Made in Israel – or Not?

All of the products we sell are made in Israel – with one exception. Our standard velvet tallit bags.

A few weeks ago I spoke with a distributor from one of Israel’s leading Judaica companies. I asked him why almost all tallit bags are sold with a tefillin bag as well. After all, there are a lot of Jews out there who don’t lay tefillin, unfortunately, and among those who do, many have a special tallit for Shabbos.

Made in Israel - or China?
Made in China

“Well, you know, these are all imported from China,” he said, “so what’s the difference if they throw in a tefillin bag?”

Yes, that’s right. Even that tallit bag of yours with the word “Tallit” embroidered in gold thread was sewn together and embroidered – in Hebrew – by a Chinese worker getting paid $1.75 per day. And by the way, the seamstress I work with tells me the type of velvet they use is poor quality, and won’t last long.

I decided my customers should not have to pay full price for inferior quality, and many of them want to buy products made in Israel. So I created an in-house line of velvet tallit bags. Besides the fact they are made in Israel, another advantage is that when a customer orders personalized embroidery, whether a full name or initials, the color matches the design embroidery.

And for me it means I can once again say all of the products we sell are made in Israel.