When Liat Feldman started baking with her mother at the age of six, she knew she had discovered her passion. And as soon as she could read, it was recipe books she ploughed through to find new and interesting things to bake. This led to her starting Lilicious Bakery and then joining forces with her mother-in-law, Heidi Feldman, in The Family Bakehouse. “We specialise in French and high-quality products, aiming to raise the bakery expectations of the average consumer. We take the normal and elevate it to something our customers love,” she said. Feldman deals with quality control and the development of new products. She is also the cake and sugar cookie decorator and staff manager. Even as a child, Feldman would spend her time researching ingredients and recipes and would beg her parents to let her experiment so that she could share her treats with her friends and family every Shabbat and yom tov. She decided to take her passion one step further when she finished school at Yeshiva College and started her first baking business while in her first year of university. Her business quickly picked up so much, she decided to drop out of university and pursue baking full-time. Feldman sets herself apart from the competition because she makes unique products. “We don’t sell anything average. We aim for it always to be the best quality,” she said. Everything that The Family Bakehouse makes is made from scratch, and it takes ordinary baked goods and turns it up a notch. Feldman was able to turn her homebased business into a storefront visited by many throughout the community. Her ambition to create the best treats she can keeps her going. She loves to see the satisfaction and joy her goods bring to customers. “I’ve always followed where my heart takes me, even if it’s hard,” Feldman said. She’ll never forget getting her first large order from an international company when she was 19 years old, and having to send samples of her sugar cookies to the company’s headquarters overseas for approval. “The cookies took me forever to do,” she said, “with a lot of help from family and friends. I’m now able to do the same quantity in a day.” With the expansion of her business, she has had to take up new responsibilities and hire more people to keep up with demand and to keep everything going while she’s on maternity leave. This was difficult for her because, “I’m the quality control manager, and make sure I don’t send out anything below par.” Feldman attributes the success of her businesses to the fact that, “I’m showing people what’s possible in the baking and kosher industry, and I believe they can feel my passion towards baking and product development.” Jay Kaplan Jay Kaplan has his Masters in molecular engineering and is working on his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in mathematics at the University of Chicago and the Courant Institute at New York University, but his biggest impact is his fight against antisemitism on United States (US) college campuses. He was harassed, followed, videotaped, had his path blocked, and was threatened on campus by people who had been his peers and friends. He speaks of how he and other Jews were ostracised on campus by these “privileged, highly educated students at the most elite academic institutions in the world”. This former King David Linksfield Dux, who matriculated as one of the top 10 students in the country, is focusing on assisting the fight against Jew hatred and anti-Israel vitriol on campuses following the 7 October atrocities in Israel. Kaplan is the only South African Jewish student leading the charge against antisemitism at the University of Chicago. He is part of a group of students who forced the university’s union to exempt Jewish students from paying dues because the union funds campus Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions coalition activities. Kaplan and his group got the union to allow Jewish students to pay their dues instead to emergency service Magen David Adom. He spearheaded an informal organisation to launch legal battles against Jew hatred on campus, and raised tens of thousands of dollars to display videos of the 7 October massacre in front of the pro-Hamas encampment on campus. Though Kaplan was involved in Jewish advocacy throughout his university career, he took it to a whole new level after 7 October. “I was shocked at their Jew hatred, and knew I would have to take a stand. This was confirmed over the past 11 months of horrific protests and people I once considered my peers and friends harassing me and adding me to the pro-Palestinian groups’ campus Zionist shame list. “Many people I know have been afraid to stand up,” he said. “They are scared to post on their stories or openly show that they are Jewish. They don’t want to make any noise and rather exist quietly, trying to ignore the raging Jew hatred around them.” Kaplan couldn’t do that. He is fighting multiple legal battles against antisemitic unions, and is the only international student working with the US Senate HELP (health, education, labour and pensions) committee to investigate antisemitism in the workplace and on campuses. The biggest challenge he has faced is the double standard the university administration shows to Jewish students. He hopes to lobby congressional committees and administrations about stopping anti-Israel funding from antisemitic countries that are infecting US colleges with antisemitism. “We took for granted people’s common sense that terrorism and barbarity would be condemned. We were wrong,” he said. “Perhaps if we had started the fight sooner and struck pre-emptively, we wouldn’t be in such a dire situation on college campuses and on the publicity and political fronts.” Gilad Janet Gilad Janet, 21, chose not to go to university after matric, but to follow his entrepreneurial spirit in founding the business Workflow Wiz. His company helps healthcare professionals by giving them tools and strategies to enhance their practice and streamline operations without sacrificing their well-being. Janet relied on his intuition, knowing he had what it took to be able to build successful businesses at such a young age. “I trusted my drive to succeed and wrote my own script,” he said. His company helps his clients achieve the impact, income, and freedom they have always aspired to without experiencing burnout, which is a problem in the healthcare profession, according to Janet. He saw the need, launched the company, outsourced work to contractors, and managed operations, ensuring that the system runs like a well-oiled machine. “What’s unique about what I do is the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world at any time. This freedom allows me to have a significant impact without being tied to a specific location. It enables me to collaborate with a diverse range of clients and projects, adapting quickly to different environments and time zones. This global reach enhances the value I bring, and allows me to make a broader, more meaningful impact on the people I serve,” he said. When he started out, he said, “I struggled with the belief that no-one else could handle tasks as well as I could. This mindset was limiting my ability to scale beyond a certain point. Over time, I realised that to grow and manage a larger operation, delegation is essential. I began delegating with confidence.” Janet can vividly remember the feeling of signing on his first client. “That moment was incredibly significant as it proved that my vision wasn’t just a dream, but a reality. It reinforced the belief that if I truly want something and am willing to work for it, I can achieve it.” Janet takes the role of a company founder extremely seriously. “I believe everything is my responsibility, and this perspective drives me to take full ownership of my actions, decisions, and outcomes,” he said. “By acknowledging that every success and failure is a direct result of my choices, I hold myself accountable for both progress and setbacks.” Janet believes his ability to be selfaccountable is one of the main reasons Liat Feldman GET IN THE LIFT AND PRESS “LG” HOUSEHOLD AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES AT WHOLESALE PRICES Sorry, we would have made this ad a little more exciting but we decided to save our budget and rather give you the best prices on toilet paper, kitchen towels, tissues, gloves, premium nappies, first aid kits, handy cleaner, hand soap, baby wipes, dishwashing liquid, cotton buds, cosmetic pads, sanitary pads, plasters, bandages, and so many more household items. 011 440 5063 • info@sundrychem.co.za • www.sundrychem.co.za • Genesis Shopping Centre - Lower Ground 46 Ichikowitz Family Foundation Rising Star Award nominees
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