A 42-year old lawyer, and former BBC journalist. Born and dragged up in London. Living it up in Tel Aviv. Single plus two (see second photograph below).
My passions include the music of Arik Einstein, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Tom Waits, The Stranglers, Joy Division, The Jam, The Smiths and Pete Doherty, the films of Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers, Cheers, Seinfeld, Early Doors (an underrated masterpiece) and The Sopranos, the ‘football’ of Leeds United, cricket, the Highlands of Scotland, and, last but most definitely not least, this miraculous country.
Just a thought (Kenwood House café, London)
Stuey (left) & Dexxy
55 responses so far ↓
Norman Goldberg // January 24, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Fucken A mate
Start a new f,ken religion I’ll follow… try walking on water I’m sure the f,ck you’ll get away with it. Abso-f,ken-lutely bwilliant………..
Robert French // January 26, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Kudos!!!
mrs frankie paper // January 27, 2009 at 8:22 am
oh boy !that felt so good .Ithought that gordon ramsay was the only one who expressed himself like this.both my husband and I agree with you.by the way ,we got this from Israel.kol ha kavod to you. Frankie Paper,Melbourne Australia
Claude Wolf // January 28, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Michael Isaacson! It’s been a long time.
I love the picture from 1979 (the year I startedat the school).
Good to see that you’re looking so good.
Great blog!
All the best
Claude
buffy // January 29, 2009 at 4:18 am
interesting rambles glad u love the highlands must be some tenderness there
Saul Yarrow // January 29, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Hasmo stories are great – you made me laugh out loud !!!!
Saul
Johny Finn // January 29, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Mike I didn’t know you were in Israel. call me love to go out for coffee.
Dana Goldberg // January 31, 2009 at 1:35 am
Loud and proud!
Keep up the good work, Mike.
And as to Norman Goldberg (also known as Dad) – you always had a way with words…
Mark Goldman // February 4, 2009 at 5:17 am
Brilliantly written and very very funny. Thanks Mike
Jonny Landau // February 6, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Great blog.
Jeremy Rees // February 12, 2009 at 3:15 am
Mike
Everyone is talking about this new blog from Michael Melchett – what’s with the Melchett?
Remember the OMD concerts we used to go to and Saturday night at some awful kosher pizza place in Sentinel Square with Sammy Amini and richard Herman.
You were one of the few people in Raleigh close I really liked!
Jeremy (married 5 kids and one dead hamster)
melchettmike // February 12, 2009 at 5:35 am
Hi Jeremy.
Melchett is actually my street in TA (named after Lord Alfred Mond . . . not “Melchy” from Blackadder!)
Of course, I remember those great OMD concerts . . . and Kosherina! You, Richard and I had a right laugh when we took the children’s service at Raleigh Close. And you were always a healthy cynic . . . until, against my advice, you found “The Big G”!
Hope you will be in touch when you are next in Is.
M
Howard Fertleman // February 22, 2009 at 12:46 am
Respect to a fellow Leeds United Supporter.
Even more respect if you like the Doors, PinkFloyd, John “Cougar” Mellencamp and Rush.
Brilliant Blog
carmen schaffer // March 5, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I love reading your blogs… they are worlds apart from what i know but they are eye opening never the less.
It was fantastic meeting you in Barbados.. i’ll follow your writing from here on out… Best of luck.
p.s.
Love the dogs!
Anthony Mammon // March 10, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Greetings from New York. bumped into an old school mate of yours Nussbaum, last night at my kid’s school Purim party, he told me about your blog. Excellent. Your Hasmo blogs are histerical, and even though I was about 7 years ahead of you, many stories are well known. Your Yids & Yoks and Cyril blogs really were as close to fact as possible and I’m sitting at my desk at work laughing out loud to these stories.. Hasmo really was an institution in its day, no it really was AN INSTITUTION…
Thanks and keep it up, I will check in daily to read all your blogs..
Anthony Mammon
1S (Skelker) 1971
Martin Segal // March 15, 2009 at 3:23 am
hi michael, “Eppo” told me about this last night at Josy O’s house. Its brilliant so many names from the past, well done. 3F boys rule!
Michal (Jaswon) Koor // March 17, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Hi Michael,
Have been following your blog and considering adding a post for a while, especially after your Hasmo items (as a Hasmo girl married to a Hasmo boy! and familiar with all the stories and characters).
What’s more we both have Irish roots in common and there’s no occasion like St. Patrick’s day for an Irish get together.
