The Sukkos holiday season was coming to an end. Tens of thousands of people overflowed on the Jerusalem streets. Conferences and events were lined up to fill the hotels and large venues for the foreseeable future. Israel was finally alive and well again.

Then overnight, with the October 7 invasion and barbaric attack by Hamas in the south, Israel was at war. Operation Swords of Iron had begun. Along with the horrors, death, and destruction, the economic blight we had valiantly fought back from, returned instantaneously.

Deputy Mayor for Foreign Relations and Tourism Fleur Hassan Nahoum told BJL, "Jerusalem was enjoying one of the best tourism periods since before the Covid with the city buzzing with people from around the world."

"At the start, people rearranged their weddings to accommodate the family members who had come out, especially for the wedding. They adhered to the 50-person limit at closed-in events and carried on. Then, in the second week, each booking was canceled like a line of dominoes tumbling down," commented Michael Katz, Owner of Michael Laurence Photography.

Tour guides, the tourism and hospitality sectors, and small business owners have responded to a lack of business with heroic efforts to help the war effort in myriad and creative ways, from housing the evacuated to donating massage services, delivering supplies, and much more.  

The list of volunteer initiatives to help Israelis displaced from their homes has grown by the minute. But now small business owners and freelancers are beginning to wonder how long they can continue to volunteer to pack sandwiches or offer their services for free. Many single mothers, and owners of very small businesses feel guilty about expressing their concern, but paying for safety equipment is only one unexpected expense with little or no money coming in. There are some creative initiatives cropping up all over the country that are a win-win; those that benefit from expanded activities to match the current need and crisis, but in ways that help Israel's small business owners continue to earn and survive.

These initiatives include a new one created by Aliza Naon, originally from France, who made aliyah 11 years ago and has five children. She lives in a community where infiltration is always a concern, but she said she has gotten used to it. With the expertise she gained by working in the United States, she runs a small automation and systems streamlining company. At the beginning of Operation Swords of Iron, she anticipated widespread financial instability and began to develop a website almost immediately after the war began. Over 100 small Israeli businesses have already registered with her Stand with Small Israeli Businesses. 

People have been looking for ways and what can they do to help when they are not living in Israel. Through her volunteer initiative, people can support Israeli freelancers, small service providers, local stores, and e-commerce internationally by choosing them to provide the services or products needed. The directory allows users to filter by categories of language, industry, and business. Many service providers have already developed online global capabilities over the past couple of years, due to the pandemic.  She has already blocked a possible cyber infiltrator from Turkey and intends to be vigilant to protect both those looking to give work to Israelis and those listing their services for no fee.

Melissa Goldwag and her husband Gaby Fachler, made Aliyah from New York and South Africa over 20 years ago. They live in Modiin and are the Co-Founders and CEOs of Pack for Camp and Pack for Israel. BJL has shared their valuable helpful tips in the past. As soon as the war broke out, they found a way to use their business to raise money to help soldiers called up suddenly and unprepared.

Also, families who have been moved from their homes in the South and the North needed toiletries, linens, and more of the needed basic items in stock in their warehouse. Working with organizations and volunteers in Israel, they made sure the items purchased were distributed directly to those who needed them.

To donate, https://www.packforisrael.com/collections/soldiers   Pack for Israel is not making any profit on these items. All the funds received will cover the cost of the items themselves + handling. To see donations used to help, click here!

The app JustConnectUs by Cory Lubin and Shoshana Jenn Lubin was designed to find and recommend the best service providers for clients in a local area. They had the app ready to launch "after the holidays" traditionally the time Israelis finally got back to regular work and school schedules, after the summer holidays followed soon after by the chagim. This year that did not happen. They are offering their app for free. The husband and wife team moved to Israel in 2009 and believe word of mouth is fine, but think their tool is better for networking. Already 500 English speakers are involved in the early stages.

According to Shoshana, "The main push behind building this platform was that they “saw a need for positive tools on the internet and we knew we wanted to fill that need even with just one good platform that offers safe content and an even playing field for small businesses. There are a lot of bad practices and bad characters out there, at the same time the internet is an amazing, wonderful tool, but if we don’t design positive platforms, there won’t be any. So, we took it upon ourselves to build a platform that gives more than it takes, I hope you agree.”

There is a growing endless list of good initiatives. However, consider these three new ones designed to help Israelis as the war goes on and the financial situation in Israel becomes more serious.