UPDATE: After posting about the Social Media Workshop, we received requests to give an additional seminar on SEO – search engine optimization. So, we added a One Day Seminar on “SEO – The Fundamentals of Optimizing your Site for Search”.  If you register for both the Social Media Workshop and the One Day SEO Seminar, you’ll get a 15% discount on both!

To register, click here

About the workshop

We will be covering:

• Key concepts of social media and online marketing
• Search engine optimization and why it’s important for social media marketing
• Identifying goals and audience
• How to use Twitter for marketing: Setting up profiles that work for business, building up community, promoting your profile, what and how to write, monitoring, measuring, the best tools, etc.
• Getting the most out of LinkedIn: Using your personal profile to achieve business goals, customizing your company page, understanding the power of LinkedIn groups and Questions
• YouTube: Why YouTube is a huge opportunity, creating and optimizing your YouTube channel, optimizing your YouTube videos, growing your community
• Using Facebook for business: Profiles, Pages, Groups, Questions. how to analyze Facebook Insights
• Managing your web presence: How to manage your social profiles, content, and campaigns, Social media dashboard options and setting up your dashboard, Monitoring tools
• Getting your site ready for social media activity: Optimization, capturing leads, shareability, email marketing, analytics, social buttons

View the full workshop schedule here and register

Lecturer: Miriam Schwab
This workshop will be taught by Miriam Schwab, the Friendly CEO of illuminea, who is recognized as a leading developer on the WordPress platform and regularly lectures and serves as a web marketing evangelist and resource to the broader internet community.

To see a list of the conferences and events that Miriam has spoken at, click here

Workshop details

Dates: July 20, 27, August 3, 2011 from 9:30am-1:30pm

Location: Tel Aviv area (Exact location to be announced)

Last day to register: July 13, 2011

The workshop will be taught in English.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions: info@illuminea.com

To register, click here

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For those of you interested in the WordPress side of things, the calendar is running on a nifty premium plugin. It took quite a bit of tweaking to get it running properly, but the plugin’s creators were very helpful, and we’re quite happy with the results. (Miriam plans to do a plugin review on WPGarage.com.)

You’ll see that there is the calendar view of events, and a list view. If you click through to specific events from either of these views, you’ll see all the information related to the event: date, time, place, and relevant pictures and multimedia.

The calendar view on our Israel business and hitech events calendar

This is an exciting upgrade for us since we’ve had a popular though quite lo-tech calendar on our site for quite a while now. We’re very happy to offer you a much easier to view and easier to use version of the same, useful information.

Check out all the cool features, and if you have any events you’d like us to add to the calendar, please send them to info@illuminea.com. Enjoy!

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Well, Innovate!Europe is coming back to Israel, but this time as the Innovate!2010 global competition. The goal of the competition is to identify and promote up-and-coming technology and media startups. They’re looking for early-stage companies that “have what it takes to be named one of the world’s most promising startups.”

Here’s more info from an email they sent around:

The top 100 companies will be featured in a prestigious list known as the Innovate!100 – and the best of the best will receive a share of prizes valued at nearly $250,000. In addition, every startup that applies will receive promotional exposure and free training designed to improve their chances of success.

Participating startups will be evaluated using Guidewire Group’s proprietary G/Score assessment methodology, which is based on our team’s experience vetting more than 20,000 startups for DEMO and Guidewire Group. Finalists will then be invited to deliver rapid-fire pitches in front of a panel of expert judges and audience members at one of our Innovate!2010 Pitch Slams.

We have scheduled Innovate!2010 Pitch Slams in over a dozen European cities between March 1 and March 29, and additional events will be held in the United States in the coming months. There will also be an online evaluation process for finalists that are not able to attend in person.

The Innovate!2010 Pitch Slams will be held in a bunch of cities, including Tel Aviv on March 15. To apply go to the Innovate!2010 application page. Here are some bits about the application stages according to that page:

Step 1: Startups apply online to receive:

• 2 tickets to an Innovate!2010 Pitch Slams (worth over $100 USD)
• Access to online pitch training
• Promotion to local journalists and through a network of over 5,000 news sites
• The chance to be chosen to pitch at a local Pitch Slam to win a place on the Innovate!100, cash and other prizes.

There is a $75 application fee – approximately €54 – which will not be charged until you complete the form.

Guidewire Group’s analysts will evaluate all applications and invite 10-15 Finalists to pitch at a local Pitch Slam.

Step 2: Local Pitch Slams take place

Startups invited to pitch at the Innovate! Pitch Slams will be notified by email 7-10 days before the event where:

• Each finalist pitches for 5 minutes
• Each company is evaluated by our team of expert judges and provided with a G-Score.
• The Most Promising Startup of the night is chosen.

Finalists who are not able to attend their Pitch Slam will be invited to participate in a web-based pitch session.

Step 3: Promotion of the Innovate!100

Pitch videos for all of the Innovate!100 Finalists will be used to promote pitching companies to local journalists and a network of over 5,000 news sites and via the Innovate! Connections Program.  Startups with the top G/Scores will be named to the Innovate!100 list for 2010 and the Innovate! Challenges prizes will be awarded.

I think this is a great opportunity for some early-stage startups to get the resources and support they may need to take their company to the next level.

Good luck to all the applicants!

