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OyVeyAuctions puts the yenta factor to work online

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18228/full/18228/oyveyauctions-puts-the-yenta-factor-to-work-online/ OyVeyAuctions puts the yenta factor to work online Friday, August 2, 2002 | by liz harris Move over, eBay. There's a new kid on the block with the potential to grow big: OyVeyAuctions.com The Web site is an auctioneer, chat room, religious advice line, tzedakah fund-raiser and community-builder all rolled into one. The site went up at the end of June and within three weeks had received nearly 1,000 hits from all over the world, though it's still a work in progress. And with businessman-entrepreneur Jim Weiss at the helm, the site seems destined for success. For Weiss' enthusiasm has no bounds. "It's funny how ideas pop into your head," mused the president of Irvine's itrade Group Inc. during a phone interview. The 39-year-old Orange County resident described his affiliation as "very, very relaxed Reform" until about five months ago, when a cousin told him about Chabad. Curious, he visited Chabad Jewish Center Mission Viejo, where he liked what he found. "They're wonderful teachers," he said. One morning at the center, while he was learning to put on tefillin, "I just sort of blurted out 'OyVeyAuctions,'" said Weiss. It was a vision, Rabbi Zalman Marcus told him. "HaShem came and he spoke to you." It was up to Weiss, the rabbi said, to do something about it. So he did. "One thing led to another," said the founder of a community of Web sites, including itradecards.com, and by mid-July OyVeyAuctions had mushroomed in both concept and application. In a nutshell, it is "an online marketplace dedicated to the needs of the Jewish community: individually, collectively, for personal and business use, locally to internationally," according to its Web site. In bold print, the site also points out a most important feature: 18 percent chai of all annual profits plus the proceeds from one full day each month will be donated to Jewish organizations. OyVey's rabbinical and advisory councils will direct the charitable-giving program, administering funds and selecting recipients. The rabbinical group will also provide advice on religious matters. Although Weiss, who grew up in a non-Jewish neighborhood near Huntington Beach, has recently become a member of the Chabad Center, OyVey and recipients of its donations will be all-inclusive, he emphasized. He has invited rabbis from all streams to join the rabbinical council, and he also intends to ask business leaders and prominent Jews from throughout the community to join the effort. Noting that the principal of a popular Jewish school in Irvine recently signed on, he said, "I want to have an education council and a medical council, so they can both give money away." A man who leaves no stone unturned, Weiss also plans to launch a research department to investigate all charitable recipients to "make sure they're real," so the money goes to the "right places." And, with a nod to the recent accounting scandals involving some of American's largest corporations, Weiss added, "We don't mind making our books public for anybody to see them. There's too much wrong in the world with all these companies." He's also a man with a social conscience. "Judaism right now -- the world seems not to be happy with us. It's really sad. We're just a nice group of people. "The site is a place people can go, at least for the time that they're there, where they can let their worries down. They can have a good time...find a recipe and make a nice Shabbat meal out of it." There is no membership fee to log on to OyVey, which only charges those posting items for sale. The fees are low: 50 cents apiece for one to nine items, $1 each for 10 or more. The offerings are wide-ranging: a set of decorative Judaica towels, a Star of David kippah, Torah cards and books, 100-year-old Jewish artwork. That's just for starters. Weiss intends to meet with representatives from the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, looking for connections and someone to join his advisory council. He wants to build a strong council that's broadly representative of the Jewish community. As for the sales side, he has already been contacted by purveyors including kosher food manufacturers. "They're saying, 'We want to do business with you.'" He's heard from Judaica artists as far away as Poland. Neal Greene, an Irvine businessman with a background in merchandising and marketing, is one of several associates assisting with the project. He said the site is doing "remarkably well," considering its youth. "The word has gotten out around the world. We're getting inquiries from Singapore, Belgium, Israel..." Eventually, OyVeyAuctions.com will have all kinds of bells and whistles, according to Weiss: instant messaging, bulk uploading, radio programming, shopping carts, instant translation into Hebrew and other languages and improved graphics and sound. He credited his senior Web developer, Sheri Kim, with converting his ideas into virtual reality. With all its regular features plus bonuses, such as gift giveaways, a weekly newsletter, links to AskMoses.com and other lures, OyVey has the potential to be a big player -- at least in the Jewish online world. The site is at <a href="http://www.oyveyauctions.com">http://www.oyveyauctions.com</a> Weiss hopes that "you come to OyVeyAuctions and you never want to leave, because you're having so much fun."

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