Now that the fire that ravaged northern Israel early last month is out, what will the American Jewish community do to aid in the recovery process?
Damage estimates are ranging as high as $75 million, and American Jewish community institutions — including the Milwaukee Jewish Federation — have opened fundraising mailboxes, started as emergency campaigns while the blaze was still burning. (See the MJF Web site, www.milwaukeejewish.org, for its “Israel Fire Relief” mailbox.)
The national branches of the three largest U.S. Jewish religious denominations launched fire assistance funds and asked their rabbis to address the topic in their sermons.
Dozens of the country’s largest organizations, including the Jewish federation system, the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International, also started funds.
The Jewish National Fund will likely do the heaviest lifting in the non-profit world. Since Israel’s founding, JNF has been responsible for the forestation of the country. (For local contact with JNF, call the Wisconsin Region office, 414-963-8733.)
With some 12,000 acres scorched and an estimated 5 million trees burned, the JNF has launched a $10 million campaign to be split between reforestation and other causes, such as rebuilding tourism in the area.
In less than a week, JNF had raised nearly $2 million in cash and pledges. A number of organizations, such as Hadassah, have pledged to help JNF pay for more trees.
Reforesting the area will be a slow process, according to the JNF’s director of forestry for the northern region, Omri Bonneh. For the first year, JNF says it won’t plant any trees, allowing the land to replenish itself.
The American Jewish Committee pledged $100,000 for reforestation, saying it will plant 10,000 trees to commemorate the 42 people — mostly police cadets from the Israeli Prisons Service — killed in the wildfire.
B’nai B’rith International, which by Dec. 7 had collected $12,000, will use the money to address unmet needs, according to its vice president of programming, Rhonda Love.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s version of the Red Cross, had deployed hundreds of medics, paramedics, emergency vehicles and volunteers to the scene of the fire. It’s American fundraising arm, the American Friends of the Magen David Adom, had raised about $150,000 online since the fire broke out, according to its director of marketing, Robert Kern.
A number of organizations are focusing on helping Yemin Orde, a youth village for immigrants to Israel that was 40 percent destroyed in the fire.
Hadassah is providing space for 500 families dislocated by the fire by opening several youth villages with which it is associated. The Jewish Agency for Israel has made space in its facilities for Yemin Orde to continue operating.
The two overseas arms of the North American federation system have been on the ground since the fire began. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee helped the evacuation of residents and supplied emergency needs such as food and blankets.
Now the JDC is planning to provide programs for the disabled, psychological-social support, and emergency preparedness, according to spokesman Michael Geller.
JAFI brought hundreds of children from the stricken area to Tel Aviv for respite, and planned to bring 4,000 by the end of Chanukah.
JDC and JAFI also are working on coordinating youth volunteers. In the long term, the fire could provide the Jewish Agency with an opportunity to test the value of a new strategic plan that places more emphasis on creating volunteer opportunities in Israel.
Agency officials also said they would like to set up a fund for grants to victims of the fire, much like the fund it has for victims of terror that gives out up to $35,000 to individuals and families affected by terrorism.
How much exactly the JDC and Jewish Agency will be able to do in the long run will be determined largely by how much the federations are able to raise for them. That’s not yet clear, though insiders said the federations would probably allocate approximately $2 million.
The question now is whether money will continue to come in now that the fire has been extinguished.
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