If my maiden name sounds familiar it’s through my Uncle Nafti Jaswon z”l, who I believe was a close friend and colleague of your late father. In fact, I see your mother occasionally in Netanya and I believe she met my parents this evening at an Irish expat event.
Keep up the blogs – your Hasmo pieces are keeping hundreds of people amused. They are a source of conversation all over Israel (and elsewhere no doubt), and your other items are a pleasure to read. Why did you ever give up journalism?
ATB – Michal K.
guy gordon // March 25, 2009 at 9:58 am
great blog mike, and a real treat to read in the office.
i am scrubbing my one-trick-pony remark and am submitting polymath-pony for your approval in its place.
but i only ever remember hearing dylan from your room at etzion…
Danny Glick // March 25, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Hi Mike,
Absolutely brilliant – can’t stop laughing a some of stories.
My son who is currently at Hasmo just can’t believe these stories. What a shame things have changed so much
Thanks & all the best
Danny
Itzy Sabo // April 26, 2009 at 12:03 am
Tonight at a restaurant in Herzlia, above the background chatter I overheard many “Hasmo-words” from the table behind me (Roberg, Bloomberg and names of teachers from before my time – my stint was 1982 – 1988). Apparently, a bunch of old Hasmo boys were reminiscing. That seems to be something that only Hasmo boys do – I’m told that people from “normal” schools don’t really have that much to discuss about school when they meet up, and certainly not after twenty-odd years.
I had never quite realized what a deep and lasting impression the Hasmo experience has made in so many of us. Outsiders who read your accounts of life at Hasmo could be excused for thinking that we’re all nutters, or that we all ought to be deeply scarred by the experience, but I suppose “things were different then.”
Mike: a nagging suspicion led me to check your blog photo, which confirms you as one of the members of the aforementioned table. I just wanted to say thank-you for such an entertaining blog – I have never laughed so much in my life, at least not since actually witnessing many of the events recounted in your posts or the resulting comments.
hadassahsabo // April 26, 2009 at 3:13 am
Heya Bro! i don’t think you quite realized as you were living your high school years, just how much you talked about individual teachers, nor how well you described them. i felt as if i had attended your school – i even know most of the painful cyril jokes!
reading the stories here that Mike has put up felt like a walk down memory lane for me – and they were your memories!!!
Ellis Feigenbaum // April 26, 2009 at 8:48 am
Itzy
a) You should have introduced yourself
b) We are ex hasmo boys, not old hasmo boys
c) If you had introduced yourself , you might have got the same discount on the drinks we were getting.
d) We all knew you were an ex hasmo boy, because you kept turning around in your seat to listen
melchettmike // April 26, 2009 at 10:30 am
Nice to “meet” you, Itzy! Shame you didn’t reveal yourself. The guy next to me was Daniel Marks, and on the other side of the table were Nick Kopaloff (opposite me) and Ellis.
Daniel and Nick complained that my revised and edited version (posted on melchett mike) of their draft on “Woody” Harrison is less good than the original. I am confident, however, that they are both delusional . . . and should stick to English teaching (cf. writing) and chess, respectively!
Seeing as you seem relatively literate for an ex-Hasmo boy – and that you clearly knew none of us before yesterday evening (thus avoiding bias) – if I forwarded you their draft by email, would you be kind enough to read it and provide your honest opinion on the relative merits of the two?
Daniel Marks // April 26, 2009 at 11:26 am
Remember that the wager was that 19/20 would prefer the “edited” version.
melchettmike // April 26, 2009 at 12:51 pm
We have to start somewhere, Daniel . . . now we only have to find a further 18.
Itzy Sabo // April 26, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Ellis: Yes, I should have introduced myself, but will my marriage survive the revelation that I spent my formative years in what many would consider a loony bin? And then we’d have had to go through the ceremony of comparing the roster of teachers we all had in common, followed by attempts to discover which noteworthy pupils’ tenures overlapped with each of ours. When performed properly, including the customary Cyril imitations, this ceremony can go on for ages. I had pity on my dear wife, who has stuck by me despite having to endure a number of such Hasmo-encounters over the years.
Regarding “ex” vs. “old”: I don’t think many people can be considered ex-Hasmo – it’s not something that can be removed. At least not without extensive counselling. Like a good whisky, it matures with age – as this blog shows, it certainly doesn’t seem to fade away.
Mike: I am flattered that you consider me to be literate – English was not one of the subjects Hasmo was known for in my day, to say the least! Not being previouly acquainted with any of you, nor with Woody Harrison, I would be delighted to comment on the competing drafts.
