Friends,

Our cousins' moshav, Moshav Adan, in the Arava in the south of Israel and nearby moshavim have been flooded with fellow Israelis who have been evacuated from the areas near Gaza which suffered terror attacks or have continued to be barraged by rocket fire.

They are grateful to help - my cousin described it as a welcome relief and distraction from attending funerals and organizing shivas and anxiously watching the news. However, the tiny moshav communities need help to be able to continue to help their follow Israelis in the weeks and months to come.

Here is a message from the regional Arava council with which my cousin works explaining the situation on the ground.

"In a single day, the world changed. Israel changed. The Arava changed. When thousands of Israelis from the Gaza border region survived unspeakable horrors and became refugees, residents of the Central Arava—a remote region far from the hostilities—had no choice but to respond, and to cast a bright light against in the invading darkness. On that day, when Hamas decided to murder, kidnap and pillage, the 5,000 residents of the Arava chose to embrace their fellow Israelis. Without waiting for approvals, donations or government grants, they welcomed families into their homes, providing beds and food to people they had never met. The region took in 2,000 refugees, effectively growing by 40% overnight.The area snapped into action, organizing equipment distribution centers in all seven communities, organizing social services and activities, expanding hours and manpower of healthcare services, planning a parallel education system to accommodate hundreds of newly arrived children and putting together a "resilience center" for representatives of the municipalities near Gaza to provide services to their residents currently in the Arava. While all of these things are done out of love, they are objectively a strain on local resources and infrastructure. We all know that the refugees will not go home tomorrow; the most optimistic evaluations suggest thousands of refugees staying in the Arava for at least a month. Hamas wanted to break our spirit. The reaction of the Central Arava shows that despite our new reality, the Israeli spirit cannot be broken. Please join us by supporting our efforts."

You can contribute in one of two ways:

1) Through the Jewish National Fund on this page. I spoke personally to JNF Chicago representatives who are working with the Arava regional council to support their efforts. JNF is on the ground with communities in the south devastated by the attacks, ensuring immediate needs are met and future requirements are fulfilled. Donations through the JNF are tax deductible for US nationals (and for Canadian nationals through the JNF Canadian site).

2) Directly to the Arava regional council via wire transfer:
- Recipient: Merkaz Kehila Arava
- Bank Name: The First International Bank of Israel
- SWIFT CODE: FIRBILITXXX
- IBAN Account No.: IL 840143630000000222204


Israelis are feeling like this is their 9/11 – yet proportionally at a per-capita scale 6x the magnitude. This attack has decimated many communities, but they will never destroy our spirit. We stand together, as one Jewish community, ready to help Israelis in this difficult time.

Thank you for your support.

Am Israel Chai!
עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

Inna, Peter, Leah, Avriel & Daliah