Live in Jerusalem, Work in Jerusalem

By David Wiseman

Israel is known as the start-up nation and when people think of that they associate Israel with Tel Aviv and Herzliya. Yet Jerusalem?? Not so much. The symbol of Israel’s eternal capital city is the Old City Walls, which is a representation of something that is thousands and thousands of years old. However, despite the fact that Jerusalem is the holiest city in the Jewish religion and Israel’s eternal capital, it is a struggle for many people to find jobs within the Holy City.

So what do professionals who live in Jerusalem do so that they can continue to be employed yet not give up the Zionist dream of living within the center of the Jewish world? They face a long and arduous commute to the Mercaz (center) and back, a commute which takes about an hour and a half if not more by bus. This is exhausting and draining but people make sacrifices for their career and their ideals.

Kahena Digital Marketing is an SEO company in Jerusalem that is trying to create a hi-tech vibe in Jerusalem so that people can work close to home and not feel like they’re sacrificing their career. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization – helping websites rank better in Google for their keywords to increase traffic and assist with conversions. As websites take more and more of a hold over our everyday life, their performance is going to become more significant.

Not having that commute to deal with twice a day makes a massive difference but it’s more important than that. If you are faced with having to travel back and forth three hours a day, the most effective way to deal with it is to move. The consequences of this are a massive exodus to Tel Aviv, which adversely affects the Zionist dream of having Jews live in their eternal and ancient capital city with a history dating back to antiquity.

However, Israel’s capital city is not the only major city that deals with this problem. This situation is already the case in places such as New York and London where the surrounding regions are sucked dry of those in their 20s and 30s, just because young people don’t want to be forced to do such a horrible commute daily. This creates a domino effect. Less people living within a city means less people spending and restaurants and the like suffer as there are less people buying things.

Present high real estate prices within Jerusalem already implies that many people are leaving Jerusalem for other locations, because they are unable to afford the high cost of living in Jerusalem, especially if it is combined with an atrocious commute. If this gets out of control, you will have a situation where Jerusalem becomes the domain of the retired, the tourists, the diplomats, and the politicians. So it’s essential that more and more businesses set up shop in Jerusalem for them doing so is critical for the future of the city as well as the Zionist dream.

David Wiseman works at Kahena Digital Marketing. He can be reached at david@kahenadigital.com or on twitter @daw1975.

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