This War Changed How I View Charity

Earlier this afternoon, I got a call of to go to Tel Aviv. I live in Shanim to a hotel where there's currently 80 families from Rishion that their homes were destroyed. I walk into the hotel and I start seeing some smiles as they see me and I don't know them, but I I remember they see my and like sort of seems to be put at ease. Uh what were they doing there, you might ask? So part of Kabad, we run the national food security program for Israel. We provide families with basic food needs every single month. It's not new to us. We've been doing this since 1788 when the alterbas started helping. But what is unique right now is that we changed. Something comes up. We're nimble. We turn around and we provide a solution. I came to deliver these cards. They're food cards that we provide every month. And we expanded it now to provide these families which left with PJs. Maybe they took a backpack practically nothing. They could go get clothing. They could go get glasses if they need shoes. They could also use it for food, but they're in a hotel, so probably less can be spent on food. And this is again temporary until their assistance from the government kicks in, but it's bureaucratic and it could take a while. The the hugs and appreciation and smiles that were going on, not much words. What can you tell a person that lost their house? I um bumped into one of the people that we're giving to is sometimes you just can tell when someone's about to speak in English. I sort of picked up on that living here and she's like, um yeah, we actually just moved into our house last week. We made aliyah eight months ago and um was destroyed. Dream home. They actually were from Texas made and it just, you know, I guess a Texas kind of thing. Um, and they cracked the joke, you know, like we had to call our plumber and tell him not to come in to finish the pool. You know, it's terrible, but you know, it's um it's a it's a terrible reality. As we were finishing distributing these cards to the families, a siren went off. This is just an hour and a half, two hours ago. And for me, it was like it was it was a heart piercing moment. The one of the children in the room just broke down and they heard that noise and was like as if they were reliving that moment when their house was destroyed. And I was like thinking back to myself, okay, I have a hard time. I have to take my kids down u three flights of steps, you know, 48 seconds. We figured it out. We have our little bags ready to go. Come down middle of the night. But seeing that child break down, looking for their mother, which was just behind, wasn't playing with some toys. Just a a perspective that I will never forget. And unfortunately, this child is going to have to deal with it for many years. and I wish them all well and he will be well. The least we could do was be able to provide these cards, this moment of relief. And the thank you that we got from them and all of the people that received it was like, well, where is this coming from? Where is this love coming from? And it's just it's open-ended. It's not like, okay, here this is for food. You need to use it for something specific. No, it's a card they could use for whatever they need. they decide but it's coming from you from Amisur to them and that's exactly actually what Kabad is comes from inclusion community of Kabad throughout the world which supports our efforts as it has been since its founding in the times of the alterb Jews throughout the world from all backgrounds are supporting and we here in Israel are doing exactly that providing to everybody and anybody, no questions asked, time of need. This is what we do. This is in addition to our other efforts of Meals on Wheels, which we had to close our soup kitchens, 23 soup kitchens throughout the country and the elderly need their food. So, we mobilized and upped our regular meals on wheels, which is 2 and a half thousand elderly throughout the country to now add an additional 3,000 deliveries to the homes. and our medical center that we have. Um, the list is going on and on. We're here, we're nimble, we turn around fast, we respond and we represent you. We represent Amis and this is the story of Amis of Kabad helping in. Um, thank you very much and we look forward to greeting you with the coming of Messiah in your art celebrating Faith.