Oct 11, 2023

Your Donations to the Israel Emergency Fund

As a result of Federation’s multiple, long-term relationships with our overseas partners, your donations to the Israel Emergency Fund are already at work helping individuals and families that are victims of Hamas’ brutality. With devastation all around, the needs are many. Emergency medical services, supplies and equipment for first responders and hospitals in close proximity to the Gaza border are being delivered, along with trauma relief and psychosocial care for victims and their families, first responders and lone soldiers. Additionally, food and financial assistance for impacted families, the elderly and the homebound; logistical considerations like evacuation plans and temporary housing for frontline communities and new olim (immigrants to Israel) living in absorption centers; and respite trips away from the violence are all underway.

*Below are some of the ways a few of our overseas partners are helping.

The Jewish Agency for Israel

• Distributing emergency cash grants to families and individuals who have been impacted by acts of terror and violence through its Fund for the Victims of Terror
• Providing long-term assistance through psychological support and job retraining
• Relocating more than 1,600 olim from Jewish Agency absorption centers in the south to safer locations
• Organizing respite camps for children and adults to remove them from direct conflict zones 
• Establishing a hotline to assist victims of the war
• Delivering 2,500 food baskets to seniors living in Amigour housing in southern Israel
• Bringing overseas healthcare workers 
• Recruiting visitors for the thousands of injured currently in hospitals.
• Ensuring the safety of 5,700 Masa Journey Fellows in 142 programs across Israel, along with 450 participants in other Israel Experience programs throughout the country, while relocating those in harm's way to safer locations

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

• Providing digital vouchers for 170 at-risk families in the south to purchase food, household items, toys and other emergency supplies for shelters and safe rooms
• Training frontline professionals to meet the unprecedented needs among the most vulnerable children and families, the elderly and people with disabilities
• Expanding mental health interventions for children and youth at risk
• Strengthening the capacity of nursing homes welcoming elderly Israelis who have fled from the current conflict zone
• Providing emergency support for people with disabilities, including access to a hotline with social workers and psychologists
• Transforming employment centers into volunteer hubs, the first of which, in the city of Bnei Brak, is already staffed with 500 Haredi volunteers who are ready to help at call centers, visit elderly and support vital community services 
• Supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs in southern Israel so they can remain open and financially stable during this uncertain time

World ORT

• Financial and nutritional support for staff and students who have been directly affected
• Providing war-affected students and staff with one-on-one and group counseling and mental health services
• Training teachers so they can offer psychological assistance to children
• Streaming virtual stress relief educational activities online for students across Israel, grades 1-8
• Extending education to displaced populations and evacuees to ensure that all children have access to learning opportunities and essential technology
• Funding transport of staff and students from conflict-hit areas as needed
• Installing security measures at Kfar Silver Youth Village, near Ashkelon, including guards, safe rooms, fences, alarms and surveillance systems to help protect students and staff from potential dangers, as well as additional staff security training, guards and security measures at other World ORT Kadima Mada projects

Israel Trauma Coalition

• Supporting 15,000+ people in need of psychological and material support, moving them out of communities near the Gaza border and relocating them to hotels and private homes across the country
• Fielding more than 4,000 requests for emotional help at 32 southern resilence centers, focused on providing trauma care for evacuees from Gaza Envelope Communities 
• Managing and delivering trauma care in hotels, ranging from immediation emotional first aid to referrals for those who need more specific care
• Training emergency personnel, as many of the casualties were paramedics, firefighters, social workers and policemen. Emergency response is dramatically short-staffed and urgent training is needed across the country.
• Accompanying and supporting teams helping families during the process of identifying bodies and those who have loved ones missing 
• Providing logistical support for feeding and equipping IDF reservists
• Overseeing long-term resilience and reconstruction for communities in the south, specifically the kibbutzim, many of which saw fiery battles and lay in ruins
• Accommodating Israelis stranded abroad as foreign airlines suspend flights

Leket
Israel's National Food Bank

• Purchasing 320,000 cooked meals and delivering them directly to recipients
• Purchasing essential supplies, including food, diapers and formula, from small grocery stores and local caterers and distributing them in the south, supporting both families in need and local business owners
• Providing financial assistance through cash cards to help individuals affected by the war and/or whose income has been impacted or who lack access to their usual sources of aid

Magen David Adom 
Israel's National Emergency Pre-Hospital Medical and Blood Services Organization

• Collecting more than 13,000 blood units from donors and distributing it to all Israeli hospitals
• Evacuating injured civilians and military personnel from conflict zones to hospitals
• Upgrading Basic Life Support ambulances to become Mobile Intensive Care Units

• Mobilizing all 7,000 volunteers and dispatching more than 120 rescue vehicles to Israel's southern region
• Treating more than 1,000 casualities of civilians and IDF soldiers on only the first day of the war

• Opening dedicated hotlines for both practical and emotional support for staff and volunteers
• Preparing for the arrival of hundreds of individuals from the south of the country who will be evacuated to the Shalva National Crisis Response Center for varying lengths of time