Itzy Sabo // April 27, 2009 at 7:45 am
Verdict: Mike wins.
In essence, both versions are just as entertaining. However, in my subjective opinion, Mike’s edited version is much more polished, flowing and complete – in many places he adds names, which lends it more credibility as a historical account, fills in little details that make things clearer for people who did not directly experience Woody’s lessons, and glosses over other details that don’t seem important.
That said, I enjoyed Daniel & Nick’s description of braying much more than Mike’s simplified version, and I thought the old “Gits” of the Muppets more humorously appropriate to describe Woody’s hairstyle than Ben Gurion (though I’m not sure that the younger generation knows what the Muppets were).
Thank you all for an entertaining evening.
Itzy
melchettmike // April 27, 2009 at 7:52 am
So, common sense (and the English language) prevails! Thank you, Itzy.
That is the end of the matter. I deem the remaining 19 referees unnecessary. Anyway, if any of them would have voted for Daniel and Nick’s draft, I would have declared them insane and their decision void. melchett mike has never claimed to be anything other than an autocracy!
Dan Gins // April 27, 2009 at 8:31 am
Hmm……Saaa-boooooo was one of the good boys……especially as he had lived in Caaaaardiff….until Cyril caught him attending school without a daffodil – on ST DAAVID’S DAY – THE WRETCH!
Just wanted to report a similar ex-Hasmo boys’ meeting-up, discussion of the blog, and sharing of reminiscences, in a restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, just before Pesach – me and Mike’s old mate Lennie Melcer. It’s a global thing.
Itzy, you were also the only boy ever to be punished in Rabbi Lebrecht’s shiur – “for PRETENDING to throw a pen-top!”
Hope all’s well with you and yours
Danny
Nick Kopaloff // April 27, 2009 at 11:37 am
Has anyone questioned the impartiality of Mr. Itzy Sabo?
He could well be a plant – in cahoots with Mike. The old adjacent booth trick – one of the oldest in the book.
And he could have chosen a better alias. Eavesdropping on our chess references, he subconsciously borrowed the same name as the great Jewish Hungarian GM Laszlo Szabo but dropped the “z” to try to throw us off. Well his ploy failed – and as Clint Eastwood once said “You can’t piss down my back and tell me its raining.”
So the game is up.
If you like clean plastic studio recordings then Mike can hold the mike – but if you live life on the edge and like it rough and ready underfoot then Nick is your pick and Dan is your man. I defy 19 men of honor to claim otherwise.
Ellis Feigenbaum // April 27, 2009 at 11:42 am
Did you notice the computer monitors at the table, they contained a voice to text program that updated the adjacent table to out every word.
Obviously this would have been easy for Itzy to set up as he has full access to these programs at claritude software.
The alias is obviously just that, as they inadvertently used a derivative of shaboot which everyone knows is an extremely strong fish, and this definitely smells fishy.
Ellis
Rifki Sabo // April 27, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Ellis: I see you’ve done your due diligence and have found out what Itzy has been up to for the past couple of years, but I bet you didn’t know that it’s his birthday today!
Hadassah: Not only do sisters of Hasmo grads follow this blog, but so do some of their wives, or should I say better halves?!
Dan Gins // April 27, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Itzy & Rifki: Do you leave each other lots of notes around the house, starting with each others’ names, followed by a colon, then the message?
Dan: Gins
Ellis Feigenbaum // April 29, 2009 at 12:01 am
Happy birthday Itzy:-)
Of course I would send you a card bu the mossad might be intercepting your mail.
Whats it like being married to the great shaboot?
Marc Heller // May 1, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Hi Mike
Was just introduced to your website by a fello Hasmo friend. Luckily I escpaed from that hell-hole to do my GCSE’s and A Levels elsewhere otherwise I think I would have ended up doing a Columbine!
I wondered where you had got to cos the last time I saw you was on SSP2-HD with serious sunburn from watching England snatch another draw from a likely away victory in the Caribbean.
If you are so into the Scottish Highlands, then check out http://www.craiglealodge.co.uk and if you are interested I will work a good deal out for you.
Take care and good luck to your Leeds in the Play Offs.
Marc
Jonathan Bernstein // May 5, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Mike,
You are the only person to ever try to (unsuccessfully) bully me at Hasmo!! Love the site.
