AJF Stands with Israel

The Australian Jewish Funders stand united in support of Israel. Our heavy hearts are with the victims and hostages of Hamas, together with their suffering families. We stand with our brothers and sisters of the IDF as they defend the Jewish people in our cherished homeland, and we pray that the citizens of Israel are safe, strong and supported.

The extent of the loss is colossal. The personal accounts and stories that have emerged are heart-wrenching and difficult to comprehend. In these times of need, Jewish people from every corner of the globe rally to show our support. We will continue to do so in the days, months and years ahead.

AJF has developed a resource to guide how you can contribute effectively to Israel’s humanitarian emergency and the evolving needs on the ground. This resource summarises the local organisations and partners in Australia supporting Israel. AJF has produced this resource in collaboration with our key partners in Australia and Jewish Funders Network (JFN), Israel & USA.

JFN works with an extensive network of donors both in Israel and the US and are an integral member of the National Emergency Authority. JFN works in coordination with NGOs, government offices, the business sector and the IDF to identify pressing needs and opportunities for funders to provide assistance. Insights from JFN have been crucial to identifying Israel-based organisations that may not have official affiliates in Australia.

While each of these organisations has been recommended to us by relevant experts and organisations in our network, we have not worked with all of them. We hope consideration of these organisations serves as a useful starting point for your own philanthropic considerations, and strongly encourage you to conduct your own due diligence and make philanthropic decisions that align with your own values and priorities.

Please note that this list will be continuously updated and modified as new information becomes available, subject to the same matters described above. Our hearts and prayers are with the people of Israel, and we join in the hope for peace during these challenging times.

We invite you to share organisations you are funding that are not listed below and resources you find valuable by writing to admin@ajf.org.au

Anticipating Long-Term Humanitarian Requirements

While there are many immediate requirements, it is anticipated that there will be many more, and potentially larger, needs in the days, months and years to come.

Additional Information

 Endorsed as a deductible gift recipient in Australia (refer ABN Lookup). Gifts over $2 to this organisation will generally be tax deductible.

** The hyperlink provided will direct you to a donation page managed by The Chai Charitable Foundation Ltd ABN 82 617 023 293. The Foundation is registered as a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and endorsed as an item 1 deductible gift recipient. The linked donation page notes that donations made to the Foundation will be sent to this organisation such that gifts over $2 will generally be tax deductible. AJF cannot confirm or independently verify this arrangement and donors should make their own inquiries prior to donating.

*** To AJF’s knowledge, this organisation is not endorsed as a deductible gift recipient in Australia and does not have any auspicing or similar type arrangements with an Australian-based organisation which would entitle donors to a tax deduction.

