they had a catalog, website, and back end inventor4y system that were all precisely in sync.

I stayed at that job probably way too long, being that I was getting paid much less than ever before, but I combined it with many of the other activities that are listed in this blog — my photography, teaching in the girls’ high school, and various online business attempts. I take pride in the fact that rather than letting this simple job get me down, I constantly found ways to create interesting and useful projects.

I actually found on the Acctivate web site, an excerpt from a product testimonial that I gave them at some point (although the wording doesn’t sound like what I would have said — someone wrote it after phone interview)

A couple of sample pages from the automatically-generated catalog…

A few snapshots of the JET web site:

Entrepreneur: Jewish Stock Photos, circa 2011-2012

Still looking for other possible streams of income, I decided to try creating a site for Jewish stock photos. Although there were a lot of big stock photo sites, finding good Jewish-content images was difficult — and, as my graphic designer son told me, there are designers working for Jewish organizations that need such images.

My concept was not just to try to shoot tons of Jewish content photos, but to invite other photographers to submit their stock images to the site and to take a small percentage of their sales as well.

So I built the site, shot a bunch of images, and actually got about a dozen photographers to contribute images. I didn’t charge much, and sales were very slow. Don’t remember why, but after about a year or so I lost interest and eventually shut it down.

Searching the web archives, I found some site snapshots (mostly missing the images)… just to give an idea of what it looked like.

Entrepreneur: My-Headshots, circa 2013

Again looking for other sources of income, I had the idea to create a site specifically for models and actors to market their professional headshots. The concept was that each subscribed model would get a dedicated page containing their favorite pro headshots and some basic personal information. Their page would actually contain their name, as in myname.my-headhsots.com, becoming what would have been the first electronic “comp-card”. In fact, the site was designed so it could not be “browsed” — you could only get to specific pages by having the named model page link.

Then they would create things like email signatures that would include a link to their personal my-headhsots page. My idea was to get photographers who specialized in shooting headshots to pay a small fee per clients and offer the my-headshots page as an added value of their service over another headshots photographer.

Well… although I still like the concept to this day, I quickly discovered that most photographers are more into their art than their business, and thus fail to see the advantages of this. (Each headshots page also offered a link back to the model’s photographer, so this would have been good advertising for the photographer as well as for the model!)

Without getting a bunch of photographers to sign up, this was dead in the water pretty quickly. Too bad, because I think it could have been a great service –although I don’t think it would have generated much income for me!

Once again, I found a few snapshots of the site pages…

Teacher: School Fire lesson, 2015

As part of my duties taking care of all the physical aspects of the Bnos Rabbeinu High School Dorm, I took safety and security very seriously. As someone who was also always interested in the latest technology, I also looked for products that would be best suited for such purposes.

To keep the dorm secure and yet allow easy entry for the students, I found an Israeli-made digital door pad, which I wired to the old door “buzzer” system. This allowed me to create a set of digital codes (one for students, and separate ones for cleaning staff, trades, etc that I could disable when they were no longer to have access.)

One concern I had due to the age of the building (about 90 years), was fire detection. Since the building was three floors and a basement, I worried that a small fire alarm in the basement could go unheard on the floors above. In researching this, I found that there was a new type of smoke detector that allowed for a series of units connected wirelessly such that any unit that was triggered would sound the alert on all units. In addition these added carbon monoxide detection — important in a building with gas-powered stoves, furnace, hot water tank and dryers.

I purchased these units and installed two per floor. I even ran some tests and a couple of “drills”. (In one case I took one of the detectors outside and held it near the tail pipe of my running van until it registered a CO alert!)

Some months later, while all the girls and the principal were in the basement practicing for their upcoming production, a night-time fire broke out on the 1st floor due to a short in some old lighting wiring. No one was there to see or smell it. Thankfully, the detectors did finally register and the alert was sounded throughout the building. At first suspecting a false alarm, someone ventured upstairs and quickly saw the flames and smoke — and thankfully everyone was able to evacuate safely. Unfortunately, the old building went up in flames very quickly and by the time the fire department arrived, all three floors were ablaze!


Realizing how invaluable these type of detectors were, I replaced the old wired smoke detectors in my home with these as well. At the same time, I found out that older detectors were really only reliable for about 10 years, even if they tested ok!

I decided that such information needed to be spread, especially in my religious circles. So I wrote an op-ed for a New York based web site, urging the adoption of such detectors in all schools and homes, and pushing for an organization to be established to help finance them for poorer families. I have no idea if such an organization was ever set up, but I did get a lot of feedback thanking me for educating people about this.

I found my old op-ed still online: