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Making Waves

in High-Tech:

A Young Religious Mom Moves her Career Forward

with a Little Help from Friends

FemForward is an innovative program designed to help women working in Jerusalem-based tech
companies advance their careers and advance to managerial and senior positions, offering lectures, a
mentorship program and networking opportunities. The program addresses the ‘broken rung’ trend, in
which women in entry-level positions are less likely than men to be promoted to first-level managerial
positions. We spoke with Allie Feuerstein, Director of International New Business at OurCrowd and a
participant in FemForward’s first cohort, to learn more.

Tell us a little bit about your Aliyah story as a religious
olah from New Jersey, and how you began your exciting
career in high-tech in Israel.
Growing up, I never thought I would make Aliyah; it
wasn’t on my radar. But when I came to Israel to study
at Midreshet Moriah, I fell in love with the country. My
parents really wanted me to come back to the US for
college, so I went to the University of Pennsylvania and
then made Aliyah a few weeks after graduation.
While still in America, I started dating my husband, and we
soon realized that we had booked the same Aliyah flight! It
felt like G-d was patting me on the back and saying, “Allie,
you’re doing the right thing by making Aliyah. Here is a
husband for you!” Allie and her husband.
My first job in Israel was working as a research assistant the FemForward course, told me about it and encouraged
for Daniel Gordis on a book that he was writing called me to join.
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn. For the last chapter A key lesson I learned early on in the course is that if
of the book, we interviewed the authors of Start-up Nation: you want to advance in your career, you can’t wait for
The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, and I was incredibly a promotion to fall into your lap. You have to promote
inspired – I wanted to play a meaningful role in building yourself and make the case to your manager for why
a company. I had some friends who were working for you deserve a promotion. At the time I participated in
OurCrowd, an investment platform for investing in FemForward, OurCrowd was growing rapidly, and people
startups based in Jerusalem. I got an interview there, and who started at the company at the same time I did were
the rest is history. being promoted. So I went to my manager, an Orthodox
What brought you to FemForward, and how did it guy, and said to him that I felt I was ready for the next step
impact your career? in my career and that I think I could manage a part of the
team. He said to me, “Wow, are you sure? I assumed that
I had been working at OurCrowd for two years when since you’re a young mom you just wanted to take it easy
Rachel Wagner Rosenzweig, a friend of mine who runs at work.” That’s when I realized that there needs to be a

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