August 14, 2008

The War in Georgia

We have been following the daily updates on the crisis in Georgia and know from both U.S. and Israeli media that this is a major humanitarian crisis and definitely something reminiscent of the 1960’s. As we have done in the past when we do not have any personal contacts on the ground, we are relying on the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to allocate our funds to those needs which they identify on an hourly basis. We know that "the Joint" uses its resources effectively and efficiently and are comfortable sending what we can to them when we have no direct representation present. Our donation has been mailed today.

We share the following excerpt from the JDC web site. It is almost as if we are on the scene ourselves.

JDC SOS Van Delivers Humanitarian Aid Packages

The JDC van’s next stop was the almost ruined house of the Frankel family: mother Irina burst into tears when she saw the bus arriving at her door. Having no transportation, Irina and her husband could not leave their house; their 15-year-old developmentally disabled son was in shock and unable to go on foot.

While the father was putting their belongings in the van, a neighbor named Natela was helping her friend Irina prepare to leave. In the conversation with JDC staff, Natela revealed that she and her husband were Jewish. When it was suggested they evacuate, she thanked them but refused: "My husband is a doctor in the local hospital. We just can’t leave when so many people need medical assistance and so few doctors are available. We have decided to stay. . . ." The JDC team left the family with packages of humanitarian aid, enough so that her husband could distribute the packages in the hospital to the neediest patients. "We are facing here every minute dozens of people who desperately need food-today even bread is great deficit! These packages are sure to save the lives of many!" said Natela.

Today’s report is one more example of JDC’s ongoing commitment to ensure safety and security of Jews wherever and whenever they are in need.

http://www.jdc.org/news_press_2008_georgia.html

August 12, 2008

Loose Change

Today’s mail brought a very nice tzedakah check which included a note describing the origin of the donation. We think it bears repeating here so that upcoming Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids who are looking for a meaningful way to celebrate their simcha might duplicate or create their own version of the idea.

Erin Sharfman celebrated her Bat Mitzvah this past Hanukkah and decided that gelt is one of the many things that we think of when recalling this holiday. Who doesn’t remember the gold-covered coins that were eagerly awaited along with a gift or two? (Sometimes just getting the wrapper off of the small coins took all the patience we had as young children.) So–why not collect gelt from her guests?…the loose change kind of gelt that always adds up to something very significant.

When Erin’s guests received her invitation six weeks before the actual simcha, they were asked to collect all of their loose change over the next several weeks and bring it to her party which was held on the Sunday of Hanukkah. Well, collect their loose change they did! On the day of her party Erin was overwhelmed with tons of loose change (and some bills too!) After counting and wrapping it all, (and adding some of her own funds to the total) Erin was able to send us a check which she asked to be split between the good work being done by A Package From Home (http://www.apackagefromhome.org/) and the very famous Clara Hammer who provides Shabbat food for poor families in Israel. Erin learned about Clara while attending Camp Ramah, and her family had heard about Barbara Silverman’s efforts when they received an email that described the packages that Barbara sends to soldiers (many of them chayalim bodedim or lone soldiers who have no family in Israel) serving in the IDF. Along with the donation to A Package From Home, Erin also included several letters to soldiers which were written by her guests at the party. Erin recalled that the letters of support were one of the soldiers’ favorite items to receive in the packages.

Yasher koach to Erin and her family! What a great mitzvah project. There will be many smiling faces in Israel because of your creative ideas.

August 05, 2008

Jews Around the World

"Kulanu", a Hebrew term which refers to "all of us" is also the name of a small, grass-roots organization dedicated to discovering and assisting little-known Jewish communities found in remote corners of the world. (http://www.kulanu.org/)

We have followed Kulanu’s work for many years and can particularly recall their first contacts in the mid-90’s with the now-famous Abuyudaya community in Uganda, as well as urging people to ship Jewish books of interest there and to other isolated regions around the world.

