Website builder Wix helps unite the world’s support for Israel
Since 7 October, the leading tech company has built and supported over 180 websites for a variety of war-related charitable, social and humanitarian causes
In the days after the Hamas terror attacks, website builder Wix, used by hundreds of millions of people, has allocated extra resources and team members to ensure it was able to help individuals and groups to build websites for war-related voluntary, assistance and awareness initiatives.
Since 7 October, Wix – one of Israel’s most successful tech companies – has built and supported over 180 websites for a variety of war-related charitable, social and humanitarian causes.
Many of them are listed on www.wix4swordsofiron.com – a dedicated website launched by Wix within days after the war broke out. Among them are The World Union of Jewish Students, Stand With Israel and a website dedicated to eye-witness accounts from the Hamas massacre, plus dozens more volunteering, fundraising, international advocacy and support initiatives.
Wix’s head of government relations manager Michal Sarig-Kaduri told Jewish News: “As soon as the war broke out, we were receiving requests to build websites, as well as our own employee initiatives which started.”
She added: “I didn’t expect the number of requests we were getting to be so high.
“For a community to come together, not only processing what they are going through, but to build a website while they are still healing. The value of these websites is un thought of.”
Wix is now working on a website that will serve as a place for families of those who were kidnapped, and now released, to privately store all the footage that tells the story of the struggle and efforts to bring them back.
Michal is also the head of the Israel Growth Forum (IGF), a group of over 25 leading Israeli technology companies that includes Wix, Similarweb and Fiverr, whose aim is to help grow the country’s tech ecosystem on both local and global fronts.
On day three of the war, the Forum, with backing from the Israel National Digital Agency, established the Arava Tech Centre – Arava being an acronym for ‘digital first aid’. The centre’s aim is to connect the Israeli tech community and the evolving needs of the public during the war.
Over 350 companies have volunteered to help in the centre, which until last week operated from the Wix campus in Tel Aviv . It has received over 400 war-related requests for digital capabilities and tools, including website projects. Over 200 of them have either been completed or in advanced stages.
Among them is the National Testimonials Database which launched last week. It was built by Riverside, in collaboration with Wix and two other tech companies, in coordination with the Israel Police and the National Library, to allow those who survived the horrific events of the 7 October massacre to give their testimony, as well as additional recorded/photographic evidence. This will then help provide digital evidence that can be used for a war criminal case against Hamas.
Michal said: “I live 40km from the Gaza strip. On 7 October I spent 24 hours in a shelter with my kids and started to get phone calls from some of my both government contacts, as well as bodies and municipalities and health organisations to ask for the assistance of the Growth Forum. I also received the calls from the Forum’s members wanting to help. We soon realised that there was a need to connect these public bodies wanting to set up all these different platforms with the tech companies, who can provide the tech solutions to help them.”
She added: “As a Wixer myself I knew that we would have 100 per cent support from Wix for this and that the 25 IGF companies would be on board, but never in my life did I dream that we would have 370 other companies from the ecosystem joining us in the Arava Centre and willing to go above and beyond. We needed these volunteers and it is with that sense of coming together and that energy, that has allowed us to do what we have been doing.”
Israel’s tech sector – the biggest of the country’s economy – has been hugely impacted by the war. More than 300,000 reservists have been called up to the IDF – around 15 per cent are working in local tech companies – resulting in operational issues for several startups. According to a survey by the Israel Innovation Authority and Start-Up Nation Policy Institute (SNPI), about 70 percent of Israeli tech firms and startups are facing disruptions as their employees have reported for reserve duty.
“We (Wix) were affected as everyone in Israel was. Every employee in Israel, including in Wix and every citizen are in a unique situation that we have never been in before, but being a global company helps us to ensure a high standard of products and services for our users and partners, the growth of our business, and the execution of our future plans. In terms of morale and how we come together as ‘Wixers’, we needed to adjust. The people-to-people ties and the support we gave each other is very strong.”
Michal notes that the needs of the public are changing as the war goes on. “During the first three-four weeks, they were very urgent and we were getting between 30 and 40 project requests a day. Today, it seems to be larger projects but less of them, around five a day.”
A former diplomat and a licensed lawyer (Human Rights & International law), Michal has over 10 years of experience building strategic partnerships both locally as well as in the international arena. She served as Deputy Ambassador and Spokesperson at the Israeli Embassy in Singapore between 2010 and 2014.
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