Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(JNS) — The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews will be supporting over 100,000 people in Israel this Passover, with a specific focus on families directly affected by the ongoing war against Hamas, especially bereaved families, hostages’ relatives and the tens of thousands of evacuees.

As part of the 2024 Passover program, IFCJ will be distributing close to 19,000 600 shekel ($162) debit cards for evacuated families to use toward purchasing food items. The cards will also be delivered to families of injured soldiers as well as relatives of those who were killed at the Nova festival on Oct. 7. An additional 2,000 cards will be given directly to survivors of the festival. Evacuees will be provided with an additional 400 shekels earmarked specifically for the purchase of holiday clothing. 

IFCJ estimates that the 2024 Passover program will see over 18 million shekels ($4.9 million) in distributions. 

Since the outset of the war, the Fellowship has distributed over 25 million shekels ($6.7 million) to evacuated families toward purchasing basic goods like food, medicine and hygiene products. An additional 2 million shekels ( $539,702) was earmarked for families of injured soldiers and civilians who were often unable to financially support themselves as a result of their injuries. 

“Wartime brings with it so many challenges, constantly changing and impacting how and where people need help. This is a home front crisis the likes of which Israel has never faced, impacting dozens of communities and hundreds of thousands of people,” said IFCJ president Yael Eckstein.

“As we prepare for the holiday of Passover, it is our sincere hope to be able to help those most impacted by the war in the north and the south to have a sense of joy and celebration. This is only made possible through the support of our global community of donors who share our mission in providing for the people of Israel and have responded so generously over these past months,” she added.

In the first three months of the war, the IFCJ disbursed in excess of 80 million shekels ($21.6 million) in a wide variety of areas including supporting civil defense, investment in securing Israel’s hospitals, purchase of shelters and armored vehicles for border communities and distribution of hundreds of first responder medical kits, among many other areas that have been identified in partnership with local and national authorities and the IDF Home Front Command. An expected $125 million donated in 2024 will continue to focus on supporting the emergency defense needs of the country.

Founded in 1983, the Fellowship is the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Israel and supports needy populations through a variety of projects and initiatives aimed at strengthening the country’s security and civilian homeland defense, immigration and poverty relief. 

“The scope of need since Oct. 7 has been enormous but so has been the international response,” said Eckstein. “We know that this Passover will be like none Israel has ever experienced before, in a state of war and with so many family members away from home or tragically never to return. Our commitment therefore must be to respond in all ways possible, especially as we say at the Passover seder, ‘All who are hungry, come and eat’.”