The CEO of a Bay Area tech company with more than half its work force in Israel recently flown there to help them cope with the devastating terrorist attacks.
JFrog is a software company based in Sunnyvale with 1500 employees. 800 of them are based in Israel.
“The moment it happened, I started to look for a flight,” said JFrog CEO Shlomi Ben Haim.
Shlomi says after seeing horrific images of the Hamas terrorist attack Saturday, he flew to Israel to help his team.
“Obviously, JFrog employees and every Israelis are very impacted by it. Not just emotionally, but there are tens of JFrog employees were drafted by the IDF and called for service,” he said.
Haim added that more of his employees are leaving work every day to fight for their country. He said that even more to his worries, his own 19-and 22-year-old daughters, who grew up in the Bay Area are now fighting in the Israeli military.
Haim says with 800 employees based in Israel, JFrog leaders have had the daunting task of making sure they are all safe.
“We also found out that one of our employees is hiding together with his family, inside the shelter, begging for help on What's App and via text,” he said.
Haim says that employee was rescued because of the threat of missile attacks JFrog has closed its office in Tel Aviv and employees that can are working from home. But they are are also working to support Israel’s fight.
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“Our team is volunteering in different places, preparing packages for our soldiers, supporting some villages,” he said.
Through it all, Haim told NBC Bay Area has not been able to reunite with his own relatives in Israel because of the dangers.