{"id":17275,"date":"2016-02-19T00:11:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T08:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=17275"},"modified":"2016-02-18T23:45:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T07:45:49","slug":"jnf-inspires-entrepreneur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/02\/19\/jnf-inspires-entrepreneur\/","title":{"rendered":"JNF inspires entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent Blue Box packages have included artisanal jams from Bustan Confiture. Each month, the featured products change. (photo from Emily Berg)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are many ways to support Israel and Israeli businesses. A new concept, Blue Box Israel, connects artisan Israelis with Israel supporters abroad.<\/p>\n

Blue Box Israel is the brainchild of Emily Berg, 29. Born and raised in Toronto in a secular, Zionist Jewish household, Berg made aliyah in 2012. In her first three years in Israel, she worked in fundraising and as a strategic consultant for several different nongovernmental organizations. It was during Operation Protective Edge (Tzuk Eitan<\/em>) in 2014 that she saw a need for Blue Box.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fianc\u00e9 was called to reserve duty and was basically gone from the first until the 40th and final day,\u201d Berg told the Independent.<\/em> \u201cIt was a very quiet period. People were not going out much. And, it was the first time I was able to really reflect on my life, purpose and future here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo
Emily Berg, founder and chief executive officer of Blue Box Israel. (photo from Emily Berg)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Berg received daily emails, calls and messages from friends and family abroad, asking how they could help.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day, my mother forwarded me an email she had received urging her to \u2018buy Israeli products from the south,\u2019\u201d said Berg. \u201cAll of the links were either broken or led to Judaica sites that didn\u2019t have the capacity to ship abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving spent years here, I knew that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of great businesses in the south that could benefit from this type of transaction. I realized that Israel\u2019s supporters want to buy products from Israel, but that there was not really any way to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Jewish National Fund\u2019s blue and white tzedakah box etched into her mind since childhood, Berg saw it as a \u201cportal to Israel.\u201d In a similar vein, she wanted to give people around the world an opportunity to connect with small Israeli businesses and support them by buying their products.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to call it Blue Box, not in any way meant to be in competition with JNF; rather, to pay respect to this important artifact,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few months and the Blue Box concept developed into a subscription-based model, wherein customers pay a fixed price and receive a monthly package from Israel, with each focused on a different vendor.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlue Box is about giving Israel\u2019s supporters a monthly taste of Israel, sending them high-quality, innovative and unique products, and giving them a chance to support a variety of hand-picked Israeli vendors,\u201d said Berg.<\/p>\n

Each box includes a postcard with the vendor\u2019s story on it, written by Berg. \u201cFor me, Blue Box is first and foremost about supporting small business in Israel, but it\u2019s also about sharing Israel\u2019s treasures \u2013 its products and its people \u2013 with my customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berg is constantly searching for suppliers and personally visits the site of each business that she chooses to feature \u2013 whether it\u2019s a farm, a studio or a home office. She enjoys seeing how and where the products are made, and speaking with the business owners and workers. These interactions help her get a sense of the business\u2019 culture when writing the postcards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, I have decided not to work with particular vendors, because I was not satisfied with the level of cleanliness or even the conditions of the workers,\u201d said Berg. \u201cWhether the business is run ethically is very important to me. I choose businesses with interesting stories behind them. I choose products that are well-made, suit the price point, and meet weight and customs requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main thing for Berg is to send innovative, artisanal products (often organic or handmade) as opposed to just sending Bamba or random Judaica. And her focus is on products from Israeli-owned companies.<\/p>\n

As the founder and chief executive officer of Blue Box, Berg has a wide network of support, most notably, a mentor via Keren-Shemesh, an organization that helps young entrepreneurs in their first two years of business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also have a team of Israeli student interns from the Ruppin Academic Centre who help me with marketing, PR and social media,\u201d said Berg. \u201cMost people hear about the business, are so excited about it, and just want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many different companies that send gift baskets from Israel, mostly for the holidays, i.e. kosher items for Rosh Hashanah or Pesach. There are also a few subscription businesses in Israel that ship makeup samples or promotional items. Berg says that Blue Box is different because she features one handpicked vendor each month and includes not only a selection of their products but also their story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is literally bursting at the seams with innovation, creativity, craft and talent,\u201d she said. \u201cUsing fresh ingredients, high-quality materials and unique design methods, there are literally thousands of small businesses scattered throughout the country, tucked away in little-known moshavim or small studios.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese businesses, of course, don\u2019t necessarily have access to the global market, nor do they have the capacity to ship abroad. We work with small businesses, family businesses, kibbutzim, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, social businesses, NGOs and much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent boxes have included items such as artisanal jams (from Bustan Confiture), honey (from Kibbutz Ein Herod), spices (from Derech HaTavlinim), organic soap and shampoo (from Arugot Habosem), hand-woven baskets (from Kuchinate, the African Refugee Women\u2019s Collective), organic olive oil (from Rish Lakish) and organic dried fruits (from Kibbutz Neot Semadar).<\/p>\n

The boxes are packaged at a space in southern Tel Aviv. They are shipped at the beginning of each month, and Canadian customers can expect them to arrive within 10 business days after shipping (around the middle of a month). During months with a Jewish or Israeli holiday, Berg takes special care to ensure the packages arrive on time.<\/p>\n

Purchasing a one-time box will run you $50 (including taxes and shipping). If you choose to subscribe \u2013 and customers can cancel at anytime \u2013 the price drops. For a three-month plan, it\u2019s $46\/month, for a six-month plan, $40\/month, and, for a 12-month plan, $36\/month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ship a different box each month,\u201d said Berg, and \u201ceveryone receives the same box that month. So, for example, every January, a subscriber will receive organic desert-grown dates, raisins and fruit leather from Kibbutz Neot Semadar for Tu b\u2019Shevat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Blue Box to become a household name and something that hundreds of thousands if not millions of subscribers look forward to each month. Eventually, I would like to create an online shuk<\/em> [market] to sell and ship Israeli goods abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, visit blueboxisrael.com<\/a> or the blog at blueboxisrael.wordpress.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent Blue Box packages have included artisanal jams from Bustan Confiture. Each month, the featured products change. (photo from Emily Berg) There are many ways to support Israel and Israeli businesses. A new concept, Blue Box Israel, connects artisan Israelis with Israel supporters abroad. Blue Box Israel is the brainchild of Emily Berg, 29. Born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[5354,3851,1200,5355,4330],"class_list":["post-17275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-blue-box","tag-business","tag-diaspora","tag-emily-berg","tag-israel"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}