TORONTO — Matan Hazanov wants to inspire business students to get involved in the Jewish community.
JBN members on a group trip to New York last year
One casino night at a time.
Hazanov, along with Adam Renkosinki and Jordan Bizouati, noticed that their Jewish classmates in York University’s Schulich School of Business weren’t engaging with the school’s Jewish community.
This is partly why, last year, the three students started the Jewish Business Network (JBN), a social organization that helps Jewish business students to network, socialize, find internships and connect to the wider Jewish community.
“Over 75 per cent of Jewish students in business are not involved in anything Jewish,” said Hazanov, JBN’s national director and a fourth-year student at Schulich.
“We realized it’s not because they don’t want to be involved, it’s because there’s a lack of incentive to be involved.”
At JBN, students are offered networking oppaortunities with successful Jewish businesspeople, social nights, Shabbat dinners and internship options.
“Business students want to succeed. One of the main ways they’ll do that is by getting internships and meeting successful businesspeople,” Hazanov said.
In addition to creating business opportunities, JBN also strives to infuse its events with Jewish values.
“Every single one of our events has Jewish educational content. Our education is largely focused on business ethics, happiness, relieving stress… A lot of these concepts can be derived from Judaism.”
And the organization has been well received. While the group started out with eight student leaders last year, they now have 40 nationally.
The organization recently launched chapters at schools including Ryerson University, The University of Western Ontario, Queen’s University, McMaster University, the University of Toronto and the University of Winnipeg.
“All we’re trying to do is inspire Jewish students to take responsibility for the Jewish community,” Hazanov said.
But running JBN isn’t an easy task. Or a cheap one. Hazanov and his peers have been fundraising and approaching private donors in the community to support the group’s events, which included a trip to New York last year.
“Every single thing costs money. I approach private donors, anyone that wants to get more involved in the Jewish community and wants to develop Jewish leaders,” he said.
Max Kalles, the founder of AutoShopit.com, sees the value in JBN.
“I decided to get involved. One of the main reasons was, when I was in university, there was no JBN. When I graduated, I found that I really didn’t know what to do,” said Kalles, who graduated from Carleton University in 2004 with a degree in international business.
“When I heard that there was an organization whose goal was giving Jewish business students an edge, I thought it was a great idea.”
Kalles spoke to members of JBN about starting a business and the importance of networking.
“I tried to instil in them the value of joining a network. I found, when running our business, the [social] network was what allowed us to be successful,” he said.
Tyler Gould, a third-year business student majoring in accounting at Ryerson University, understands the importance of networking.
“The job market, especially now, is not so good. Business is who you know, not what you know,” said Gould, president of JBN’s chapter at Ryerson, where the organization is in the process of becoming an official campus group.
Gould sees JBN as a way to spread Jewish values in business.
“We thought this would be a good way to get Jews who were uninvolved to actually care and come to events,” he said
“We wanted to show people that Jewish values [like don’t lie, cheat and steal] are relevant in business.”
For more information, visit www.thejbn.ca.
