In how many countries of the Middle East or Asia can a traveler expect without hesitation that the water is safe to drink, the food is safe to eat, electricity works, roads will be paved and lit at night, and first-rate medical care will be available if needed?
This is something Milwaukee attorney Fred Safer wonders about. He has two children living in Israel, so he travels there “once or twice a year.”
And he says you can’t do that without understanding how vital Israel Bonds are to the quality of life there, precisely because Israel is one of the few countries in its region in which all those basics can be taken for granted.
“Bonds are involved in everything that goes on there in the infrastructure,” said Safer, who has been an Israel Bonds investor for about 25 years. Whether edible food, drinkable water, functioning electricity or travelable roads, “Israel Bonds helped that to occur.”
But to assist Israel is far from the only reason for purchasing bonds during this year’s coming High Holidays synagogue campaign, which Wisconsin’s State of Israel Bonds executive director Bonnie Malofsky Jacobson called “the ‘heart and soul’ of our annual campaign” and which will take place in synagogues throughout the state mostly on Yom Kippur.
“It is no question that is the number one impetus,” said Dr. Paul Jacobs, a Milwaukee orthopedic surgeon who has purchased bonds for some three or four decades. “Israel does good things with the money and needs the money…. The same monetary investment anyplace else is not as interesting.”
But the bonds are also “a good investment, better than most others in this day and age,” said Jacobs, who includes Israel Bonds in his Individual Retirement Account (IRA).
Safer agrees. “It is a very good, steady investment,” which “in the over 50 years it has been out there, never defaults,” he said. “In spite of the ups and down of this stock market, this continues to grow.”
Moreover, long-time bonds purchasers like Jacobs and Safer often make a point of buying them for their children and grandchildren, both as direct benefit to them and for the symbolism.
Bonds campaign chair Marty Matsoff said his mother bought Israel Bonds for him, his brother and his sister “every year for 50 years,” and today he himself buys one for each of his grandchildren every year.
“I think one of the biggest advantages of the High Holidays campaign is that you can get mothers, fathers, grandparents, b’nai mitzvah kids all to participate one way or another,” Matsoff said. “There is something for everyone to feel a part of.”
And Moshe Katz, general chair of Wisconsin’s State of Israel Bonds organization, added, “What [the High Holidays campaign] is, more than anything else, is a marvelous way to keep multiple generations of the Jewish community involved in the purchase and investment of Israel Bonds.”
Bonds are “probably one of the best immediate connections that people can have to Israel,” said Katz. “It’s a great opportunity.”
“It is a good investment with a nice, steady return, and you get the pleasure that you know you’re contributing to Israel and to the life of your own family,” said Safer. “A strong Israel will be of benefit to all of us for generations to come.”
Jacobson said that this year, Israel’s Ministry of Finance will borrow some $5 billion from international sources, and 25 percent of that, or some $1.25 billion, will come from the Israel Bonds campaign. The Wisconsin goal is to contribute about $15 million to that during the coming year, she said.
For more information, call the Milwaukee State of Israel Bonds office at 1-800-253-2779 or 414-351-1777.
Loading ...