On March 28, 2018 (Issue 361), Ami Magazine ran a special Lunchbreak feature, an interview with Reb Shloime Weber and his son Sruly. We brought attention to this dynamic father-and-son duo not only because they had grown the company that Reb Shloime started in the early 1980s into a leading importing and exporting forwarding company, but primarily because they are a prime example of how one can be successful in business and be immersed in Torah and chesed at the same time. Prominent Pupa chasidim, Reb Shloime and his son are selfless askanim who are involved in numerous communal affairs. So when Sruly recently reached out to let us know that his company was being targeted by pro-Palestinian groups, I immediately knew that we had to bring awareness to their predicament and assist the Webers in every way possible.
As Reb Shloime subsequently summarized the problem, “We are a Jewish company, but most of our employees aren’t Jewish. I like to say that it’s like the United Nations, because we have people from all over the world. The current situation is having a huge effect on us because no one knows exactly what to do. The employees are being intimidated, and I don’t want them to feel that they have to suffer just because they work for a Jewish company. It’s very worrisome, not just for me but for other Jewish businesses as well, because no one knows what it can lead to. It’s just like the Jewish students who have to know which universities they can attend and which college campuses are dangerous. If these protests spread to other businesses, it can have a terrible effect on a lot of people, who will then have to wonder where they can be visibly Jewish and where they can’t. I’ve never had an issue like this before in my 45 years of being in business, and I’ve walked into the biggest companies and corporations, including those run by Muslims and Turks. It’s only now that I’m feeling the heat.”
Chazal say that the Mitzriyiim felt threatened by the Yidden because they were filling the Egyptian theaters and circuses, which is why they made decrees designed to suppress them. The Webers aren’t hanging out in non-Jewish circles, but the anti-Semites are coming after them anyway. With this kind of harassment hitting close to home, what the Webers are enduring should undoubtedly serve as a wakeup call for the entire Jewish community.
Sruly Weber described to me in detail what has been taking place. What follows is my conversation with him.
Please tell me how the whole thing started.
Shortly after October 7, we sent out a very strongly worded email to our mailing list of almost 100,000 people in which we wrote that All-Ways Forwarding has always stood with the people of Israel, and if anyone wanted to ship donations there, we would waive all of our service fees. Shortly thereafter, two of our major clients in Turkey stopped shipping with us, but we didn’t connect the dots right away. We reached out to them many times to ask what had happened, but we couldn’t figure it out. Then, one day, an employee of one of those companies posted a very anti-Israel post on his WhatsApp status. As soon as I saw that, I called my father and said, “That’s why we lost this customer. They’re Turkish, and they’ve taken sides.” We lost other customers as well, but it’s hard to know exactly which ones were because of that email. These two were very obvious, though.
Did that have a drastic effect on your bottom line?
Baruch Hashem, our company has been around for a very long time, so losing those two clients wasn’t drastic, but we did see a drop in volume. One of those companies ships between 3,000 and 4,000 containers a year, which is a very large number for us.
How did you reach your altruistic decision to waive the shipping fees?
A day or two after Simchas Torah, a lot of people contacted us saying that they wanted to send containers of various supplies to Israel, things like blankets and clothing. We were even directly contacted by some army units. Our infrastructure is already set up there, including our own Israeli office with a staff of over 30 people, so we can handle that kind of volume. My father and I had a meeting with our management staff and made the decision that now wasn’t the time to look at our profit margin; we had to assist everyone who was trying to help and charge only the cost price. When we sent out that very strongly worded email, we figured that the customers we had been servicing for so many years would appreciate our taking a stand. I had also posted the message on LinkedIn, but after it was inundated with negative comments I decided to delete it, because you never know who connects with you and it just seemed prudent.
What percentage of your business does Israel represent?
It’s only a very small percent, but we’re still the largest forwarder from Israel to the United States in terms of volume.
What exactly does your company do?
We are an international shipping company that interfaces with the vessels and containers that are used to ship goods. We’re sort of like a travel agent. If you want to book a ticket to Israel, you call a travel agent who has good connections with EL AL. Similarly, if you want to send a full container from one country to another, you contact us and we negotiate the rates with the various carriers. We have contracts with all of them.
Companies don’t have their own relationships with the shipping companies?
Some of them do, but you can’t have a relationship with all of them. For example, Kedem ships 2,000 containers a year to the United States, but they import products from many different countries and it’s very hard to maintain relationships with shipping companies in every location. That’s where a forwarding company comes in. We fight for our clients to have top priority on the seas and oceans.
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