News & Newsletters

Friday May 12, 2006

New Web site for armchair planning

Can’t go to Israel to check out a wedding site? Two enterprising Israelis have come up with an easy alternative.

CelebrateIsrael.com, launched recently by Bei Shemesh residents Jael Kurtz and Judy Krasna, provides online information for those planning a special event in Israel.

The Web site was developed after Kurtz realized that very few English-language online resources were available on this topic. Many of the existing Web sites belong to party planners or tour organizers who don’t particularly fit the needs of those wanting to “do it themselves.”

“Many of my friends and relatives from the U.S. called me for help because they really wanted to plan their own events in Israel, but were frustrated and discouraged by the lack of information on the Internet,” said Kurtz. “We wanted to build a site that people could trust, so we only included businesses that we would personally recommend to our own friends and family. We built CelebrateIsrael.com to make it easier for people to celebrate in Israel.”

Among their aims and objectives are to bring more business to Israel and to highlight specialized and smaller businesses that may normally fall under the radar of people surfing the Web or researching on their own.

CelebrateIsrael.com features more than 70 businesses and hopes to double that number in the coming year. The free site also offers party ideas, recommendations and reviews on event vendors of all types.