Rabbi Dee makes the ‘business case’ for Israel

Israel is the best long-term investment a Jew can make, not only financially, but morally, strategically and spiritually, Rabbi Leo Dee argues in his new book.

“The goal of this book is not merely to build a business case for investing money in Israel,” he said. “It is to build a business case for investing our lives in Israel as well.”

A British-born Israeli educator, rabbi and former venture capitalist whose wife, Lucy, and daughters Maia and Rina were murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack in the Jordan Valley on April 7, 2023, Rabbi Dee discussed his book, “The Business Case for Israel: Can You Afford Not to Be There?” with JNS.

Rather than making a purely religious or ideological appeal for aliyah, Rabbi Dee analyzes Israel as he once evaluated companies for investment, examining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and long-term prospects. He concludes that Israel is uniquely positioned for sustained economic, demographic and cultural growth.

Before becoming a rabbi and immigrating to Israel, Dee spent a decade in London’s financial sector, rising to become a director of a billion-dollar private equity fund. He said the analytical framework he once used to assess companies inspired him to evaluate Israel in much the same way.

“If we looked at Israel as a company, what would be the market? What would be the product? What would be the management? What would be the employees? What would be the SWOT [strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats] analysis?” he said. “What surprised me is what comes out of it is actually pretty compelling.”

Rather than encouraging investment capital alone, Rabbi Dee’s goal is to persuade Jews to invest their lives in Israel. He believes many Diaspora Jews continue viewing Israel through an outdated lens dating back to the country’s early decades.

“When we were growing up, Israel was a third-world country,” he said. “Now Israel is really probably the most dynamic country in the world. Our minds are still set in that 1980s and 1990s scenario.”

He recalled arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport decades ago, when visitors disembarked into a modest terminal surrounded by open land before traveling to Jerusalem on a narrow highway. Many Jews abroad, he argued, still picture that Israel, despite its dramatic transformation into a global center of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Asked whether the Oct. 7 attacks made Israel a riskier place to build a future, he argued that they demonstrated precisely the opposite.

“I think the product of a country is its youth,” he said. “What we’re producing here is an incredible next generation.”

He contrasted the willingness of young Israelis to serve in the IDF with the anti-Israel demonstrations that erupted on university campuses across the West after Oct. 7, arguing that Israel’s younger generation has developed an unusually strong sense of national purpose.

He said investors should focus less on current headlines and more on long-term trends.

“Great investors spend less time analyzing the past and more time identifying the trends that will shape the future,” he said.

He argued that because Israel has long faced security and economic pressures, its entrepreneurs have learned to create products that solve essential problems rather than merely convenient ones.

The final chapters of the book return to Dee’s religious roots, arguing that the Torah presents the Land of Israel as the natural home of the Jewish people.

“The message is that the Jewish people belong in Israel,” he said.

And for the first time in nearly 2,000 years, a majority of the world’s Jews live in the Jewish state, he said.

Rabbi Dee traces the movement of the Jewish people over the past 3,500 years — from Egypt to Babylonia, the Roman Empire, Spain and the United States — observing that Jews have historically gravitated toward the world’s leading powers.

He leaves readers with a question rather than a definitive answer: Did Jews settle in those countries because they were already powerful, or did Jewish talent and enterprise help make them great?

His message to Diaspora Jews is unequivocal. “There is no future for your children or your grandchildren in the Diaspora,” he said. “Those who are considering moving here — for themselves, for their assets and for their family’s future — should not leave it too late.”

He argued that aliyah will only become more difficult as Israel’s economy continues to strengthen and demand for housing rises.

For Dee, though, the case for Israel transcends economics. Whether viewed through the lens of venture capital, demographics, Jewish history or Torah, he believes the same conclusion emerges: The future of the Jewish people is being written in Israel. Overall, the book challenges Jews around the world to reconsider where their family’s future is best served.

“The goal of this book is to help people look at Israel with new eyes,” he said.