Wartime plight of Israel’s small businesses should resonate strongly with Floridians | Commentary

Since October 7, the warm ties between South Florida and Israel have grown even closer — including our support of Israeli small business owners at a moment when their needs have reached historic levels.

Small and midsize enterprises (businesses with less than 100 employees) drive the Israeli economy, as they comprise 99.8% of the businesses in Israel, per the OECD. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Israel’s reputation as the “start-up nation,” with innovative entrepreneurs building successful ventures from the ground up.

This narrative should sound familiar in the Sunshine State. Small businesses also make up 99.8% of all businesses in Florida, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, employing 3.6 million people (41% of the state’s workforce).

Here in Palm Beach County, our community is home to a significant number of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, small business owners, and current or former CEOs. Our community understands the value of hard work, determination, and innovation. And today, we can all relate to the plight of Israel’s small business owners in a very tangible way.

For Israeli small businesses, the situation is dire. SparkIL, a peer-to-peer lending platform that enables individuals across the Jewish world to support the Israeli small business of their choice, has reported an astronomical 483% increase in applications for business loans since October 7. Small businesses are experiencing a severe personnel shortage given the 360,000 reserves called up by the Israel Defense Forces for the ongoing conflict with Hamas. Meanwhile, many businesses in industries such as tourism have been closed or have pivoted to tending to the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes across the country.

Given the immense challenges facing small businesses, Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County identified this area as a primary way we could provide a meaningful response to the crisis in Israel. Accordingly, we created a partnership with SparkIL. Established in 2022 in partnership with The Jewish Agency for Israel and The Ogen Group, SparkIL, is a first-of-its-kind platform that enables users to participate in crowdfunding interest-free loans which make a real measurable and continuous impact for Israeli business owners. For a loan as small as $25, Floridians can support Israeli small businesses at this time when economic conditions are creating an unprecedented strain on their operations.

Powered by our community’s generous contributions to Federation, we provided SparkIL with a $200,000 grant that enables the organization to hire more professionals for processing loans. The domino effect of this support is clear and powerful. When SparkIL has more personnel to process loans, the loans can reach small business owners faster. The businesses, in turn, can remain open and pay their employees. When Israelis stay employed, they can support their basic needs as well as the needs of their families. It provides the Israeli people and the country’s economy with much-needed breathing room until the current crisis abates.

Ultimately, given our community’s unwavering commitment to the people of Israel, we are proud to make a direct difference during this distressing time for our Jewish homeland. What could be more important than maintaining your paycheck and putting food on the table? It is our hope that once the war is in the rearview mirror, the small businesses that are struggling at this time can reassume their role as the primary drivers of a prosperous Israeli economy.

Michael Hoffman is the President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County.