JHUTAMID, the newest Israel-centered student group on campus, is part of an international organization that connects business-minded students with professional opportunities in Israel.
“JHUTAMID seeks to integrate the next generation of entrepreneurs and business professionals with Israel through a comprehensive education curriculum, consulting for Israeli tech companies, capital market investment research and a summer internship program,” JHUTAMID president freshman Jeremy Kaner said.
The group, which has no political or religious ties, is designed to help foster the business skills of Hopkins students through work with the Israeli financial world. Group members will work together to consult Israeli tech firms and run an investment fund that works in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
The group is affiliated with Tamid Israel Investment Group LLC, which has chapters on 24 college campuses in America, England and Israel.
“JHUTAMID’s overall mission is to develop the professional skills of undergraduate students through hands-on interaction with the Israeli economy,” Kaner said. “We accomplish this through vigorous hands-on education, consulting for major Israeli Technology companies, investing in the Tel Aviv Stock exchange and granting our members fellowships as well as internships.”
Vice President of Programming Alex Sharata said that he was attracted to JHUTAMID because of Israel’s booming tech scene, despite his lack of personal connection to the country.
“I have little-to-no experience with the Israeli economy, but the only thing I did know is how many emerging technologies are coming out of that region,” Sharata said. “It’s essentially Silicon Valley 2.0 — it has the highest density of startups in the world. I’m not Jewish; I’m not Israeli. Our organization is apolitical and areligious, so we sort of take away any of those tensions that plague that area and really focus on business.”
Kaner was inspired to found JHUTAMID by a close friend who served as the chairman of the greater Tamid organization. He hopes that his group will be able to work in concert with other local business organizations, including campus group Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations and the local group Maryland/Israel Development Center.
“[My friend] approached me a while ago about it and said that they’re at all of the Ivies and all of the top schools in America and expanded to London and Israel and so he was like to me, he said, ‘Why don’t they have one at Hopkins?’” Kaner said. “I realized from walking around campus, you have Salant [The Marshal L. Salant Student Investment Team], you have Students Consulting for Nonprofits, you have Alpha Kappa Psi... aside from those three, you have very little business-oriented clubs for students. There’s a huge demand for a business club.”
Kaner also decided to start JHUTAMID because he felt that Hopkins needed a business group that provides a new way for students to develop their business acumen. He felt that many students were frustrated by clubs which didn’t allow students to engage in a variety of professional skill-building activities.
“I sought to develop a multifaceted business ecosystem in Johns Hopkins,” Kaner said. “People always consider JHU as a school only for potential doctors, but that isn’t the case. There are hundreds of business-minded students that seek to join groups on campus every semester but have difficulty because so many groups only target specific interests. There are consulting groups, investing groups and places where you could seek to learn about finance but no one place where a student could turn to do all three.”
The critical importance of JHUTAMID, according to Kaner, is its ability to offer students the chance to work in a different country within an interdependent world economy. Kaner said that the study of the Israeli economy can also aid in the understanding of the American economy due to the close ties between the two nations.
“It is important for students to gain hands-on experience with a non-American economy because in this day and age most of the world’s economies are extremely interconnected,” Kaner said. “An economy like Israel’s, while extremely independent, is also heavily reliant on the United States for much of its capital influx. What most people don’t realize is that the U.S. is also reliant on Israel’s economy, especially in the military, pharmaceutical and biomedical fields.”
The group, which Kaner expects to be welcomed into the Tamid Israel Investment Group LLC next year, will begin accepting applications for new members in the fall.
“There are going to be rigorous interviews and you know the application is going to be pretty intense, but so far we have 23 — we’re interviewing another six or seven at the moment,” Kaner said. “[We’re looking for] really competent leadership — everyone pulls their weight, everyone does their part.”
Correction: JHUTAMID president Jeremy Kaner is a freshman, not a sophomore as previously stated.
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