Baruch Herzfeld (born 1972) is an American entrepreneur and the founder and president of Zeno Media and former owner of Traif Bike Geschaft.

Career

Popwheels

Herzfeld is a founder of Popwheels, an e-bike battery charging start-up.

Herzfeld created a tool using conference call technology to broadcast online radio that connects immigrant communities in the United States to their homelands. Focused primarily on New York City feeder communities, this tool, he named ''ZenoRadio'', recruited its first users who were new residents hailing from San Jose de las Matas, Dominican Republic; San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago; and Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Herzfeld set up alternative voice over IP routes in these immigrant hometowns to keep families affordably linked between their old and new lives. Today, the service is called Zeno.FM these connections extend to more than 25 countries, from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Cambodia, Nigeria, and

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

, to Nicaragua,

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic.

Traif Bike Geschaft

Herzfeld is the former owner of Traif Bike Geschaft, a bicycle repair shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He lent 500 used bicycles he had purchased from

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to the Satmar Hasidim free of charge in an attempt to alleviate neighborhood tension between the burgeoning hipster community and the long-time Hasidic Jewish community. Herzfeld purchased 40 used mobile home trailers to store the bikes resulting in what was Brooklyn's first and only

trailer park A trailer park,caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and eas ...

. A trailer park full of bikes and no one to ride them then inspired his personal mission to supply the local Williamsburg, Brooklyn community of Hasidic Jews with wheels to ride around the neighborhood, emerging as a cultural disruptor. Herzfeld became known as a community disruptor by local media, and dubbed a ''macher'' by Jewish media. His

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

experiments also include: a bike vending machine, a bike share program, a landlord business using a psychic to vet tenants, and an ATM that rewarded the 10th user with an extra $20 bill.

The Merengue Scandal

In 2010, prior to his incarnation as bike advocate, Herzfeld spent a year shuttling back and forth between the Dominican Republic, where he ran operations for SkyMax Dominicana (a telecom company), and Brooklyn, where SkyMax's parent company is based. Herzfeld reported to Moses Greenfield, the company's owner and a Williamsburg Satmar Hasid. In the spring of 2007, after Herzfeld clashed with his colleagues one too many times, Greenfield fired him. A dispute followed over how much money Herzfeld was owed. As per their contract, the parties took their conflict to the beth din, or rabbinical court, which functions as arbitrators. Greenfield's attorney was

Nathan Lewin Nathan Lewin (born January 31, 1936) is an American attorney who has argued many cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Early life and education Lewin was born in Łódź, Poland. His grandfather, the chief rabbi of Rzeszow, was ...

, an Orthodox lawyer. The beth din ruled that Herzfeld was entitled to some of the profits he demanded. However, in Herzfeld's view, it did not go far enough in enforcing the verdict.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herzfeld, Baruch 21st-century American businesspeople Living people Businesspeople from Staten Island Yeshiva University alumni 1972 births