Selling Israel

Joey Low founded Israel at Heart to give Israel a positive PR spin. His next move: Israeli products on US shopping channels.

American evangelist Pat Robertson has congregations across the country and his own television station, with an enviable rating. He looks his viewers in the eye and says, "These roses," referring to some red, dew-laden flowers behind him, "are grown in a kibbutz." His pronunciation comes out as "Kubbutz". "They are put on an El Al flight at two in the morning, and arrive fresh. You should buy them."

Joey Low watches in delight. "I couldn’t pay enough money to do this. I was stunned when I saw it."

Robertson's broadcast, done for free out of ideology, gave Low an idea: help small Israeli businesses market their produce directly in the US through the Internet site developed by the Israeli Consulate in New York.

300 businesses sell directly to consumers via the site. Products include lotions from the Dead Sea, candles, toys, food products, and silver jewelry with Jesus inscriptions. They couldn’t have found a better marketer than TV star Robertson, who promotes sales using tradition and religion , not to mention the need to support Israeli democracy.

Robertson sits in the studio beside a second anchor who looks like a younger version of the veteran actress Shelley Winters. After some shots of Christian holy sites with a soundtrack of church music, the scene moves onto candles and chalices, olive oil vessels and small bottles.

Robertson seeks to use the purchase of Israeli products to express the umbilical cord linking Christianity to Israel. The anchor beside him says, "While I can't go to Israeli now, I can still go shopping." He eyes light up with the joy of good-humored shopping. "I already have six of these," she says, pointing to of the jewelry pieces ornamented with Christian symbols. "It's wonderful, it's like wearing a blessing."

Joey (Joseph) Low, 52, is a New York diamond and high-tech businessman. His links to Israel are emotional, commercial, and social. His close friends include Bank Leumi (TASE:LUMI) chairman Eitan Raff, with whom he has made some investments, and high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, who advises him how to diversify his high-tech investments. Low has invested with a former General Security Services officer, Peleg Raday, in airport and airline security companies.

Low now channels some of his money to emotionally satisfying investments. For the past 18 months, he has sent, at his expense, Israeli students under the aegis of Israel at Heart to give lectures across Europe and the US. The students are both Left-wing and Right-wing, settlers and residents of the center of the country. Quite a few are of Ethiopian origin. 150 students have gone forth to date, and Low knows each one personally. He says, "Over $1 million has been invested in this program to date, mostly my own money."

Low has now decided to add an economic dimension. For this purpose, he contacted Peleg Radays son, Boaz, Israel's Minister for Economic Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. They concluded that small Israeli businesses were hardest hit by the recession and security tensions.

A hatred of boasting and bragging

New ideas pop up all the time, and someone at the Israeli Consulate in New York even proposed hiring someone like Jerry Seinfeld to call on the Jewish community to buy Israeli products.

Low now wants to organize a niche of Israeli products on US shopping channels.As withmost of his ventures, an old acquaintance, someone "I grew up with", or, in this instance, Home Shopping Network president Michael McMullen.

Mentioning his name reminds Low about his disappointment with Israel's Left. He used to support Peace Now and Meretz, but is now "disappointedwith politicians", both for the usual reasons, and because of the tender for the Israeli shopping channel.

"At the time, McMullen was president of Home Shopping Network's international department. Today, every country that wants to set up a television shopping channel calls Home Shopping Network. Only Israel is different.

"I went to him and said, 'Come with me to Israel.' Everyone knew that Home Shopping Network in the group is a winning horse.Tnuva and Coca-Cola Israel joined us. Moshe (Mozi) Wertheim was arrogant," reminisces Low as he relates the tale. "He said we'll exploit Home Shopping's know-how, and then we'd do it better. McMullen was actually pleased, and said he thought they'd learn something from the Israelis.

"We should have won. But Shulamit Aloni was then minister of communications. I told her that I didn’t want anything because I supported Meretz. But don’t hurt me just because you know me, and you're afraid people will say that's the reason I won. In the end, another company won; one that didn’t have connections with the minister. It's hutzpah for people to think they can do better than someone who's been doing it for years."

Low talks openly about everything, including his businesses, but he declines to state how much he invests in Israel. "I don’t want my student in Israel at Heart to read that I'm talking about my money. I hatesounding nauseatingand boastful," he says apologetically.

Low is believed to have invested $10 million in various funds, including Millimetrix, of which he owns 11%; Shalom Equity Fund, under managing partner Jonathan Leitersdorf; Biosense; and Genesis Partners.

