Chevra Report April 2012
A New Direction For Israel
Several years ago, when I started talking about holocaust survivors in Israel, Israel had 250,000 and 70,000 of them were in need of our help. Today there are 200,000 holocaust survivors in Israel, and 50,000 are in need of help. The reason is simple: They are dying. In the next few years, the last of them will be gone. Fifty thousand holocaust survivors need our help, and this may be our last opportunity to do something for them.
In the past, Chevra is pursuing a new strategy for helping Israel holocaust survivors that we believe will help more people than before, and will work in conjunction with the efforts of local humanitarian outreaches. We are building a huge warehouse in central Israel, which will receive large shipments of humanitarian aid. We will also be purchasing iron shipping containers that we can place all over Israel as distribution points throughout the land, and keep them supplied from our warehouse. The local humanitarian works will benefit by having a storage facility, that is constantly supplied, and since they are local, they can do the work better than we can. Chevra USA has already purchased one such container, and we hope to purchase many more.
If your congregation or ministry would like to sponsor a container, the cost is $3,000.00. We can tell you in exactly what city your container will serve, and put you in touch with the people who will run the distribution. You can even visit your distribution point. Our goal is to put as many of these in the field as possible. If you can help with this worthy project, we would be grateful.
Financial Needs
At this time, our funds are very low, and we have no extra funds to do more projects, and to be honest, I’m not sure we have the funds to meet our current responsibilities. If you are able to help us with a special gift at this time, we’d be grateful.
Thank you all for your support of our work.
Sincerely,
Michael Schiffman,
Chevra USA
In most of my Holocaust studies, there were many facts and figures about Nazi brutality, about the many anti-Semites inside Germany as well as those in “conquered” countries who assisted the Nazis in rounding up and killing Jewish men, women, and children to kill them just because they were Jewish. Secondary to the perpetrators were the many silent witnesses from all these countries who stood by and did nothing. Perhaps they felt helpless and powerless to do anything to save the Jews. On the other hand, maybe they were in agreement with what was happening, but felt by not participating in the persecution and deaths of the Jews kept their own hand clean. Proverbs 24:11-12 says, ”Deliver [those who] are drawn toward death, And hold back [those] stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider [it]? He who keeps your soul, does He [not] know [it]? And will He [not] render to [each] man according to his deeds?” It would have been a hard thing for people to help the Jews, because the Germans told non-Jewish populations if they helped the Jews, they themselves as well as their families would be killed.More Articles ...