Israeli Social Services & Disaster Relief

  • United Israel Appeal (UIA)* – UIA’s  Israel at War Emergency Appeal to deploy urgent support including: Financial support for the Victims of Terror Fund; Provision of mobile bomb shelters; Relocating families out of danger; and Supporting displaced victims.
  • Jewish National Fund (JNF)* has set up an emergency fund with funds. being directed to communities based on where they need it, with the initial focus on Sha’ar HaNegev and Sderot.
  • The Joint (JDC)* has deep roots and an unshakable connection to the State of Israel. While JDC’s mission is to bring relief and resilience to Israel’s most vulnerable citizens, they focus on the social and geographic periphery of Israel.  Within hours of the initial ambush in Israel’s south, JDC activated its emergency response team and action plans. JDC’s concern and commitment is foremost for those who have no-one else to turn to – vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities, children and young adults at risk, families in financial distress, and the unemployed.
  • Emunah* is working to support thousands of children, teenagers and young women. Areas of fundraising include: Trauma therapy, respite activities for at-risk children, a hotline for senior citizens, safety equipment and safe rooms for Emunah home.
  • Maccabi Australia* – The ‘Kfar Maccabiah’ – (Maccabi Headquarters in Israel) is currently being converted into an emergency accommodation centre for hundreds of Israeli citizens, including Olim, who have been evacuated from their homes in the Gaza area.
  • New Israel Fund (NIF)* is working with colleagues in Israel and their grantees on the ground right now are working to provide emergency relief to impacted communities and all funds raised will go directly to supporting those communities.
  • IsraAID** is an Israel-based humanitarian aid organisation, who are partnering with local organisations and civil society initiatives working in Israel’s south and with evacuees to support their efforts, focusing on psychosocial support, stress relief activities, and relief supplies as needed.
  • Leket Israel** –  Leket Israel is a leading source of food rescue that focuses on delivering healthy food to those in need Leket Israel has swiftly launched emergency relief programs in the South.
  • Shalem- Jerusalem Civilian Command Centre** is a coalition of four civilian organisations and NGOs that are coordinating 5,000+ volunteers between supplies and a dynamic landscape of needs including babysitters for essential workers, temporary housing for families fleeing their homes, clothing and medical supplies, mental health counselling for victims of terror, and many more.
  • Am Ehad – One People*** – This organization is actively transporting families from war zones, connecting them with host families and offering emotional support for the bereaved.
  • Bonot aid*** is supporting evacuated families by leveraging its over 100,000 volunteers to open ad hoc community-care centers for the displaced.
  • ELEM/Youth in Distress in Israel*** – is the country’s leading nonprofit organisation dedicated to treating and transforming the lives of troubled youth from diverse ethnicities and religions.
  • Lifes Door Gisha L’Chaim*** – The Hope Warriors Emergency Support Fund is providing the comfort and support the elderly and sick deserve, as they cope with anxiety during these difficult days. Hope Warriors are offering, assistance, medication, food and companionship.
  • NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief*** – NATAN is an Israeli-based all-volunteer non-profit NGO helping people rebuild their lives following natural and human-made disasters. They are now operating a field clinic at a centre for evacuees from the south of Israel.
  • One Heart בלב אחדב***– One Heart organises a network of volunteers during national emergencies. Their team in Israel is working tirelessly to ensure all wounded are accounted for. They have been visiting multiple hospitals daily, reaching out to the thousands of wounded soldiers.
  • Open Your Heart for Israel – Pitchon Lev Humanitarian Aid Centers*** – This organisation has launched an emergency aid campaign for southern residents, soldiers and other security forces. The campaign will support their coordinated efforts with the Center for Civic Aid (מרס”ל) to deliver goods and aid to residents and equipment to soldiers.
  • Orr Shalom*** is a non-profit organisation that cares for children and youth at risk providing them a real chance for an improved present and future. Many Orr Shalom’s group homes and graduates are located in the South.
  • Rashi Foundation*** – Rashi Foundation is operating in emergency mode, assessing the needs of affected populations to provide immediate aid.

Emergency Responders

  • Magen David Adom Emergency Response* – Israel’s emergency medical system, needs your help now — to purchase more ambulances, ballistic vests to protect EMTs and paramedics under fire, and hemostatic bandages to control the potentially fatal bleeds of patients with shrapnel and gunshot wounds.
  • United Hatzalah emergency medical response* – The volunteer run, nonprofit emergency medical service provides emergency care throughout Israel free of charge. It currently has several thousand volunteers serving near Gaza.
  • ZAKA** specialises in retrieving bodies from disaster scenes. They are working closely with the IDF, providing essential support and assistance. Their teams are on the ground, aiding in emergency response, ensuring the wounded receive immediate care, and managing the tragic aftermath of each attack.

Arab Israelis

  • Yanabia*** – the leading Bedouin nonprofit is organising a campaign to provide mobile bomb shelters to Bedouin towns and settlements in the Negev, many of which are just encampments. For more information contact rinat@yanabia.org.il.
  • AJEEC – NISPED*** – Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment, and Cooperation Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development. AJEEC-NISPED is an organisation based in Beer Sheva dedicated to promoting the socio-economic development of the Negev Bedouin community and partnership between Arabs and Jews across Israel. AJEEC are currently working in partnership with the Shared Emergency Center for the Negev Bedouins, to create an emergency room to respond to their needs during the conflict.
  • The SVF Emergency Fund*** is focused on two areas of funding: one area is support for civil society organizations that are working fervently to prevent incitement and violence between the Jewish and Arab citizens in the mixed cities in Israel, as we saw in May 2021.  The second area is to support the Bedouin communities in the south, who have had members killed, kidnapped and injured and who do not have the government-provided safety net because they live in “unrecognised” villages.

