17 minute read
World Builders
Third Time’s a Charm
By Raphael Poch
Shoshana and Daniel at the second delivery of the day
Early Monday morning, the very dedicated father, grandfather, and United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Daniel Katzenstein received a phone call from his daughter wishing him mazal tov and telling him that he just became a grandfather once again. In spite of the hour, 2:30 a.m., Daniel didn’t wait for the morning and began to head out to the hospital to visit his daughter and see his new grandson.
On his way to the hospital, at 3:19 a.m. Daniel received an emergency alert on his communication device regarding another woman who was in active labor on Pardes Street, right near his location. Without hesitating, Daniel changed directions and drove to the address in order to help the expectant mother deliver her baby.
When he arrived, he was joined by another United Hatzalah EMT, Shoshana Primak, who works as a doula and volunteers as part of the organization’s women’s unit that specializes in assisting women during medical emergencies. The pair of EMTs assisted the woman through the birthing process and helped her bring into the world her new baby daughter before the ambulance was able to arrive. Shoshana and Daniel cleaned the baby, and when the ambulance arrived, they helped the mother and daughter board the vehicle to be transported to the hospital.
The pair of volunteers parted ways. Shoshana, who had started her night on a previous call transporting a different woman in labor to Bikur Cholim hospital just before midnight on Sunday, went home to sleep. Daniel went to the hospital, visited his daughter and new grandson, and headed back home for a bit of sleep, and then pray the morning prayers.
Just as Daniel was finishing his prayers and Shoshana was getting up to begin her day, they each received another emergency alert about a woman in active labor on Neiman Street in their own neighborhood. Both EMTs once again rushed over to the address, and once again met one another at the emergency.
The pair got to work once again and assisted this new mother in delivering a son, also prior to the ambulance’s arrival. After finishing their work, they parted ways once again and both headed back home.
“I thought, okay, two births and one transport was all that it was going to be for the day, but I was wrong,” said Shoshana.
Both EMTs were called out again at 9:30 a.m. to another active labor on Zevin Street.
“Today, certainly has been a bit different,” Daniel said after return-
ing home from the third birth of the morning. “I’ve responded to births before and even have merited to assist in deliveries, but I have never had a morning with three deliveries in such a short time frame. These are people in my neighborhood and being able to help bring life into the community is something that is very inspiring to me.
“United Hatzalah is an organization that is based on the idea of first responders assisting their own communities. Our volunteers are primarily active in the communities in which they live. Helping fellow community members is what we specialize in doing. Being able to assist my neighbors, friends, and loved ones when they need medical assistance is something that I cherish. Being able to do that, and also bring new life into the world, is a special experience that I am thankful that I have been given the opportunity to do.”
Shoshana adds, “One of the main reasons I became an EMT is to help women who arrive in this situation of giving birth at home, outside of the safety and comfort of a hospital, so that they will have the most pleasant experience possible in that given scenario. Ideally, I try to help as much as I can so that they go through the experience with as little trauma as possible. Having a woman at the scene to assist, to comfort the mother, and to be able to be the one who helps her to deliver can make a huge difference. If I can make the birthing experience a positive one, then so much the better.
“I was happy to be able to be there for these women, to help calm their nerves, ease the process, and to give them the opportunity to have a woman present to help deliver them.”
The final birth of the morning was Shoshana’s fiftieth time assisting a woman in a home delivery since she began volunteering as an EMT.
An Expression of Your Soul
French-born Jerusalem resident Nathalie Garson is the CEO of Born To Do Business and the founder of the Born To Do Business Global Community. Her work encourages women entrepreneurs to create successful businesses that both align with their deeper purpose and integrate with their chosen lifestyle.
Garson was born to be an entrepreneur.
“I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I knew I had something special to offer to the world,” she says. “I needed to use all of my creativity, my drive, and my thirst for meaning and purpose in creating my own business.
“I started my professional career as an employee because I was a single mom of two, and I could not afford to invest all my time and resources in my business. As soon as they became older, I invested everything I had in my business and I never looked back.”
She relies on mentors to grow her own business and mentors others. In her practice as a mentor, “I use a mixture of coaching and consulting tools. On the coaching side, I empower them to go outside of their comfort zone, to challenge their beliefs and to open their mindset to see a new version of themselves. On the consulting side, I offer them concrete business strategies to take their business to the next level.
“The result is magical – this combination of personal development with business strategy makes them own their role in self-confidence and have the clarity to implement the vision they have inside themselves.”
When COVID-19 hit, Garson initiated a 21-Day Challenge for entrepreneurs whose businesses were negatively impacted by the pandemic. She followed that with a Global Online Leadership Summit, attended by over 350 businessowners from 14 countries.
Among the speakers were 12 successful Anglo-Israel women entrepreneurs, demonstrating to Jewish women around the world how creating and running NY, came to Israel to attend a gap year program in 1992 and never left. Today, she lives with her husband and children in the community of Eli.
For the past 16 years, Levy has been a freelance digital marketer (i-pointmediagroup.com) with a specialty in businesses can help them succeed at aliyah.
