Gerry Tissenbaum is the Head of International Sales with Jupiter Research, providing leading industry Cell vapourizer cartridges and power supplies. He has a diverse track record building enterprise value, formulating attractive product offerings and solidifying client relationships to generate impressive revenue results.
In an industry where women are underappreciated and undervalued, it’s important to recognize those men who do support us and lead us to wonder aloud, to each other, why other men can’t be more like these kind, considerate, empathetic, honest men who genuinely want us to succeed. This is one reason why we chose Gerry Tissenbaum as our Mensch of the Month, who inspires so many of us in the industry to keep going.
Another reason is because we have been so impressed with his strong Jewish advocacy and support for Israel after October 7th. Gerry recently went on a volunteer mission to Israel sponsored by the Jewish National Fund (USA), and also paid his respects at the site of the Nova Festival massacre.
Editor-in-Chief Lissa Skitolsky (LS) asked Gerry (GT) some questions about his work and recent trip in order to paint a better picture of the CJM Mensch of the Month.
LS: You were one of the first people who I connected with right after I founded CJM, and you reached out to me with enthusiasm and encouragement and a lot of great advice. I didn’t have to pitch the idea or explain the market need, you just “got it” and wanted to help. Have you always felt a connection between your work in the cannabis industry and your Jewish identity or values?
GT: I’m not sure I equated cannabis and Jewish identity until we spoke about it. I have kept work and my personal life apart, but now realise—with the fight against antisemitism and the fight for Israel—the importance of the link.
LS: I’d love to hear about your trip to Israel, and why it was important for you to go.
GT: My mother is the strongest, most resilient person I know, and a Holocaust survivor. She was in several camps and her story of survival is a book unto itself. When the Ukraine war broke out she said to me:
“It is awful I was born into war and will leave this earth the same way.”
Fast forward a nanosecond in time and October 7th happened. My brother is an orthopedic surgeon in Pittsburgh, and a team of volunteer doctors were on a flight to Israel on the 11th. He returned prior to the actual bombing, which occurred several weeks after the Gaza invasion—which the world is forgetting! Israel waited and asked for the hostages to be released prior to launching their defensive attack on Hamas on October 27th! Upon his return in January, my mother said she had to go back to Israel and help. It was her want and need to volunteer that made me say yes.
Even days before we left on April 11th, when Iran was threatening retaliation, she insisted that the terrorists will win if we do not fulfill our pledges and show full, unwavering support for Israel. If my mother who turned 88 while in Israel was willing to sacrifice and go, leaving her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, then the cause was greater than me.
The trip was transformational. The gratitude that every Israeli had for this volunteer mission, made me feel like the grinch, whose heart grew three times larger.
I have never experienced something so pure. There was an ex IDF commander who spoke to the group on one of our missions, and he told his story of being a 5 year old boy whose father went to war in 1967 and never came back. He was terribly mad at his father for years. “How could my father not love me and go to war?,” he was asking himself for years. As he learned when he entered the army, it was EXACTLY for that reason—his LOVE for his family—that his father went to war and why every Jew has a place to call home. There is no LOVE GREATER than the sacrifice one makes on behalf of their beloved!
LS: Whenever your name comes up in cannabis circles, everyone (especially women) start testifying about your kindness and integrity. How do you stay so positive and encouraging, no matter how bleak things may seem?
GT: As a geneticist, I believe that our industry is and will be transformational on a global scale. This plant has been helping people since the dawn of time and there is true power in helping people. I have always said I want to help and we NEED to build the industry, and work together to grow and reach the true potential the industry shows, and not just from a sales dollars side. I really enjoy helping people. The industry has lots of pitfalls but overall I find that people are happy to be here. I, like many others, have had these moments when we say something like, “I can’t believe that in 202X we are able to buy weed, grass, pot, cannabis as it is federally legal.” One of my favourite lines is from the Grateful Dead, Box of Rain:
“What do you want me to do / To do for you to see you through?”
Let’s all work to grow the industry.
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