Israeli Hospitals

  • Hadassah* – The nonprofit’s hospitals in Jerusalem are treating civilian and military victims of the Hamas attack. They have created a fund to solicit funds for the current crisis.
  • Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem* – Shaare Zedek is Israel’s fastest-growing major medical center treating over 700,000 people per year. The hospital’s advanced trauma unit is the region’s most active urgent response center admitting over 100,000 patients per year. To date they have treated many patients directly injured by attacks. They have also opened a mental health care unit for individuals suffering from shock and other emotional issues.
  • Sheba Hospital* – Sheba Medical Center staff are working around the clock treating the wounded and preparing to meet any medical needs that arise. The hospital is looking for support to help in the current emergency.
  • Save a Child’s Heart* – Save a Child’s Heart is committing its resources to helping Israelis in critical need. You can help support the work of our Israeli medical team at Wolfson Medical Center and the Sylvan Adams Children’s Hospital, who are treating the victims of Hamas attacks.
  • Barzilai Hospital** – This hospital in the south sustained rocket fire while serving patients. Over the past few days, it has been inundated with victims of the assault.
  • Soroka Hospital** – The Be’er Sheva hospital has been treating several hundred victims of the Hamas attack. The hospital started an emergency fund to further acquire much needed medical equipment.
  • Shamir Medical Center (formerly Assaf Harofeh Medical Center)*** – Shamiris a teaching hospital in central Israel and one of the top clinics in Israel.
  • The Kaplan Medical Center*** serves a population of about one million residents from Rishon Lezion and Modi’in-Macabim-Reut in the north and to Ashdod and Kiriyat Gat in the south. Since the deadly attack commenced, Kaplan Medical Center has been operating in emergency mode, treating hundreds of wounded civilians and soldiers.

Hostage and Family Services

  • Hostages Families ** – Providing mental health support, social work and financial aid to hostage families.
  • Hostages and Missing Families Forum***A site dedicated to the hostages. listing their names and photos urging an increase in diplomatic efforts and international support for hostages

Affected Communities & Towns

  • Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak** – funds will be used to strengthen and support community members, including providing emotional care, equipment for children’s homes, facilities for the community’s well-being, and repairing property damage.
  • Kibbutz Be’eri** – support the rebuilding of the kibbutz, which was among the most impacted of the communities devastated by the 7 October Hamas terror attack. Over 120 of its residents were violently murdered including Australian Galit Carbone, and others taken hostage.
  • Kfar Aza*** – A fund has been started to locate the missing and kidnapped and to help families with physical and emotional needs and to help rebuild the kibbutz.
  • Kibbutz Nir Oz Fund*** – Many residents of the kibbutz located on the Gaza strip were massacred, vehicles were burned and houses razed to the ground. The remaining families have been evacuated and desperately need support.
  • Kibbutz Holit*** – A fund has been created to aid orphans, the physically and emotionally wounded, and rebuild homes and businesses.
  • Sderot Foundation*** – This foundation is raising funds to help the Sderot community on the socio-economic periphery survive the war and overcome the trauma while the city is still under siege.

Media and Politics

  • Civil Emergency Situation Room*** – The Democracy HQ (“Chofshei Be’Arzenu”) and all the member organisations of the Protest Movement are uniting to support the people of Israel During this war. All the protest groups are mobilising to help Israelis who are under brutal attack. See their letter here
  • Israel on Campus Coalition (israelcc.org)*** – This organisation is standing up for Israel. Their mission is to inspire American college students to see Israel as a source of pride and empower them to stand up for Israel on campus.
  • Jerusalem Press Club*** – The Jerusalem Press Club is bringing voices from the field, analysis of experts and more information about the war. They are requesting emergency funds to expose Hamas barbaric attacks and create sustained support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
  • National Black Empowerment Council NBEC*** – The NBEC’s mission is to empower leaders to work together strategically to close the systemic wealth, influence, and achievement gaps between African Americans and more structurally advantaged groups. They are helping to spread the message of support for Israel in US communities.
  • Sixpointmedia*** – are connectors, creators, incubators, ideators, and facilitators. They are amplifying influential voices and creators to speak out and be heard, doing their part to fight racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and all forms of insidious hatred.
  • Project Shema*** is an independent nonprofit organization that trains and supports the Jewish community and allies to understand and address contemporary antisemitism, with an emphasis on how anti-Jewish ideas can emerge in discourse around Israel and Palestine.

