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Going To
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IIIGH-TECH TZEDILICAII

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A Detroit transplant is bringing American-style charitable giving to Israel.

JUDITH SUDILOVSKY
Special to the Jewish News

r,

Jerusalem

or thr.: past 20 years, former Detroiter Debby Spinner
has spent much of her time in the richest neighbor-
hoods of Haifa, working with the blossoming high-
tech world as an editor and marketing expert.
But two years ago, she was exposed ro a different Israel when
her youngest son was born in Poriya Hospital, a government hospi-
tal located in one of the poorest areas of the country. The director,
a good friend of hers, urged her to have her baby there. After the
birth, she put her knowledge and connections in the high-tech
world to good use and became a fund-raiser for the hospital.
From the hospita, experience, "I started to feel the gaps
between the rich and the poor in health care and other kinds of
social problems that needed to be addressed within our com-
munity," said Spinner.
She lives with her husband, Ron, also a former Detroiter, and
their five children in the Galilee community of Hoseaya.
"These problems won't solve themselves."
Spinner based her new "hitechgiving" project,
www.hitechgiving.org.il , on a nearly century-old trend of cor-
porate giving to social causes in the United States. This idea of
corporate giving has been slowly seeping into Israeli conscious-
ness over the past few years, Spinner said.
Her mission, she said, is to combine the ancient Jewish tradi-

tion of tzedakah and helping others with Israel's modern-day
skills in the high-tech world.
"There has always been a Jewish tradition of helping our-
selves, and a responsibility for helping the poor and loving fel-
low Jews," she said. "Take, for instance, the biblical injunction
of gleaning. This is the same idea."
She started with the high-tech industry. A growing sector in
Israel's economy, the high-tech industry had combined sales of
$8.55 billion in 1999, the last year data is available from the
Israeli Industry Association. According to that information,
nearly 46,000 Israelis work in high-tech industries.
Over the summer, Spinner presented her idea to Oded Tyra,
director of Detroit-owned Phoenicia America-Israel Flatglass
Ltd. in the Zipporit Industrial Park in Lower Galilee. Its
Detroit ties to philanthropist William Davidson, founder of
Guardian Industries in Auburn Hills, made Phoenicia an ideal
initial partner for Spinner. After reviewing Spinner's business
plan, Tyra became her first supporter.
"I believe the high-tech world will react positively to this initia-
tive because they will see this is an opportunity for them to become
involved in the community in an organized way, following specific
criteria, and according to their preferences," Tyra said.

Idea Catching On

Spinner has since added 20 more companies — including
Intel Haifa, Microsoft Haifa, Globes (Israel's business newspa-

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