I met professor Joel Weinberg (1922ñ2011) in 1981 at a student academic conference held at the University of Latvia. Later, he invited me to work at Daugavpils Pedagogical Institute where he was the head of the department and became my mentor. One of the most essential features of mentoring is the protected relation-ship within which the framework of knowledge is acquired. In mentoring, protected relationships are usually oriented towards the acquisition of know-ledge and the development of skills. At the very beginning, J. Weinberg helped me realize that for a young lecturer, it was important to prepare for postgra-duate studies. In this respect, he considered it essential to protect his young lecturers' from too extensive of a workload. Simultaneously, J. Weinberg persistently and purposefully endeavored to involve all department lecturers in scholarly work. J. Weinberg bestowed special attention to the issue of how young lectu-rers prepared for delivering their lecture courses. The professor had a strict position - a young lecturer must prepare his lectures in written form. This was not a formal requirement, but rather a firm suggestion for a young lectu-rer's professional growth. In mentoring relations, both honesty and mutual loyalty had important roles. The communication we had with him during our meetings outside of work contributed substantially to strengthening these relationships. An essential feature of a mentoring process is a clear beginning and end to mentoring relations. The beginning of my mentoring coincided with my starting independent work at DPI in October 1981. The end and the results of mentoring should be viewed within the context of achieving the principal goal of mentoring - developing and increasing the lecturer's academic abilities and scientific skills, which then culminate in defending the doctoral thesis. In 1993,1 defended my doctoral thesis at the University of Latvia. One of the official reviewers of my thesis was professor and my mentor J. Weinberg. Quite often, the relationships that have existed between a mentor and a mentee later develop into friendships that lasts for years. This could be said about our contacts with the professor after his departure for Israel. Professor Joel Weinberg was an outstanding mentor, who personality felt a true concern about the development and growth of other people, who was able to under-stand problems, and who had vast knowledge and skills to share with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]