Low comes from a family of diamond merchants. He began investing in the stock market 15 years ago, followed by investments in Israel. His biography includes numerous trips to Arab countries, including Bahrain and Qatar. He established the McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) franchise in Abu Dhabi, and the American Express (NYSE:AXP) agency in Kuwait.

Low once tried to bring a group of Arab businessmen to Israel, but Baruch Goldstein's massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarch in Hebron in February 1994 put paid to the plan.

Low must now deal with much more indiamonds. "I need more money for my other interests," citing Israel at Heart and new ventures to help small businesses. "I have to wait for high-tech to mature," he adds. Low's wife also works in the diamond business, in the company managed by her brother.

Instilling Jewish pride

"Globes": Why do diamond merchants marry other diamond merchants?

Low: "We met on a blind date arranged by someone in the diamond business. The diamond community is like a family."

Low's connection with Israel began in the early 1970s, when he was a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Low volunteered to help in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. "A friend was killed in the second week of the war. I went to the shiva (mourning) at Moshav Avigdor. I cried, and his mother cried, and I knew my fate was linked to Israel's."

Low sent his four children to study in a co-ed, modern, moderate yeshiva . His oldest son, 17, talks about serving in the IDF, to the consternation of his mother, who asks if one year of voluntary service would be enough, and why should he do the full three-year obligatory service.

Low favors full obligatory service, in part for its educational value. "In America, children are so spoiled. Everything comes easy and they don’t value things. People are therefore draged into doing crazy things. We don’t have a bad life in my family, but we try to teach our children about the truly important things in life."

Three of four years ago, Low joined the board of directors of Hillel, which serves Jewish students on university campuses. "It's a kind of club for Jewish children who want to eat kosher food and to hear lectures on Jewish topics. We try to instill in them a little Jewish pride." Hillel also carries out pro-Israel public relations activities.

Low says he discovered that very little was known about Israel in US universities, even among Jewish students. "Many professors take a strong anti-Israel position. Some of them are Jews and even Israelis."

Low says that on one campus, where an ongoing battle for public opinion is being waged, "Arab students put a barricade so the students would realize how Palestinians feel at the roadblocks. One of our students from Hillel said, 'I'll wear a large raincoat with a belt of explosives underneath to show them why these roadblocks were put in place."

This incident led to the idea of sending students to US campuses to talk about Israel. The first three students toured Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and New York in April 2002. "A month later, after Operation Defensive Shield, I took two students who had fought in the Jenin battle, who said, 'I was there. We went from door to door so as not to hurt civilians, and we lost a lot of soldiers, because we were cautious."

In October 2002, 48 Israeli students were sent out. Low gave them money, and the Israeli Consulate prepared itineraries. The students traveled in groups of three across 40 states, visiting universities, high schools, and churches. This group included the first students of Ethiopian origin.

"I felt this would be a different way to reach Black students in the South," said Low. "I met with members from 100 Black Men of America and the heads of Africa-American law firms. We visited the Deep South, places without Jews, let alone Israelis."

Forget theconflict for a while

The conclusion from the October tour was to stop working with the consulates. "Some of them were wonderful, but others were too bureaucratic. As a businessman, when you want to do something, you do it. But they're also 'government'. I love working with people."

The program expanded, and hundreds of students asked to give lectures. The idea then arose to send students to Europe, too. In November, groups of three women students each went to England and Scotland, France, Geneva, Brussels, Spain, Italy, and Poland. Special care was made to send students who spoke the local language to each location.

A group of Spanish-speakers will be sent to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil in April 2004.

"When you come to a place and speak to people in German or Italian and tell them, 'My father studied in Milan,' or 'My family lived in Germany', they feel differently. We don’t try toexplain what's right and what's wrong. In the first ten minutes, the students explain who they are, where they study, and who their families are. The aim is to get to know people and forget the conflict."

Unexpectedly, someone even made an offer to buy Israel at Heart. Barbara Walters husband, Merv Adelson,who ischairman of Los Angeles-based East-West Capital Associates and active in the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance, met some of the students. Afterwards, he made a business offer.

Low says, "He rang me and said, 'We could send hundreds of students and make a great deal'. But I told him that this wasn’t a business, I know each of the students I send, and that's how I want it to stay. He then told me, 'I'll give you however much you need, but it must be under our umbrella.' I refused."

Low adds, "Meanwhile, he's gone bankrupt."

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on December 31, 2003

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