Harriet Bograd has been a part of the dedicated Kulanu leadership for many years and in an email last week, she shared that she had recently become President of the group, taking over for Jack Zeller, one of Kulanu’s founders and a major force in the organization’s success over the years. After our initial contact by email, Harriet and I spent some time on the phone reviewing all of the many places where Kulanu has made an impact in fostering Judaism. Of course, the Abuyudaya community was a focal point and it was particularly gratifying to learn that Gershom Sizomu, a long-time leader among the Abuyudyan community, had just returned to Uganda after completing five years in formal Rabbinic training in the States. At last, the Abuyudaya would have a religious leader recognized by world Jewry, and Uganda would have a Chief Rabbi! Harriet went on to mention that with Kulanu’s help, Alex Armah, a leader in the Ghanaian Jewish community was now spending several months studying with the newly-ordained Rabbi Gershom so that he can return to Ghana with more Jewish knowledge to share with his community. Everything that Harriet was sharing was so exciting. Who knew that there was such a burgeoning Jewish community in Africa and what was being done to help foster their Judaism?

What follows are excerpts from a letter that Harriet shared with us. The writer is Alex Armah, the Ghanaian Jewish leader mentioned above. Alex was in Uganda at the time of Rabbi Gershom’s ordination. After reading the letter I asked Harriet what we could do to help this type of exciting work and with little hesitation and discussion it was agreed that the Good People Fund would offer Kulanu a matching grant of $500 to cover the remaining costs of Alex Armah’s time in Uganda.

Shalom,

Alex Armah
Community Liason

Indeed, it is olam katan-a truly small world in which we live!

August 04, 2008

A Little Bit of Help Can Make All of the Difference

From time to time we learn of a situation where a little bit of help can make a truly profound difference in someone’s life or in the life of an entire family. Such was the case when we heard from Avshalom Beni, founder of HAMA, and one of Israel’s best when it comes to animal-assisted therapy. In the course of his work Avshalom often encounters such situations, and so he was writing recently to tell us about the G. family. The husband and wife in this Ethiopian family arrived in Israel several years ago as teens and since that time married and started a family which now includes four children, the oldest of whom is 13. Both parents work for minimum wages as caretakers in Israeli hospitals. For this work they receive no benefits of any kind and no job security whatsoever. They are dedicated, highly intelligent workers, so proud that they would never apply for any public assistance no matter what the family situation.

Their 13 year old daughter recently celebrated her Bat Mitzvah and has one dream that has yet to come true-a computer! How much of a difference a computer could make for this special family.

Avshalom asked if there was any way we could possibly provide the laptop computer, a printer and ten lessons for the family? The cost? About $1600. With some help from recent religious schools’ donations, this young girl and her family will receive their computer and lessons and who can imagine what other worlds will open up for them with this gift?

August 03, 2008

A Well Deserved Mazal Tov

On July 21 we described a fabulous Bar Mitzvah project that benefited the work of The Forgotten People Fund-an all-volunteer group that helps many Ethiopians who have settled in the city of Netanya. We have always been proud of the work that we do with the group-they are all-volunteer and almost 100% of the funds they raise are directed to helping families and individuals with the most basic of needs-school costs, food, training, clothing, health-they are a lifesaver for so many in that city.

So–it was no surprise when I opened this morning’s email from Aida Miller who, along with her husband Rabbi Yosef Miller, and friends, Anne and David Silverman, were the founders of The Forgotten People Fund, and read the following:

On Thursday evening (July 31st) our Forgotten People Fund was honored by the Mayor of Netanya, Miriam Fierberg, with an award for outstanding volunteer service for the year 2008. It was significant because Netanya is celebrating its 80th anniversary, Israel is celebrating its 60th anniversary, and FPF is celebrating its 10th anniversary. There were over five hundred people in attendance and afterwards we were surrounded by the social workers we work with, representatives of the Senior Citizens Dept., Ethiopians from the Or Ganim Gardening Cooperative that we helped establish and family and friends. I was overwhelmed by the expressions of gratitude and I wept a little because my husband. Yosef, couldn’t be with us to hear all the accolades. He was the one who started the idea of helping the Ethiopian community and it is sad that he couldn’t be there to see how much our work is appreciated.

Mazal Tov to all of the FPF volunteers who work so selflessly on behalf of Netanya’s Ethiopian community. We can’t wait for the 20th anniversary celebration!

August 01, 2008

Terror – Then and Now

Nothing can erase the very vivid memories we have of Israel and the five or six year period that began in the year 2000. With what seemed to be an almost daily occurrence, turning on the morning news brought word of another attack that killed and maimed so many. While the frequency of such attacks has certainly diminished, how many of us NOW…TODAY stop to think about those who either personally survived an attack or lost a loved one in such an attack? How are they managing, years later? Does the trauma ever go away? Can they resume a "normal" life?

