Making the World Smaller & Bridging Worlds: the iKare Innovation Women in Tech® Delegation to Israel
- annebaer
- Dec 12, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 24, 2025
A month ago, iKare Innovation received a pivotal call from Dan Oryan and Ran Natanzon. The challenge? To assemble a high-level Women in Tech® Global delegation to Israel by year-end. This request came six months after we first approached the innovation department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel seeking a budget to bring 15 international leaders to our upcoming Women in Tech® Israel Summit 2025.
iKare Innovation's CEO and Women in Tech® Israel co-founder and Director, Anne Baer, turned to Tehila Brenner with the confidence that defines our partnership: "Like everything we do together, it’s going to work!"
Within days, 13 remarkable women from remote corners of the globe responded. They left behind teams, meetings, and families to travel to a country currently fighting for its survival, overcoming every objection and hesitation along the way.
The resilience of this group was profound:
Zarifa Ghafari, the youngest former mayor in Afghanistan and a survivor of multiple assassination attempts.
Bénie KOY and Teuta Sahatqija, who have witnessed their people being raped, tortured and assassinated in the darkest chapters of human conflict in their own homelands.
Leaders from nations where women’s rights are under pressure, and others where the first female Prime Ministers are just beginning to lead the way.
Over five days, iKare Innovation guided these leaders through the heart of the Israeli tech ecosystem, providing a firsthand look at the realities following October 7th and addressing the misinformation that often clouds global perspectives.
Selected highlights of the trip were:
Innovation & Climate: We participated in PLANETech week and connected with industry leaders at their VIP event.
Academic Resilience: We visited the Weizmann Institute of Science which was targeted in June by 2 Iranian missiles with 2 buildings and 54 labs destroyed, annihilating cell banks, samples, hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment. When asked how they cope with the destruction of labs and decades of research, the response was a testament to the Israeli spirit: "That happened so long ago; we just moved forward." We were also deeply moved and impressed by Dr. Michelle von Locquenghien’s work in cancer immunology.
Regional Impact: We were hosted by Sharon Zarfati at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, visiting Prisma Negev, the Yazamut 360° entrepreneurship center, and the National Institute for Climate and Environmental Policy.
The week culminated at Herzog with our 2025 Women in Tech® Israel Summit. Originally themed around sustainability, we pivoted the focus to: “How can we make the world smaller?”
By bringing these 13 guest speakers together, we found that a "smaller" world is a better one: less suffocating, more connected, and more human. This journey was about more than tech; it was about reconstructing personal stories. We sat with Dani, a survivor from Kibbutz Beeri, and Hen Malka, a survivor of the Nova Festival massacre, to ensure these stories are never forgotten.
At iKare Innovation, we believe that when women lead, we don't just bridge gaps, we build a more resilient future.
Comments