The story of a boy who grew up exponentially self-isolated from Judaism, Jewishness, and the Jewish state — until a life-changing experience at the age of 23 catapulted him to a life mission of enhancing the world’s relationship with Israel.
Israel became overly dependent on the "Startup Nation" brand, which was creatively born in 2007, but has since become stale with diminishing returns. Israel's brand must relate to a core part of who people are and how they define themselves across a variety of interest groups.
Israel’s feeble brand image is due, in large part, to the fact that non-profit organizations have largely led the charge. This is problematic because they have limited resources and are generally more interested in product-donor fit than product-market fit.
In the so-called experience economy, we need to change the way we market our country, by transitioning from a goods- and services-oriented brand (i.e. startups) to an experience-centric value proposition that synthesizes "act local" with "think global."
Startup Nation served Israel extremely well to promote its business offering and technological prowess, and today perhaps it still does. But looking down the line, within a few years, because of the pandemic changing how the world’s economies are working, it’s not enough to use the same messaging we used 10 years ago. We have to adapt ourselves to the new reality.
The future of Zionism requires for-profit leadership, complimented by our non-profit cousins. Only in this way can we truly affect the change we want to see in the world’s relationship with Israel, because we will be "forced" to create products, services, and experiences which the global masses appreciate and want more of.
There has not been a single moment in Jewish history in which there weren’t anti-Semites determined to eradicate Judaism. But the Jews did not sustain their magnificent civilization because they gave up on their history, faith, or values. They surely did not sustain it as anti-anti-Semites. They sustained it because they knew who and why they were.
The greatest change that came with the establishment of the Jewish state was that Jews became more than just a collection of individuals, communities, and fragments of communities. They became a sovereign collective in their own territory. Our ability as a collective to determine our own destiny is what grants us the tools to shape our future — no longer as a ruled people, defeated and persecuted, but as a proud people with a magnificent country and one which always aspires to serve as "Light Unto the Nations."
Read it in one sitting this morning, couldn’t put it down! So relatable and eye opening!
Wonderful! I very much enjoy your ongoing most interesting analysis of life!
Fascinating and Josh’s premises are well thought out. I hope to see more from him!
The best I’ve read in the last year.
Josh Hoffman was born in 1989 to an American mother and Hungarian father in a suburb just north of Los Angeles. He earned a B.A. in Journalism from San Diego State University in 2012, and started a client-service marketing business immediately thereafter. One year later, he incidentally moved to Tel Aviv and became an Israeli citizen. Following seven years of running his client-service business, Josh founded an Israeli TV streaming platform called IZZY in 2020, and decided to dedicate his life to enhancing the world’s relationship with Israel.
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