One note about this post: Disqus allows me to keep a heavy eye on you all. I’m not out to have a politics here or politics there talk. This is not a YAY ISREAL or a BOOO ISRAEL post. My politics are my politics and they are shaped by my experiences and my beliefs. If you want to discuss politely, that’s fine. If you want to have a screaming match- get off this blog. And pre-check your facts first. I have no tolerance for people who don’t pre check in what can be a politically tense topic. Also, if you want to discuss with me the politics of Aliya, first go read the Shemonah Esrei (The 18 benedictions) and Birkat Kohanim (the Priestly Blessing) in the oldest form you can find them- you’ll quickly realize I’m the wrong person to argue with…
OK then. While originally I was going to post about ad targeting and how funnily bad it can be, instead, I’m going to post about a book put out recently by the Council of Foreign Relations that has large relevance to the venture community: Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle
. Many words have already been poured about the state of the Israeli Start-up community (if you really want a heavy read on the subject, you can just pop over to Tech Aviv or Ouriel Ohayon’s place, though Read, Write, Web did a nice writeup recently.).
This is not that post. I cannot claim expertise on the Israeli start-up community. I can say, I lived in Israel during the 11 months preceding Disengagement on a Kibbutz, where I was studying in an Israeli Seminary with close ties with the Army. It had a hesder like program for women, one of three in the entire country. (This stay doesn’t include the few weeks of Pesach + March of the Living. But I did mostly learn to tremp, hitchhike, like a native 
)
What I can do is the following- comment on the lack of the ties the Israeli Venture Community has with the American Jewish Community. I don’t know why this is. It is very confusing to me. The book actively promotes that Israel has an immigrant community,however the portrayal of Americans are neutral to none, beyond as people where funds are raised. This is largely due to the fact that Americans, among other English speaking communities (the “Anglos”), seem to have reistance to making Aliya (that includes you, South Africans!) This I know as someone who has had Aliya activists running after me when I was younger and sprier 
and studying as a seminary student (never call me that…) Americans don’t like making Aliya, because they have more stable jobs with more money in the US. This is generally true of English speaking countries. Yet being Jewish is actually cheaper in Israel, especially if you are somewhat actively Jewish. Your kids pretty much turn out Jewish in Israel no matter what you do. I mean, even if there is a saying in Tel Aviv that the best parties are on Shabbat, at least they know it is Shabbat. In the US, you have to pay mucho bucks for your child to understand what day is shabbat and how those calculations work.
Why is that? I don’t know. There is a ton of money poured into getting Americans to make Aliya. Namely in the form of Nefesh B’Nefesh. Their web-pages are depressing. Look at this one for Graphic Designer. From this web-page, I would never guess Israel was one of the top technological communities in the world. Java? What about…Ruby? Why are none of the standard web design associations listed? (Even funnier, there is no page for anything involving the web. I could say I do SEO work- and Nefesh B’Nefesh would come up…blank. There is nothing for programming- either general or web specific, which is why I had to use graphic design. That’s what I call, humongously bad PR)
Why is it that you have to buy a separate whole book (or take it out from the library) to find out that you can join a start-up? That is ummm, stupid. Why is it that said book doesn’t even list ways for someone to join a start-up. It is, after all, supposedly an awesome thing to do after graduation. Up there with taking hikes in the Galilee, if you are going to go do the Making Aliya thing… I mean this is a ridiculous way of saying: Hi, I’m a startup in Israel, I’m nice and friendly, and I would like to hire you. Horrible PR.
Meanwhile, there is a known “thing” that Israelis tend to become Yeriedim as they become more successful, especially as their companies are sold. (Mammon may be the king of the world…) So management relocates to say the US, Europe; it creates new problems (and yes, Start Up Nation touches on this problem). Meanwhile you have the American Jewish community and those who are Yeridim stuck here in the US with management talent. What are they doing here? Why aren’t they in Israel with the start-ups? Why aren’t they staying there? And why aren’t you just attracting the people who want to be management in the first place to go make aliya (you know those people who want to be “associates”). That way you can stop the management talent drain.
Further, even Ouriel Ohayon complains of Aesthetic problems in the start-up community. This to me is funny, because it says that someone(s) in the Israeli Start-up community is not looking hard enough and is being lazy bums at developing talent (though I don’t think it is Ouriel’s problem to solve alone). It also means that the start-up community doesn’t know how to get its management in place to look for viable design. In Treatment is an Israeli import which is commercially successful in the US on HBO. It is also not the only Israeli art import that is commercial viable in the US (say Michal Rovner who is represented by Pace Wilderstein….Or even Mona Hatoum if you dare to be a tad dangerous when it comes to rightist polics, not that I’m on the right, and I happen to love her art) And didn’t the MOMA have a famous Israeli designer Ron Arad over the summer???
