"There’s no reason New Jersey shouldn’t lead the nation in bilateral trade with Israel"
On his campaign trail, NJ gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli stopped in Tel Aviv to court Startup Nation founders and investors, laying out his vision for New Jersey as America’s next innovation hub and a partner in driving bilateral growth.
“We know there’s a whole lot of entrepreneurs in Israel and newly formed technology companies that are looking to expand their international footprint,” Jack Ciattarelli told CTech. “We want them to do that right in New Jersey.”
As part of his campaign trail for the New Jersey governor’s office the gubernatorial candidate, entrepreneur, and long-time advocate for global tech partnerships stopped in Tel Aviv to host an exclusive high-tech gathering. There, Ciattarelli met with Israeli tech founders and investors to make his case for why the Garden State should be the U.S. launchpad of choice for Israeli startups.
New Jersey as a hub for Israeli innovation
Currently, the U.S.-Israel trade balance underscores a competitive gap that Ciattarelli wants to close: New York State logs around $14 billion a year in bilateral trade with Israel, while New Jersey brings in under $2 billion.
It’s “good,” Ciattarelli said of the relationship, “but it can be a whole lot better… There’s no reason why we shouldn’t lead the nation in bilateral trade with Israel.”
One of his main appeals in Tel Aviv was aimed at attracting Israeli founders who might otherwise gravitate toward the primary U.S. landing spots for Israeli startups: New York, Boston, and Austin.
At the event, Israel-born New Jerseyan Michael Ben-Shimon, founding member of M&B IP patent firm and co-host of the day, made a compelling case for why the state is “an ideal launchpad for Israel tech startups,” citing its location, transport links, and access to top universities.
The idea inevitably raises concerns about a “brain drain” of Israeli tech talent – the fear that Startup Nation’s brightest will leave and not return.
Ciattarelli’s campaign ally, Rabbi Avi Richler, highlighted the importance of the relationship as a reciprocal one. “It’s hard to hate someone you do business with,” he said. “I’m excited to hear everybody’s story and what it could do on a meaningful bilateral [level], in both ways for us to support the Israeli economy, for [the] Israeli economy to invest in New Jersey.”
Israeli entrepreneur Tal Bakish, co-founder of wireless charging company Elssway, also argued that the migration of talent is not a one-way loss. “Once you have the presence of Israelis in New Jersey, you create some kind of ecosystem… that eventually comes back to Israel,” he told CTech.
Such founders, he explained, act as “envoys,” representing Israel overseas in ways that ultimately benefit the local economy and create greater confidence to invest. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, the brain drain, everyone wants to leave,’ [but] I think it’s actually going to come back.”
Israeli founders eye U.S. growth
The Tel Aviv event also served as a showcase of Israeli innovation, with presentations and demonstrations from Startup Nation changemakers across sectors including AI, cybersecurity, mobility, healthtech, and robotics, with several eyeing U.S. expansion and viewing New Jersey as a potential base.
Warmly AI’s Uri Steinfeld demonstrated how generative AI can dramatically reduce project timelines, redesigning the New Jersey government website in minutes.
Armory Defense CEO Alon Aharon and Chairperson Efrat Troim showcased their “defense by offense” approach to cybersecurity, with a live demonstration showing how easily attackers can obtain an email address and send a phishing message.
Bakish also presented a vision for the future of urban electrification, driven by wireless charging infrastructure for electric and light electric vehicles.
“There are some very exciting technologies that are emerging here in Israel and run by very exciting and visionary people who want to expand their footprint across the globe,” Ciattarelli reflected to CTech. “And so, when it comes to the United States, the next best place to do that is right in New Jersey.”
Investor, entrepreneur, and startup mentor Hilla Ovil-Brenner, founder of Yazamiyot, a community for Israeli women entrepreneurs, and Showcase IL, a platform that identifies and assesses disruptive Israeli startups for experienced investors, said the event “perfectly reflects why we started Showcase IL — to build meaningful connections in the world’s most exciting hubs.”
She added, “I would love to create substantial bridges and opportunities between Israel and New Jersey for female founders.”
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Left to Right: Michael Ben-Shimon, Jack Ciattarelli, Hilla Ovil-Brenner & Alon Aharon
(Photo: M&B IP)
However, Ciattarelli admitted that realizing his vision of “a very robust and rewarding relationship for not only Israeli companies, but for New Jersey’s,” which involves Israeli founders establishing a presence in the state, will require changes at home.
“We need a better tax structure in New Jersey,” he told CTech. “We need a better regulatory environment… We also need to do a better job of recruiting, because a lot of people are not aware of all that New Jersey has to offer for young companies, startup companies and the like, so we can compete. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t lead the nation in bilateral trade with Israel.”
Standout startups from the showcase
Among the standout presentations was one from the biotech field by Dr. Daphna Laifenfeld, founder of NeuroKaire, who is on a mission to bring the precision medicine revolution to psychiatry and neurology.
“In oncology… you no longer have breast cancer, you have ER-positive breast cancer, and get treated with a specific drug, “Laifenfeld explained. “What we’re trying to do is get that world into psychiatry and neurology.”
Against the backdrop of a global mental health crisis representing a $1 trillion annual economic burden, Laifenfeld is working to move treatment away from a one-size-fits-all model toward targeted, personalized solutions. Her company’s platform transforms a patient’s blood sample into their own brain cells, effectively creating a “brain in a dish.” Those neurons are then exposed to a panel of antidepressants, with AI models predicting which drug will most likely elicit a positive response.
Unique in the room, her company already has ties to New Jersey, offering an example of the kind of cross-border collaboration the event aimed to promote. Laifenfeld said NeuroKaire opened its clinical lab in New Jersey not only for its East Coast location and proximity to the airport, but also because of its favorable regulatory environment, “specifically the MACs Medicare… which is quite easy to work with.”
Looking ahead, Laifenfeld argued that creating more real‑world testing environments would be critical to deepening biotech collaboration between Israel and New Jersey, proposing that “having hospitals as sandboxes for healthcare biotech companies would be a huge game changer.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Benaim’s DLR Robotics enables industrial robot arms to learn by watching, cutting setup times from months to seconds. Ranked among the world’s top four robotics startups in an Austrian study, DLR has, in Benaim’s words, “put Israel on the map in robotics.”
He maintains that while AI may be the headline technology of today, the next big wave for the tech industry will be in robotics. For example, he believes that if reshoring production is the goal, the only way to match output and remain competitive is through robotics. “What if you could just take it out of the box, put it in front of the workspace, show it what to do, and it starts working? This is exactly what we do,” he said.
The company’s technology is used in applications ranging from laptop assembly to packing strawberries (the latter a nod to New Jersey’s own agricultural output). After meeting Ciattarelli, Benaim added, “New Jersey will definitely be one of our tiers when we decide where to base in the U.S.”
Ultimately, Ciattarelli told CTech that his visit was driven by a belief that Israel’s most innovative companies should see New Jersey as their U.S. base of choice. Should he be elected governor, his vision is to create a new corridor of Israeli-American innovation, one stop away from Manhattan.
“There’s no reason why New Jersey cannot compete with Austin and Boston,” he told the room.