Based on Garson’s experience as a mentor, lack of self-confidence and self-worth are among the main challenges Jewish women entrepreneurs face. Social expectations are also limiting.
She notes, “Women in Israel are still regarded as the primary caretaker of their children, and the husband’s career is still the priority in the household, even when the women’s business can potentially bring a very good revenue to the family.
“Very often, I see women with businesses that have potential to make a lot of money, but they don’t reach that level of growth because they don’t have the
time or the resources to invest in their business. The mentality still needs to evolve,” she asserts.
“In order to be a successful Jewish woman entrepreneur in Israel, you have to be very determined and very clear about your goal and how you will be able to reach it. You have to have an unshakable long-term vision and strong faith.”
Garson advises prospective entrepreneurs: “The first thing to do is to look inside at what they truly feel passionate about and then to see how to align this passion with their life purpose and with the lifestyle that they want to have…and not the other way around. Our businesses are extensions of who we are, so the closer it is to our life purpose and to the life we want to live, the better chance it has to not only survive but be very successful.” Jewish and Israel-related content.
“I help companies with marketing strategy, website content, email marketing, social media management and advertising. In the past, I have managed teams of employees and freelancers, but I currently work on my own,” she explains.
Her move to entrepreneurship happened “largely by accident” in 2004.
She teaches women to “look at your business from the inside out, as an expression of your soul’s purpose and your gifts that you want to share with the world. It’s true that you need to make sure that there is a need for your services, but that should not be the first question.”
Garson calls owning a business “the best personal development tool. It always takes me outside of my comfort zone and challenges me to step into my greater self. It allows me to share the essence of who I am in a way that I would not have been able to do in any other job. And it is the best way to increase my income, doing what I love.”
Initially, Garson worked with a variety of businessowners. Over time, she narrowed her niche to focus on “Jewish women who already had a business and who wanted to grow it or scale it. This took courage to do. It’s not easy to identify with such a specific niche, but now that I have taken that step, I am very happy. I am officially positioning my business to empower Jewish women entrepreneurs around the world. I feel that this is aligned with who I am and what I want to offer.”
In that spirit, she recently launched a Global Online Business Network for Jewish women (nathaliegarson.com/global-online-business-network). “I am hoping that this network will create bridges between Jewish women entrepreneurs in [and outside of] Israel, to start strategic partnerships and working relationships. I am really excited about that,” she
A Happy Work-Life Balance
Hadassah Levy, originally from Great Neck,
concludes.
“I initially became a freelancer because I was offered a lucrative project with a client in the U.S. who didn’t want to open an office in Israel. I soon grew to appreciate the flexibility and the ability to work from home, so when that project ended, I continued to work for myself.”
She adds, “I love that I get to choose which clients and projects to take on, that I don’t have to report to anyone if I want to take my child to the doctor or take the day off and that I don’t have to waste tons of time on a long commute in heavy traffic. In short, I am grateful for the ability to choose a work-life balance that makes me happy.
“Over the past few years, I have collected a number of long-term clients who provide steady work on an ongoing basis. This gives me the stability that is often missing from the entrepreneurial journey and allows me to be adventurous in my choice of shortterm projects.”
As a child, Levy attended school in Israel for two years when her parents spend their sabbatical in Israel. Although she is fluent in Hebrew, most of her works as a sole proprietor, designing and sewing “organized purses and wallets, clever accessories for smart women with an eye for gorgeous fabrics. Pockets are my specialty. As we don’t have enough pockets on our clothing, I do my best to make sure you have enough in your purse and wallet to be able to find what you want when you need it.”
Lipman was born in Israel but spent most of her life in the UK until returning to Israel 15 years ago. Her business was created, in part, from failure.
“Even though I have been to ulpan three times, I have not learned Hebrew well enough to be employed in Israel. I chose to find a way to work in English, in a job that gave me the flexibility to be there for my children when they need me,” Lipman shares.
“Lack of Hebrew is my weak point, so I chose to sell on Etsy in English (etsy.com/il-en/shop/TraceyLipman). The Anglo and Israeli markets are very different and, because of poor Hebrew, I gravitated towards the Anglos. It has not helped me to learn Hebrew, but it has been the right decision for my business.”
Her greatest challenge is lack of sleep.
“I am a full-time parent and a full-time business woman and homemaker. There are times I think, ‘How can I get it all done?’ There are times I go to bed in the early hours of the morning exhausted, but I love all my jobs. I do, however, need work in done in English.
Levy believes that the administrative burdens of running a business in Israel dim the enthusiasm of some entrepreneurs, so she outsources that.
“Many women in Israel turn a passion into a business, but are then disillusioned by the bureaucratic difficulties and administrative tasks that come along with running a business. After many years of doing my own [bookkeeping], I began working with a payroll company that takes care of all of that and takes the burden off of me, so I can focus on doing what I love.”
Levy shares some critical advice for religious Jewish women to be successful entrepreneurs in Israel.
She says, “As in other aspects of Israeli life, it’s important to be assertive. Women tend to be taught that assertiveness is not attractive and can be seen as aggressiveness. This is even more ingrained in religious women who have been educated in the value of tzniut.
