Jewish charities raise funds for humanitarian aid in Israel

Washington, Aug 3 (UNI) Jewish charities are raising a minimum of 300 million dollar for emergency humanitarian aid to help Israel this year, says the Washington Post.

Described as ''one of the largest short-term goals in its history'' an umbrella organisation of North American Jewish charities - the United Jewish Communities - headed by Howard Rieger, said yesterday approximately 120 board members voted unanimously to launch the Israel Emergency Campaign during a teleconference.

However, at least one prominent rabbi called upon American Jews to raise money for the reconstruction of Lebanon, not just Israel.

But experts on Jewish philanthropy predicted that the campaign would receive broad support, following a well-established pattern of giving by U S Jews in times of crisis for the Jewish state.

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the liberal Jewish magazine Tikkun, said commitment was not enough.

''This is a time for the Jewish community of the United States to signal a new open-heartedness toward those who've been our adversaries if we want to break through the cycle of violence,'' Mr Lerner said.

So we should be raising funds for Israel, Lebanon, Gaza, and for the West Bank. Donations to the federation at this point are simply a 'yes' vote to continued Israeli militarism and a 'no' vote to the Israeli peace movement that is calling for an immediate cease-fire and a negotiated settlement of all the issues that have led to war in the past 60 years, he added.

Earlier, United Jewish Communities raised about 360 million dollar in its previous emergency campaign. But that was over a three-year period during the Palestinian uprising from 2001 to 2003.

The aim this time is to raise the money fast, ideally within weeks, UJC officials said.

Mr Rieger said since Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, triggering three weeks of fighting between Israel and Lebanese militants, UJC has spent 12.5 million dollar a week to evacuate children and elderly residents of northern Israel beyond the range of Hezbollah rockets.

He said the additional funds would be used to set up summer camps for up to 15,000 displaced children in southern Israel, provide trauma counseling, create a 20 million dollar fund for victims of the rocket attacks and their families, rebuild social services and refurbish bomb shelters that lack air conditioning and are in disrepair.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center, the public policy arm of Reform Judaism in Washington, predicted that many U S Jews will contribute in time to rebuilding Lebanon.

The US government has pledged 30 million dollar in emergency aid to Lebanon, and European and West Asia governments have pledged hundreds of millions more.

UNI XC SK KN1857