Community donates over $1 million to help Israelis

PROVIDENCE – 612 community members have contributed to the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island’s Israel Emergency Fund since it opened Oct. 11 in response to the attacks on Israel. Since then, the greater Rhode Island community has raised nearly $1.1 million to directly support the needs of the victims, from food and housing to medical treatments and trauma counseling.

One hundred percent of all donations directly and significantly impact those living through these atrocities.  No amount is too small to make a meaningful difference.

The money is being channeled to the Jewish Federations of North America, umbrella organization of 146 federations nationwide, and sent to Israel in a range of ways, including through our largest international partners – the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and Magen David Adom, the equivalent of the American Red Cross – for immediate and on-the-ground medical care, trauma relief, counseling and basic daily needs.

JAFI has shared that its work since Oct. 7 includes direct contact with over 7,450 families in Israel that are victims of terror, and it is currently working to distribute immediate grants to families that have lost homes or relatives.

JAFI reports that over 8,000 calls have been received on its emergency hotline, where trained staff provide information and support to victims and their families.

Most recently, to ensure that children were able to celebrate Hanukkah, the organization distributed gifts and offered holiday camp to over 200 youngsters, ages 5 to 16. This helped the children release stress, manage anxiety and, for a moment, just be kids.

Israel remains in crisis and families are grappling with unimaginable loss each day. JAFI’s future priorities include distributing further grants to an estimated 10,000 victims; continuing to allocate needs-based grants to Israel’s most vulnerable people; continuing to operate holiday camps for children; and providing counseling and grief services to high school graduates entering military service. JAFI estimates this will require $110 million.

Because of existing operations like the Jewish Alliance’s Annual Community Campaign, support was in place well before Oct. 7, and it will remain in place long after the war is over.

In its partnership with JAFI, the Jewish Alliance supports a range of critical services and programs that honor Jewish values and bolster a shared vision. One such program is JAFI’s Youth Futures, funded by the Annual Community Campaign, which focuses on life-skills training, non-traditional teaching and learning for young adults, and group counseling to empower participants and strengthen relationships within families.

Other services, such as the Nativ academic gap-year program in Israel, educate approximately 1,500 Jewish young people every year, creating a deeper sense of global Jewry and identity through a rigorous and interactive curriculum focused on Jewish peoplehood. These programs would not be possible without ongoing support from the Annual Community Campaign.

Projections suggest that the Israel-Hamas war will at the very least last another several months. Terror and trauma are all around. Immediate and long-term needs will only grow exponentially.

Whether you have already contributed to the Israel Emergency Fund, the Annual Community Campaign, or both, every dollar matters and makes a difference.

To donate to the Israel Emergency Fund and/or the Annual Community Campaign, and for more information, go to jewishallianceri.org.

To stay up-to-date on the impact of Rhode island’s donations, go www.jewishrhody.com.

JENNIFER ZWIRN is chief development officer at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.