Women are over-rated
Jonny Bernstein
melchettmike // May 5, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Well, Jonny, this is the first time that anyone has ever accused me of being a “bully”! Please do tell . . . I am curious to (re)discover that side of myself that I don’t recall!
Jonathan Bernstein // May 6, 2009 at 12:58 am
I had just unlocked my bike from the rack in the front and you came along and got on it and rode off with me chasing after you holding on to my yarmulke with one hand and my standard issue samsonite briefcase with the other.
Come to think of it, if I still remember after nearly 30 years maybe you were more successful than I thought!
Jonny B
melchettmike // May 6, 2009 at 9:03 am
Jonny, you have made my day! Okay, it was hardly a daring IDF raid, behind enemy lines, wiping out PLO terrorists . . . but – in Hasmo/North-West London terms, at least – it does give a tad more credibility to this ageing lawyer. Do you happen to recall whether, as I rode off, the wind was blowing through my hair?!
Danna Gal // May 12, 2009 at 4:09 pm
i would like to introduce u to a girl in israel! she is a close friend of mine!
i read ur blog and it seems right… maybe i sound crazy.. but i am just a good friend…. so what do u say? she is 34 an executive at Misrad Pirsum in TA..
i forgot to say matchmaking is my hobby… spread the love……….
rachel // May 14, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Alright Dexie and Stewie… your Dad’s a blast
Daniel Hass // July 1, 2009 at 11:23 am
Mike eagerly waiting another piece on the legends!!! Joe Paley comes to mind. Also I would love to hear comments from the younger generation, I cant believe that the Hasmo policy on employment changed dramtically in the 1990s and as such would be interesting to hear about legends we may not be familiar with. I remember Julian Singer who taught us A level Economics and he comes to mind. I saw Arieh G last night, the blog was mentioned. As a last point, what happened to the possibility of a celeb appearance by either Mr Marks/Soester.
Nina // August 14, 2009 at 3:43 am
The memories of Hasmo… my brothers Daniel and Jonny would tell me all these stories about Lebrett, DJ, Schaml, Roberg, Joughin… the girl school was tame compared. Always remember you sitting behind my father with Stanley Reiss z”l but was always too shy to say hi when i was little… thought you were too good looking.
From a fellow Hendonite – now residing in St Johns Wood. Enjoy TA and love the blog – hilarious.
melchettmike // August 15, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Hi Nina. I am still “too good looking”
. . . oh yes, and the cheque’s in the post!
Ellis Feigenbaum // September 14, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Although its against company policy to use this blog as a message board – I thought I would wish you Happy Birthday in any case.
So there
maria // September 16, 2009 at 1:26 am
Hi there, while looking up the old family tree, your blog popped up!!
Heres the science! Im looking for Isaacsons, a family that lived in or around the camden st area of Dublin <Ireland.
They also may have owned a jewellery/pawnbrokers in this area.
Any info??
Cool blog.
Henri Berest // September 18, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Mike,
Happy New Year to you and the dogs.
Thanks for the laughs and memories – the site has been original & excellent
Best Wishes
Henri
melchettmike // September 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Thanks a lot, Henri. Knowing that so many people really enjoy the blog makes it all worthwhile. I hope we can have a beer next time we are in the same country. And thanks for your (never dull!) contributions. Shana tova. Mike
naomi (munk) samuel // October 12, 2009 at 12:06 am
love the new homepage photo! who took it?
melchettmike // October 12, 2009 at 6:46 pm
What can I tell you, Naomi . . . the camera doesn’t lie! For the background to the photo, click here.
Yosef // October 14, 2009 at 11:29 am
Hey Mike, I like that new action shot of you, Stuey and Dexxy running in the Tel Aviv Marathon. You really look winded there Mike.
James Franks // October 27, 2009 at 11:29 pm
OK – this is a long shot but maybe you or someone else reading this can save my sanity. It’s a matter of life and death – what was the name of the kosher restaraunt (Hungarian?) in the far left corner of Sentinel Square in Hendon which was around during the late 80s early 90s?
HELP! Cheers
Simon Kosiner // October 28, 2009 at 12:01 am
Restaurant was Kosherina. A popular meeting point for hasmo pupils during schooltime of course!
James Franks // October 28, 2009 at 12:02 am
No – Kosherina was milky – I am talking about a meat place that was further down on the left-hand side and not open for that long….try again….save me.
Jeremy Hill // November 5, 2009 at 4:32 am
Mike, I have just come across a photo of 5JO from the 81/82 academic year. I have scanned it and would be happy to submit it if you so desire.