Omer Eshel, 33, is the Israeli consul for tourism for the Midwest region. He took the Chicago-based position this past September, and is responsible for promoting tourism to Israel in 13 U.S. states.
On Feb. 9 and 10, he visited Milwaukee for his first time, both to hold meetings relating to his work, and to visit with Milwaukee’s Israel emissaries, Ro’ee Peled and Michal Makov-Peled, friends of his in Israel.
The meetings included an interview with Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle editor Leon Cohen. Selected and edited excerpts of that conversation follow:
LC: Describe what it is you do as consul for tourism.
OE: We are full diplomats, with the same status [as Foreign Ministry diplomats]. But we are an economic mission. The main goal of our economic mission is to enhance the economy of Israel by tourism.
The byproduct of that —and this I think is especially important for the Jewish Chronicle — is the best form of hasbara [public relations] possible. We’re not aiming for the hasbara, but once [tourists] are in Israel and see the diversity of the land and see the openness of the land, see the strength of the democracy in Israel, this is best possible [hasbara].
We’re staying away from politics. I always say politics and tourism never go hand-in-hand. When they ask me about politics, I just tell them, “Well how about that Herod, eh? Unbelievable.” [Herod was the Roman Empire’s client king of Judea, b. 73-d. 4 B.C.E.] We are promoting the nice and beautiful and amazing Israel as it is.
LC: When I hear economic news from Israel, I mostly hear about the start-ups and the high tech companies and such. How big a part of Israel’s economy is tourism today?
OE: Every tourist generates four jobs [in Israel]. It’s not just the tour guide. It’s the waiter, it’s the owner of the restaurant, it’s the cleaner of the restaurant, it is the hotel manager. You have a lot more jobs per tourist because of the demands of the need. Add to this all the gift shops all over.
We’re talking billions of dollars, when it comes to how much money it generates. In the year 2011, we had almost 3.5 million tourists. The entire population of Israel is 7 million people. So think about the impact.
LC: What got you into this field of Israeli tourism? How did you get to this job?
OE: I’m a fourth generation sabra [native-born Israeli]. My great-grandfather came from Germany to Israel. I come from a very Zionist home. I served as a shaliach [emissary from Israel] in Canada for three years. I paid for my Hebrew University degree writing educational material for the national park authority for several sites in Israel. I’m a certified tour guide in Israel also. So I guided groups.
After that, I said I’m going to be consul for tourism because I see I can tie all the knots together. Because I can see it from the eyes of the tour company, the tour guide, the Jewish federations, and the eyes of the Israelis.
Also my major [at the university] is the historical geography of the land of Israel, and religion. I’m a huge Bible buff, I love the Bible. I could talk about it for hours. [In the United States], I feel very much at home, because I can talk about my biggest passion in the world, the Bible, and this is the right audience, because it is of people who follow the Lord.
LC: Apart from visiting [Ro’ee and Michal], I gather you met today [Feb. 10] with Milwaukee Jewish Federation officials…
OE: And I met with [officials of the] Sacred Heart School of Theology… I met several pastors, and discussed with them how to bring groups to Israel. I’m going to meet [members of Christians United for Israel] in about an hour or so. I have back-to-back meetings.
LC: How long are you scheduled to be [consul for tourism]?
OE: It’s between three and five years. The classic is four.
LC: Do you have a particular goal in mind during that time, apart from increasing the amount of tourism to Israel?
OE: Because I grew up in a very Zionist and Bible-oriented home, my goal is to bring Bible down to earth to people from any faith through the land of Israel. So people will be able to read the Bible and to see the places where the Bible actually took place, and by that be connected to their faith; to see the land through the eyes of [Jesus’] disciples [and ancient Israel’s] kings and prophets.
LC: What is your relationship with private tourism businesses?
OE: I promote them. I promote everybody. If someone or a group of people wants to come to Israel, they can call me, they can go to [the website] goisrael.com, they can contact us in the office. They can call us with questions about Israel. But when it comes to the business sector, we’re going to give them a list of tour operators, and they will shop around and decide. We will never ever recommend any specific tourist agencies.
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