Israel: The country that keeps you on your toes

One Israeli characteristic that made a big impression on Avital Bayer at age 18 was that here, “people work to live rather than live to work.”

By ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN
Avital Bayer, 27 - From London to Jerusalem, 2016 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Avital Bayer, 27 - From London to Jerusalem, 2016
(photo credit: Courtesy)
One Israeli characteristic that made a big impression on Avital Bayer at age 18 was that here, “people work to live rather than live to work.”
Her admiration for that approach has not dimmed since her aliyah in 2016, despite working long hours as chief executive officer of her own company, a business design and strategic agency called HiPitched.
In order to increase her chances of a successful aliyah, she put much thought and effort into preparing herself for a career that would enable her to work to live.
“My cousin had told me, ‘If you want to come to Israel, you need to bring something that shines.’ So I was building up my resume all through my university years,” says the 27-year-old London native.
She began her studies at the University of Birmingham after a formative gap year at Midreshet Lindenbaum (“Brovender’s”) in Jerusalem, during which time she began viewing Israel as more than a holiday destination and also began increasing her level of Jewish observance.
She kept her Zionist fervor on the front burner by serving as president of the university’s chapter of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life – the largest Hillel chapter in the UK. In the summer of 2012, she went to Washington, DC, to work for a new NGO called No Labels, established by Hillary Clinton’s former fundraiser, Nancy Jacobson. She worked there again the following summer. The contacts she made during those two summers would prove critical to her present work.
After her graduation, Bayer became a trade adviser at the Israeli Embassy in London’s Trade and Economic Division.
“I worked for the Israeli ambassador helping to raise venture capital for Israeli start-ups and create strategic partnerships for them within the corporate world. That was an amazing insight into what was happening in Israel on a start-up level.”
Less than a year and a half later, she felt she could wait no longer to make aliyah.
“Before I moved, I wrote an article titled “A Beginner’s Guide to Israel’s Tech Scene” for ambassadors and for students to understand where to intern. It blew up on social media. By the time I got off the plane, I had 80 ‘coffees’ lined up,” she relates.
One of those informal “coffees” led to a job at the VC firm 83North in Herzliya. But within just eight months, she recognized a business opportunity and moved to Jerusalem to establish her agency.
“I saw this gap in the market. Israelis were great at coming up with concepts, but not very good at explaining their concepts. So I thought, ‘What if you could go somewhere to have your content, storytelling and design done in one place?’ I created the HiPitched agency in 2018 to do that. I felt I had nothing to lose in trying.”
Bayer met Yarin Weltsman at a Torah class in Jerusalem and decided to bring her on as a partner and chief design officer.
Since its inception, the firm has worked with 20 clients in sectors ranging from cannabis to legal to cemeteries, from Israel as well as Singapore, London and the United States.
“They hear of us through word of mouth. I am still using connections from when I lived in America for two summers,” says Bayer.
Her biggest cheerleader is her mother, who was one of first female stockbrokers working for the London Exchange.
“She saw how many people were asking my advice on entering the UK market and encouraged me to make a business.”
Bayer has also found another niche in Israel. She developed a lecture series about being an Orthodox woman in the business world. She gives her presentation to young women in gap-year seminaries and on programs such as Onward Israel’s JInternship.
 
Bayer outlines the potential strikes against her in the business world: She is female, under 30, and identifiably religious in how she dresses and how she declines to shake hands with men. “Every single one of those is a possible barrier,” she says.
“When I go to clients in Tel Aviv, I’m sure they are shocked. They wonder how I can interact with them and how I have the outside knowledge to advise them. When I serve on a panel or participate in a podcast, I get reactions like ‘I didn’t expect you to look like that.’
“But if you respect yourself, others respect you. If you know your ‘nos,’ it’s easier to know your ‘yeses.’ And that’s what I tell the girls I speak to.”
She also makes a point of telling them that her business is committed to Jewish values, including tithing its profits to charity.
“That’s very important to us to implement, even when it’s a hard month.”
Bayer is eager to challenge the prevailing perception that it is very difficult to make a living in Israel.
“Establishing my career here has opened nothing but doors,” she says. What’s her secret to success? “Persistence, resilience and ambition are the three key factors.”
But it’s not all work and no play for Bayer. She loves traveling to Italy, Switzerland and France to go skiing, and she enjoys hiking in Israel.
“There’s a really great hike at Har Eitam outside Jerusalem. It’s a two-hour circuit. I just take a friend and go for the day.”
Although Bayer has plenty of relatives in Israel, her parents and her two sisters all live in London. She says they have been supportive and encouraging of her aliyah but have not expressed any desire to join her.
Apart from them and her childhood friends, she misses little about London. After her year at Brovender’s, she no longer felt like she belonged in the UK, she explains, because she had tasted the experience of truly fitting in as a Jew. Furthermore, she connected with the Israeli lifestyle and values, especially the way children are nurtured.
In Bayer’s view, the best part of Israel is its diversity.
“There are so many opportunities here. There’s never a day the looks the same or feels the same as any other day. It’s a country that keeps you on your toes."


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