Protecting Israel’s Most Vulnerable Citizens

 |  January 27, 2016

With continued rocket fire from Gaza endangering much of southern Israel over the past week, Rabbi Eckstein made an emergency trip to the region to express The Fellowship‘s support and solidarity and to see what additional emergency needs we can help meet.

In Sderot, Rabbi Eckstein visited an apartment building that was hit by a rocket just last week. One of the building’s residents is a single mom with 7- and 11-year-old daughters. Since the rocket hit their building, the 7-year-old has refused to leave her mother’s side, and the 11-year-old has refused to leave the protected room in their apartment.

The Fellowship offers assistance to the city of Sderot, which has been under ongoing attack since 2002, year round, and during this visit the mayor personally thanked Rabbi Eckstein for this needed prayer and financial support.

When Rabbi Eckstein visited the command center at the Eshkol Regional Council, officials told him that 72 rockets landed in Eshkol in the previous three days. The mayor explained the huge need for help building more bomb shelters, as the government isn’t able to fund all that are needed.

Rabbi Eckstein also visited Eshkol’s newly built Fellowship Trauma Center, a fortified structure that allows social workers and psychologists to treat trauma victims without the added stress of needing to run for shelter whenever a code red siren sounds.

At Sha’ar HaNegeve Regional Council, leaders requested funding for programs to keep the children safe during the summer months when they are not in fortified school buildings every day. Keeping these children safe often involves taking them outside the area, and outside the line of fire.

The Fellowship plans to meet all these urgent requests, but we need your help to fund them. Please join us in standing in solidarity with the residents of southern Israel, extending the help they so desperately need to stay safe.

And please consider helping us offer this kind of support year round by becoming one of our monthly supporters.