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In The Mix
Vivian Henoch | Special to the Jewish News
M
eet Shimon Gal Levy, 30, Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) Naval
captain and Harvard graduate
with a master’s in public policy. He’s also a
self-starter, team builder, entrepreneur and
connoisseur of Detroit happy hours.
He is currently on a tour of duty in
service to the community as Federation’s
senior strategic adviser and a principal
“ingredient” of Detroit’s venture group,
Secret Sauce Capital.
From the 18th-floor suite of Secret Sauce
Capital at Grand Park Centre, there’s a
spectacular view of Downtown Detroit — a
city building and bustling again, reclaim-
ing its place as a business hub, wide open
to opportunity. For the young and bold, for
the visionary and community-minded, for
today’s entrepreneurs, investors and future
leaders, the city holds infinite appeal and
promise. This is where we find Shimon
Levy, an Israeli entrepreneur who has
adopted Detroit as his home, at least for
now, for a turn at his next Big Thing.
As a principal in Secret Sauce Capital, a
new company founded by two established
business leaders, Matt Lester and Robb
Lippitt, Shimon is well connected in the
community. Beyond his work with a grow-
ing portfolio of clients and ventures at
Secret Sauce, Levy holds a key position at
Federation as a member of the executive
“Advance Team.” A compelling spokesman
for Israel, he is a frequent guest speaker at
community events, national conferences
and on college campuses.
The son of a diplomat, a naval captain
with more than a decade of military, gov-
ernment and business experience in the
public and private sectors, he has traveled
far and wide from his homeland and taken
on many roles.
Spend an hour with Levy and you get
an insight into what it truly means to be
Israeli in the world today.
“I will say this to anyone who asks me,
Israel is my home,” he says. “It’s the Israeli
way to stay as close as you can to your sib-
lings; your family is everything. Whatever
you can do to stay together, you make it
happen. You haven’t necessarily got the
conveniences and quality of life that you
have in the U.S., and you are under con-
stant external and internal threat, but every
day you wake up grateful. You are grateful
for your family and everyone who is close
to you. Reality dictates that family is a very
18 March 24 • 2016
important part of your day — every day. So
as much as I love my life and friends here,
Israel will always be my one home.”
ON “THE ISRAELI DREAM”
“I was born in Petach Tikvah, about a
20-minute drive northeast of Tel Aviv. My
family is still there,” Levy says. “I’m the
third of four siblings, all living no further
than five minutes from our parents’ home.
I have two older brothers and one younger
‘princess,’ who has just finished her mili-
tary service and recently has returned to
school. I also have four nephews, ranging
in age from 1 to 4 years old.”
His parents share the “typical” Israeli
family history for their generation. His
mother was born on a ship sailing from
Morocco to Israel in 1956. His father,
Eitan Levy, is the son of a first-generation
Yemenite who came to Israel as a teen
orphan in 1933. He was a diplomat and
served as the foreign attache to Nepal and
Australia for six years before he retired.
“As a whole, we have lived and are still
living the Israeli dream — coming to the
Promised Land to escape persecution
and anti-Semitism, working and pulling
together to develop the country and build a
family. We are now three generations (and
a fourth just starting up), still defending
that dream in spite of everything that’s hap-
pening in the world today.
“In many ways, the community here has
become a family extension. People have
been so warm and loving and all-inclusive
over the past year, inviting me out and to
their homes. I could not be more grateful
for those special individuals and families
who have taken me in.”
MILITARY SERVICE, EDUCATION
“By the time I joined the military, I knew I
wanted to do something significant, some-
thing influential in my service,” Levy said.
“So I chose the Navy, where I served
on active duty for more than eight years
in various capacities, from an officer on
a missile ship throughout the Second
Lebanon War to a squadron commander
over seven ships, and my final role as
major projects director and foreign liaison
for the Ashdod Naval base.”
Levy says he was fortunate to be in the
first class of students at the Naval Academy
to earn bachelor’s degrees at the University
of Haifa. He then earned a master’s in
John Hardwick
Israeli brings his enthusiasm, intellect,
entrepreneurial spirit to Federation and Detroit.
