Morris Katz, who is listed in Guinness World Records as the world’s fastest artist, with 15-year-old Moise Beda of Brooklyn, who purchased one of his paintings at the July 14 Jewish Business to Business Expo in Edison.
Photos by Debra Rubin
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Josh Pruzansky of Highland Park, left, director of Agudath Israel of New Jersey, speaks with Joel Paul of Edison, who runs a Manhattan executive search firm, at the expo.
July 21, 2009
Under normal circumstances, an event like the Jewish Business to Business Expo and Conference would draw legions of business owners and executives looking to network with each other.
However, in a week when New Jersey’s jobless rate hit its highest point in 32 years, some of those attending the July 14 expo at the Holiday Inn in Edison’s Raritan Center came looking to connect with prospective employers.
Albert Goldberg of Ocean Township stood near the booth for his Brooklyn and Lakewood-based property investment company. He said that as many as half of those who approached him were job seekers.
“I’m here to network, but a lot of people here are looking for work,” said Goldberg. “I was surprised that many people were looking for jobs.”
Representatives of the Orthodox Union, at a booth demonstrating the OU Job Board, handed out literature and answered questions. The Job Board was launched two years ago and has expanded since, said Sarah Dushey, assistant to the project’s director.
There was an active exchange of contact information as business people from throughout the New York-New Jersey area wandered through aisles lined with booths selling fax machines, business cards, credit card processing, and green office products. Others represented law, real estate, and insurance firms and other businesses.
Seminars offered tips on doing business with the federal government, opportunities in a distressed real estate market, and Jewish law and ethical business practices.
“We have to show the world we do answer to a higher standard,” said Rabbi Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, who spoke at one seminar.
Shaule Wassertheil, president of the Brooklyn-based Shaule Events Marketing — which staged the expo — said this was the first time he had put on a business expo in New Jersey. He runs Jewish expos dealing with such areas as camping, organizational fund-raising, and Israeli real estate.
“This was the best show I’ve ever had,” he said. “I had 60 different exhibitors, and men and women from all over. I even met a couple of people who drove up from Baltimore for this.”
Joel Paul of Edison said he is beginning to detect an upswing in the employment picture at his firm, Joel H. Paul & Associates in Manhattan, which conducts executive searches for nonprofits.
“The field is starting to return,” said Paul. “I’m starting to see more and more hiring and job orders. I think we’re beginning to move slowly forward in the unemployment situation.”
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