Washington Jewish Week: Israel finds home in Md.
10/3/2012 3:18:00 PM–”Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match,” goes the famous Fiddler on the Roof refrain. And making shidduchim is exactly what one local organization is doing. But the matches aren’t between man and woman. They’re between companies in Israel and companies here in Maryland.
The Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC) will showcase some of its best work at an event next week, In Our Own Backyard. Ten to 15 of Maryland’s 20 Israeli-owned companies will be present to talk about their technologies. A poster session, an Israeli wine tasting and a keynote address by technology entrepreneur, investor and author Roni Einav will complete the evening.
Barry Bogage, MIDC executive director, said this is the second year the MIDC is hosting such an event.
“We have been hosting delegations of Israeli entrepreneurs every year for the past 10 years,” he said, referencing the organization’s MarketReach American program. “We thought we should give the Israeli companies that are already here exposure to the Maryland business community.”
Last year, a deal was signed following In Our Own Backyard between one Israeli medical device company and the Veterans Administration.
The event comes just one month after the grand opening of Elta North America in its new facility in Fulton. MIDC helped broker that deal last spring. Elta North America is a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.; the company plans to create 100 new high-technology jobs over the next four years.
On hand to participate in the Elta event were Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin and the Israel ambassador to the United States Michael Oren.
The opening of Elta in Fulton, said Mikulski in a statement, “shows the partnership between the United States and our strong ally Israel.”
Why Israel? Barry Bogage has been trying to tell the local business community the answer to that question for nearly 20 years. The MIDC, a public-private partnership of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, helps to create jobs in both communities by promoting trade and investment. It also serves as a window behind Israel’s political headlines…Read More>>