Shimon Levy in his Secret Sauce Capital office in Downtown Detroit
diplomacy and conflict resolution at the
University of Herzliya.
“I’m a big believer in education,” Levy
says. “To me, knowledge is power. In the
military, you are trained to see the world
through the lenses of conflict. That’s your
reality. After I finished my service, I felt
the need to try to enrich myself with
more information to have a multi-faceted
perspective. So I joined lots of different
fellowships and organizations including
the Middle East 2.0 Forum, a program for
young Israeli and Palestinian leaders who
want to create lasting relationships and
partnerships through economic develop-
ment.”
While working on his master’s in Israel,
he applied to graduate school in the U.S.
“For me, it stems from the need to take
risks,” he says. “Dare. That’s why I’m so
connected to entrepreneurism. Life is too
short to not reach for the stars.
“An entrepreneur is a believer, through
thick and thin. In Israel, entrepreneurism
is a well-oiled machine, more of a state
of mind than anything else. Most of my
friends are all in entrepreneurial initiatives.
It is a common trait.
“In contrast, here in the U.S., to a large
extent, entrepreneurism is still considered
a daring leap of faith, a novelty not neces-
sarily for everyone,” he says. “There are
risks of failure, of course. And success
comes at a great personal expense. But I
think entrepreneurs around the world have
the same drive, same beliefs, the same con-
fidence and process.”
SECRET SAUCE AND FEDERATION
Secret Sauce Capital was founded over a
year ago by Matt Lester and Robb Lippitt
with the goal to invest and support entre-
preneurs through a combination of stra-
tegic, operational and capital resources.
Its focus is to support entrepreneurs and
leverage resources while bringing business
back to Michigan as part of the grow-
ing movement to revitalize the Detroit
economy.
“I met Matt in 2010 during one of my
visits to Detroit through my involvement
with the Detroit Federation; I met Robb for
the first time last year,” Levy says. “Both are
huge community leaders within Federation
as well as in the real estate, financial and
economic sectors of Michigan. I feel very
privileged and honored to be working side-
by-side with them both; it is a constant
process of learning and self-improvement.”
Levy’s involvement in Federation dates
back to 2009, when he met Federation
leaders Bob Aronson and Scott Kaufman
when they visited his base to see a
Birthright evaluation program he had
started for the Navy regarding soldiers who
joined the student tours.
“Fast forward six years of connection,” he
says. “Scott invited me to come ‘check out
Detroit’ for a career move. I admit my ini-
tial intuition was somewhat skeptical, but
because I have great respect for Scott, I was
on the first flight out. It took a bit of diges-
tion — and meeting incredible people such
as Scott Stern and Miryam Rosenzweig
— but ever since I made the decision to
come to Detroit, it has been a continuous
love story with the city and people. Today I
can say wholeheartedly that I have a dream
job here in the city and on the Federation
team. I have the unique privilege of work-
ing on the nexus of business and philan-
thropy.”
Some challenges he sees for Detroit’s
Jewish community include the aging popu-
lation and meeting its needs, filling the gap
between NEXTGen and those in their 40s
and 50s, and bringing in future talent and
leadership.
“I dream of a national young Jewish
Detroit conference,” he says. “A three-day
Shabbaton and job fair with guest speak-
ers, workshops and tours. I envision it as
a stand-alone initiative from the start. So
stay tuned to “Join, Engage, Work, Interact,
Connect, Hustle!”
ON DETROIT
“After nearly three years on the East Coast,
living and working in Boston, not a day
goes by now in Detroit where I don’t rec-
ognize what extraordinary opportunities I
have for personal, professional and com-
munal growth right here,” Levy says. “The
community is amazing.
“I think the No. 1 thing I’ve learned in
Detroit is humility. People here have such
amazing, mind-blowing experiences under
their belts in the initiatives they’ve taken,
their successes, failures. But talk to any-
one, they always speak in the most modest
terms. There are no superlatives.”
*
Vivian Henoch is editor of myjewishdetroit.org, where
a longer version of this story first appeared.