For ten years, Chani Wrubel ran her advertising agency almost entirely from behind a screen.
She and her husband built it together, but even as the agency grew and they hired workers, Chani preferred to handle everything by email — and tried to avoid meetings, and even phone calls.
Then she joined Solela, Temech’s accelerator for successful entrepreneurs looking to enter or expand into infrastructure markets, and suddenly she was required to show up to an in-person group every single week.
That in itself required enormous inner work, but it was just the beginning.
One of the next changes she implemented was splitting the business: her husband took the work with nonprofits, while she focused on businesses. “One plus one is so much more than two,” she says.
Out of that split came Nekudat Mafneh, the venture through which Chani guides many businesses at various crossroads, and leads a wide range of campaigns and projects.
Somewhere in that process, Chani discovered another passion. To her chagrin, she discovered that in the Haredi community, there is almost no conversation around awareness of sustainability and environmental quality. The Jerusalem municipality, for example, spends 12 million shekels a year on trash cans and trash collection — and only 200,000 on educating the public to use them.
She decided to close that gap through public education. A radio interview followed. Then came meetings with government agencies, and recently she has been collaborating with Tzalul, an organization working to reduce plastic use, in order to raise awareness in the Haredi community.
Her dream for 2030 is to be known as the chassidic woman who introduced the issue of environmental quality into the Haredi sector — alongside the businesses and projects she guides and promotes.
Chani used to avoid phone calls entirely. Today, officials are already taking her calls.