Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

‘Start-Up Nation’ Dumps Israel for Big Apple

Joey Low, an American-Jewish businessman, does not hide the fact that he is nuts about Israel. He took part in funding the reality-TV program “Hashagrir” ‏(“The Ambassador”‏), and has participated in the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center’s Elevator project, which aspires to promote young entrepreneurs. Now he is taking things to the next level. He has rented office space in the center of Manhattan and is looking for Israeli startups that are taking their first steps at marketing their products in the United States. The deal is simple: free work space in return for shares in the company.

So far, Low has invested in 15 Israeli startups since last month − some $200,000 in each − and he’s on the lookout for additional prospects. He explains that his incubator, Star Farm Ventures, is not a charity. “I believe that these companies have a [good] chance to go forward and succeed,” he says. “I am convinced this will contribute to improving Israel’s image and good name. We focus exclusively on Israeli companies, because we believe in Israeli high-tech. There are those who say that Israeli companies coming to work in America should work in an American environment, around other American firms, but I think Israeli companies can benefit from being in a work environment surrounded by other Israeli companies. We will give the Israeli companies access to the American network, and we will expose them to a variety of American businessmen who can help them.”

Lior Aharoni represents the first Israeli company to use Low’s incubator for their New York business operations. He is the cofounder and CEO of EQuala, which developed a social radio app for music-sharing. He met Low by way of the IDC Elevator program ‏(Low is on its board of directors‏).

For more, go to Haaretz

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.