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Daniel Lubetzky, Jewish Founder of KIND Snacks, Replaces Mark Cuban on ‘Shark Tank’ as Series Regular Investor
Daniel Lubetzky, CEO of KIND LLC, accepts the Civility and Compassion Award during The Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards Nov. 04, 2023. Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
Jewish Mexican-American entrepreneur Daniel Lubetzky announced on Wednesday that after five seasons as a recurring guest investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” he will become a regular “shark” on the show when its new season premieres in October.
Lubetzky, the founder of the KIND snack company who is also the son of a Holocaust survivor, will replace billionaire Jewish American entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who announced last year that he will leave the show after season 16. Lubetzky is the first new regular cast member to join the show in over a decade. The “Shark Tank” panel of series regular investors includes Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary.
“It’s an honor to be part of a production that continues to educate, entertain, and unite Americans behind the spirit of building together,” Lubetzky said in a released statement about joining the “Shark Tank” team. “I am so excited to be part of this fun, hilarious, exceptionally smart cast and crew. Most of all, I am looking forward to partnering with entrepreneurs from all walks of life as they come to ‘Shark Tank’ for their chance to realize the American dream.”
He added that he hopes his Jewish Mexican mother Sonia is “proud” of him and that his late father Roman, who survived the Dachau concentration camp in Germany during the Holocaust, “is looking from above and seeing not just what I’ve achieved but how I’ve achieved it — by trying my very best to always follow the values he taught me.”
Lubetzky shared in 2021 that his mother was raised in Tampico, “a cattle-ranching region in Mexico, where her family was one of only a handful of Jewish families.”
“She’s always had an extra sensibility about her responsibility to be an ambassador of the Jewish people,” he said. “I admire the ways in which she helps our family preserve both our Jewish — and Mexican — values and traditions.”
Lubetzky was born in 1968 and raised in Mexico City, where he was taught Hebrew, English, Spanish, and Yiddish. He moved to the US with his family when he was a teenager but studied abroad in Israel during his college years. At Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, his 268-page thesis was titled, “The Influence of Economic Factors in Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”
Lubetzky founded the KIND company in 2004. He sold a minority stake to the candy giant Mars in 2017 and sold the entire company to Mars in 2020 in a deal reportedly worth $5 billion. In 2002, he founded OneVoice Movement, which is a grassroots movement that amplifies the voices of Israeli and Palestinian activists with the vision for “an independent and viable Palestine and a secure Israel free from conflict.” He is also the founder of PeaceWorks Inc., a business that fosters cooperative ventures among neighbors in the Middle East.
In October 2023, shortly after the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, Lubetkzy talked about being affected by the Israel-Hamas war.
“I literally have not been sleeping over the last two, three weeks because we’ve lost a lot of our family and friends to this war,” Lubetzky said in an interview in October. “We have Palestinian and Israeli staff and colleagues whose lives have been impacted. We have Palestinian staff in Gaza that we’ve been trying to evacuate, but Hamas has blocked the exits and prevented them from leaving. We have Israelis, both Jewish and Muslim Israelis, that were killed by the Hamas terrorists.”
According to the KIND website, Lubetkzy’s favorite quote is from Rabbi Hillel, who said: “In a place where there is no humanity, strive thou to be human.”
Season 16 of “Shark Thank” premieres Oct. 18 on ABC.
The post Daniel Lubetzky, Jewish Founder of KIND Snacks, Replaces Mark Cuban on ‘Shark Tank’ as Series Regular Investor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.