The Western Wall, Masada… and a high tech clean room

June 2, 2011 - 8:43 AM by David

Participants in a Birthright megaevent this week.

Part of the whole ‘rebranding’ effort that bodies within the Israeli government – and ISRAEL21c – have been talking about for a decade is to show that Israel is not a one-dimensional country dominated by conflict. And beyond our well-known attributes of history and religion, we’re also a modern powerhouse, innovators in the fields of high tech, medicine and ingenuity.

That though process has trickled down to the successful Birthright-Taglit program which offers young Diaspora Jews free of charge a whirlwind tour of Israel. Of course they go to the Kotel in Jerusalem, climb Masada, ride camels and take part in the traditional rites that all first-time visitors to Israel are required to do.

But lately, certain Birthright programs have added a new stop on their trips – a visit to one of Israel’s high tech center. This week, thousands of Birthright participants visited software companies like Amdocs, HP and Microsoft to learn about the Silicon Wadi, Israel’s equivalent of the Silicon Valley.

But it seemed like the potentially positive message of showing how Israeli technology is helping the world to live better lives was smothered beneath an attempt to show the young Jewish professionals and college students the job possibilities in the high tech field here.

“Over the past few days we’ve connected participants with hi-tech companies in Ra’anana and Herzliya,” Birthright Director Gidi Mark told The Jerusalem Post. “We wanted to show Jewish university graduates from around the world the opportunities we have here.”

According to the report, not all the participants were overly enthusiastic about the visit to the clean rooms.

Linsey Sandrew, 26, was not overly impressed. As a former employee of Utopy, an Israeli-owned hi-tech company based in the Silicon Valley that makes software for call centers, she was already familiar with Israel’s hi-tech industry long before she came.

“It wasn’t that interesting,” said Linsey Sandrew, 26, a former high tech employee herself. “I’d rather have been hiking somewhere.”

Another participant, Josh Constein, 25, a Silicon Valley-based journalist, had some insightful comments on the visit.

“It was interesting seeing someone in power give a high-level view of why Israel is important to the hi-tech scene and how it relates to the Silicon Valley,” he said.
“Exposing Israel’s role in the hi-tech industry is important, but to me it felt too focused on promoting corporations rather than illuminating Israel’s small entrepreneurs who are making a real impact,” he said.

It seems like that by just showing large, Israeli high tech corporations in action, without the context of the bigger story as unfolded by ISRAEL21c and the book Start Up Nation by Saul Singer and Dan Senor, Birthright is only signing on to the rebranding effort in a very part time manner.

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