Jewish Ledger
Connecticut companies do business with Israel
By Stacey Dresner

Feb 4, 2005 - You say tomato…

Jeffrey Cohen was all set to go to Israel with his family when he was a child growing up in West Hartford. But just before they were supposed to leave, the Six-Day War began.

Since then, Cohen has never been able to actually make it to Israel, but as president of ImageWorks, a website design and Internet marketing firm in Vernon, he is now working with Israeli companies.

Cohen's newest client is LycoRed Natural Products Industries Ltd., Israel, a firm that develops, produces and markets a powder-based products based on the phytonutrient (or health-protecting anti-oxidant properties) of the tomato. Lyco Red is a subsidiary of Makhteshim Agan Industries, a $1.2 billion million company.

ImageWorks will design and host LycoRed's website, publish a monthly newsletter for LycoRed clients and maintain the Israeli company's distributions list. ImageWorks got the job after a lengthy search of U.S. website firms by a Woodbridge marketing firm that does business with LycoRed.

Cohen said that this firm's experience with food and health clients made his firm the right one for the job. His firm has worked with health related firms like Diminishing Dimensions, Fichman Eye Care, and Johnson Memorial Hospital and the popular restaurant, Rein's Deli.

ImageWorks also works on the website for Amidex, an Israeli-based mutual fund firm for the past six years.

Cohen, who was born in New Britain and raised in West Hartford, always wanted to be a graphic designer. He earned two degrees, one in fine arts, and one in computer programming. When he was unable to find a job in graphic design in the early 1980s, he went into the computer design business.

Today, ImageWorks, based in Vernon, employs six, including Cohen's wife, Rebecca, a graphic artist who also runs the company's office. The Cohens and their three kids live in Vernon.

Jeffrey says that he appreciates the "cultural connection" he gets when working with an Israeli company, and finds that they "seem much more community-based - they have tighter bonds and stronger ties. I like that."

And if he can help a company in Israel, all the better.

"I would like to think that in some way we are helping the economy over there," he said.