Shopping to support Israel

Now that’s something I can get behind!

By Elianna Mintz Perez

My parents taught me the importance of giving to charity from an early age, but they emphasized the most important donation I could give is my time.

Despite my father running his own business, he spent weekends and free time visiting nursing homes and hospitals, taking elderly community members to movies and plays, visiting public schools and churches to teach about the Holocaust, and even being an assistant coach to a Little League team. My mother had five kids in eight years — or, as she would correct me, seven-and-three-quarter years — yet she always volunteered in classrooms and offered her occupational therapy skills to children in the community who needed help but whose parents couldn’t afford it.

So, when I received a call from Rochelle Zupnik, the sister of my mom’s childhood friend, asking if I’d be willing to help a pro-Israel organization she was working with, I immediately said “Yes.”

The American Communities Helping Israel (ACHI) is an online market where 150+ Israel-based vendors can find new customers worldwide. The nonprofit acts as a counterpunch to the BDS movement with a slogan that says it all: Think Israel. Buy Israeli.

Suzanne Weilgus founded ACHI in 2004 after the Second Intifada. She had organized “Ben Yehuda Fairs” in New York and New Jersey to help Israeli merchants whose businesses were suffering from the lack of tourism. Vendors who traveled to the U.S. to sell their products told her they sold more in four hours at those fairs than they had in two years.

She recruited friends, Rochelle Zupnik, Gloria Gordon, Tova Taragin, Dr. Lynda Zentman and Marcia Wagner, who found her inspiration and enthusiasm contagious. Through ACHI, they promoted Israeli products in stores, synagogues and throughout the community. Their goal was to instill a love of Israel in the hearts and minds of this and future generations.

When COVID-19 hit, they saw that Israeli businesses were suffering once again. And that’s when ACHI went virtual.

The team enlisted the help of website designer Stephen Plotsker to create the ACHI Market, which enables customers to support Israeli businesses even when they can’t physically travel there.

It was around that time that Zupnik reached out to gauge my interest in becoming their newest volunteer. They needed help with strategy, marketing, social media and spreading word about the online market.

She also explained another part of the ACHI initiative, the KLEE Campaign. KLEE stands for “Klee L’ezrat Yisroel,” a vessel to help Israel. The idea is to encourage people to have a dedicated vessel filled with products from Israel. The ACHI team runs events in schools and synagogues to encourage children to make their own dedicated plate, bowl or platter to fill with Israeli goods. It’s a constant reminder in every home of an easy and practical way to support Israel.

What I love about ACHI — and what made it so easy to say yes to Zupnik’s request — is that they are not asking for money but, rather, provide feasible actions for people to take in support of Israel. Through ACHI, you’re not giving charity, but acquiring items you actually want.

The current ACHI Market categories include Judaica, art, cosmetics, fashion, food, gift stores, jewelry, photos, toys and wines of Israel. One section offers customers the option to purchase Israeli goods online to be delivered to friends and family living in Israel.

Volunteering is something I’ve been taught my whole life, but shopping to support Israel, that’s something I’ve been training for my whole life. And now, it’s something each of you can do as well through the ACHI market.

Think Israel. Buy Israeli. Shop www.ACHI613.org.

By the way, any vendor based in Israel who sells a product online and is interested in being included in the ACHI Market can email contact@ACHI613.org. All vendors need to join the market, an e-commerce website in English, and have the ability to ship goods to customers in the U.S. and Canada.

After spending the past 1½ years traveling the world during the pandemic, Elianna Mintz Perez resides in Miami, Florida. She is a former CBS News producer and currently volunteers for ACHI while also running her own travel planning and production business, Elianna Mintz Productions. She can be reached on Instagram, @aroundtheworldincoronadays, or via email, eliannasmintz@gmail.com.