Making a mark on the Jewish market

Local entrepreneurs create new Web sites

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of March 13, 2009 / 17 Adar 5769

Despite the downward spiral of the economy, one growing industry seems to be web sites catering to the Orthodox Jewish community. As a way to alleviate some of the burdens of these difficult financial times, several sites have sprung up in the niche market of offering goods and services to Jewish clientele.

AllJewishMarket.com, a free Web site for classified ads, is the brainchild of Chanan Mittel and Menachem Ostreicher, brothers-in-law from Far Rockaway who were looking for a way to help the many people who have been laid off from their jobs.

“The concept was to create a global marketplace where people from any Jewish community can benefit from the jobs and services that are available,” said Ostreicher, explaining the motivation behind the site. “We noticed that there were a lot of local, community-based classifieds, like Five Towns Shuls, but we wanted to do something bigger where people from all over can look for things and services.”

“The main idea was to have a place where people in our community could interact and help each other out in this difficult economy,” Mittel said.

After just five weeks in existence, AllJewishMarket boasts close to 300 ads — they are free to post or view — spanning the gamut of Jewish needs, from job openings to real estate rentals, and from G’mach (borrowing goods for free) giveaways to party planning resources for a simcha. The site also features a community calendar where visitors can post events, as well as a news ticker from Arutz Sheva offering constant updates on happenings in Israel.

“Instead of a company posting a job vacancy on monster.com, why not fill the slot with a Jewish employee, to keep the Jewish community somewhat stable economically, instead of seeking the same services elsewhere,” Ostreicher reasoned. “There are so many people who are selling things, or giving them away, so why not make it easier for them to help others? There is so much good that can come out of this.”

Ostreicher is a nursing home administrator; his partner, Mittel, manages real estate. Though each is married with a family, each devotes free time on alternating nights of the week to manage the site, purely as a chesed (good deed) to the community. Although AllJewishMarket has received multiple inquiries from companies interested in posting larger paid advertisements, those requests have been turned down.

“Eventually we will need some revenue to maintain the site,” said Ostreicher, “but for now we are just happy to have the opportunity to offer this service. The most encouraging thing is that people are benefiting from it... We have the opportunity to strengthen the economic landscape in our communities.”

AllJewishMarket currently features nine regions in New York, as well as others in New Jersey, Florida and Israel; places are added as users request them, and Ostreicher and Mittel are hopeful that the site will continue to expand in the coming weeks.

“We are thrilled that the various communities are responsive to the concept,” Mittel said. “People have taken their posts off Craig’s List and other similar sites... and we are definitely seeing steady growth on our site. It highlights that there was in fact a need for this service.”

Another local duo is two women from Woodmere who are the proprietors of OyBey.com, which, as its name suggests, is an EBay-like site for Jewish consumers, where used items are sold rather than auctioned off.

Several months ago, Ruthie Weinreich and Ruthie Siegal created OyBey.com — “a unique consignment experience,” the site claims — as a way to help members of the Jewish community enjoy the EBay culture within a smaller, more specialized venue.

Weinreich, who has been a seller on EBay for 10 years, began to notice that certain items unique to the Jewish community weren’t big sellers on EBay, a reality that wasn’t being helped by the worsening economy.

“Generally, EBay is a brand thing, and a lot of people give me things that aren’t necessarily known in that world,” Weinreich explained, “but a lot of those items had merit to be sold elsewhere.”

Since it began, OyBey has acquired over 200 items that are now on sale, including clothing, shoes, accessories, furniture and Judaica. The site is updated daily to reflect the constant flow of newly arriving items for sale.

“You have to check back periodically because we keep getting new things,” said Weinreich. “That’s part of the excitement of the site. Also, a lot of the things for sale are unusual and unique... I’ve never dressed better since I started wearing consignment!”

The consignment process is a simple one; a person who wants to sell something can contact Weinreich and Siegel via the site, and the items will be picked up from the owner’s house. Using EBay as a benchmark, Weinreich and Siegel set a price to be paid to the seller, incorporating a certain amount of commission for themselves, and to defray any costs of shipping to the consumer, if necessary. The site has pictures with accompanying descriptions of the items for sale so that prospective buyers can ask questions to obtain more information.

One unique feature of OyBey, which certainly distinguishes it from other consignment sites, is the option for the seller to donate the monetary proceeds from the item directly to the charity or G’mach of their choice, a transaction that is also handled by the site’s creators.

“It is a very easy job for the consignor,” Weinreich stressed. “We take care of everything from the time of pick-up until the check is cut. All the person has to do is log on to the site or call us. Nobody loses — the seller can make money back in their pocket and the person who’s buying it is getting a deal.”

Weinreich, who also works for a brokerage house, hopes that she and Siegel can continue to expand the site into a full-time business.

“We didn’t want to start advertising too heavily until we had enough merchandise,” she added. “So far the people we’ve spoken to in shuls are very receptive... There is a need for this in our community.”