“But in order to succeed in Israel, you need to to get more sleep.”
Support from other women is crucial to Lipman’s successful formula. “I surround myself with strong, talented, driven women who lift each other up and support each other in our business ventures. I call these women ‘my work village’; we need a village of support to run a small business.” She advises, “Surround yourself with women who will lift you up and make you the best version of
“I LOVE ALL MY JOBS.
I DO, HOWEVER, NEED
TO GET MORE SLEEP.” yourself that you can be, because that is the best thing for you and for your business.”
Lipman’s business was born 11 years ago from her own frustrations with the design of women’s purses and wallets, but it is her stubbornness to which she attributes her success.
“I learned to sew in school, but beyond that, I had no formal training,” she says. “I am very stubborn and won’t quit until I have tried everything possible to get a design right. It takes a few unashamedly talk about your skills and talents. You need to state your price firmly and actually believe in it. You have to be willing to turn down jobs if they aren’t what you want or don’t pay enough, and you need to use protechtzia to get the jobs you do want.
In addition, she advises, “There’s a certain amount of ‘rolling with the punches’ necessary when you own your own business. Business goes up and down, there are no paid sick days or vacation days, and there’s no one else to blame when things go wrong. You are often reminded that parnassa comes from Hashem and that doing your best and giving up ultimate control to Him is the only way forward.
“At the end of the day, there’s nowhere else I would rather live my life and run my business. Life in Israel is a continual bracha, and I am thrilled that I get to live here and raise my children here.
“I like to see other women succeed in business and in digital marketing in particular, and am always happy to offer free advice to women starting out and to colleagues who want to brainstorm,” she
Purses & Pockets
Tracey Lipman’s name is her brand. She
concludes. prototypes, trial, error, learning from mistakes, re-designing and re-making until the picture in my head is a finished product.
“I have used my stubbornness and perseverance to teach myself to get better at what I do, to turn my hobby into a business. I have grown my one-woman business and sold thousands of products. I have learned to design, create, source quality supplies, promote and finance. I learned to find the information I need to grow. I grew as a person and as a business.
“I am really proud of that.”
Lipman encourages women entrepreneurs to cut themselves some slack.
“There are times we will get it wrong, spend money on a service that didn’t work out, or spend time going a route that wasn’t the best. Each mistake is a lesson learned and has so much to teach about how to do it differently next time. Each mistake is one step closer to getting it right,” she notes.
Beyond My Wildest Dreams
Born and raised in Scotland, Rifka Lebowitz left a secure position in Israel’s banking world to begin her entrepreneurial journey. As a banker, she found herself assisting other English-speaking olim adjust to banking in Israel.
“I felt very strongly that I had something to offer and was disgruntled working at the bank, where felt like I was making money for someone else,” she says. Additionally, “Israeli society is so open and supportive, that starting your own thing is so many people’s ideal.”
Today, with just one part-time employee, Lebowitz offers financial planning services to English-speakers in Israel (rifkalebowitz.com). She published a guide to understanding Israeli banks called Smarter Israeli Banking, which is given to all Nefesh b’Nefesh olim, and created The Financially Smarter Couple, an online course available on-demand. “I created an online course for couples to talk about money, to really learn to understand each other’s financial needs and plan together,” she explains.
As her business grew, Lebowitz worked with coaches and strategists and marketing people.
“It’s so helpful to have someone who can see the business from the outside and strategize with you” she says. “One tip from a marketing person grew my business exponentially.
“I generally think big, but when I went to a marketing talk many years ago, I was advised to open a Facebook group. Facebook was still in its infancy, and I thought maybe a hundred people would join. It grew beyond my wildest dreams.
“Living Financially Smarter in Israel is now at 31,000 members, all real people who are screened to make sure they live in Israel or might be making aliyah. The exponential growth on Facebook has opened so many doors when it comes to talks, to meeting people, to getting clients. My Facebook group is the largest and most valuable Israeli English financial discussion group,” she s
Her clients are all English-speakers, but keeping up with the financial industry in Israel requires her to use her fluent Hebrew, which she also uses to translate important financial information for her clients.
Besides “technical things, like the high tax rate and VAT, any other challenges I have had were on a personal level [stemming from] my own hesitations. I haven’t experienced challenges specific to being a Jewish woman in Israel.”
Reflecting on lessons learned, Lebowitz says, “So much has been about the personal growth aspect, about learning and sharing and having a strong network of other incredible business owners to learn from and bounce ideas off of. Listen and learn and don’t be scared to lead when needed or to ask when needed.”
She encourages others to “share ideas, knowing there is more than enough business” to go around.
Lebowitz believes in the power of confidence, along with offering a quality product or service coupled with a solid financial and business plan. She encourages prospective entrepreneurs to avoid being held back by old ideas and limiting beliefs.
“Don’t have any negative ideas that belong to 1980 in your head, such as it’s hard to make it in Israel,” she advises.
“My lesson to myself always is: no excuses. Be open to new ideas. Think big. You never know where things will go.”
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