Chevra Report July 2013

The Broadway show Cabaret had a song called, “Money Makes The World Go ’Round,” and as I look at the behavior of people when the Powerball Lottery offers the chance that someone can make hundreds of millions of dollars makes me think this is a very widely held belief

Recently we received a good deal of money, which we distributed for humanitarian relief. I called our Eastern Europe coordinator and asked the best places to put the funds. He suggested several places in addition to the usual money we send: We sent a large chunk of it to aid poor Jews in Armenia, and a second large chunk to help poor Jews in Russian Georgia, in the Caucus Mountains. A third part went to help Jews in Moscow. We also sent extra funds to Israel to aid elderly Jews living in Sederot in Israel, near Gaza, who are bombarded almost daily with rocket attacks. I have to admit, I felt really good sending that money, over and above what we usually send. If we had more money on a regular basis, we could do so much good with it.

I want to thank all of you who support our work and make such blessings to these very poor Jews possible. We are committed to helping the poor of Israel, whether in the Land, or outside of it. It is a prophetic act to help Israel’s poor. Proverbs 29:7 says, “The righteous considers the cause of the poor, [But] the wicked does not understand [such] knowledge.” For many to help these poor of the Jewish people, it is a sacrificial act, but the Scriptures call it righteousness. I would be grateful if you could consider a generous gift so we can help these poorest of the Jewish people more often.

News From Afar

Crimea

Recently, I returned from a trip to Crimea, a peninsula of Ukraine on the Black Sea. We visited many poor Jews there. The first day, when we arrived, we visited an asylum for handicapped people. We met with a half a dozen Jews there. They live in horrible conditions, and I gave them a word of encouragement as well as distributed humanitarian parcels. When you visit the poor, you cannot come empty handed. They appreciated the parcels, but just the fact that we came to see them meant so much to them.

We also visited the Jewish poor. The poverty was unimaginable by our standards. Many of the homes had no running water, which meant no toilet facilities. One family, who were lucky enough to have water in their apartment, had their toilet in the kitchen. When we visited each home, we were sure to bring food parcels, because when you visit hungry people, it’s not enough to just give them a hug.

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