By GREER FAY CASHMANZeev Elkin welcomes olim on the 53rd Nefesh B'Nefesh flight as it lands in Israel(photo credit: STEVE LINDE)
■ IN RESPONSE to the growth of immigrant communities throughout the country, two new Nefesh B’Nefesh post-aliya centers will be inaugurated in Karmiel and Tel Aviv, in addition to the organization’s headquarters in Jerusalem, its Beersheba office and the NBN-FIDF Center for Lone Soldiers in Tel Aviv. Collectively, they will enable immigrants to have more opportunities to participate in hundreds of workshops, webinars and events at all or any of these five locations.“We are delighted to further expand on our current range of post-aliya programming to continue giving our new immigrants as much guidance and support with their aliya process as possible, something the organization has always been dedicated to,” said Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, founder and executive director of Nefesh B’Nefesh. “We are not only proud to have brought over 50,000 Jews to Israel but are also devoted to providing each and every one of them with the tools needed to integrate into Israeli society and the workforce, and continue having a significant influence on the successful development of the State of Israel.”■ TRANSPARENCY SHOULD be the name of the game especially in media circles – but it isn’t always. However, when Israel Hayom last week ran a comprehensive report on the inauguration of the Miriam and Sheldon Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a footnote at the end of the report stated “Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson own the company that is the primary shareholder of Israel Hayom.”Needless to say, the keynote speaker at the event was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has the Adelsons’ admiration and support.“Israel can achieve great things thanks to the spirit of entrepreneurship,” said Netanyahu, who recalled that when he had been a student at MIT, there was no course in entrepreneurship. Five students asked for it, and MIT being the kind of educational facility that it is, provided it. Of the five students, three were Israelis. Of the non-Israelis, one was Ray Kurzwell, the inventor of a reading machine for the blind. Kurzwell is Jewish.“Our future is changing because of entrepreneurship,“ Netanyahu continued, and attributed Israel’s entrepreneurial success to a market, business and entrepreneur-friendly environment. Because Israel is a relatively small country both demographically and territorially, it has to compensate for this relative disadvantage with brain power and courage, said Netanyahu, but the outcome of brainpower depends on entrepreneurship.Netanyahu thanked the Adelsons for their great contribution to this and other causes, telling them that what they do is noble.During an IDC panel discussion, Sheldon Adelson said that he has been asked many times whether one is born or becomes an entrepreneur, and had reached the conclusion that it is a combination of both.“You can’t learn how to take risks,” he said. “You have to be willing to take a risk and be ready to fail. You have to have the passion to get up and try again.”He advised Israeli start-up entrepreneurs that when holding negotiations they should be ready to back out of the deal if it is not to their advantage.Dr. Miriam Adelson cited courage as one of the most important characteristics of entrepreneurship, and emphasized the need to create more businesses so that Israel can prosper.The School of Entrepreneurship, which is a pioneer in the field in Israel, aims to provide young entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills to realize their potential and their ambitions.■ THERE ARE loads of single people in Tel Aviv, including many new immigrants who want to connect with both Israelis and people who speak their language. The Big Dinner, which is part of the Tel Aviv Shabbat Project, will be held on Friday, November 11, at Hangar 11 at the Tel Aviv Port. Doors Open at 4 p.m. Kabbalat Shabbat is at 4:35 p.m., and the meal begins at 5:45 p.m. Cost is NIS 120 per person, which includes an unlimited supply of wine.There is no charge for lone soldiers. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend. Similar mega Shabbat dinners are being held around the world to bring young and not-so-young Jews together in the best of Jewish traditions.The Shabbat Project is a unique international grassroots Jewish identity movement initiated by South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein that unites all Jews to keep one full Shabbat together. This will be the third International Shabbat Project in which people in 500 cities and 40 countries will be celebrating a Shabbat experience – some for the first time.
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