The New Israel Fund (NIF)

'Northern Exposure' Initiative Connects Small Businesses With American Jews

 Jerusalem Post, July 9, 2007
 Molly Nixon

Seriously affected by war last summer, hundreds of small businesses in the north of Israel are still struggling to continue to do just that: business. Many are run by women either from their own homes or from rented commercial space.
The businesses are as diverse as the women themselves: Jewish and Arab, city and village dwellers covering a wide range of ages, family situations and social environments. But whatever their differences might be, one thing they share - apart from gender - is their dream of building up a sound business. They are dedicated to succeeding where it is easy to fail in normal times, and practically an impossibility to stay on the right side of the bank manager during times of strife such as following the Second Lebanon War.

As a result of the heavy damage inflicted by the war on the women who were going it alone in business, the necessity for counseling has risen dramatically and many of the organizations involved in assisting the women are straining at the seams.
Recognizing the seriousness of the situation for the self-employed and owners of home-based enterprises, Shatil - the New Israel Fund's empowerment and training center - created the Northern Exposure initiative in partnership with Israel's leading economic empowerment organizations. At its Haifa offices serving the northern periphery, Shatil's multi-cultural staff provides training and technical assistance to the straining NGOs shoring up the Galilean entrepreneurs.

Shatil created the Northern Exposure project with the aim of introducing hundreds of artisans and small business owners in Israel to prospective interested parties abroad. The project's still-under-construction website (www.nes.org.il) includes descriptions and photographs of the proud folks struggling but determined to maintain their macro-enterprises, short bios and details of how their businesses were affected by the Second Lebanon War. The website also presents the possibility to purchase products on-line and facilitate a personal connection with the gritty northern Israelis.

Tucked away in a quiet, leafy corner on the Carmel Mountain range, graphic designer, photographer and artist Dorit Jordan Dotan pores over a drawing board. The view from the window above her head is a breathtaking, all-inclusive Haifa-to-Acre vista. However, this time last year the magnificent view was marred by huge clouds of black smoke where Katyusha rockets had landed - sometimes in other parts of the city, sometimes closer.
"One day a Katyusha landed just on the other side of that building there," she says, pointing to a small block of flats about 100 meters away. Even though she said it was a terrifying experience, Dotan reached for her camera. The photograph is framed and sits on a shelf close to her drawing board.

When her client businesses closed down, the self-employed graphic designer lost her means of livelihood. Many of her neighbors left town for the center of the country. "Although I was terrified I really didn't have anywhere else to go, and anyway my mother had to run away from Vienna. We are here to stay, not run," she says, opening her hands palm-up in a expressive gesture.
Dotan, determined to stay home in Haifa but also needing to generate money to pay her mortgage, decided to turn her hand to art, bearing in mind that in modern times one could sell work through cyberspace. Now she advertises and sells her wares - hand-drawn ketubot (marriage contracts) - via www.shop-ketubah.com, with most of her work purchased by clients overseas.
Dotan is thankful for the support she received from Sviva Tomechet (the Women's Business Development Center), a voluntary organization handing out professional advice and helping promote women's small businesses, and partner in the Northern Exposure project.