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People are always asking us about Paypal and how it works in Israel with the Shekel. So, I went back to the announcement on the PayPal blog, New PayPal Currencies: Mexican Peso and Israeli Shekel. After reading over comments from Moshe,  Fabio,  Roi, Roberto,  Yeong-Ping Koh and the like, I learned more from the comments section than from the post itself. Here’s what I discovered:

• You can withrdraw money to any Israeli-issued VISA cards or U.S. Bank. Israeli PayPal users cannot withdraw funds to a MasterCard.
• You can use your ILS balance to pay anyone in 190 markets worldwide. You can also receive funds from buyers or family and friends in Shekels.At this time, Israeli users can only withdraw money to a Visa card. Israeli users can also withdraw funds to a U.S. Bank account.
• They’re using the ILS instead of NIS because PayPal uses the international currency code (ISO 4217) to represent all our currencies, and the first 2 characters has to be consistent with the country code IL.
• The functionality is no different from any of the other multi-currencies like EUR, GBP etc. So for example, you can use your ILS to pay someone in the US in USD, the seller will receive his money in USD and the equivalent amount of ILS will be withdrawn from your PayPal account after a conversion charge. If you are using the card to pay a domestic Israeli seller, then it should work like a domestic purchase. If you are using your credit card to make a payment internationally through PayPal, then it should work just like when you use the card at an international merchant website or at a foreign retail store, and there may be applicable charges from your credit card company depending on their policy.

Hopefully, cross your fingers, PayPal will keep its word to its commenters and implement local card acceptance (like Isracard), direct transfer to Israeli banks and add the Hebrew language to the Paypal site.

What online payment service do you use?

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SphinnCon Israel is sold out! SphinnCon Israel is a SphinnCon networking event focused on search and internet marketing, and is taking place this coming Tuesday, February 5 at the Jerusalem College of Technology (also known as Machon Lev). This event is exciting thanks to the incredible lineup, with representatives from well-known international companies like Google, TechCrunch, Kenshoo and Yedda (see my previous interview with Yedda’s Lior Haner, who will be speaking at the conference), and thanks to the location: Jerusalem! For once I don’t have to schlep to Tel Aviv for a great event, and I am thrilled.

There are also some really interesting reps from lesser-known but really professional Israeli companies: Tzvika Avnery will be there from Tagadam; Tzvika is a pro in the social media sphere and his company develops apps for social networks, among other things. Eli Feldblum from RankAbove will be there too; Eli is actually pretty well-known in the SEO world for his expertise, and his company services clients from all over the world. I’m mentioning these guys because I know them, but I hope I’ll get to meet the others on the panels too.

The main guy behind the whole thing is Barry Schwartz, the Executive Editor at Search Engine Roundtable, and President of RustyBrick, “a Web services firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales.”

Here is the speaker list as from Barry’s latest post on the event at Search Engine Roundtable:

SEO Panel

• Branko Rihtman, SEO Specialist at Tens Technology (Presenter)
• Ophir Cohen, CEO of Compucall
• Sam Michelson, CEO of Five Blocks
• Gilad Sasson, Search Marketing Analyst at Nekuda.co.il

PPC Panel

• Avi Wilensky, CEO of Promedia Corp (Presenter)
• Itai Levitan, Managing Partner at EasyNet
• Alon Sheafer, Founder of Kenshoo
• Tal Cohen, Finance and Technology Industry Manager at Google Israel
• Michael G. Samet, Ph.D., CEO, Referral Technology, Inc.

Social Panel

• Eli Feldblum, CEO of RankAbove (Presenter)
• Tzvika Avnery, Partner at Tagadam
• Roi Carthy, TechCrunch
• Lior Haner, Yedda

Cool, eh?

Here’s what’s not cool: not a woman in sight on the speaker list. Not one. It’s a celebration of testosterone. I’m not against testosterone, but it would be nice if it was toned down a bit by at least one representative from the other 51% of the human race. And it’s not like there aren’t impressive women in the industry: how about Tamar Weinberg, who works at Rusty Brick and writes the amazing Techipedia blog? Or Tzvika Avnery’s partner at Tagadam, Orly Izhaki, who has a really impressive background in web-related ventures, and writes at smo.co.il (Hebrew)? Don’t tell me they were unavailable as an excuse. I’m sure there’s at least one woman in the web industry who could have been available.

Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this event, and I’ll hopefully fill you all in on how it goes. If they have internet access, I may even Twitter and live-blog the event like a good lil’ social media geek should.

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I was reading about the launch of the new MacBook Air, and I saw that the singer for the background music is someone named Yael Naim. Well, that sounded pretty Israeli to me, and I checked it out further and yes, she grew up in Hod Hasharon, in the Tel Aviv area.

According to the bio on her site, Yael’s first album was a failure, but in 2004 she met David Donatien, a West Indian drummer. David encouraged her to sing in Hebrew, “something she had strictly denied herself up until now.” The song in the MacBook Air commercial is from her latest album, and you can hear the whole amazing song here (I hope it’s ok to link to it).

MacBook Air Commercial:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBCfW9-hjKI[/youtube]

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Last night I went to my first iDrink event. For those of you who are not familiar with iDrink, it’s a party/event for Israelis in the Internet and web industries. The format usually includes presentations by startups and sponsors of the event, some free drinks, and a lot of socializing and networking. This was their seventh event, and there were tons of people there. At first, we couldn’t even get into the bar, and people were literally spilling out the door. But that was ok, cuz even the door was a social place to be. We got inside in time to hear/see the end of a presentation by a startup called KitchenBug. It was so noisy that I couldn’t hear so well, but what I saw and heard made me a little worried: a pretty presentation with really cool shiny graphics, and a concept that I think has little value (sorry KitchenBug and investors). This screams “bubble” – pretty face, no content, investors investing. Yikes.

