Israel Tech Challenge

Israel Tech Challenge combines technical instruction with exposure to Israel's technology industry. Its early tracks ranged from a 12-day introductory trip and a two-month internship to a 10-month program offered through Masa Israel Journey.[4]

Later Jewish Agency materials describe training in Data Science, Full Stack Development, and Cyber Security, alongside opportunities involving design verification, blockchain, and other in-demand computer-science fields.[1][5]

Israel Tech Challenge was founded by Oren Toledano, who established the organization after returning from France, where he had served as head of The Jewish Agency.[2] Toledano described his ITC work as combining training, technology, coding, Zionism, and connection with Israel, and said he served as the organization's chief executive officer for seven years.[2]

At its initial stage, ITC was presented as an initiative for young Jewish adults with exceptional technology talent and a strong connection to Israel. Its stated aim was to help them become part of the Israeli "Start-Up Nation" story through short-term visits, internships, and mentorship with figures in Israel's technology community.[4] The early structure included a 12-day Taglit Tech Challenge trip conducted with Taglit Birthright Israel, a two-month internship offered through Onward Israel, and a 10-month track delivered through Masa Israel Journey, a joint initiative of The Jewish Agency and the Government of Israel.[4]

By 2021, Jewish Agency materials listed tracks in Data Science, Full Stack Development, and Cyber Security, while the main program page also identified design verification, blockchain, and other computer-science fields among ITC's areas of focus.[5][1] One program account stated that applicants had to be between 18 and 30 years old and have completed high school.[6]

The inaugural challenge brought together 25 elite high-tech specialists selected as a deliberately heterogeneous group, with backgrounds spanning mathematics, robotics, and computer-assisted design.[4] Participants visited Israeli high-tech companies, met entrepreneurs, engineers, and senior government and military officials, and competed in a two-day hackathon hosted by PayPal Israel.[4] Teams of three, four, and five members built projects that included an electronic-sensor navigation device for blind people, an online-privacy application, a facial-recognition program, a reading-level search application, an interactive disaster-response map, and a three-dimensional fair-reporting tool.[4] The winning project, revealed.com, was designed to help internet users manage their online privacy.[4]

In summer 2014, a six-week Tech Challenge Interns program conducted with Onward Israel placed participants at companies including Check Point, IBM, PayPal, Wix, and Google.[7] That cohort of approximately 20 programmers was selected from hundreds of applicants and included people affiliated with Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Oxford, Siemens, and Facebook.[7] Participants came from the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland.[7] Their projects included wearable sonar for blind people, a three-dimensional social-media reporting tool, and a personal-security-awareness application. The winning project, TrafficLite, was designed to use real traffic and pedestrian data to control traffic signals.[7] During wartime disruptions, one participant summarized the cohort's routine: "When the siren sounds we go and code in the shelter, and then we just move on."[7]

The early international model also recruited gifted Jewish computer-science students from Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, as well as employees of companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.[8] Companies identified as seeking to host interns included Check Point, Intel, Google Israel, PayPal Israel, Soluto, eBay, IBM, and JVP.[8]

In 2018, the Israel Innovation Authority selected ITC as one of seven organizations and retraining programs to operate coding boot camps under a government-sponsored workforce initiative, choosing the participants from 24 candidates.[9] The initiative was created to address a shortage of skilled workers in Israel's technology sector and to increase diversity in the industry.[9] The three-year program provided software training lasting from six months to one year, primarily for people with science degrees, and the authority estimated that it would produce approximately 2,000 new software developers within five years.[9]

Within the initiative's first year, 280 people were expected to be trained across the participating organizations. Each organization was limited to 30 people per cohort, and most programs involved approximately 800–1,000 hours of instruction.[9] Government compensation was tied partly to graduates finding high-paying employment and included additional grants for placing women, Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews, people with disabilities, people of Ethiopian descent, and people aged over 45 in technology roles.[9] Training fields included machine learning, RT embedded systems, data science, algorithms, Android and iOS mobile development, full stack, front end, back end, and DevOps.[10]

As part of the initiative, ITC offered an English-language data-science training program in Tel Aviv.[9] Appleseeds Academy also partnered with ITC and local technology companies to provide a boot camp in Tel Aviv and Ramla.[9] The government scheme followed a January 2017 decision to expand Israel's skilled technology workforce through training outside academic institutions and create alternative pathways into high-tech employment for people with high potential from different backgrounds.[10]

A 2021 Jewish Agency profile reported that ITC had trained more than 1,200 students from 25 countries through its Data Science, Full Stack Development, and Cyber Security tracks. It also described internships that could lead to full-time employment.[5] A separate 2021 impact report stated that more than 2,000 people had taken ITC courses, that the organization had worked with more than 300 high-tech companies, and that at least 50% of participants were hired after completing company projects lasting from five weeks to two months.[3]

Toledano stated that ITC had brought hundreds of engineers—"almost more than 1,000 right now"—into the technology ecosystem over the years.[2] Alumni have gone on to positions at technology companies in Israel. Sebastian, an Argentine participant who studied actuarial sciences before entering the Data Science track, became a data analyst at Wix and joined an alumni advisory board that mentors students and helps cohorts find employment.[5] Danielle studied philosophy at the University of Michigan before making Aliyah and joining ITC's Full Stack program; after a two-month internship at ZenCity, she was hired by the company.[5]

Organizations supporting ITC alongside The Jewish Agency have included Masa Israel Journey, the Israel Innovation Authority, the Seed the Dream Foundation, the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation, the Paul E. Singer Foundation, Appleseeds Academy, the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women & Girls, Onward Israel, and the Rowan Family Foundation.[5]

Jewish Agency materials conflict on ITC's establishment date. The main program page says the program was established in 2013.[1] The 2021 impact report also describes ITC as established in 2013 but later on the same page refers to its establishment in 2016.[3] A separate 2021 participant profile likewise says ITC was founded in 2016.[5] These pages do not resolve the date discrepancy.

Participation totals also use different measures: one profile reports more than 1,200 students trained in three tracks, while the impact report says more than 2,000 people had taken courses.[5][3] The government boot-camp initiative faced a separate limitation: although it sought to increase diversity, CTech reported that no program was offered in Jerusalem and that its exact-sciences requirement might make it less suitable for parts of the ultra-Orthodox community.[9]