Written by Emily Rothstein
In my eyes, the most anticipated event of the orientation week had to be our visit to Google. Since I had arrived in Israel, I was counting down the days until we were going to Google. With that being said it very unclear as to how it had anything to do with learning how to become Jewish leaders, but throughout the visit and the high tech day as a whole, it all made sense.
We walked into Google headquarters in Tel Aviv and were immediately greeted with free soft drinks and coffee. The lobby area was oddly shaped with intricate floors; it just screamed Google. After being greeted by Avi Rosenchein, a programmer at Google, we were led into a conference to learn more about the technology and innovation of the company. The conference room itself, was on a floor that was themed like a Kibbutz. There were orange trees, carpeting that looked like wood, and a huge tractor. On the surface it seemed a bit crazy that this was in a work place but this is what helps the creative juices flowing. The uniqueness of the office is what makes Google so different. While listening to Avi, we learned about the four different sectors in Google, certain projects that Google TLV has done like live results for sports, weather, and flights, as well as putting museum artifacts online so that it is accessible to everyone. The project that stood out the most for me was the Campus TLV project.
Campus TLV brings in different startups to Google and gives them resources as well as provides them with training. Being that Google is a multibillion-dollar worldwide organization, it is safe to say they have some of the best resources for people trying to start a company. We spent a lot of the week talking about "The Start Up Nation" and conversed about why Israel, as small as it is, has some of the most successful startups in the world. Answers were based around values learned in the army as well as the fact that they cannot trade with their bordering countries, but after being at Google, the factor of community became my answer. The Jewish/Israeli community is beyond strong throughout the country. Having a common bond creates a community where everyone is there to help each other. Campus TLV is something that is unique to this Google branch and I think that directly reflects the community that is in Israel as opposed to those in other countries.
Bringing it back to why we went to Google, seeing the community in action is something that we can take to our future careers. With the knowledge that we will have and resources that Nachshon Project is providing us with, we can help train the future Jewish community the same way in which Google is helping training future entrepreneurs.
