Jewish Link: The NJ-Israel Commission: Strengthening Economic Ties and Celebrating 75 Years of Friendship
Insights 
Dror Futter · June 26, 2023
In this article published by the Jewish Link, Rimon Partner and newly appointed New Jersey-Israel Commission member, Dror Futter, discusses how the Commission is focused on strengthening the relationship between New Jersey and Israel, with a particular emphasis on scaling up economic collaborations.
The State of Israel has a well-deserved and widely known reputation as the Startup Nation. Over the last few years, however, the focus has shifted to make Israel the Scale-Up Nation. In other words, not just launching awesome companies, but building them into large, mature companies that employ many more people and become engines of economic growth.
That is a good metaphor for the rapidly developing New Jersey-Israel relationships. As Israel celebrates its 75th birthday, the ties between the two run equally as long. In fact, a recent Times of Israel article reported that an Irvington synagogue was the storing ground for weapons smuggled to the new Jewish state.
Fortunately, the ties are no longer in the shadows, as state political leaders have embraced the relationship as a true win-win. Under the leadership of Governor Phil Murphy and Secretary of State Tahesha Way, the state is actively working to scale up the relationship. In March, Choose New Jersey, the state’s leading nonprofit economic development organization, opened a new office in Tel Aviv. The New Jersey Israel Center will grow commercial, academic and cultural collaborations with Israel and support Israeli businesses looking to expand to New Jersey.
The numbers tell the two-way scale-up story:
Since the beginning of data being tracked in 2003, Israeli investment in New Jersey is valued at approximately $551 million, which has led to the creation of 1,900 jobs.
New Jersey-Israel total trade volume from 2021 to 2022 increased substantially by 11% from $1.55 billion to $1.72 billion. This is well above the average trade between New Jersey and other countries, which increased by 1.9% last year.
New Jersey exports to Israel saw growth in 2022 of 8.5% from $461 million to $500 million.
Israeli imports to New Jersey in 2022 increased by 12% from approximately $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion.
New Jersey maintained its second-place rank in attracting 25% of foreign direct investment from Israel in the Northeast.
Dror Futter focuses his practice on startup companies and their investors, and has worked with a wide range of technology companies. His fifteen years’ experience as in-house counsel includes positions with Vidyo, Inc., a venture-backed videoconferencing company, and New Venture Partners, a venture fund focused on corporate spinouts. Prior to that, Mr. Futter was Counsel to the CIO of Lucent Technologies, as well as supporting parts of its sourcing organization. Read more here.
