Webinar: Women in Israel's High-Tech Sector | Apr. 2

Israel is well-known as a high-tech powerhouse, but for more than a decade, industry growth has been outpacing the domestic supply of skilled professionals creating a labor shortage that is pushing the industry off-shore. At the same time, Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up nearly 21% of the population, are the focus of national efforts to bring them into Israel’s advanced professions. Arab women, especially, are the most underrepresented in Israel’s workforce and are seen as key to closing economic gaps for Arab society. 

What is the business case for workforce diversity in tech? What does it take for an Arab woman to be part of the “Start-Up Nation?” Together Ifat and Sireen will share insights, both professional and personal, into Israel’s efforts to integrate its Arab citizens into the high-tech sector.

Join the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and NextGen of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia on April 2 for a webinar to explore these questions and hear from two barrier-breaking women in the high-tech industry, Ifat Baron, Founder and CEO of Itworks, and Sireen Nijeem, Arab high-tech engineer about efforts to integrate Arab into to Israel’s most important industry and the personal journey of an Arab woman who broke through the barriers and is now a role model to others. 

Event Details:
Thursday, April 2nd 
12:00pm EST
LEARN MORE and REGISTER HERE

About the speakers

Ifat Baron is an innovator and social entrepreneur dedicated to promoting the occupational and economic development of disenfranchised populations. In 2006, Ifat founded Itworks, a non-profit dedicated to promoting employment diversity in Israel's booming high-tech sector, via training and job placement of Arab citizens, ultra-Orthodox Jews, women, people with disabilities and more. Ifat is the recipient of Hadassah's Bernice Tannenbaum Prize in 2012, and International Alliance for Women's World of Difference Award for her work promoting economic justice and equality for women and girls in Israel in 2013.

Sireen Nijeem, Itworks alumni from Jadeide-Makr, an Arab village in the north of Israel. She holds a B.S.E in Industrial Engineering from the Technion, making her the first female engineer in her village. Since graduating, Sireen has utilized the assistance and support from Itworks to advance her career, such as employment coaching, preparation for job interviews, CV writing and more. Sireen has been the first Arab professional in every company at which she has worked. Sireen did her internship at Procter & Gamble, continued as an analyst at L'Oréal Paris, and is currently working at a very successful startup, Solar Edge. Today, she is developing her own start-up with three female Arab engineers and is working to help more Arab women follow her lead.