Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce aims to help sell the human element

Small Business Alliance launched in the Five Towns

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After opening Small Business Alliance chapters in New Jersey and Queens, the Manhattan-based Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce recently came to Lawrence and launched a Five Towns chapter of the networking group.

Headed by New Jersey resident Duvi Honig, the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce serves as a bridge for businesses of all sizes to connect with grassroots entrepreneurs, government officials and professionals from many industries.

The chamber evolved from the Parnassah Network, which was founded by Honig during the economic downturn of 2008-09. Seeing many friends and business associates struggling because they lost their jobs and income, Honig wanted to help them restart their careers or find new ones. The network remains a division of the chamber.

“We’re looking to empower people and build economic development,” Honig said at a networking event at the Lawrence Yacht & Country Club on Jan. 10. “We want people to use their skills as leaders not to make mistakes,” he said, adding that the chamber uses its muscle to help influence public policy and has been at the forefront of battling the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that pushes colleges, companies and governments to stop doing business with Israel and to curtail the importation of Israeli products to the United States.

J. Morton Davis, of Lawrence, serves as the chamber’s chairman. A respected Wall Street investor, Davis is the Davis in Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys in Woodmere (his sons-in-law are Renov and Stahler), and he was behind obtaining the land from the state for the Sh’or Yoshuv Institute in Lawrence.

Davis said he jumped on board as the chamber chairman because he was “inspired and impressed” by Honig. “He sacrifices his time and does wonderful work,” Davis said. “It’s the highest form of charity. He spends his whole life doing good things.”

Jan Quibir is an assistant vice president and branch manager of the People’s United Bank in the Stop & Shop supermarket on Burnside Avenue in Inwood. He said that becoming a member of the chamber and attending its events has been “great for my business.” “A lot of people come into the store and shop, and we are looking to make them customers,” Quibir said. “Being a part of this is very empowering.”

Bill Tingling, president and chief executive officer of Tour for Universal Tolerance, connected with Honig and is hoping to get his Children’s Mobile Humanity Museum going. It’s a bus that brings tolerance education, which includes Holocaust survivors, to schoolchildren across New York City.

Right now there is a prototype bus, and Tingling envisions a fleet of buses bringing the program to more than 100 schools and 50,000 children, free of charge. “I met Duvi at a chamber meeting, and he pushed me to get moving on this thing,” Tingling said. “He is so selfless. He’s calling and connecting us to people.”

Keynote speaker Kivi Bernhard connected trust, honesty and integrity — tenets of Judaism, he said — as attributes expected to be seen in business and relationships with other people. His advice for business people: “You are not selling a product. You are selling the human element.”

Honig said that the local Small Business Alliance groups meet once a month. “We are looking to have a ripple effect,” he said. “We want the networking to have value.”

For more information, or to register for the next Five Towns alliance meeting on Feb. 19, go to www.ojchamber.com.