Gabriel Groisman, former mayor of Bal Harbour, Florida, is a man of many parts. The forty-four-year-old Groisman is a family man, lawyer, Israel advocate, politician, and public speaker, and he performs all of these roles with energy and elan.
Though he has lived in Florida for most of his life, Groisman’s roots are in Argentina. His father’s family emigrated from Russia to the town of Mendoza in the heart of Argentina’s wine country in the late 1800s, while his mother’s family arrived in Buenos Aires from Poland in the early years of the 20th century.
Groisman grew up in Miami in the Latin-Jewish community, with a high level of Jewish pride, Jewish identity, and Zionism. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from American University-Washington College of Law.
The first sixteen years of Groisman’s legal career were spent in commercial litigation. During that period, he became active in local politics, serving as a member of the Bal Harbour City Council for eight years, and as its mayor for six of those years.
Four years ago, Groisman shifted his legal interests from litigation to government relations and government affairs, and now represents companies, helping them obtain government contracts around the country. Many of the firms with which he works are Israeli companies.
In the course of his work, Groisman travels extensively throughout the US, flying to state capitals to meet with governors and mayors, and makes frequent stops in Washington, DC. He visits Israel several times each year and has brought seventeen chiefs of staff of governors, members of Congress, and mayors to Israel in the last year alone.
“A big part of my practice,” Groisman shares, “is representing Israeli tech companies in their entry to the business-to-government space (B2G). I help them enter the market and assist them in putting together a strategy that’s realistic and executable for earning government business, helping them hire the right people, and building relationships with elected officials who are decision makers.”
The good news for Israeli companies, he says, is that the marketing of Israel as the Startup Nation has worked well in the government sector. “Everybody’s excited for Israeli solutions,” he says, adding that the desire to work with Israeli companies crosses all political boundaries in the US. Working with Israeli companies and helping them enter the B2G space, says Groisman, is “an incredible project. It’s fun to be part of the economic diplomacy of Israel in that sense.”
Groisman describes some of the calls he had with CEOS of major companies in Israel in the midst of their reserve duty during the past year and a half, when heads of firms would call from inside their IDF base, in his words, “pushing their business forward with me.”
“When people talk about the resilience of Israeli companies, to see that happening is spectacular. They want to keep the trains moving as fast as possible with their companies. But I actually think it’s something that’s very telling. Because if these companies can make it through, and so many of them have during the last 20-plus months of this war, they can make it through anything.”
Groisman says that Israeli technology is far more than making a better widget. “The Israeli companies that I get to work with make entirely new widgets. They’re rethinking the way business is done in any certain sector, which makes the sales process a little bit more challenging, but also all the more exciting to work with. And when it works, it really works.”
Throughout his career, Groisman has been a passionate advocate on behalf of the Jewish community. During his tenure as mayor of Bal Harbour, he wrote and passed the nation’s first municipal anti-BDS ordinance in December 2015. The village of Bal Harbour also became the first municipality to codify a uniform definition of antisemitism in December 2017.
Groisman says that in the course of his work on the legislation, he realized that BDS was another form of antisemitism. “As I started talking about antisemitism, I started learning about the crisis within the Jewish community and the weakness [within the community] . So I started talking about strengthening our Jewish identity. This is the evolution over the last ten years. What I’ve been doing now in the last three or four years is working in the political realm.”
Paraphrasing Israeli educator Miriam Peretz, Groisman says that when one is dealing with a crisis, the best thing to do is use the tools that one is most familiar with. “Don’t try to do something that’s outside of your comfort zone,” he says. “Do what you’re good at.
“Once I started working full time in politics, in government relations and government affairs, and interacting with elected officials daily, I decided that most of my work is behind-the-scenes work with elected officials on issues related to the Jewish community, keeping us safe, working on issues related to Israel – not just getting elected officials to visit there – but educating them on what’s happening.”
To that end, Groisman initiated a podcast series a year and a half ago, entitled “Standpoint with Gabe Groisman,” in which he interviews elected officials each week and discusses important issues of the day. Among his guests on the show have been US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “The idea is to have high-level conversations in detail about the serious issues that are happening during the year, on a week-to-week basis,” says Groisman. He also works with the Christian community in the US on Israel-related issues.
Groisman says that the situation of the American Jewish community is precarious, due to the explosion of antisemitism in the country, and he is critical of Jewish illiteracy and apathy among large segments of the community. Nevertheless, he says, the future remains bright for Jews in America.
Groisman speaks highly of Bal Harbour and says that “South Florida is by far the best place outside of Israel for Jews to live in the world. I say that as someone who travels to Jewish communities all over the world. There’s no question that as far as being a proud, observant Zionist Jew, there’s no other community like it.”
Returning to the subject of American-Israeli business relationships, Groisman concludes, “I think it’s important for the Israeli business community to capitalize on the growing relationship between the countries. There is a tremendous opportunity today, and the time is now to start engaging with Israeli companies to establish US subsidiaries and get to work with the government here. When it comes to Israel, I’m eternally optimistic that whenever this war winds down, we’re going to have a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity in Israel.”