Ahuvah Berger

Ahuvah Berger (her name is sometimes spelled Ahuva Berger) is a Zionist social networking activist. Since June 2007, Berger has been an associate at Saddlerock Advisors, a venture capital and private equity industry firm focused on US and Israeli companies strengthening 'early stage companies'. They reportedly do so 'by improving their value proposition and better positioning them to attract private capital & venture capital.'

HelpUsWin

Berger was a participant in the HelpUsWin.org social media campaign during Israel's offensive in Gaza in December 2008/January 2009, according to PBS.org.

Ahuva Berger, an American immigrant to Israel now working in Israeli startups, regularly reported for duty.

"We are fighting against the mainstream media who prefer to ignore certain bits of information about Israel," Berger told me in an interview, "and social media is an effective way of providing the right information passively."

Berger stated in an email to SpinProfiles editors received on 23 June 2009, "Other than during that particular war [Israel's offensive on Gaza in December 2008–January 2009], I am not affiliated with the organization [HelpUsWin.org]. I am not part of any organizational lobby to bolster Israel's pr image - I just participate online when I come across incorrect information or b[ia]sed information that should note both sides to the story. There are always two sides and my opinion is not to change someone's train of thought but to allow them to decide for themselves."

Berger added in the email, "I am ranked the #1 most influential Jewish tweeter in the world - and if that makes me a 'twitter lobbiest' [sic.] I would gladly take accept [sic.] that title." This ranking was awarded to Berger by Jewish news service JTA.

In response to an email from SpinProfiles editors suggesting that HelpUsWin was itself part of an 'organisational lobby to bolster Israel's PR image', Berger clarified her role further:

When the war broke out a group of us who work in the high-tech scene decided to get personally involved and use social media to help show /our personal /side to the story. We ended up joining efforts with Help Us Win (even though we do not all agree on their charter) and *none* of us got paid for the days of work we missed to participate in the online efforts.

We were affiliated with the Israeli government only in as much as we discussed with them how they could utilize social media (twitter and youtube as examples) but we did not run the youtube channel, twitter accounts, etc.

In response to a further email from SpinProfiles editors, Berger gave more details of her relationship with HelpUsWin and with the Israeli Foreign Ministry:

we (niv calderon, kfir pravda, dan peguine, arik afraimivtch (sp?) are friends from the high-tech scene and we banded together to be proactive using social media during the war on hamas. Now we were introduced to stand with us (a pro israeli group) and renamed our online effort as help us win and our efforts were divvied up for the online responsibilites. So not everything i wrote or did had to pass through help us win's or stand with us's official approval. Every message posted, comment on a blog or newssite or tweet were on a individual bases.

As for twitter and youtube - the israeli fore[ig]n spokespersons office was responsible for all their content. We just shared our view on the different platforms and how to utilize them.

Views

Berger's blog Sabra at Heart states: "I consider myself a Zionist. I believe in the State of Israel for Jews and run by Jews."

Affiliations

• HelpUsWin.org

Contact

• Blog: http://www.sabraheart.blogspot.com/
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/ahoova