As you likely know, I just returned from Israel and visiting my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter Lihi. We had had a lovely week, I got to pick Lihi up from daycare several days in a row, we played, we laughed, and the first Friday (which is weekend in Israel) we spent a fantastic morning at a local farm market, pet the camels, touched the trees, ate great food, and bought some things for home. We woke up Saturday morning as usual, I took out the dog, and came back to discuss our day...perhaps a walk, the pool, getting out to enjoy the day. At 630am my phone was buzzing like crazy...red alerts about rockets flying from Gaza. By 640 we were in the shelter in the apartment (which is also the baby's room) for the 1st of 3 times that morning, with several more visits over the course of the next week.

Immediately....everyone around me began to mobilize. "What can I do?" "How can I help?" "Where can I volunteer?" "Where can I give blood? food? clothes? Help those displaced from their homes or sent to the front lines?" MY job was to look after my family - and make sure I did whatever I could to ease their stress, be it helping with Lihi or getting on a flight back to the US.

But now I ask for your help.....the only way I know how.

As you know, I've been involved with JNF-USA for many years as a volunteer, fundraiser and Board member. We have been working with communities in the Gaza Envelope region for years and years, we have literally helped them build their communities. As a result, we have incredibly deep and strong relationships with them, and they need our help. They are telling us directly what their immediate needs are and JNF has staff on the ground in Israel helping them with evacuating people, providing them with housing and food, hygiene supplies/clothes, and pschylogical treatment. No one else has BOTH the relationships we have to get them exactly what they need plus the financial means and infrastructure in place to get it to them immediately. Our relationships in the Galilee are also close and deep.
And sadly they too are now considered on the front lines.

In Israel right now there is one degree or less from someone directly impacted (beyond just living there)...each person.....knows someone serving in the IDF, someone who tragically died, someone kidnapped. I'm trying to do all I can to help, and this is what I can do from here.

Right now 100% of donations to JNF-USA are going to support these critical and immediate needs so I'm asking any of you living outside of Israel right now to please consider giving generously.

Jewish National Fund is on the ground with communities devastated by attacks, ensuring immediate needs are met and future requirements are fulfilled. We have worked closely with these communities for decades. We know them better than anyone else, and will be there when they start to rebuild their lives in the future. I am supporting JNF-USA's $10 million Israel Resilience Campaign to fund these needs as we are:

·     Evacuating 10,000 residents from Gaza border communities to safer places—the State covers the evacuation of everyone within 4 kilometers of the Gaza border but everyone within 7 kilometers must be evacuated – the entire area has become a closed military zone. We have evacuated 2,200 people to the Eilot region, 1,500 people to Ramat Hanegev, 1,500 people to Central Arava, and more every day.

·     Providing evacuees with necessary supplies such as bedding, toiletries, clothing, etc.

·     Providing firefighting and protective equipment for civil defense – the first responders to community emergencies -- including radios, bulletproof vests, helmets, and tactical clothing.

·     Providing high-quality psychological treatment for civilians, including children, who have experienced this catastrophe firsthand.

·     Providing respite activities for the children traumatized by terror.

·     Going from home to home in the cities of Sderot, Ofakim, and Arad to help the elderly, the infirmed, and the needy with food and medicine.

·     Promising to rebuild communities devastated by the attacks and keep the spirits and hopes of the people who live there, strong.

·     Caring for the children whose parents are on the Ovda Airforce Base in the Negev so the parents can continue their vital work protecting our homeland.

- Preparing our community partners in the north for the expanded conflict by requisitioning portable bomb shelters for community spaces.

This is just some of what we are doing...and we are responding to the changing needs daily.

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. Am Yisrael Chai.

PLEASE JOIN ME - for our future, for our children's future......(and if you already have, then thank you!)