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The 25 young professionals from around the world who signed up for The Israel Tech Challenge this month did not expect rocket sirens and bomb shelters. They expected 10 days of titillating talks from the biggest names in Israel's tech industry, a 36-hour hackathon to show off their coding chops, and connections to Israeli jobs.
The program, a hi-tech upgrade on Taglit-Birthright Israel, selects participants from more than 600 applications aged 20-30 who are leaders in the hi-tech field and brings them to Israel to help them make inroads.
"The people who get to us are looking for a professional challenge and they feel that in Israel they can develop at a higher level than abroad," said Nofar Amikam, an alumna of the army's illustrious 8200 intelligence unit who helped found the program. "There's a feeling of greater freedom and creativity in Israel."
Amikam and several friends from 8200 who had made aliya noticed that immigrants to Israel who lacked strong professional connections had more trouble...