Project Spotlight: Bless the Persecuted

The Fellowship | December 19, 2017

Several raising their hands in praise at a therapeutic camp for Coptic Christians.

The Fellowship‘s Bless the Persecuted initiative brings care and aid to Christians and other minorities in the Middle East who have been targeted by radical Islamist terrorism, including Egypt’s embattled Coptic Christians.

By supporting our Bless the Persecuted effort, you can help us bring financial and medical aid, psychological counseling, and programs for families and children who have been victims of terror and other forms of religious persecution throughout the Middle East.

“These cowardly acts betray a hatred of a people for no other reason than their faith,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. “Just as we continue to combat anti-Semitism, so we must fight this growing persecution against Christians throughout the Middle East. We cannot stand idly by. An attack on one of us is an attack on all – and we are committed to stand with those who have been targeted.”

As a first step, The Fellowship funded a therapeutic camp for Coptic Christians, especially after this year’s critical attacks to this population. The camp provided psychological treatment to children and families who were victims of attacks, as well as food and financial aid.

A spike in terror attacks targeting the Coptic Christians of Egypt, a community of 20 million that comprises about 15 percent of Egypt’s population, is driving our Bless the Persecuted effort. In December 2016, an attack on a church in Cairo killed 25 people; in April two Coptic Christian churches were bombed on Palm Sunday, killing dozens; and in May, dozens more died when gunmen opened fire on a bus taking families to visit a nearby monastery.

For so long, our faithful supporters, have proven that Christians and Jews can work together to advocate for religious freedom and offer hope to Jews under attack in the Middle East. Rabbi Eckstein has stood on the frontlines of providing security to these vulnerable Jewish communities. Now, our Christian friends in the Middle East are under attack, and together, as Christians and Jews, we must help.