Yeshiva University

IN

-

Emr

YOUR
NAME HERE

VALID
DURING

FRESHMAN
FALL 2015

Tel Aviv
Take -Aways

PROPERTY OF YESHIVA UNIVERSITY

D

NO -TRANSFERABLE

ADAM FINKEL
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Above:
Mission members
Larry Freed, Jason
Raznick, Renee
Erlich, staff leader
Julie Tepperman,

mission co-chair
Lisa Stern, Ryan

Dembs and Jason
Teshuba.

Left:

Benzinga CEO Jason
Raznick, right, with

the first employee
of Waz, a GPS-based
geographical
navigation

application program
for smartphones.

wring the Entrepreneur's Mission, I kept
wondering if today's spirit of innovation
in Israel was most rooted in the need to
constantly evolve and change because of
years of persecution.
Staying in Tel Aviv after the mission, I went to
Ben-Gurion's house there and heard remarks about
the struggles of the Jewish people from new Knesset
member and former Ambassador Michael Oren.
At lunch in Herzliya with Daniel Recanati, a young
member of one of Israel's most distinguished families,
he observed how Israel is in a "constant state of crisis"
because of the instability in the region and thus must be
solution-oriented in all walks of life.
During a Shabbat dinner with the chief rabbi of
Uruguay, he even commented on the role of chutzpah
in the Jewish faith and how it's been a needed attribute
over time.
The most enlightening conversation occurred a
few days later. Over coffee with a young friend who
sold a startup to Apple for a reported $360 million,
I heard how he was just one of many soldiers in his
computer science unit to turn coding skills into massive
commercial success.
These successes are the reasons why multinational
firms like Apple, Google and eBay have a growing
presence in Israel. To these young entrepreneurs, success
in Israel was largely due to having the right skills within
an army unit that brought out the best in its talent. Over
the last decade, these entrepreneurs have created tens
of thousands of jobs and led to a city and nation that
thrives like never before. Today, Tel Aviv is ranked as one
of the world's leading hubs of entrepreneurial activity.
You can see this magic in the Israeli entrepreneurs
working together with their peers from the army.
Several success stories have gone from napkin ideas to
hundreds of employees in a matter of years.
You can see this in the Israeli social entrepreneurs
embracing the words of Yossi Abramowitz, who
states that the purpose of the Jewish people is to be
an ongoing, dynamic catalyst for the evolution and
advancement of morality in civilization.
And you can surely see this closer to home, in our
own Detroit community, where new energy and purpose
and opportunity arises where others only saw disrepair,
disharmony and distrust. ❑

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