Valley Teens, Business Mentor Go to LA for Israeli American Council

HEADLINES | 3 SPECIAL SECTION | 12 SAVING LIVES HOME DESIGN & Valley Jewish lawyer Mervyn REAL ESTATE Braude leads Jaburg|Wilk's What to know before buying efforts to collect water for a new air conditioner. Plus: the homeless rethinking downsizing JULY 13, 2018 | AV 1, 5778 | VOLUME 70, NUMBER 42 $1.50 Women of Reform Valley teens, business mentor go to Judaism holds Area LA for Israeli American Council Day in Flagstaff Eitanim Summer Hackathon JEFF KRONENFELD | STAFF WRITER JEFF KRONENFELD | STAFF WRITER ith excessive heat warnings expected to be in effect across ast week, 170 Jewish American Wthe Valley and the Southwest this weekend, sisterhoods Land Israeli teens gathered from a number of synagogues are heading north to Flagstaff in Los Angeles for the Israeli to beat the heat and attend the Women of Reform Judaism American Council Eitanim Southwest Area Day, also called “ReJEWvinating in the Forest.” Summer Hackathon, where It is the first WRJ Area Day to take place in Flagstaff. groups of teens developed solu- The event is hosted by the Sisterhood of Congregation Lev tions to real-world challenges Shalom of Flagstaff, which is the newest affiliate and will receive while receiving advice and train- its charter and gavel over the weekend, as well. Lev Shalom joined ing from mentors. after several members attended last year’s Area Day, which was “We believe that pioneering held at Temple Emanuel of Tempe. The 170 Jewish American and Israeli participants in the IAC Eitanim Summer Hackathon. “Joining the WRJ put us on the map,” said Lev Shalom Rabbi SEE HACKATHON, PAGE 2 PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA KASIAN PHOTOGRAPHY. Mindie Snyder. “We’re getting more visitors as a result. Over the long term, we will have a greater scope of friends and hopefully some additional collaborations as well.” The WRJ Pacific district includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, El Paso, Care-A-Van tradition continues Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the Canadian provinces A group of Jewish Valley teens are hard at work on a project for Habitat for Humanity in Durango, Colorado. The teens are part of the Summer Care-A- of British Columbia and Alberta. It is made up of 57 sisterhoods Van program, a project of the Bureau of Jewish Education. Now in its 17th representing roughly 7,500 women. It encompasses a larger year, the Summer Care-A-Van takes teens to locations throughout the West geographic area than any of the seven other districts, which is to work on community service projects. A Winter Care-A-Van was recently why in addition to a biannual district-wide conference, they hold initiated. Read more on Page 4. PHOTO COURTESY OF MYRA SHINDLER SEE FLAGSTAFF, PAGE 6 KEEP YOUR EYE ON jewishaz.com INTERNATIONAL ISRAEL NATIONAL Jewish man beaten in Berlin Moon landing set for 2019 U.S. Jewish teens help Puerto Rico HEADLINES HACKATHON It allows users to learn about Israel while Most of the mentors are actual business “I wanted to group them together to CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 creating live chat rooms with fellow airline executives, such as Raz Yalov, who is orig- give them some words of encouragement programs like IAC Eitanim can close the passengers. inally from Israel but now resides in the about the language barrier and how they gaps between Israel and American Jewry The 14 Israeli participants were part of Valley. Yalov is the CEO and co-founder shouldn’t worry about it too much,” by using ‘Israeliness’ and the inspiration a program called P’sagot, which supports of Zcast, a podcasting platform, and is Yalov recalled. “For most of them, it was of Israeli entrepreneurship as a secret and nurtures academically gifted students also co-founder and CTO of Syncrement, not only their first time in America, but sauce,” said Shoham Nicolet, IAC co- from disadvantaged backgrounds. another local tech startup. also their first time out of Israel or even founder and CEO. “Students complete “The P’sagot program is building a Yalov’s interest in using his business on a plane. However, they had become so our IAC Eitanim program with vital future generation of leaders in Israel — and technology acumen to benefit young much a part of their groups by that point leadership skills, a new imagination for and now with IAC Eitanim, it is providing people began when he observed that that we couldn’t even tell who was Israeli innovation and a deepened connection us with a network of connections to our although his own children were receiving and who was American.” to their Jewish roots.” family in America,” said Michal Barkan, a quality educations, they weren’t necessar- The program culminated on the eve- Two Valley teens participated in the member of the Israeli delegation. “Over ily learning practical skills that would help ning of June 28 as the finalist teams program: Marcus Wieser, a senior at the past week, we have gained an appre- advance their careers. presented their products at the American Deer Valley High School, who served as ciation for how our two Jewish communi- Yalov got involved with the Hackathon Jewish University campus in Los Angeles. his group’s CFO; and Forrest Stobaugh, ties can work together, which is the only program when Nicolet visited the Valley Yalov’s experience helped groups such as who served as his group’s CEO. (Each way to succeed.” seeking donors and volunteers. Wieser’s develop the technical aspects of teen gets an executive title and respon- the apps, as well as learn how to pitch and sibilities.) “ ... THEY HAD BECOME SO MUCH A PART OF THEIR GROUPS speak about them. “As the chief financial officer, my job BY THAT POINT THAT WE COULDN’T EVEN TELL WHO WAS “He really pushed the idea that when was to do the research on other prod- ISRAELI AND WHO WAS AMERICAN.” you’re presenting in a ‘Shark Tank’-esque ucts that are similar to ours and figure RAZ YALOV, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF ZCAST theme, you don’t want to overdo the out what price we should go into at the details,” Wieser said of Yalov’s advice to market and figure out how much rev- Wieser’s group had two members of the “I had a great talk with him and he his group. “You just want to focus on enue we’d make in the first year,” Wieser Israeli delegation, who suggested making shared with me the focus, vision and rea- getting a second date and then being able explained. “Early on we decided to be the app function like a game by creating soning behind the program and it just hit to go into more detail.” a not-for-profit, so another key part of a point system to incentivize answering all the notes,” Yalov said. “We’re trying Though Wieser’s group didn’t win, my job was to find organizations like the questions. to teach them how to deliver on what is he said what he learned had given him Israeli government or Jewish National “They said that in Israel everybody’s asked of them, but still be very flexible a better idea of areas of study he wanted Fund that would help pay for advertising super competitive,” Wieser said. “We and creative.” to pursue in college. He also now has a our product in airports.” used their perspectives to make sure that Fostering human connections is a major number of friends in Israel he hopes to Weiser’s group developed an in- our app would be appealing for Israelis goal of the program. Yalov recalled how visit someday, perhaps even using one of flight application called Local, which he because our main goal was to educate at first the Israeli teens tended to stay the in-flight apps developed at the pro- described as “the Facebook of the air.” the first-timers.” together as a unit. gram when he does so. JN HEADLINES .................................... 2 OFFICE HOURS Local 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday National 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Friday International 1430 E. Missouri Ave., Suite B225, Phoenix, AZ 85014 PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Phone: 602.870.9470 | Fax: 602.870.0426 | [email protected] | [email protected] DEADLINES .......................................... 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