40th anniversary special newsletter - Aikido Institute of Oakland

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[dave9nine]

greetings!
This past March our dojo celebrated 40 years of training in Oakland, CA. By all accounts the Oakland dojo was one of the first in California and is one of the longest running dojos in the bay area.
We had many special guest instructors who got their start or trained at some point at our dojo, including Bill Witt Shihan, Hans Goto Shihan, Hoa Newens Sensei, Pat Hendricks Sensei, and many many others who trained under Saito Sensei.
The below is a link to a special edition of our newsletter, which contains interviews with all of these instructors.
Please enjoy the cool stories and insights that they've shared.
(you can ignore the other material after that, which is just our ramblings and other fodder :) )
cheers!

http://www.aikidoinstitute.org/kiai/kiai_spring_2010_40yr.pdf

-dave

[Adam Huss]

Congrats!

[lbb]

Dave, this is really nice! What did you use to produce it?

[zivk]

Thank you for posting your newsletter, Dave. It so happens that some of the roots of Aikido in Israel are from the Oakland dojo.
Eytan Ben-Meir sensei, who is, as far as I know, the Aikido pioneer who first brought Aikido to Israel, studied at that dojo. Ben-Meir sensei is currently the highest ranking Israeli (Aikikai organisation) Aikido practitioner. Many of the teachers in Israel were at some time or the other his students.
It's interesting to read the interviews and get an impression how the practice and the atmosphere in the dojo were in "the old days".
It was nice to see Ben-Meir sensei in the pictures as well as his student, and a notable teacher on his own accord, Eli Bitran sensei.
I hope similar celebrations will be held here in Israel, in a few years, when the first dojo in Israel, established by Ben-Meir sensei, will note it's 30th anniversary.

[dave9nine]

@ Mary: thanks!. i did not have part in creating the newletter, but i believe it was done with InDesign (Adobe).

@ Ziv: thanks for the words. I got a brief chance to train with Ben-Meir Sensei and he was great--very powerful and centered technique. perhaps one day if i make it out to Israel i will seek out the dojos you mention. cheers!

-dave