Ben Yehuda Mall

WELCOME!

Shop Israel in your hometown!

Israeli products shopping fairs in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, and Australia/New Zealand can help Israeli merchants and manufacturers survive during this period of decreased tourism.

Interested in participating? If so, welcome aboard!

How did these fairs get started?

ActionIsrael, a Denver-based grassroots group of Jews and Christians who seek concrete ways to assist Israel in the current crisis, realized that tourists were unlikely to travel in large numbers to Israel during the current violence. We decided that if many of us were not going to go there, we at least could arrange a way that tourist shopping could be brought to the diaspora.

ActionIsrael launched the Ben Yehuda Mall concept with a first shopping festival February 3, 2002. The idea came to us in response to a phone call from the owners of Ghatan & Sons, a store on Ben Yehuda Mall, after bombings on the mall left them with weeks of virtually zero sales. A wide swatch of Denver organizations participated as sponsors, that is, as groups who added their name to our flyers and agreed to send information about the event via email to their membership lists.

The success of this event, and of a second shopping event in conjunction with Israel Independence Day several months later on April 21, 2002, stunned us all. Organizers hoped to attract at least a few hundred buyers. Instead, at the first event crowds estimated at over 3000 people showed up. Even more shoppers came to the second. Excited shoppers bought many thousands of dollars of goods from Israel—and, in a giving mood, donated generously also to the multiple Israeli charities that were given free tables at the festivals.

For a small volunteer-only grassroots organization like ActionIsrael to be able to pour over $100,000 into Israel's economy was an outcome that far exceeded any of our wildest aspirations. Most importantly, the bulk of that money went to the highest form of charity--helping merchants, artisans, and small manufacturers to earn a living, to stay in business in spite of terrorism's crushing economic impacts.

Word of the Ben Yehuda Mall event spread quickly, thanks especially to articles in www.israelnationalnews.com, in the Jerusalem Report, and in Hadassah Magazine. Now synagogues, JCC’s, and community groups are organizing similar fairs all across America and Canada. We hope you will consider organizing a fair, or a series of fairs, in your community!

Ben Yehuda Mall Israel Shopping Fairs
* strengthen Israel with money and moral support
* strengthen ties between diaspora communities and Israel
* strengthen the diaspora communities that host them.

Would you like to host a Ben Yehuda Mall or other Israeli goods shopping event in your community?

If so, please click Info for Organizers and Getting Started to focus you on key initial decisions, and to orient you to the range of information on this site.

Are you an Israeli merchant, artist or artisan, or small manufacturer who would like to participate?

If so, we at ActionIsrael are glad to do what we can to help you. There is no charge for our services.

* We will list your name, contact information, and other information you give us on our vendor list. Fair organizers can obtain our list by emailing to us at IsraelFairs@hotmail.com. That way organizers of fairs in other cities can find out about you.
* We can include the name of your website, if you have one, on our vendor list and also on our Click and Shop to help web shoppers to find you.

To get started please click SIGN UP and then VENDOR.
* Be sure you include your website if you have one.
* At the bottom of the Vendor sign up form there is a box for giving us additional information that will help host organizations to appreciate what you have to offer. Add as much information about you and your merchandise here as you would like.