A business mentorship programme for the Charedi community has seen 53 entrepreneurs raise a collective £46 million.
The Charedim took part in The Bizlabs programme, which was first launched in 2019 to help strictly-Orthodox people looking to set up their own business succeed.
At the time, research carried out by the Kemach Foundation, the Jerusalem Development Authority and Achim Global, who run the programme, found that 94 per cent of start ups by Charedi men and women close down within one year.
Over the last seven years of running the programme, BizLabs has offered guidance to the 53 entrepreneurs, and organisers have hailed its success in bringing the one-year closure rate among participants down to just seven per cent.
One of these successful entrepreneurs is Avraham Yosef Ferster, CEO of DoNext.
“I followed the classic path through Hasidic educational institutions, yeshiva and kollel,” he told Ynet. “When I decided to enter the workforce, I completed a relatively short course of study and quickly began providing strategic guidance to non-profit organisations and other groups.
“They were not realising the enormous potential of the digital world. My venture helps them do that. Today, I work with some of the largest nonprofits in Israel, as well as clients abroad and across all sectors.”
“Early on, I realised that there was a perception in the Charedi community that succeeding in business required giving up Chasidic dress.
“I decided that I was not going to change. I believed that my Chasidic identity and appearance had no bearing on my ability to succeed, and, thank God, I have made it this far.
“I would not say it never presented a challenge, but I refused to give up either my Chasidic way of life or my success.”
Another entrepreneur, Shira Haberman Kaminsky, co-founder of TabuFy, said: “I grew up and was educated in Charedi institutions. I attended a Beit Yaakov school and later studied at a Lithuanian Charedi seminary. After getting married, I studied business administration and worked at a bank.
“When I began searching for my own professional direction, I retrained in user experience, design and digital product development.
Her business involves using a platform to make complicated land registries easier to organise. “When we began exploring the field, we realised that this was a much broader problem affecting many professionals."
“I am a mother of two, and combining family life, work and building a startup was a significant challenge,” she continued. “When we joined BizLabs, we had an idea and an initial product. The program gave us the tools, guidance and connections that turned it into a real business.
“It expanded our perspective and taught us to think bigger, understand the market, approach investors and build the company on a professional foundation.
“We now have active customers, and it still feels as though we are only getting started.”
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