Aside from that, I actually had fun. Despite the fact that I was the only religious woman who looked like she stepped out of Biblical times, I met some interesting people and got an in-depth explanation of a new blogging-widget being developed by one of the startups (sorry, but that one also has signs of a bubble).

So what do you think it’s like to get into a room with a bunch of web fanatics? Well, upon meeting you they immediately take out their phone and “friend” you on facebook. I’m serious. Also, I had more than one person come up to me and say hi because they recognized me from facebook. I’m surprised no one was live-blogging.

The line between real and virtual life has become very thin.

Anyways, it was an experience. Kol hakavod to the organizers – it’s really great that they provide a setting for everyone in the industry to get together in a casual atmosphere. In a bar, it’s so easy to be friends, especially after a few drinks.

Maybe real life isn’t that different from facebook after all:

• Real life – drink, be friends
• facebook – “friend me,” we’re friends

And in that spirit, Demetri Maritin on the Daily Show gives his point of view on social networking:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpcvR1tIBfQ[/youtube]

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It’s now official – Lorelle Van Fossen (yes, THE Lorelle) is going to be the keynote speaker at the upcoming WordCamp Israel blogging conference!

When: Oct. 25, 9am to 4pm
Where: Michlelet Afeka – Bney Efraim, Tel Aviv Tel: 1-800-37-37-10
Cost: Free! But you must register to reserve your place.

Among the topics to be covered at the conference is blogging and business (I’m on that panel ), how to create an effective web presence with WordPress, and practical tips on installing WordPress and using Plugins.

The conference now has an official web site, but if Hebrew ain’t your cup o’ tea, you can get most of the information on the English blog (written by…me!). You can also download banners in English and Hebrew to put on your blogs and sites, like the image at the top of this post, over here.

The Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL) and Michlelet Afeka are the main sponsors behind the event, and have contributed the venue and Lorelle’s plane ticket.

What’s amazing about this event is that it’s been organized by some run-of-the-mill bloggers who thought it would be a good idea. Most of all, Tal Galili, a Masters student in Tel Aviv’s Mathematics Dept., has invested a huge amount of time organizing this whole thing, and WordCamp Israel exists basically because of him.

I’m really excited! I think that some of the lectures will be better than others, but most of all this is a great opportunity to meet the people behind the Israeli blogging and Internet scene, which is full of dynamic, innovative and creative individuals and companies.

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I quickly contacted as many people as I could about this blatant discrimination, including reporting this on a mailing list for journalists and writers. This happened last Thursday, Sept. 21, and by Friday morning all of the related web pages had been taken down, and were changed to include Israeli Jews.

But instead of blowing over, Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu reported on this on IsraelNationalNews.com, complete with pictures of the State Dept.’s shoddy attempt at correcting their online Word documents with Track Changes on for all to see! (And then with a virus inside. It just wasn’t their day.)
His article was subsequently picked up by prominent blogger Yid with Lid, and since then it has spread like wildfire throughout the political blogosphere. Here is a partial list of blogs that reported this story, and I will be updating it as I discover more:

• Yid with Lid: Miriam’s Story-UPDATE/US State Department “No Jews Allowed” Program
• Michelle Malkin: State Department subsidized No Israeli Jews Allowed program
• Debbie Schlussel: State Dept.: No Jews Allowed for Tax-Funded Biz Program for Arabs
• Mere Rhetoric: State Department Tries To Cleanse Obviously Illegal “No Jews Allowed” Application But Is Too Fucking Stupid To Turn Off Track Changes
• Atlas Shrugs: State Dept: No Jews Allowed
• Aliyah! Step-by-Step: U. of Cal program–no Jews allowed
• Right Truth: No Jews in State Department program, no Jewish bullets in Iraq, Afghanistan
• Solomonia: US State Department backing program that discriminates against Jewish Israeli entrepreneurs — Till they got caught
• The God Blog: No Jews allowed: Judenrein U.S. program
• The Jewish Week, by Michele Chabin: Federal Program Barred Israeli Jews For Three Years
• Yid with Lid:State Department Anti-Semitic Program: The Rest of the Story
• Israpundit: “No Jews Allowed” Application

Will any “traditional” news outlets pick this up and report on it? Only time will tell…although time seems to be indicating that they are either unaware, or disinterested.

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Update: A few interesting things have happened since I wrote this article. 1. The Beyster Institute has taken down all the pages I have linked to here. But they can’t beat Google! If you want to see them, simply paste the URL in your Google search box, and on the results page, click on “Cached” to see them. Contact me if you have any questions. I’ve also saved the pages on my hard drive. 2. A reporter contacted me for a story on this issue, and told me that “coincidentally” the Beyster Institute is redoing their program requirements, and now ALL Israelis are welcome to apply! Well, I’ll be applying, and I invite those of you believe you are suitable candidates to apply as well.

In the past, if I had noticed this and wanted to protest it, I would have had to write letters and fax news outlets, politicians, etc. and hope that someone cared. Chances of making change would have been slim to none for a mother-of -five-small-business-owner sitting in Jerusalem, and if any change were made, it would have taken weeks or months. But the Internet has changed all that. I started writing about this yesterday afternoon, and in less than 24 hours the injustice was resolved. I can’t prove that it’s not coincidence, but assuming it’s not, then apparently we all have the power to make change. A single letter or blog post CAN make a difference.

As a follower of all things related to Israeli business, I was excited to discover a program geared towards training Middle Eastern entrepreneurs, Israelis included. The program, Middle East Entrepreneur Training, is hosted at the Beyster Institute, and heavily supported by the US State Department, and is described as follows:

“The Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET) program is an innovative training program designed to identify, develop and sustain a new core of leaders in business and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.”

