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ON SUNDAY, Jerusalem Post readers will receive their newspapers with a copy of our special supplement listing who we – the committee that compiled the list – believe to be today’s 50 most influential Jews. The list is naturally subjective. There are those who will love it and those who will hate it. As the famous joke goes, put two Jews together and get three opinions. Now imagine a list with 50.That is exactly our intention. We want to spark discussion and debate and most important – get people thinking how they too can influence the world.Working on a list such as this takes time – to consider candidates, rank them and then of course, write the reasons behind their selection. I took the opportunity to give thought to what my own personal list would look like. Who would top the list in my life? Who have been my influencers? Last week, ahead of a conference I attended in Washington, I flew to Chicago for a day to visit my 88-year-old grandfather, Charles Lipshitz.My grandfather was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1928.He became bar mitzva in the Lodz Ghetto and was on one of the last transports to be sent out as the ghetto was liquidated in the spring of 1944. The next year was spent moving between various concentration camps – Auschwitz-Birkenau, Altheimer, Dachau – and the Death March, until the British liberated him from Bergen Belsen in April 1945.His family, except for his older brother, was wiped out in the war. His parents and sister, alongside countless aunts, uncles and cousins, were gone.But he didn’t give up. My grandfather didn’t surrender to the death that engulfed him. He pushed forward, moved to the US, started a family and built a successful business. Still today, at the age of 88, he spends hours a day on the computer, including trading stocks and options.Seeing my grandfather, tenacious as ever, reminded me of Peres. Here were two men born a few years apart, raised in different circumstances but who both refused to fall into the trap of pessimism. They both rose above the ashes of destruction, hardship and wars to build a new and better world.On the eve of Rosh Hashana that is my wish for us all. The world is an increasingly dangerous place. But alongside the challenges, there are always opportunities. It is up to us to find and take advantage of them.Shana Tova!