In an exchange I had this past week with Karyn London, a social worker who works with terror survivors through Atzum, (http://www.atzum.org) a fine Israel-based organization that has been on the front-lines helping people for many years, I learned that indeed, life doesn’t really return to "normal" for so many. Karyn shared so much critical information. Here are just short insights that she related from a recent seminar held for professionals in the mental health field:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: so many people have never recovered from this and more and more is being learned about its effects…the inability to sustain relationships (even with family members), how parents have difficulty interacting with their children and intimacy is affected; how it is very difficult for a child to feel loved (what they need most) when the parent is just not there for them. We see lots of children whose parents were injured who are doing poorly in school, … about how their coping mechanisms are deflated, the constant fear many live with as they "relive the attack" with many daily activities via their senses such as noises and smells. Imagine that any loud noise from a building site being developed might make a woman working as a secretary in a nearby office jump and shake and then render her unable to concentrate or even go to work the next day. Imagine the man who can’t go in a kitchen, restaurant… as anything that is even mildly burnt attacks his sense of smell taking him back to the Pigua (attack) and the smell of burning.

In terms of help for these people, Karyn shared that though National Insurance does a lot "there are many people who do not get services and of those who do there are many things that are not provided."

A Case in Point From A Prior Terror Attack

R.S. was injured several years ago when she was riding in a bus that was blown up. She sustained severe injuries to her eyes which cannot be reversed. At the time, she worked successfully in a full-time position and is fortunate that her employer has allowed her to keep her job despite the fact that she often misses work due to loss of sleep and general distress.

Her husband is employed full-time and goes to school as well. Their relationship has suffered as a result of the attack and with the diminished income they will not be able to help their son continue his education at a nearby college. Their daughter has also felt the effects of the attack as the mother has difficulty being close to her. The daughter has now dropped out of high school and is involved with drugs.

Terror Now

Karyn’s email also included information relating to the current situation. What is happening to people who live in Sderot today? How are they coping with the almost daily barrage of rocket attacks? As Karyn shared:

Sderot is an entirely different problem. These families and children do not only have Post Trauma but are living in continuous trauma. They have had their homes and schools hit by rockets, some have physical injuries and others have the symptoms of Post Trauma like fear of loud noises, sleeplessness, general agitation or the inability to function normally or carry on healthy relationships with family members. Despite the many efforts to help them, they are exposed again and again day and night. In many cases the therapeutic interventions are not enough or just can’t beat the continuous stress. One woman I spoke to told me she never took an aspirin and now lives on tranquilizers.

I was told another story by a social worker about a young mother who always kept her home immaculate. Now she is afraid to wash her floor because she fears that while washing the floor there will be an attack and because the floor is wet one of the children will slip and get hurt. Now she gets up at 4:30 in the morning to do the floor because she knows that this is a quiet time when there are generally no rockets. The social worker in this case is concerned about how tired this woman is and the lack of energy she has for her kids every day.

Most families sleep and spend most of their day in the same room the "safe room" -this as you can imagine, puts additional strain on familial relations and the added lack of privacy for the parents.

The bottom line is that most of the families in Sderot have been affected- many already have a 20% disability and many more are waiting to be approved. This doesn’t however relieve us from helping those that have yet to be taken in by the system. (these people have at the minimum a temporary percentage of disability assigned to them).

A Case in Point From Sderot

She is considered one of the best teachers in the area and is well liked by her neighbors, her students and their parents. She is under the care of a psychiatrist and is in therapy with a social worker. Though she is determined to overcome the trauma, her family which was once economically successful is now forced to live on half of what they were earning before. L. cannot work every day and her husband often takes time off from his job to be with her. Many things that they were able to do for their children before, they can no longer provide, which has led to a lot of distress within the family. Even privacy is now a problem as the entire family must sleep in the "safe room" each night in the event that there is a rocket attack.

The bottom line is that this family which was entirely self supporting and actually high contributing members of their community are now dependent upon the system. A very sad situation…

What can we do? How do we help those people whose lives will never be the same? The Good People Fund is sending further funds to help both people in Sderot and those who were affected by past terror attacks. We invite anyone who wants to help in this effort to send their donation along with a note that it is to be used to help terror victims in Israel.