The Application and Selection Process page states that “The MEET program does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, religion [my bold], national origin, or handicap. This policy is consistent with all relevant U.S. government statutes and regulations.”

Great! I’m a female Middle Eastern entrepreneur, and I even run a social program aimed at strengthening the Israeli small business community: exactly what they’re looking for, so I got ready to apply.

But then I came across the eligibility requirements:

“Applications will be accepted from citizens of the following countries and territories: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel (limited to Israeli Arab citizens) [my bold], Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen.”

These criteria are not listed on the MEET site, but on various US Embassy sites across the Middle East.

Limited to Israeli Arab citizens?

This is the equivalent of stating that they accept applicants from Iraq (limited to Sunnis), Lebanon (limited to Christians), and Jordan (limited to Palestinians). Imagine the uproar if that were the case.

Let’s look further at the problematic nature of the application requirements:

1. The program is backed by the US State Dept., and explicitly states that they will not discriminate based on race or religion. By stating that only Israelis from a certain race are eligible, they are blatantly discriminating against Israelis of other races.
2. I have heard the argument that Israeli Arabs need democracy training. Israeli Arabs are educated in Israel-sponsored schools that teach their children courses in “Citizenship,” just like Jewish children, which cover the principles and ethics behind democracy. Israeli Arabs vote, get the same free health care as everyone else, state-sponsored education, and all the other social benefits all Israelis enjoy. Israeli Arab women enjoy rights here that they couldn’t dream of anywhere else. See this post on Israeli Arab businesswomen for an example of what they can achieve in Israel.
3. I have heard that Israeli Arabs are more in need. According to poverty surveys in Israel, Haredim and Arabs tend to equally make up those below the poverty line in Israel. Also, in these surveys, “Arabs” include Beduin and Druze too. Someone was told by someone involved in the institute that this program is not open to Christians, Beduin and Druze Israelis either, allegedly to demonstrate how the program is not anti-semitic (ok, now it’s anti-Israel-supporters). But if the argument is that the program is geared to helping needy Arabs in Israel, then it must include Arabs of all religious persuasion. Not only that, I’m sure many other poverty-stricken populations in Israel could use some help in gaining economic independence: single-parent families, handicapped, development town residents (Sderot anybody – they seem a bit in need).
4. I have heard the argument that when programs refer to the Middle East, they mean all countries except Israel, since Israel is generally considered “European.” First of all, Israel is not European, and we are not part of the EU. But let’s say that is the case – then they should not accept Israeli Arabs, since they are just as “European” as we all are. (Does that mean I can start charging clients in Euros?)

How do you determine an Arab’s religious beliefs?
So if it is correct that they are only accepting Israeli Arabs, and only Israeli Arabs that are not Christian, Beduin or Druze, how do they make sure that they are rejecting applicants from the “wrong” religions? They can’t do it according to their names (i.e. if they wanted to differentiate Jewish from Arab applicants, they could just throw out all the Itziks and Dudus and keep the Mohammeds and the Azizes).

Maybe they have a special question for religious screening on the application:

Question 25: What would you say best describes you:

1. I pray five times a day.
2. I am eagerly awaiting the Second Coming.
3. I believe I am a reincarnation of my great uncle Abdul.

Woe unto those who believe in b and c.

I have contacted the Beyster Institute, Dr. Beyster, and the US State Department, and they all replied that they will immediately correct this injustice. Yeah right! I haven’t heard back from any of them.

The Middle Eastern Theatre of the Absurd continues…

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Netvision apparently thinks that they are the rulers of all things Internet in Israel. They may have a large market share of Internet accounts, but their bravado with regards to Internet standards really takes the cake.

Background: Like many services or technologies that are used worldwide, such as telephones and electricity, the Internet has Standards. These standards ensure that websites are accessible to all in all places because they all follow certain rules related to domain names and the like. The organization that develops and enforces these standards is ISOC, which is short for The Internet Society.

ISOC has many branches all over the world, including ISOC-IL, the Israeli branch. It is from ISOC-IL that you buy domain names with .il suffix. It is also through ISOC-IL that you change nameservers for your domain name when necessary. (Nameservers are the codes that tell your domain to point to your correct hosting provider, thus making sure that when people type in your domain name, they see the files sitting on your preferred hosting provider’s servers.)

Apparently Netvision thinks that ISOC-IL does a shoddy job of managing domain nameservers, and has taken the job upon themselves as well. A client of ours with a .il domain name had decided to move hosting providers. We bought the new hosting package for him, and visited the ISOC-IL website to change the nameservers. Unlike with a .com domain, where you just go online and enter the new codes, with a .il domain name you first fill out an online form, then you wait a few days until you realize that nothing has happened, and then you call ISOC-IL who tells you that you have to have the domain owner fill out a printed form and fax it in to them! Yes, fax. The main Israeli Internet body thinks faxes rule. Irony, thy name is Israel.

Anyways, we did all that, and finally the new site started to appear under the domain name. Except that after a day we realized it wasn’t appearing everywhere. My worker deduced that the only computers that weren’t displaying the new site were those connected to Netvision. Every other service provider was showing the site. She called ISOC-IL to see what the story was, and they said…it’s out of their control – call Netvision!

So she did. Netvision said the site would come through in a few days. A few days passed and nada. She called again. Oh right, they said, the domain name owner needs to fill out a printed form and fax it in to us. What?! she said. But we spoke to you a few days ago, and you said no such thing. And anyways, isn’t that what ISOC is for? Well, they said, we’re worried that people are messing with ISOC. What?! she said again.

