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Israel Religious Action Center
This is the fast I desire: Unlock the fetters of
wickedness . . . share your bread with the hungry,
take the wretched poor into your home; When you see the
naked, clothe them,
And do not ignore your own kin. Isaiah 58.6-7
Description of Program
Keren B’Kavod is an outgrowth of our response to the growing
difficulty of many Israelis to provide themselves with basic
necessities. Poverty is a complex phenomenon, one that
includes a need to be sustained both with food and with
cultural and social opportunities, as it is written: “A
person does not live on bread alone,” Deut. 8.3. Because of
this, we feel that it is necessary to address the problem of
poverty from a number of different aspects. The following
four elements thus encompass basic charity work,
empowerment, and the pursuit of social justice:
1) Multi-Faith Holiday Food Drives: Holiday times are
especially difficult for poor people, as these are times
when the poor feel particularly estranged and alienated from
the larger society. Paradoxically, the holiday seasons are
precisely those times when the religious congregational
experience is at its strongest, when a religious
congregation is most in a position to recruit support for
social action work. We therefore facilitate the holiday food
drives of Israel’s Reform congregations.
A guiding principle of our food work is that IRAC gives aid
to all sectors of Israeli society. Our food work thus
includes food distribution to Jewish families, to Christian
and Muslim families, to veteran Israelis and new immigrants,
to residents in the cities and in development towns, to
residents of unrecognized Bedouin villages, and to foreign
workers in South Tel Aviv. The food is distributed around
the time of a religious holiday, such as: Rosh Hashanah,
Passover, Christmas, Easter, and the (Muslim) Feast of the
Sacrifice.
2) On-Going Food Work: Keren B’Kavod works on a
year-round basis at providing both food and social and
cultural opportunities to specific groups of needy Israelis.
Hundreds of food packages are prepared and distributed
monthly, with recipients also helping to pack and distribute
boxes to other B’Kavod clients. By having needy Israelis
help each other B’Kavod builds self esteem and promotes
empowerment.
3) Cultural and Social Enrichment: B’Kavod works
closely with several specific groups of needy individuals
providing cultural and informal educational activities from
museum and library visits to dance performances, concerts,
plays, and holiday celebration.
4) Humanitarian Aid to Foreign-Worker Families: In
recent years, we have witnessed the troubling phenomenon of
Israel expelling a parent while the spouse remains in Israel
with the couple’s children. Keren B’Kavod gives food and
baby equipment to these families.
5) Promoting Social Justice through Advocacy: IRAC is
very involved in advocacy efforts to diminish hunger and
poverty in Israel, advocating with the Forum to Address Food
Insecurity and Poverty in Israel which is a philanthropic
response by more than 50 foundations, donors and federations
to Israel's severe economic situation and its effect on
at-risk populations in Israel with particular attention to
issue of food insecurity and poverty.
Goals
• To provide humanitarian aid to needy populations in Israel
in a way that will also empower them for social change.
• To raise public awareness of social problems in Israel and
to offer opportunities to improve the situation to members
and friends of the Reform Movement in Israel as well as to
the tens of thousands of Israelis who are guests at
life-cycle events each year at Israeli Reform synagogues.
Guiding Principles of B’Kavod
1) Equality: The target audience for this project is
needy populations in Israel and the people who wish to help
and empower these needy individuals. We do not have any a
priori definitions as to the types of people who may be
considered needy, and participants in our project may be
religious or secular; Jewish, Christian, or Muslim;
native-born or immigrants; foreign workers or “illegal”
aliens facing deportation; able-bodied or disabled.
2) Partnership: Project Sustenance seeks to ground
our work in the congregational experience of the IMPJ. We
want to establish the practice of giving and donating in the
life of each Israeli Reform community and in the lives of
each congregant. Toward this end, IMPJ congregations,
kindergartens, and educational institutions all participate
in various aspects of Keren B’Kavod, donating now up to
$50,000 per year and providing hundreds of volunteers. In
addition, we specifically encourage families who are
celebrating life-cycle events in our synagogues to enlist
their guests in our project—a group of people that annually
numbers in the tens of thousands.
3) Multi-Faceted Approach: Keren B’Kavod addresses
the fact that the symptoms of poverty go beyond hunger to
include social exclusion. In addition to providing needy
people with food, therefore, we also provide them with
cultural and social activities, and we seek to empower them
in improving their own lives and in working towards a more
just and caring society.
Lead Staff
Rabbi Gilad Kariv: Attorney and Ordained Reform
Rabbi, Director of IRAC's Department of Public Policy and
Social Action.
Ms. Sharona Yekutiel: Diploma in Hotel Management,
Hadassah College; B.Ed. student in Education and Judaism,
David Yellin Teachers’ College; Project Sustenance
coordinator.
And you offer your compassion to the hungry, and
satisfy the famished creature -
then shall your light shine in darkness, and your gloom
shall be like noonday. Isaiah 58.10 |
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