An Israeli Summer with the Big Four
LCW’s Elisheva Rosenberg Worked at KPMG’s Office in Jerusalem
How do you say tax rebate in Hebrew? Ask Elisheva Rosenberg, a student at Lander College for Women—The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School (LCW). She spent this past summer as an intern at the Israeli office of KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms.
Rosenberg, who is originally from LA, attended YULA Girls High School before spending her senior year taking courses at a local community college. After spending a year at Sharfman’s/Bnot Torah in Israel, she decided she wanted to attend a Jewish college.
“I realized in seminary that I wanted to be in a Jewish environment and I knew some girls who were going to Touro,” recalled Rosenberg.
At LCW, Rosenberg wasn’t sure what to major in and tried several intro courses, until she settled on accounting. “All the other classes were fine, but in accounting I felt like it clicked,” recalled Rosenberg.
Rosenberg was offered the KPMG internship after a serendipitous meeting with a senior KPMG officer during a Sukkot meal. (Her brother, an accounting major at Lander College for Men, also received the same internship and worked alongside her.)
Rosenberg’s family made aliyah last year and she stayed with them while commuting to KPMG’s office in Jerusalem.
“I was definitely prepared because of my classes,” said Rosenberg. “I knew what my bosses were talking about.”
During the internship, Rosenberg worked from 9-4 Monday through Thursday with an occasional Sunday thrown into the mix. She was mentored by accountants in the office about filing corporate tax returns for both Israeli companies and American companies that have offices in Israel.
“We used a lot of Google translate,” remembered Rosenberg. “I was really nervous and I worried that I’d mess up by putting the wrong number in, but thank God, it went well.”
Rosenberg was also prepared because of her participation at Lander College of Arts and Sciences Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program during which she helped low-income New Yorkers file their taxes. Both internships complemented each other nicely, said Rosenberg.
“I learned how to file taxes for an individual through VITA and with this internship I learned what it takes to file tax returns for a corporation.”
Rosenberg was told to follow up with the office as soon as she graduates. Her own advice for other accountings interns is to keep their options open.
“Accounting isn’t a single monolithic profession and it’s so much more than typing on a computer,” said Rosenberg. “There are many fields within the accounting world.”