While this may not be on the level of terror and political corruption, I still think that this disdain and usurption of authority is a form of corruption. By messing with web standards in Israel, they are messing with all of us and our free access to the web. Netvision needs to be put in their place. Nobody should have to beg them to change nameservers once ISOC has already approved the change.

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But how does Israel rank on a global scale for entrepreneurship? According to the GEM 2007 High-Growth Entrepreneurship Report, an annual report released by Babson and the London School of Business, Israel is ranked 17th out of 53 countries for friendliness to startups. This rating isn’t terrible, especially if you take into account that the only other Middle Eastern countries that even appear on the list are Turkey and Jordan, and they are ranked 33rd and 47th respectively. The top four countries in the survey are New Zealand, US, Canada and Australia.

But if you look closer at the survey, it becomes apparent that Israel is actually very competitive from an entrepreneurial point of view:

• “The countries with arguably the ‘healthiest’ entrepreneurial anatomies…[are] Singapore, Israel, and China.”
• In the comparison of “Adult-Population Prevalence Rate of High-Expectation (Nascent and New) and High-Growth (Established) Entrepreneurs in GEM 2000–2006 Countries,” Israel is rated sixth.
• In the table titled “Relative Prevalence of High-Expectation Nascent and New (20 or more Expected Jobs) and High-Growth Established (20 or More Current Employees) Entrepreneurs,” Israel is rated second.
• “In addition to Singapore, Israel stands out for its high relative prevalence of high expectation and high-growth entrepreneurs. “
• “Of high income countries, the United States, Israel, Iceland, and Canada exhibit the highest adult population prevalence rates of high-expectation entrepreneurship.”

So that explains why it feels that everyone and their mother here are entrepreneurs. But is this thanks to government policies that encourage entrepreneurship? Yeah right. From my own experience, the government makes it anything but easy to survive as a small business owner.

I think that the high levels of entrepreneurship might come down to two things:

• The Yiddishe Kop – this is Yiddish for “The Jewish Mind.” My grandmother always claimed there’s such a thing, and now a few goyim (non-jews) have backed her up. Jews always feel uncomfortable talking about this kind of thing, and the only reason I’m mentioning this is that some goyim claim this is so. While my grandmother is certainly an authority, I don’t know if her opinion is enough in this matter.
• Perseverance – over 2000 years of attempted annihilation and successful genocide, and we’re still alive and kicking. If that’s not perseverance, well, I don’t know…

When Warren Buffett bought Iscar in Berkshire’s first overseas investment, he said that “Being in Israel has a major advantage of having the exposure to a fabulous pool of talent and brains. When we bought Iscar, we bet on brains.” Who can argue with the second richest goy in the world?

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Now there is one less excuse for not hiring women: according to a survey conducted by business data firm HSP Hashavim of the Hilan Tech and the Trendline group, women are absent from work less than men. This phenomenon is apparently unique to Israel, while everywhere else in the Western world women miss more work than men.

HSP Hashavim attributes this statistic to the fact that women take less vacation than men, since they feel that they have less job security.

“HPS Hashavim CEO Abie Meir says that the current trend in terms of absenteeism among women in Israel began in 2002, when the country sank into recession.

‘Women were more concerned than men about losing their jobs in light of the slowdown in business, and, as a natural response, they began to be more meticulous about absences’ Meir said.

Men, on the other hand, experienced greater job security despite the recession, and there was ‘no change in their behavior patterns,’ Meir said.

The survey indicates that the main difference between men and women is in vacation absences (holiday, travel and the like): Women are substantially less likely to take vacation from work than men.

On the other hand, women are absent slightly more often than men for health reasons, either because of their own health or that of their families. This is similar to trends worldwide. (Haim Bior, “Only in Israel: Women miss work less than men,” Haaretz.com, June 14, 2007.)

Meir did not mention the fact that many men in this country serve in reserve duty which can be up to 30 days of service per year, which I’m assuming impacts on the number of days they are absent as well.

In any case, business owners take heed, and bolster your staff with women if you want to be assured that they will show up to work!

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If any of us thought that the West was going to work to stop Iran from developing nuclear capabilities, at least economically if not militarily, then think again. The following pretty much indicates that profit, even the smallish profit derived from newspaper advertising, is way more important then the lives of little ol’ you and me.

Ad: Looking for ethically-challenged people to build Iran’s nuclear reactor

Let’s say you’re a despot trying to build up your nuclear powers. You’ve got one nuclear reactor in the making that will hopefully soon be able to blow whole cities into oblivion. So far so good. But let’s say you want to be able to blow whole countries into oblivion. You’ve maxed out on your own country’s nuclear-development capabilities (your citizens are too busy to get an education, since you’re spending all your money on weapons of mass destruction and they are all poverty-stricken) and need to turn elsewhere. Hmmm, who can such a despot turn to in this time of need?

Of course – the West via The International Herald Tribune!

Yes, it’s true – Iran has published tenders for the construction of two spanking new nuclear reactors in last Wednesday’s edition of the International Herald Tribune. Now, it is understandable that Iran wants to recruit the best nuclear-reactor-builders for this endeavor (only the finest for Uncle Ahmadinejad’s genocidal projects), but it is harder to swallow IHT’s compliance with the advertisement of such a project, especially since this paper is sold in local newsstands across Israel – Iran’s prime target!

