Arab-Haredi Business Conference woos entrepreneurs

After the success of the first Arab-Haredi Business Conference last November in Tel Aviv, the second Arab-Haredi Business Conference was held last Thursday in Beit Shemesh. Some 100 businesses, half from each of the two communities, took part. The conference was supported by the EU delegation to Israel and hosted by Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul.

The purpose of the conference was to discover the areas of potential cooperation between the two sectors of the Israeli population, which face major economic challenges and have certain similarities but rarely communicate with each other.

Haredi and Arab communities share similarities in consumer patterns and challenges in the job market. Discussions at the conference included how to improve Arab and haredi participation in the hi-tech sector and how cross-sector marketing opportunities for both communities are affected by the high cost of living.

“The first hi-tech project in Shfaram is in the planning stage,” Shfaram Mayor Amin Enbatawi said. “We would be happy to turn it into a mutual project. We hope this meeting will help us make the right connections.”

Sami Saadi, a cosponsor of the Tzofen hi-tech center in Nazareth, said: “It`s not easy to develop hi-tech in the Arab and haredi sectors. We are still not part of the Start-up Nation. There are several reasons for this: It’s a fear of failure, which is characteristic of enterprises in both sectors; the obligation of bringing mainly family members into the business; and it’s the social environment, which constitutes a lack of knowledge about and contact with potential partners, including foreign partners.

“Now, together with our friend Moshe Friedman of the haredi Kama-tech company, we are submitting the first mutual Arab-haredi hi-tech project for development of the Negev and the Galil and will pave our way to the EU states to find partners and help them establish hi-tech enterprises in the socially weak communities.”

The conference also focused on the economic participation of Arab and haredi women, who face obstacles such as educational and vocational choices. The participants proposed ideas such as a potential women’s hi-tech incubator, courses for businesswomen and a mutual tourist bureau.

“This event was a real eye-opener,” EU Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen said. “There is so much to be learned, not only for Israelis but also for Europeans, on how distinct populations can work together. We are happy to support this event and are honored to work together with haredi and Arab communities to expand economic prospects in Israel.”

Both sides agreed that the first step in mutual cooperation would be to set up a committee to coordinate actions and find potential partners.