[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE] “This will be a turning point in our community’s history.”
Reb Duvi Honig, founder and director of the Parnassah Network organization, minces no words when discussing next week’s Dinner Panorama and Business Networking Event at Lake Terrace Hall in Lakewood. “It will determine whether or not men and women in our communities can continue enjoying an address that helps them advance in parnassah, from A to Z,” he adds.
The event, to be held on Wednesday, June 26th, promises to be both exciting and crucial. It will feature a lavish food presentation by a host of Lakewood caterers and restaurants, as well as a two hour business networking session will commence the event, followed by an intriguing program featuring addresses by Harav Malkiel Kotler, shlita, Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Mr. Charles Harary, and others.
But most of all, this is the four-year-old organization’s first public fundraising event, and comes at a crossroads in its financial viability. Time flies, but a lot has happened since Reb Duvi Honig opened the Lakewood Learn and Network Kollel during the height of the economic crisis in 2009. He hasn’t stopped innovating, creating and defying all the odds. Reb Duvi’s founding concept of bringing klal Yisroel’s members and resources together to help breadwinners find dignity and success has expanded in a growing number of diverse, far reaching branches.
At this juncture, in addition to the vibrant Learn and Network Kollel, the organization has organized an annual Parnassah Expo drawing thousands upon thousands of attendees; set up an online job board with new job openings daily; networked with various job placement organizations and corporations; arranged for structured networking sessions for men and women; offered a slew of seminars, in addition to free individual coaching and mentoring; instituted vocational courses in various promising fields; set up a venture capital service to match entrepreneurs with investors; and more. Parnassah Network’s latest projects in the works include the publication of Business Network magazine and the Business Halacha Kollel night seder program for business related halachos.
As such, Parnassah Network’s baseline budget – office, staff, public outreach, technical support, Kollel, etc. – has reached $500,000 a year. Special projects pose additional expenses. Next year’s Parnassah Expo, for instance, will iy”H be a two day event in a gigantic 120,000 square foot exposition hall, twice the size of this year’s highly successful event at the Meadowlands Exposition Center. The costs associated with arranging the event – which can once again help thousands of individuals and businesses find jobs, resources, customers, contacts, etc. – are close to $1 million, and the project is already underway.
Parnassah Network’s hallmark is the fact that it caters to everyone in klal Yisroel, regardless of where they live or their income status. The vast majority of services are made available to the public at no cost. The select Parnassah Network services – such as Parnassah Expo and vocational courses – that are charged for, are arranged so that the charges are minimal and affordable to all, often below cost price.
There is no family in our community that does not benefit from one or more Parnassah Network service – from kollel yungerman or unemployed individual to successful entrepreneur. We cannot appreciate how many happy families around us are only filled with smiles due to their breadwinners having directly gained from a Parnassah Network service to find a job, or build or improve a their business. “Wherever I go,” Reb Duvi relates, “random people come over to tell how they, or a friend or relative found a job, a top customer, or a major contract, due to our services.”
Much of Parnassah Network’s success stories fly below the radar – as well they should. But the continuation down this path requires a solid contribution from the public. “I have always had faith in the klal,” Reb Duvi concludes, “and I urge the oilam to reaffirm my faith by purchasing an ad in our journal and participating in the Dinner Panorama to their maximum ability.”
The Dinner and its journal ad deadline are fast approaching For more information about the Dinner Panorama and Networking Event click here http://www.learnandnetwork.com/dinner-panorama.html or call 732-987-7704 / email [email protected]
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One Response
“”.. because up till now I was giving the business and Parnosoh to Goyim, and now I see that there are many Yidden that can do the same thing..”
Is this kind of talk ethically right in the eyes of the Creator Hashem Yisborach?
How would we feel, if Non-Yidden would make a convention with the goal being, transferring jobs and business, away from Yidden to Non-Yidden?.
Halevei we should understand the real things that can get HKB”H upset Ch”V.