Support for Soldiers & Reservists

  • BEIT HALOCHEM – Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation* – Their number one priority is to support the care and rehabilitation of Israel’s 50,000 injured soldiers, victims of terror and their families by raising awareness and much-needed funds.
  • Tzofim Garin Tzabar* is the best solution existing today for young Jewish adults who make Aliyah and wish to make Israel their home and serve a meaningful service in the IDF as Lone Soldiers. They support lone soldiers before joining the army,  during and after their army service including; full board accommodation, assistance with Israel civil services and IDF bureaucracy, integration to Israeli society, building a family within a host community in Israel (kibbutz/Ra’anana) and crafting a new Garin family – A Family For Life
  • Brothers for Life** help injured IDF veterans reclaim their lives in a way no one else possibly could because they have faced and overcome the same injuries.
  • ONE PEOPLE – Together for Israel*** Their mission is o deliver life-saving gear to IDF soldiers immediately (advanced bulletproof helmets, ceramic vests, and more). One People is working directly with the IDF’s Logistics Corp to secure urgent equipment and bypass bureaucracy.
  • The Association for Israeli Soldiers – Agudah Lema’an Hachayal*** – To show your love and support for the soldiers putting their lives on the line, you can choose to “adopt” a soldier or a military unit.
  • Brothers and Sisters in Arms*** – Following 48 hours of efforts to accumulate and distribute aid from within Israel, Brothers and Sisters in Arms are now also raising funds from abroad in order to continue to provide much needed assistance. All donations will go towards procuring and distributing supplies to civilians and security personnel in the conflict zones.
  • Friends of Israel Defense Forces (FIDF)*** – FIDF supports men and women serving in the Israeli army, including wounded veterans, and the families of fallen soldiers. Tens of thousands active duty and reservist soldiers are on the frontlines now fighting hard to protect the Israeli citizens. They are in urgent need of hygiene and plasma kits.
  • Lone Soldier Center*** – The LSC provides a “home away from home” for thousands of lone soldiers each year – new immigrants, foreign volunteers and Israeli-born youth estranged from their families, many of whom are now fighting the war against Israel on the front lines.

Educational Institutions in Israel

  • Tel Aviv University* has established an emergency fund to respond quickly and dynamically to evolving needs in Israel, capitalising on the university’s strengths and expertise. The emergency fund is assisting with the following: free temporary housing in the TAU dorms, psychological treatment to soldiers, anti-Israel and antisemitic social media responses and much more.
  • Darca Schools*** – Darca Schools are committed to providing equal educational opportunities for youth and teens in Israel’s underserved periphery.
  • Dror Israel*** – Dror Israel educators are jumping into action to meet immediate needs by helping to support evacuees, providing youth counsellors in bomb shelters and daycare for children of hospital workers and other essential staff.

Israel Advocacy

  • Boundless Israel*** – is a non-profit organisation that partners with community leaders and leading data scientists to support Israel education, combat Jew hatred and counter online terrorism.
  • Shine a Light*** – is a national initiative to illuminate the dangers of antisemitism through education, community partnerships, workplace engagement and community advocacy. They have created a workplace toolkit to navigate the Hamas attacks and support Jewish employees

Trauma

  • Enosh*** ­- The Israeli Mental Health Association is the largest mental health organisation in Israel, delivering comprehensive rehabilitation services to people with psychosocial disabilities and their families. Enosh is raising funds and has aligned its current services with the Homefront Command to address the needs of a nation facing mental health challenges due to the war.
  • ERAN – Emotional First Aid by Telephone & Internet*** – ERAN is providing much-needed mental health resources at this critical time. The organisation is addressing Israel’s current mental health crisis by providing lifesaving “Emotional First Aid” for all citizens, especially those traumatised by the war.
  • Israel Trauma Coalition*** – An initiative of UJA is the cornerstone in the national treatment of trauma and emergency preparedness in Israel and around the world. ITC is partnering with JDC and the Jewish Community and Endowment Fund to raise money for the 2023 Israel emergency fund.
  • NATAL*** – Israel Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War. This apolitical Israeli organization treats PTSD and other trauma related mental health issues related to war and terrorism.
  • Nova Help*** – An emergency mental health project that is dedicated to connecting the 3500 survivors of the Nova Rave massacre to licensed and certified mental health professionals.

Australian Jewish Community

  • Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ)* is the peak organisation for representing Jews in Australia and the voice of the Australian Jewish Community.
  • Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS)* is a federation of Jewish student societies at Australian and New Zealand universities and other higher education institutions. During this crisis and with rising antisemitism, AUJS is coordinating events with CSG, campus security, and when necessary, local police to ensure Jewish students can safely develop and strengthen their sense of Jewish identity and Jewish Leadership.
  • Community Security Groups
    • The community threat level has been raised to Heightened (Community on heightened alert).
    • CSG NSW to make a donation through JCA*
    • CSG VIC* is fully prepared to support the community throughout the weeks to come and is working with all levels of VIC police to ensure there is adequate protection for the Jewish community.
    • CSG WA
  • Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) NSW* is the representative roof-body of the Jewish community. It leads, speaks and advocates on behalf of the NSW Jewish community, with 56 major communal organisations as its constituents. 
  • Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV)* is the recognised roof body and voice of Victorian Jewry within both the Jewish and wider communities. JCCV represents 53 affiliates.
  •  Jewish Community Council of WA (JCCWA)* is the united voice of the WA Jewish community. It is the umbrella organisation that represents all Jewish community organisations and all Jews to the wider Western Australian community. The President is in effect the secular leader and spokesperson for the entire WA Jewish community.

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