I don’t think that I have to elaborate on the absurdity, immorality, and farcicality of this whole thing. So without further ado, here are some of the details of the tender as published in IHT. Feel free to do with this information as you please (some suggestions: giving Mr. Esmaeili a piece of your mind; pointing out to Austria Bank Creditanstalt that their involvement in plans for another Holocaust seems to indicate that they haven’t really learned anything):

Tender No. IRI-NPP-07-1001

The nuclear power production and development company of Iran (NPPD), an affiliate company of the atomic energy corporation of Iran (the owner) invites field bids from contractors, companies for the design, supply of equipment, construction and commissioning, of two large scale units 1000-1600 MWe each with 3rd generation nuclear power pressurized light water reactor in the Bushehr province of Iran. Qualified bidders who have sufficient experiences in the construction and commissioning of such plants are requested to obtain the respective bid inquiry specification (BIS) documents upon payment of a non-refundable fee of 15,000 euros transferred to the following account.

Account number: 01754283800
Name of Bank: Austria Bank Creditanstalt
Code of Bank: 12000
IBAN: AT881100001754283800
SWIFT or BIC: BKAUATWW

Within 15 days from 25 April 2007 through AEOI’s representative office presents at the permanent mission of the IR of Iran of the IAEA at Heinestr. 19/1/1, A-1020 Vienna, Austria or company’s headquarters office at #7 Tandis Street., Africa Avenue, Tehran, IR of Iran.

They go on to note that any bids must be accompanied by a bid bond of 20 million Euro. So mark your calendars: bidding begins on May 8, 2007 at 10 am.

If you have any questions, they may be contacted as follows:

Telephone: +431-2140971 or +431-2140972
Fax: +431-2140973
Mr. Esmaeili at esmaeili@teleweb.at

Thanks to Karin Kloosterman for the scoop!

Postscript: Karin scanned the original ad, so here it is. It appeared in the International Herald Tribune on April 25, 2007 on page 14.

Moreover, I advise that the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

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[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1616233732685486555[/googlevideo]

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Last night I attended my first speed networking event. It was organized by Digital Eve, who has held two such events in Tel Aviv, and last night’s was the first one in Jerusalem.

Where?
The venue, the Pera e Mela (Apple and Pear) restaurant in Safra Square, was great – good Italian-style food, nice ambience, and an opera-singing owner who did a short piece for us (I’m not kidding!). The women in attendance were of all types and professions, and it was inspiring to meet such a talented, varied and creative group. About 20 women attended, including a handful that schlepped from Tel Aviv. Most of the women were self-employed and business owners, but we had employees as well.

Who?
Women of all types were in attendance; religious, secular and in between; a wide range of ages; and native Israelis and olim from England, the US, Canada (me!), Australia, and probably women from other countries that I missed. Based on the business cards I collected and what I remember, here is a sampling of the professions that were represented: 2 life coaches, an organizing consultant, a whole bunch of women involved in marketing of various kinds (including yours truly), a business and project management consultant, event planner, VIP tour planner, the owner of an executive search firm, graphic artist, training manager, and an expert in translation tools!

How?
How speed-networking works: we all sat down, ate (very important at any Jewish/Israeli event) and schmoozed (also Jewishly important!) with the people around us. Leemor Machnai and Susan Fisher then spoke to us about the importance of networking, and how to overcome barriers that we create in our head to networking. Then came the speed-networking part (which I guess is based on the speed-dating idea, or vice versa): we all stood up, and had a few minutes to talk to another woman about what they do, and what they are looking for. Then the whistles would blow (at first loudly but when the proprietor of the restaurant complained the whistling became almost inaudible) and we would move to the next woman. I didn’t have time to meet everyone, but it was great meeting whomever I could.

Nu?
So we schlepped, schmoozed, and conspired to take over the world after eating some good pasta. All in all, I had a great time. Of course, I don’t get out much these days due to baby and work-overload, so any opportunity to get dressed and meet other adults gets a high ranking from me. But I think that the fact that the event was supposed to end at 10, and at 10:50 Leemor had to gently point out to our surprise that it was almost 11, shows what a great time we were having.

Kol hakavod to Leemor, Susan, and Susie Kaufman (who played a big role in organizing the event but couldn’t come) for putting together such an interesting, inspiring and enjoyable evening. It was nice putting faces to the names I see on the email list, and I’m looking forward to the next Digital Eve event in Jerusalem!

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A recent conversation on the Digital Eve Israel mailing list brought up the topic of pregnancy and the workplace. While the law in Israel states that employers cannot fire pregnant women, this is apparently not enforced and many stories were related by women on the list who were fired when pregnant or upon return from maternity leave. Many didn’t sue their former employers because they didn’t have the energy, resources, or hope that it would help the situation.

Suing, however, can be effective. An article from Haaretz was cited that reported on a case in September where the court ruled that a company must pay NIS 300,000 to a woman fired illegally during pregnancy. But the woman who sent out this article pointed out that if the courts become too effective, this may end up backfiring on women and companies would think twice before placing women in certain positions.

Weak law enforcement
The fact that the law prohibiting employers from firing pregnant women or those on maternity leave is not enforced, is problematic, but is not unique to this law. How many of us have seen people smoking under the non-smoking signs in public areas? But I think that this issue is representative of a larger problem that exists in Israel, and may exist elsewhere, and that is the question of women’s status in the workplace.

Supposedly, the State of Israel wants to encourage women to work outside of the home. Someone from MATI explained to me once that this is the reason that only women get tax points for children, and men do not. This is also the reason for the above-mentioned laws related to pregnancy and maternity leave – to prevent discrimination against women in the workplace.

