The Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) reports on a new program, "Adopt-a-Family", that links every Jewish congregation in the United States to an Israeli family victim of Palestinian terror.

I find it great that the three main movements of American Judaism, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform, are united in their support of Israel and the victims of terrorism.

"'Adopt-a-Family,' a program instituted by the Israel Emergency Solidarity Fund-One Family Fund, provides long-term financial and emotional support to terror victims and their families. Established in October 2000, the fund has raised more than $4 million."

'It's our goal that every congregation in America will stand together, each in its own way, to allow congregants to provide direct emotional and financial support to each of these families,' said Neil Thalheim, founder of the fund, at the launch of the US effort in New York. Congregations in Europe, the Far East, and South Africa, and individual synagogues in the US began adopting families last year."

If you are part of a Jewish community in the U.S., please make sure your congregation adopts a family. Check out the 'Face of the Victims' website for a list of all Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism since October 2000 and contact your congregation leaders for more details. If you are not in the U.S., please try to organize something similar in your neck of the woods - the more we stand united against anti-Semitism and the war against Palestinian terrorism, the stronger we are.

I copy the full article below.

US Jewish leaders pledge support for terror victims' families
By MELISSA RADLER - May. 23, 2002
http://www.jpost.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/Full&cid=1021813230339

NEW YORK - Anxious to offer assistance to the 500 Israeli families that have lost loved ones to terror attacks and the nearly 4,000 who have been wounded over the past 20 months, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform leaders in the US pledged Tuesday to "adopt" families of terror victims by matching each family with a synagogue.

"Adopt-a-Family," a program instituted by the Israel Emergency Solidarity Fund-One Family Fund, provides long-term financial and emotional support to terror victims and their families. Established in October 2000, the fund has raised more than $4 million.

"It's our goal that every congregation in America will stand together, each in its own way, to allow congregants to provide direct emotional and financial support to each of these families," said Neil Thalheim, founder of the fund, at the launch of the US effort in New York. Congregations in Europe, the Far East, and South Africa, and individual synagogues in the US began adopting families last year.

Also present at the launch was Sharon Evans, a South African immigrant whose daughter, Monique Goldwasser, was severely wounded when a Palestinian bus driver rammed into a group of soldiers last February at the Azor junction, killing eight. Goldwasser, 20, who wanted to be a dancer, is walking again after being given a 1 percent chance of survival. She underwent her eighth operation last week.

Kerova Shushan and Rahel Ohayon, whose 10-year old sister, Yoheved Shoshan, was killed in the Sbarro suicide attack last August, described the gratitude they felt at being the first family to be adopted by an American congregation. Another sister, Miriam, now 16, was burnt over much of her body.

In endorsing the project, Judaism's major denominations unified their fundraising efforts for Israel twice in as many days. On Monday, the three groups and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation announced an unprecedented, joint fundraising effort for Israel through the United Jewish Communities' Israel Emergency Fund.

"We need to feel that we are not alone," said Jerusalem Mayor, Ehud Olmert. He called on Diaspora Jewry to visit Israel, to "share with us the fears, the concerns, the uncertainties, and the challenges that are part of the realities we have to go through on a daily basis."

Posted by David Melle
 Link to this page |   Email this entry |   digg this