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Where US Jews can donate to support Israel’s hospitals, troops, survivors and more
(JTA) — For many American Jews, watching the scenes of horrifying violence and trauma emerging from Israel has awakened an impulse to help or give to the sweeping aid effort underway now.
We’ve rounded up some of the needs that nonprofits and individuals have shared, as well as organizations working to address them. Please note that you should always do your own research before donating to any organization.
Israeli hospitals are dealing with a surge of wounded patients and some have been damaged by rockets or in fighting. Many depend on donations even in normal conditions, making the need more acute now.
Barzilai Hospital in the south sustained rocket fire while serving patients. Over the past few days, it has been inundated with more than 450 victims being brought in.
Hadassah hospital is treating victims of the attacks, including many soldiers, and launched a crisis campaign to raise needed funds.
Soroka Medical Center has already treated 700 severely wounded victims and the center is seeking donations for its emergency fund to ensure the acquisition of essential medical equipment.
Israel’s robust volunteer emergency services providers, which have been first responders through a variety of crises, have been on the front lines since the attack began.
American Friends of Magen David Adom, Israel’s version of the Red Cross, has been providing emergency aid and information since early on; one of its drivers was killed responding to the attack. Bloomberg is now matching donations.
United Hatzalah has more than 1,500 volunteers serving near Gaza right now. At least one volunteer with the group was killed in Saturday’s fighting, it said.
ZAKA has special expertise in retrieving bodies from disaster scenes; the group announced on Sunday that it had retrieved 250 bodies from the scene of the festival that was attacked early in the onslaught.
Lev Echad–One Heart organizes a network of volunteers during national emergencies. It says it has deployed 30,000 volunteers but needs help to get 100,000 to work.
The Jewish federations system operates local federations in hundreds of communities across North America, soliciting and distributing donations based on the needs and interests of their constituents. From Los Angeles to Indianapolis to New York (which has allocated $10 million to the aid effort), many have announced special funds in the wake of the attack. The Jewish Federations of North America, the umbrella organization, is also collecting funds to support victims in Israel.
The Giving Back Fund is making funds available to purchase plane tickets for Israelis abroad who want or need to return to serve in the army. But other Israelis abroad are on their own if they want to fly home — and with flights canceled and demand high, prices have skyrocketed.
Some organizations and informal efforts are working to make sure that Israeli soldiers have what they need to stay safe during what they’ve been told could be a prolonged campaign. While the Israel Defense Forces say it has adequate supplies, families sent off their soldiers and reservists with little advanced warning and, in some cases, concerns about whether the army is prepared to take care of them.
Bayit Brigade is raising emergency funds for lone soldiers, a term used to describe immigrants and volunteers mostly from abroad who enlist without a familial support network in the country.
Belev Echad is a veterans group raising funds to distribute bulletproof vests and helmets.
Friends of the IDF is a non-military organization that supports soldiers, veterans and their family members.
Latet is aiding the security forces on the front line with emergency aid kits containing food and hygiene products.
Mental health resources are also much-needed at this time. Helplines are getting an unprecedented number of calls from people mentally and emotionally affected by the war.
NATAL: Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center — NATAL is an apolitical crisis help organization that has been around since 1998 and helps those affected by trauma from war and terrorism.
ERAN — ERAN is Israel’s mental health crisis hotline. Founded in 1971, it provides “emotional first aid” to anyone who needs it.
One Family Fund is offering emergency grief and trauma counseling to all victims and survivors. Their employees and volunteers are visiting the injured in hospitals, cooking food for victims in areas of attack, and attending funerals before supporting the families of victims.
Bayit Cham has established a fund to provide free therapy for 1,000 children from the Gaza border area.
Other fundraisers are underway for communities hit hard by the attacks.
Shinua Chevrati: Operation Delivering Light is mobilizing to help deliver material goods to Israelis forced to flee their homes in partnership with BIG, the largest retail conglomerate in Israel.
How to help Israel right now
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The post Where US Jews can donate to support Israel’s hospitals, troops, survivors and more appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.