metro >> Jews in the digital age

Branding Israel Through Technology

S

ally Whittle is a blogger in
Lancashire, England. Her blog
"Who's the Mummy?" is one of
approximately 4 million "mommy blogs"
on the Web. Like many other young
mothers, she journals about her life and
provides advice for other mothers around
the world. With more than 30,000 visi-
tors a month, Whittle is used to receiving
comments on her blog, but she was sur-
prised when she was offered a free trip
to Israel with a handful of other popular
mommy bloggers.
The group of mommy bloggers visited
Israel this past July as part of Vibelsrael, a
program of the apolitical nonprofit
Kinetis. The social startup seeks to gen-
erate domestic and global awareness of
Israel as the capital of creative energy. Its
founder and executive director Joanna
Landau was recently in Metro Detroit to
share her vision of how to brand Israel for
the 21st century and how to market that
brand as widely as possible.
Landau, a lawyer and
start-up entrepreneur,
made aliyah with her
family when she was 5
years old. Raised in a
well-to-do philanthrop-
ic and Zionist home, she
actively sought a way
Joanna Landau to transition from her
for-profit work into a
nonprofit passion. Her
interest was piqued in 2004 when Israel's
Foreign Ministry launched the Brand
Israel Project, which aimed to improve
the country's image abroad by downplay-
ing religion and avoiding any discussion
of the conflict with the Palestinians.
Landau incorporated Kinetis in
November 2009, seeding it with some of
her own money, and got to work on her
re-branding Israel project.
While in Metro Detroit, Landau was

Comfort Bears

eager to learn how the state's "Pure
Michigan" campaign was working to
improve its image. She quickly noticed
the similarities between Metro Detroit's
desire to retain talent by keeping its
young people local after college
and Israel's desire to have its
children choose to remain in
Israel following army service.
"Brazil is known for 'fun and
Paris is about 'romance' and
America is connected to 'free-
dom. When people around the
world hear 'Israel: they automati-
cally think about politics and the
conflict with the Palestinians:'
Landau explains. "Israel is all
about creative energy. This is
what differentiates Israel as a
country and Israelis as a nation.
It represents the essence of Israel's offer-
ing and encompasses the nation's relative
advantages in the fields of art and culture,
technology and science, lifestyle, heritage
and the environment"
Landau argues there is a misguided
belief among Israelis that if they can
only convince the rest of the world of
the legitimacy of its political policies,
then the tide will turn and there will be
increased travel, investment and love of
the Jewish State.
"People are not interested in Israel
beyond the conflict because we haven't
given them a reason to be interested.
Whenever Israel gets a chance to say
something, all we ever talk about is this
conflict:' she says.
When asked if Landau's Kinetis is a
new type of Israeli hasbara (public rela-
tions) organization, she laughs. "Hasbara
is what you do when you feel you need
to explain yourself — only when you
have done something wrong or if you're
unclear:' Landau clarifies. "In Israel
we have been so consumed by crisis-

Ailing children receive

cuddly stuffed animals with help from JVS seniors.

Gary Wachler, founder of Comfort Bears, with members of the JVS Senior Service

Corps

10

November 17 2011

management and self-defense that we
have been unable to think of a long-term
strategy."
Landau wants a paradigm shift that
will change the conversation. She believes
that creative energy is in the
DNA of Israelis. She wants to
highlight her country's global
appeal through high-tech,
arts and culture, lifestyle and
extreme sports.
"The Jewish religion is
a very creative religion.
Curiosity is encouraged and
conventions are challenged','
she says. "What we want to
do is celebrate the things that
Israel has to offer that are
interesting on a global level."
Under Landau's direction,
Kinetis has taken full advantage of mod-
ern technology to control the message. Its
Facebook page features a video of Warren
Buffet praising Israel as a place in the
Middle East without much oil, but with
an abundance of brains, energy, integ-
rity and imagination. A message asking
anyone to submit "an inspiring image or
video that encapsulates creative energy
about Israel" is on top of the page.
In addition to the Facebook page,
Kinetis boasts an impressive website
available in both Hebrew and English
that outlines its many programs, all with
the goal of place-branding Israel in the
most positive ways.
Drawing upon the success of the book
Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul
Singer, Kinetis offers an academic pro-
gram for Israeli students and international
students from around the globe. These
students in the Start-Up Nation Awareness
Program (SNAP) will investigate the
sources of Israel's creative and entrepre-
neurial spirit across numerous spheres.
The Vibelsrael program provides an

T

he JVS Senior Service Corps
(SSC) has partnered with
Wachler Comfort Bears for
Kids (Comfort Bears) to provide teddy
bears to ailing children. The SSC is a
volunteer-based program that helps
local nonprofit groups, churches and
synagogues to complete special projects
in an organized and timely manner at
no cost.
Gary Wachler, who founded Comfort
Bears, was contacted by JVS several
years ago to determine how the seniors
could help. The seniors, whose average
age is 86, help by adhering customized
labels to hundreds of bears each month.
"Now that the seniors are helping
prepare the bears, I have more time to

all-expenses-paid personalized experi-
ence of Israel like the one set up for the
mommy bloggers. These groups of opin-
ion leaders include bird watchers, digital
photographers, women entrepreneurs,
extreme sports enthusiasts, archeologists,
members of the fashion industry, tech-
nologists and gourmet chefs.
Participants are offered a glimpse into
real Israeli life through connections with
their Israeli counterparts. Rather than
spend a week touring all of the typical
tourist locations, Vibelsrael participants
travel the country with locals who show
them places relevant to their interests.
These thought leaders then return home
where they publish a critical mass of
posts, blogs and articles in the printed
media and on the Internet that convey
an authentic, unadulterated "buzz" about
what Israel truly offers.
Through place-branding and exploiting
new media, every day Landau is raising the
awareness of Israel as the creative energy
capital of the world and positioning Israel
as a center of excellence in the fields of
innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
After returning from her visit to Israel
with Vibelsrael, Whittle blogged, "What I
saw in Israel was an irrepressible sense of
possibility. And going forward that means
I will always approach any political story
about Israel with that memory in mind
— the memory of the people we met,
the experiences we had and the fun we
shared:' II

Rabbi Jason Miller is a tech expert who writes

about how information technology and social

media are transforming the Jewish community.

He writes the 'Jewish Techs" blog for The

NY Jewish Week and is president of Access

Computer Technology (www.accesscomptech.

com), based in West Bloomfield. His latest

project is Torah Daily (www.facebook.com/

torandaily).

recruit sponsors and expand the pro-
gram:' Wachler said. "We now distribute
approximately 6,000 bears annually
and have recently teamed up with
several departments within Beaumont
Children's Hospital to provide com-
fort bears to patients in several areas,
including their pediatric surgery and
cancer departments."
The SSC also helps other nonprofit
groups with mailings and other special
projects to enable them to dedicate
more of their attention and resources to
helping others. For more information,
contact Barbara Peltz at (248) 233-
4232 or bpeltz@jvsdet.org . For more
information on Comfort Bears, visit
www.comfortbearsforkids.com .

