Extract courtesy of 11 March story from BloombergBusinessweek reporter Gabrielle Coppola

Steven Schoenfeld staked his career on a single belief in 2010: there was latent demand in the U.S. Jewish community to invest in Israeli stocks.

That year, the Wall Street veteran founded a company that would create an index that includes Israeli shares traded both in Tel Aviv and abroad. Schoenfeld’s BlueStar Israel Global Index includes Caesarstone Sdot Yam Ltd. and Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which don’t trade in Israel and are up more than 90 percent over the past year. Van Eck Associates started in June 2013 an exchange-traded fund tracking his index, under the ticker ISRA.

Schoenfeld, who has created indexes for the World Bank, Barclays Plc (BARC) and Northern Trust Corp., is seeking to raise $1 billion from the $60 billion he estimates is held by Jewish federations, endowments and charities in the U.S. and Canada. He says the investment will benefit Israel’s stock exchange and economy. So far, Schoenfeld has raised $36.7 million, including funds from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and the Chicago federation. The gauge is up 26 percent in the past year, beating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 22 percent gain.

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