So the Americans are stealing your good Aesthetic sensibilities. Probably because what we really stole was the good management. Good to know. Maybe you should fix the ways to get to us managers to come to you on a more permanent basis so you can’t complain anymore. K? Stop worrying about access to the Nasdaq (you have that now) and start worrying about a long lasting ecosystem (with management and the pretty stuff that we seem to be borrowing on the international art scene, and movie scene, and other scenes.) Make sure you can keep “associates” around. Apparently, yes, they are necessary. even if they are, annoying… (I don’t want to be a suit either).
Fix the Aliaya site. Because umm, I laugh right now. It doesn’t make me want to make aliya. It doesn’t make me want to do much of anything involving the Israeli startup scene. Which is very weird. You would think, with all the money poured into to me to be very Jewish, and my introductory activity in the American (particularly NY) startup scene- I would be a good fit.
And it isn’t just a me thing either. There is a secret club at MIT to help Jewish students get jobs that dates back to the 1920s I believe (my dad would know more, he wears a brass rat, it started because there were periods in American history where there was anti-semitism in the hiring process…now it just deals with out of work Jewish people because they are out of work). My college Hillel post jobs that deal with Jewish things involved, even if it is only peripherally Jewish: Working in an Israeli Startup would count (and you would like my Hillel, lot of thinkers there). It’s very typical for Hillels to do that!!! You could post Startup Jobs in every Hillel at an Engineering school across the country for Israeli Startups. After all- you don’t have to pay rent money for the first year! (Sal Klita baby!) I’m sure there are plenty of people who have been active in Hillels, or have gotten a modicum of Jewish education, that if you went to them, the government of my country will pay your rent money for a year and we will pay you a small salary with stock options (oooohhh) to go work in my startup people would go. Or even we would love for you to come to help us start a business. (ooh) And you still don’t have to pay the rent!
Not until you get your acts together- I wouldn’t dare go. And that means ummm, making it look like there are jobs available and incubators, and all the fun stuff we have in the US! Seriously…just because I can get my To’ar Sheini (that’s a masters) for free, really helpful if you want to switch over to Comp Sci (though I would have to prepare in the US, those university standards are very tough, don’t you know), I don’t think that the Israeli Startup Scene will cut it at all. Or something involving management. I know in the US, we produce too many managers. In Israel, you produce lots of mashups: but you are importing management. Which may or may not stay. What does this say about you? Nothing amazing. That I can say. I can bully way too many people there, and I kind of don’t want to, because I want to be held accountable so I can learn.
That says something if you want talent to make aliya. Just saying…
Go fix that!!! Really, I would go if I knew what the hell was going on in Israel in a realistic sense….and I felt like it could be a huge learning experience (this would be after ulpan, my hebrew has gone to crap). Seriously Go Fix your recruiting for your own benefit and stop complaining…
(If you really want to fix that, seriously, You can petition ideas below by Feburary 15th for the Presentense Fellowship. If we can come together with some good ideas, I can go to J-town as your representative, and get $30,000 and 1 year to implement, which is a lot better than having no publicity in the world of Aliya as an option. It’s best to say I have sponsors for something this silly yet this massive. And it is silly. You need the publicity and the worker bees. And closer American Ties can’t hurt anyone statically, having been one of the few lay people who have seen both the AviChai Foundation numbers about Israelis and the NJPS numbers about Americans. Sucktatic! Though the Israelis are ahead.*
That, and you can hire one of my very early ex’s from my yar in Israel, who did make Aliya, Eitan Marks for an internship at a startup. He’s studying Graphic Design at Bezalel, is pretty organized, draws well, and is an overall Nice Dati Guy who likes interesting movies, the bible, and wears glasses and an ugly hat that he got from the army. It will be good for him, trust me!)
*My hobby is to keep track of Judaism on the internet. It’s a very interesting hobby, it tells you a lot about how culture and religion change when interacting with media and how media changes people and their practices. Now I just need to get that unpublished thesis about the growth of Post-orthodoxy during the 00s. Should be an interesting read.
PS that’s a picture of what Jerusalem really looks like- It’s the Jerusalem Book Fair!! Woot for book fairs! Why can’t New York have one, they’re so much fun. 
The New York Tech MeetUp- The March Edition
I know it is late. I’ve had a humongously amazing, yet busy week. (and I don’t normally talk like that) I feel so thankful that I am finally really starting to become less shy with people in the NY Tech Community. Everyone I am meeting has been wonderful. Y’all are great people. Just has to be said.
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