Interfaith Group Boosts Aid To Arab Israelis During Ramadan
Image by getty images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is increasing its assistance to Arab Israelis, beginning with food and clothing aid during the Muslim holiday season of Ramadan.
The Fellowship currently is distributing 9,500 food and clothing vouchers during Ramadan, which began on May 26, up to the holiday of Eid al-Fitr through Israeli social services offices in 78 Arab and Arab-Jewish communities to more than 9,000 low-income families. The Fellowship also will distribute 5,500 food vouchers and 4,000 clothing vouchers to children in after-school clubs run by Israel’s Ministry of Social Services and Social Affairs.
The Ramadan aid is part of an overall $5.6 million that the Fellowship is providing to needy Israeli Arabs in 2017, the group said. Among the key projects are “Fellowship Funds” in 77 lower-income villages and towns that provide urgent assistance including food, medicine, clothing and transportation to medical appointments.
The Fellowship’s founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, has called on the government of Israel to bolster Israeli Arabs’ connection.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