Women-friendly work environment?
However, the reality is that these laws don’t help women as often as they could, and the general structure of Israeli society does not create a women-friendly work environment. For example, tax credits only benefit someone who has an income that reaches levels where it is taxed. In Israel, like in most countries, women earn less than men, and a third of working women are part-time employees, while only 7% of men work part-time. Another person from MATI explained to me, half-sarcastically, that the real reason women get the tax credits and men do not is because very few women would have to pay taxes anyways, so the government doesn’t lose any income.

And of course, it is clear that the law forbidding employers from firing pregnant women or women on maternity leave is not taken seriously. It seems that women are dependent on the kindness of their employer in order to keep their jobs.

The day care and school system in Israel makes it almost impossible for a woman to hold a job. Let’s just start with the two month break in the summer; the summer camps offered cost a fortune, especially for families with many children. And then, if you manage to survive the summer, a few weeks later there is Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot vacations. Then Chanuka. Purim. The month-long Pessach break. And then summer again. Now I’m all for celebrating the Jewish holidays, but why are there always vacation days added on to the beginning and end of every one of them? And do the kids need to have off all 8 days of Chanuka? Last time I checked, Purim was only one day, and yet the schools close for three days. And while cleaning for Pessach may be difficult, do the schools really need to close for a month?

Why women should work
It seems that society has not yet really decided whether women should or should not be encouraged to join the workforce. This issue is not unique to Israel; see this letter from a man in Portland, Oregon, who thinks women should stay home and do THEIR jobs (i.e. laundry and cooking), and that the entry of women to the workforce has been the downfall of the American family and job opportunities for men.

To sum up, here are some points in favor of women working taken from the response to the above mentioned letter:

• “A Catalyst survey of Fortune 500 companies found that companies with the highest representation of women in their top management teams experienced better financial performance than companies with the lowest women’s representation.”
• “In April 2006, The Economist said that “women … are the world’s most under-utilized resource; getting more of them into work is part of the solution to many economic woes.”

And finally, Guy Kawasaki in his manifesto “The Art of the Start,” says that women are essential to making your business work. When building your business model, he says you should ask women for their advice. The following is a bit of a long quote, but he explains his logic so hilariously that I can’t just tell you what he has to say – you have to read it for yourself:

“My theory is that deep in the DNA of men is a “killer” gene. This gene expresses itself by making men want to kill people, animals, and plants. To a large degree society has repressed this gene; however starting an organization whose purpose is to kill another organization is still socially acceptable.

“Hence, asking a man about a business model is useless because every business model looks good to someone with the Y chromosome…

“Women, by contrast, don’t have this killer gene. Thus, they are much better judges of the viability of a business model than men are. Don’t agree with me? The book The Darwin Awards provides irrefutable proof of women’s greater common sense. These awards commemorate “those individuals who have removed themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion.”

“For example, in 1998 two construction workers fell to their demise after cutting a circular hole in the floor while they were standing in the middle of the circle. The Darwin Awards contain nine chapters about the stupidity of men, and one chapter about the stupidity of women. I rest my case.”

He goes on to provide an exercise on figuring out if your business model is viable. It ends with “Ask a few women if they think you have a chance of selling that many units. If they don’t, you don’t have a business model.”

Nuff said.

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First of all, I’d like to apologize for the growing gaps between blog posts. Babies are great fun and too cute, and along with this privilege comes a lack of sleep, and a sharp drop in available time for activities other than holding and feeding said baby. Bloggers in the blogosphere all espouse the importance of blogging regularly, but I have yet to find tips on how to blog frequently with a week old baby. So blogging frequency here at illumine blog is expected to drop for the next few months, but I will try to make sure that fresh content is published on a semi-regular basis.

Mommy’s trying to run a business
This is the first time that I’ve gone on maternity leave as a self-employed worker, rather than an employee. I’m steadily learning that self-employed women on maternity leave are few and far between. It seems that women who are self-employed are either older with older children, or younger but without little kids and without plans to have babies until their careers are well established. So I thought I’d share my experiences with you, and maybe it will prove useful to someone out there.

The first topic in this series is: Bituach Leumi (National Insurance)
Female employees in Israel receive their maternity compensation from Bituach Leumi. When a female employee gives birth, she has to fill out some forms, have her employee fill in some of the fields, and take these forms to the Bituach Leumi office in her area. Once these forms are processed, she will receive 84 days worth of compensation based on her salary from a number of months before she gave birth. As an employee, the salary is generally pretty steady and therefore her compensation is easily calculated.

A great fog hangs over the issue of maternity leave for self-employed women. Even my accountant didn’t really know how a self-employed woman receives maternity compensation. He sent me some forms that he said that I needed to fill out. He was wrong on two counts: I didn’t need to fill out any forms, let alone those forms that he sent that were for employees. It turns out that once Bituach Leumi receives notice from the hospital that a woman has given birth, they check to see if she is self-employed, and if so, they calculate the amount of compensation owed to her and deposits it in her bank account.

The only problem with this method is that they base their salary calculations on the previous year’s tax return statement. In my case, this meant that they were using information that was almost two years old to determine my salary: I gave birth on Dec. 31, 2006, and they were using the information from my 2005 tax return, which included my income from January 2005. In January 2005 my business was pretty much in diapers (no pun intended!) so the financial situation of my business has changed a lot since then.

My accountant says that we can try to get them to base the compensation on more recent financial information. He provided two options for doing so: filling out a bunch of different papers that I requested from Bituach Leumi (they had to mail them to me since they are not available for download from their website – this further shows how unpopular self-employment for mothers is), or waiting until we file the 2006 tax return and then requesting further compensation. Since he didn’t even know which papers I needed to begin with, I’m feeling a little doubtful as to the usefulness of either of these options.

