Editor’s Note: Steve Lubetkin’s “Compuschmooze” column in the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey this month covers the impact of the October 7 terrorist massacres on tech industry workers in Israel. The column is based on this video interview.
In the wake of the horrific October 7 terrorist attack, the one thing that Israelis need most is to hear from friends and family elsewhere in the world, according to one technology industry executive.
“If you know anyone living here, I can’t tell you how helpful and impactful it’s been to even be contacted by people,” says Kendall Breitman, formerly of Haverford, PA, who now lives in Israel. “It’s one thing to experience this, and then it’s another thing to kind of feel alone in your experience. So if you know anybody that’s been affected by this, I think reaching out to them is just baseline, like a really great thing to do, and it makes people feel seen and heard and loved. And that’s something that I feel like we’re a bit lacking right now.”
Breitman is a community manager at Riverside.fm, the Tel Aviv-based video recording company.
You can watch the interview with Kendall Breitman in the player below.
You can get information about making donations in Israel here. You can learn about relief organizations helping Israeli victims of terror and Palestinian victims of Hamas at this link.
Steve Lubetkin is the news director for StateBroadcastNews.com. Steve’s journalism background includes print and broadcast reporting for NJ news organizations. He refocused on multimedia journalism and podcast production after a long career in corporate branded journalism and public relations.
He has won numerous awards for his audio and video news reporting from the Garden State Journalists Association, and he has also been recognized for video by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has produced a wide range of audio and video podcasts in his other role as managing partner of State Broadcast News’s parent, The Lubetkin Media Companies.
Steve is co-author, with Toronto-based podcasting pioneer Donna Papacosta, of the book, The Business of Podcasting: How to Take Your Podcasting Passion from the Personal to the Professional.
In March 2021, he was elected to the board of directors of the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and in July 2021 he was named secretary of the chapter. In August 2021, he was honored by SPJ with one of the organization’s 2021 Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Awards, given to regular members of an SPJ chapter who go above and beyond in serving their chapter.
Steve has been the computer columnist for the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, since 1996.
Steve also has reported on-camera and produces virtual conferences for NJSpotlightNews.org, a public policy news coverage website focused on New Jersey government and industry; and for clients of StateBroadcastNews.com, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC.
From May-November 2019, he produced and reported a weekly podcast, The CRE News Hour, a news and features program focusing on the commercial real estate industry.
From 2014 to 2019 he was New Jersey and Philadelphia editor for GlobeSt.com and filled in covering Chicago/Midwest and Atlanta.
Steve has also served (from August 2017 to March 2018) as national broadcast news correspondent for CEOReport.com, a news website focused on practical advice for senior executives in small- and medium-sized companies.
Earlier in his career, Steve reported on rock music at the Jersey Shore for the Asbury Park Press, and was a broadcast news anchor and production engineer for WJLK-AM & FM, then owned by the Press. He also worked as a general assignment reporter for the Red Bank Register, Shrewsbury, NJ.
You can email Steve at steve@statebroadcastnews.com.
