Can entrepreneurs be made? Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur who turned academic, has just written a piece on TechCrunch that proves that indeed entrepreneurship can be taught.  

Washwa's team surveyed 549 successful entrepreneurs and found that the majority didn’t have entrepreneurial parents or even have entrepreneurial aspirations while going to school. 

So why did they become entrepreneurs?  They took this big leap because "they were tired of working for others, had a great idea they wanted to commercialize, or woke up one day with an urgent desire to build wealth before they retired."

Have an idea for a social start-up? The PresenTense Summer Institute application process has officially opened!

Apply here!

Want to learn more? Check out our website

Ynet, Israel's leading online news website, published today an exclusive "Bible Raps" clip and interview with Matt Bar and Ori Salzberg, PresenTense 08 fellows.

The clip was filmed last week in the famous 'Shuk Hakarmel' in Tel Aviv and features Matt and Ori singing the popualr song Cain and Abel: "Am I My Brother's Keeper"

 Check out the article here 

Are you at the GA?

Would you like a taste of the Challah that everyone's buzzing about?

Join PresenTense's  Fellow Eli Winkelman of Challah for Hunger for a delicious event!

Excitement is buzzing through the air as the first major preparations for the PT '10 Summer Institute has gotten under way. Steering Committee members met this past Sunday to organize and share their ideas and everyone is ready and willing to contribute their expertise. There is much work to be done but the road ahead has been set and the goal is clear; to have a strong class of Fellows that will impact the Jewish world.

Visit the Institute section of the website to check out the Steering Committee member bios.

האם אתם יזמים בנשמה?

Come hear Yossi Klein Halevi speak at PresenTense this Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 7:30. On the topic of: Toward a (Modest) Resacralization of the Jewish People

The lecture will deal with the crisis in Jewish life and thought resulting from the return of lethal anti-semitism and the collapse of the hope of Jewish normalization.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a Senior Fellow in the Shalem Center's Institute for Zionist History and Thought and the Israel correspondent of the New Republic. Halevi is the author of Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist (1995) and At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land (2001). He has been a columnist for the Jerusalem Post, a regular contributor on Israeli affairs to the Los Angeles Times, and a frequent guest on CNN and other national and international broadcast media. The 1983 documentary film, "Kaddish," directed by Steve Brand, focuses on Halevi's relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, and was named by the New York-based Village Voice as one of the ten best films of the year. Halevi is currently writing a book about the Israeli paratroopers who reunited Jerusalem in 1967.
Please RSVP at: jerusalem@presentense.org

cost: 15 Shekels

יוסי קליין הלוי הוא עמית בכיר במכון לתולדות הציונות ולהגותה וכתבו הישראלי של העיתון ניו רפבליק. הלוי הוא מחבר הספרים (Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist (1995 ו- (2001) At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden , , כותב טורים בג'רוסלם פוסט, כותב בקביעות על נושאים ישראליים בלוס אנג'לס טיימס ומתארח תדירות ב-CNN ובערוצי שידור אחרים. הסרט הדוקומנטרי "קדיש", שצולם ב-1983, בבימויו של סטיב בראנד, מתמקד ביחסים של הלוי עם אביו ניצול השואה. העיתון הניו-יורקי וילג' וויס הגדיר סרט זה כאחד מעשרת הסרטים הטובים ביותר של אותה שנה. כיום עוסק הלוי בכתיבת ספר על הצנחנים הישראלים שאיחדו את ירושלים במלחמת ששת הימים

עלות: 15 ש"ח
נא לאשר השתתפות: jerusalem@presentense.org

The PresenTense Summer Institute '10 is looking for individuals who are passionate about social change and the Jewish people to join our steering committee for this coming year.

The Steering Committee meets about twice a month and takes an active role in recruiting, fellow admissions, curriculum development and the overall planning of the Institute.

Please contact Brachie Sprung for further questions at: brachiesprung@presentense.org

Apply here:

Fill out my form!

Shanah Tovah!

For one week, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement of entrepreneurial people, to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Countries across six continents are coming together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, an initiative to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. To think big. To turn their ideas into reality. To make their mark.

From 16 - 22 November 2009, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities, from online to face-to-face, and from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings.

PresenTense is going to be a partner in Global Entrepreneurship Week, and were looking for ideas from our commuinity about the types of programs and events we should run at the Jerusalem Hub and around the world during this week.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and thoughts!

Please send your ideas and suggestions to Brachie Sprung at: brachiesprung@presetense.org

My experience as a PT Fellow this summer gave me much more than I realized I might receive when I first applied to the fellowship.  I knew that I was signing up for the basics of learning how to intelligently run a Jewish-start-up, but I had no idea the extent of connections and social resources that PT would be able to provide me.  At the most central level PT fully helped me to creatively construct, analyze, critique, and reconstruct a variety of schema that are critical to running any organization: business plans, market analysis, product development, and budget considerations, etc. 

The summer taught me how to consider these components of a healthy project or effort and likewise helped me to realize how much more work and development each of them would constantly need.  Aside from learning how to create these core components for Kehillah Solutions, PresenTense also provided with me with an incredible network of business and non-profit professionals as well as academics, many of whom provided me with much appreciated time, insight, and guidance in how to best lead my venture.

It is PresenTense's impressive network that has also led me to have on-going support in the development of Kehillah Solutions as individuals throughout the PT network have heard of my venture and have reached out to Kehillah Solutions to support it in a variety of ways.  Currently I am meeting with many of these individuals and more to develop the layout for our first pilot within the next 6 months.  The pieces are falling into place thanks to the framework within which the Institute placed me. 

I am very thankful for the enormous amount of connections, skills, and experience that the summer fellowship provided me.