Good afternoon,
I wanted to let you know that World Jewish Relief has launched an emergency appeal for the East Africa Food Crisis.
Across the region, 16 million people are in need of immediate food assistance. Hundreds of people have already died of starvation. Drought, poor rains and conflict have decimated harvests leaving millions of children malnourished and in need of urgent food and medical support.
Donations to World Jewish Relief’s emergency appeal can help us provide people with emergency food, water and livelihoods in order to survive. As always, we will be working with trusted partners to ensure our help reaches the most vulnerable people.
I wanted to ask if you could let your congregations know about our East Africa Food Crisis Appeal. You can do this in a number of ways:
· Include it in the weekly email or Shabbat newsletter – there is a flyer attached to this email that you can use
· Ask the Rabbi to mention it in their sermon or during announcements on Shabbat (see attached Dvar Torah)
· Tweet your support or post it to your Facebook page – you’ll find examples of email, Facebook and Twitter posts for you to use below
Donations can be made to World Jewish Relief’s East Africa Food Crisis appeal by going to https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/foodcrisis or calling 020 8736 1250
Please let me know if you need any further information or resources.
Thank you, as always, for your kind support and please do be in touch if you would like something more specific.
Best wishes,
Richard
Email example:
Subject: East Africa Food Crisis: Our Response
We are supporting World Jewish Relief’s emergency appeal to raise money for the devastating situation in East Africa.
Across the region, 16 million people need immediate food assistance. Hundreds of people have already died of starvation. Drought, poor rains and conflict have decimated harvests leaving millions of children malnourished and in need of urgent food and medical support.
With our donations, World Jewish Relief can provide people with emergency food, water and livelihoods in order to survive.
Please be part of the Jewish community’s response to this disaster
You can donate by visiting www.worldjewishrelief.org/foodcrisis or calling 020 8736 1250
Facebook post:
We are supporting World Jewish Relief’s East Africa Food Crisis Appeal.
Across the region, 16 million people need immediate food assistance. Hundreds of people have already died of starvation. Drought, poor rains and conflict have decimated harvests leaving millions of children malnourished and in need of urgent food and medical support.
With our donations, World Jewish Relief can provide people with emergency food, water and livelihoods in order to survive.
Please be part of the Jewish community’s response to this disaster.
You can donate online: www.worldjewishrelief.org/foodcrisis
Twitter post:
We are proud to support @WJRelief East Africa #foodcrisis Appeal. Help provide emergency food, water and livelihoods. www.worldjewishrelief.org/foodcrisis
Richard Verber
Head of External Affairs | World Jewish Relief
020 8736 1256
worldjewishrelief.org | Facebook | Twitter
Dvar Torah
A child lies in its mother’s arms – they are both too weak to move.
Across East Africa, 16 million people need immediate food assistance. Hundreds of people have already died of starvation.
Drought and poor rains have decimated harvests leaving millions of children malnourished and in need of urgent food and medical support.
There is no doubt that much of the starvation has also been caused by human beings. Bombs and bullets, terrorism and war have destroyed infrastructure and forced millions of people to flee their homes. The international community must do more to bring conflicts to an end.
It’s easy to look at crises thousands of miles away and think that it’s either not our problem or not something we can do anything about.
This week’s sedra (Torah portion) suggests otherwise.
East Africa may be far from the UK today, but it’s not far from where our ancestors became a people. The Exodus narrative – the Children of Israel escaping from slavery in Egypt – is remembered daily in our prayers and weekly each Shabbat.
The Exodus culminates with the Children of Israel receiving the Torah in the Sinai Peninsula. But events go quickly wrong in this week’s sedra:
Moses has gone up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. He seems to be away for too long.
“When the people saw that Moses was late in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron, and they said to him: “Come on! Make us gods that will go before us, because this man Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” (Exodus 32:1)
Aaron, Moses’ brother, concedes to the people’s demand and together they build the Golden Calf – an idol to worship – despite idolatry being expressly forbidden.
Although only a tiny fraction of the Jewish people were actually involved in the sin of the Golden Calf, the whole nation was held responsible: we all have a duty to act.
The Talmud goes even further and says very clearly that anyone who is able to protest against an injustice in the world but chooses not to, is held accountable with the rest of the world’s citizens for their inaction (Shabbat 54b).
And here’s the good news. Everyone can make a difference to this devastating crisis. World Jewish Relief has launched an emergency appeal to provide people with emergency food, water and livelihoods.
As always, World Jewish Relief will work with trusted partners to ensure their targeted help reaches the most vulnerable people.
Every little helps. Just as the Children of Israel were all asked to contribute a half-shekel to the building of the mishkan, the portable temple, regardless of their wealth, every person’s contribution was of equal value.
Richard Verber, Head of External Affairs at World Jewish Relief.
Donations can be made to World Jewish Relief’s East Africa Food Crisis appeal by going to https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/foodcrisis