Next Friday, July 17, marks International Firgun Day – the brainchild of voluntary umbrella body Made in JLM, which connects and provides resources for the start-up ecosystem in Jerusalem.
By BARRY DAVISGearing up for International Firgun Day next Friday, with Made in JLM.(photo credit: ROY MUNIN/URIEL SHURAKI)
Some have quipped that there is no English-language equivalent of bon appetit, because British food is so uninspiring.Would it follow that there is no English – or, indeed, Hebrew – word for firgun because we are simply not adept at giving each other a congratulatory pat on the back? Whatever the answer, a bunch of young Jerusalem entrepreneurs have set about making sure that if we do harbor positive feelings and thoughts about someone, we can jolly well let them know. Next Friday, July 17, marks International Firgun Day – the brainchild of voluntary umbrella body Made in JLM, which connects and provides resources for the start-up ecosystem in Jerusalem. Founded in 2012 by Hanan Brand, Roy Munin and Uriel Shuraki, Made in JLM has a database that incorporates over 300 Jerusalem start-up companies from the biotech, Internet, media and digital gaming fields.In lieu of a compact English translation, the Firgun Day gang offers the following, admittedly long-winded definition of the Yiddish word: “The act of sharing in or even contributing to someone else’s pleasure or fortune, with a purely generous heart and without jealousy.” That is a mouthful and a half, but it does a good job of conveying the core sentiment.“The more of a ‘firguning’ ecosystem you have – the more startups you have around you that are helping, complimenting each other, pushing each other forward – the better the chances the start-up has to survive,” says Munin.If the vibe of the Made in JLM hub at Canada House on Shivtei Yisrael Street, and the energy of its founders are anything to go by, that looks like a winning strategy.“We have a community of makers here,” Munin continues. “We have a thing which we call ‘restart parties,’ which take place once a month, when people bring things from home that need repairing, and we show them how to do that.”So where does all this positivity come from? The idea for Firgun Day actually came out of an unsolicited positive exchange that took place in that most unforgiving and competitive of professional sectors, the hi-tech industry.“This whole thing started when we saw two Jerusalem-based hitech companies complimenting each other on Twitter,” says Brand.“Suddenly we thought, hey, that’s really great! Where else do you have something like that?” That set the ball in motion. While next Friday will be the first bona fide International Firgun Day, the JLM guys ran a local mutual-slapon- the-back day last year.“We started working on the project a couple of months beforehand,” explains Shuraki. “We brought a team of seven interns from the United States. They prepared all kinds of marketing material and contacted media people. Then we assembled around 80 people, and we allocated all sorts of tasks – making video clips, creating the Firgunator and other stuff.”
“The Firgunator” sounds like something from a 1950s sci-fi movie, but in fact, it’s a simple and user-friendly vehicle for spreading good cheer and dispensing a good word in any direction. Brand refers to it as “the first automatic tool for complimenting.”“Our community includes people with all sorts of skills,” he says. “We have people who know how to program, to design or to do marketing. We said, let’s utilize all this, and part of that was the Firgunator.”For those who may not be used to disseminating praise, the Firgunator helps by providing a prepared commendation. You just go to Firgunator.com and type in the name of the intended recipient.The Firgunator then generates a firgun automatically in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Portuguese, Hindi or French. Some examples are “Life is not a picnic, but with you it is,” “Your smile is literally the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life,” and even “Had an X-ray today, guess what they found? You.”You can add a few words of explanation and share the post on social networks using the hashtag #FirgunDay. It’s almost easier to do than to say.“This is one of the special features of the hi-tech community in Jerusalem,” says Munin. “We feel like we’re all in the same boat.When one company succeeds, we see it as the success of the whole ecosystem. It makes no difference whether the entrepreneur is secular, haredi or Arab, or focused on design, software or bioengineering. So we sat down and thought about how we could spread the good vibes beyond Jerusalem. That was how Firgun Day was born.”Last year, Firgun Day mainly targeted the hi-tech industry. This year, the organizers have decided to turn the day into a global celebration.They hope they will attract tens of thousands of people around the world who are looking for an opportunity to share some positive energy.A week from now, the world may well be a cheerier place.For more information: firgun.madeinjlm.org