What is work?
On the papers that I received from Bituach Leumi explaining how they calculated my compensation, they stated the following: I am not to work at all during my maternity leave. If I do work, I must notify them and they will reduce my (already puny) compensation. But what is considered “work”? If I write checks to pay bills, or fill in my accounting ledger as bills come in, is this work? What if I take care of the administration necessary to pay my employee? Or order more business cards for her? Or how about…writing for my blog? Is that work?

The problem is that if a self-employed person doesn’t take care of these tasks, they will lose money. But by doing this “work,” they don’t earn a cent/agora either. And anyways, very often being self-employed means working eight hours and only earning actual income on three. Unfortunately, Bituach Leumi is such a bureaucratic, anti-capitalistic institution, that I think these questions would actually be beyond them. In the meantime, it’s all one big guessing game for this mommy.

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A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.
Bob Hope

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson

You know the scene in Mary Poppins where Jane and Michael cause a run on the bank because Michael refuses to deposit his tuppence there? (If you don’t, please hang your head in shame for a few seconds and run to your nearest video store to rent the movie.) Well, sometimes I wish that we could have some kind of symbolic run on the banks here that would force them to get their act together.

We are all at the mercy of the banks. There may be a whole bunch of them to choose from, but they’re all the same. Their charges are exorbitant, seemingly because they don’t know how to make money by investing our money like banks outside of Israel. So they charge us for the privilege of leaving our hard-earned cash there. But we shouldn’t be too hard on them – their excellent customer service is worth every penny. You look skeptical. Ok, but the executives who run the banks deserve to get a decent salary that is a zillion times the average Israeli salary for all their hard work, and who else will pay them if not us average Israelis?

Don’t get me wrong – I am not against people earning high salaries; it just irks me when I’m paying someone’s exorbitant salary and haven’t gotten much value in return. If a CEO leads his/her company to profits and success, the company is right to invest in compensating them for their efforts, and hopefully as a result motivate them to earn them more profits. Do our bank executives lead their companies to greater profits, thus justifying their bloated salaries? According to a new report published by the Bank Supervisor, the answer is…no.

This report shows that the salary level in Israel’s banks is higher than those in banks operating in markets that are similar to Israel’s, such as Belgium, Ireland and Poland. According to the report, the salary component as a percentage of the banks’ revenues is about 50% higher in Israel. Other salary inconsistencies:

• While Israeli salaries grew by 3% in 2005, bank salaries grew by almost 11%
• Bank expenses grew by 12%, but revenues only grew by 9.6%.

If these were real businesses with real shareholders and competition, someone would probably be protesting.

And now, an amazing but true story from a customer of one of our hallowed banks.

Dear Customer: You need a Foreign Currency Account for Every Country You Plan to Visit

An acquaintance received a letter from her bank, Bank Hapoalim, informing her that should she plan on taking any trips overseas, she must open an account for every currency of every country in which she plans to be.

She made a special trip to the bank to find out what exactly they were talking about, but when she got there the usual clerk who takes care of her account was not there. She went to speak to someone else, and was told that she had to talk to her clerk. She informed them that he wasn’t there. The clerk looked at the letter, looked at the woman’s account, and said yes, she needs to open foreign currency accounts for every currency she plans to use overseas.

This woman came back to the bank on a day when her usual clerk was present, and he told her that this letter was mistakenly sent to her. He said it was meant for clients with high levels of debt, but her bank account is fine and therefore it doesn’t apply. Understandably distraught, this woman informed her clerk that as a stable and long-time client, she believed she didn’t deserve this type of treatment. The clerk had no response, probably because no one at the bank ever told him anything about customer service.

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There are two exciting events coming up in the world of small businesses and bloggers in Israel.

Small Business Day in the Knesset
On January 9, 2007, the Knesset will be holding a Small and Medium Sized Business Day. A “marathon” of sessions and discussions will take place with representatives from the small and medium-sized business sector on issues such as financing, education, immigrant absorption, social issues, and more. There will also be a main panel discussion to analyze the situation of small businesses on the front lines that have been affected by the war.

Avi Balishnakov, General Manager of the Knesset, claims that “it is no secret that many of the MKs from different parties believe that small and medium-sized businesses in Israel are an important engine for growth and a significant factor in the advancement of Israel’s economy and development of new jobs. The Knesset even holds daily activities to promote this sector…” This is nice to hear, and let’s hope that there’s even some truth to it!

You can actually attend these sessions. If you are interested, you can send an email to bar@ismea.org.il with the following details: Name, Teudat Zehut (ID number), and phone number.
All of the above information is from the MATI newsletter, “Atzmai Bashetach,” Volume 32, December 19, 2006.

Israeli Bloggers Unconference
On Friday December 29, 2006, the Israeli Bloggers Unconference will be held at the Benharim Family Hotel in the Galilee. Tamar Greenberg Bracha says that the Unconference will cover the following topics:

• Story-telling as personal expression, and as a means for learning and knowledge creation
• Blogging as a tool to express opinions or for reporting
• Blogs: life, advertisement, or application?
• Blogging and organizations…

And of course, this event will provide a great opportunity for networking. See more about the conference on Tamar’s site, and on Yigal Chamish’s site (Hebrew).

I personally would love to learn more about the Israeli blogosphere, but unfortunately the organizers did not take observant people into account in their planning. The event is all the way up in the north, and runs until 5 pm on Friday, and Shabbat currently begins shortly after 4 pm. Oh well, it’s not the first time I can’t attend a business event due to my religion. But I’m sure it will be fun and useful for all the participants, and I hope they’ll fill us in with a summary of the events once it’s over.

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