US Jewish businesses to be recognized for first time as minority-owned

Government certification will enable access to special funding, more contracts, and dedicated networking events.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Jewish businesses will be recognized for the first time by the U.S. government as minority-owned companies, enabling access to more funding, contracts and global markets, the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) announced last week.

The MBDA signed the joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Department of Commerce with the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce (OJCC).

The agency said in a statement that it is “excited to collaborate with the Orthodox Jewish community and help break down barriers and expand opportunities for the global Jewish community’s entrepreneurs.”

The MOU signing “marks a significant opportunity for the Jewish community,” said OJCC founder and CEO Duvi Honig in the statement, since the purpose of the decades-old MBDA’s programs and services is to better equip minority-owned businesses to create jobs, build scale and capacity, increase revenues, and expand regionally, nationally, and even internationally.

“We’re going to be able to benefit from billions of dollars of these programs, contracts, some loans, grants, the hundreds of different programs that every single Jewish business is going to benefit from,” Honig detailed separately to JNS.

“This is something that impacts everyone—every single business in the Jewish world, in all 50 states,” he added. “We are officially a partner with the United States Department of Commerce and the government.”

According to grant-writing consultancy firm Black Fish, among the advantages of being a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) is the special access it gives to state and federal contracts, to deals with large corporations that have “supplier diversity programs” that prioritize MBEs, and to participation in exclusive networking events, conferences, and trade shows that can raise the public’s awareness regarding the opportunities and advantages of collaborating with such companies.

Certified businesses also “often gain access to training, mentoring, and development programs designed to support minority entrepreneurs. These resources can help improve business practices, leadership skills, and operational efficiency,” the firm said in an explanatory post on social media.

According to Honig, the MOU was the result of 15 months of hard work on the part of the OJCC.

American JewsbusinessesCommerce Department