By Shmuel Katz
This is the season of change. Each year at around this time, children return to a new year of school. Most people schedule a move to a new home for some time in the summer so that they are all settled by the fall. And this is the time when we come to a new year with the arrival of Rosh Hashanah, the Yamim Nora’im, the period referred to in Israel as “the chagim.”
With one brief exception, I have spent the last 16 years of my life in nonprofit management. I was a small-business owner several years ago, but that adventure was cut short by circumstances beyond our control. And I felt that it was time to jump back into the pool, so to speak.
I have been privileged to work as part of some exceptional teams of dedicated people who have focused on providing for the needs of their community. It has been fulfilling work. Yet they call it nonprofit for a reason.
So, about a year ago, I began to speak to some friends and neighbors, networking for an opportunity to move out of the nonprofit world. Perhaps an operations or management position with a startup or emerging company looking for someone with a lot of operations and business experience. I wanted to make a career shift into the mainstream.
I found that a lot of what I had heard as general grumbling about the job market here turned out to be true. The Israeli marketplace discriminates hugely. I have been told that women are at a major disadvantage, much worse than men, especially because the ultra-Orthodox population does not want them in management. Additionally, I had heard and have now experienced the fact that employers are not that interested in people over a certain age.
Once someone passes 40, so they say, employers here simply pass him over, preferring youth. And I found that to be very, very true.
I have to admit that my search was not full-time, as I had a job. So it could be that I would have gotten more interest had I been more aggressive in seeking opportunities. Yet it was clear to me that I was extremely qualified for several of the opportunities that I saw, but the initial positive reaction to my qualifications over the phone or via e‑mail quickly dimmed when my age came up. It was definitely discouraging.
A couple of months ago, one of my close friends, with whom I learn every erev Shabbat right before candle-lighting throughout the winter, called me about an opportunity he had heard about. A local business that he had been involved in founding needed an ownership/management change. The owner was involved in other businesses overseas and simply could not manage the business on a daily basis and was looking to get out. He knew of a group looking to buy in, but they needed a manager to take the helm.
After checking out the operation and reviewing the business, I started speaking with the investor group and working on putting together a deal. Thankfully, after several weeks of negotiation, the deal went through last week and I have started my new position as general manager of a local auto-repair shop, known as AutoKING.
AutoKING was founded as a solution to the unease many olim feel when we deal with native Israelis. We often feel that we are being taken advantage of by Israeli vendors, because of our lack of Hebrew and our lack of mechanical knowledge. Unfortunately, many Israelis feel that olim are all rich and can easily afford to overpay.
Our head mechanic is a fluent English-speaker, and we have positioned the business to serve the needs of the English-speaking public. Our goal is to have a relationship with our customers similar to the one they had with their mechanics in the U.S. We aim to earn a high level of trust from our clients. We want to have an American level of customer service and eventually grow the business to have locations in cities with a large concentration of English-speakers.
It’s possible to say that I am still in the business of helping people. Just in a different way (and without the need for us to have to rely on charity to make payroll). I was ready for a move, and while it won’t materially change my life much, there is the prospect of long-term growth that I was looking for.
As we approach the dawn of a new year, one in which I certainly hope and pray for health and happiness for my family and all of you, I want to wish you, our readers, wherever you may be, a shanah tovah u’metukah. I look forward to seeing you in the Beit HaMikdash as my fellow kohanim and I vie for the honor of working on the special korbanot of the day. May we celebrate the geulah with our families and all of Klal Yisrael. v
Shmuel Katz, his wife Goldie, and their six children made aliyah in July 2006. Before making aliyah, Shmuel was the executive director of the Yeshiva of South Shore in Hewlett. You can contact him at shmuel@katzfamily.co.il.