How Yad Ezra V’Shulamit is Responding to Coronavirus While Getting Ready for Passover

The Coronavirus is having devastating effects on all of us. Thousands upon thousands of Israelis are suddenly not earning their usual incomes or any income due to the closing of public places: Tour guides and drivers, teachers, museum workers, shopping mall employees and shop owners, catering hall staff members and owners, restaurant, hotel, and café workers, El Al and and so on. Here in Israel, businesses have been closed by the government until after Passover – The flow on effect touches almost everyone.

It is an unprecedented financial disaster and it is happening weeks before the always-expensive Passover season.

Then factor in the 800+ and climbing number of Israelis diagnosed with Coronavirus/COVID-19. Now add thousands of medical personnel exposed to Coronavirus who are among the 20,000+ other Israelis in quarantine because of recent travels, family members sick with Coronavirus, etc.

We have a mind-boggling economic, social, and medical crisis weeks before the Passover holiday. It alone requires a lot of hard work beforehand, expensive groceries and kitchen utensils used exclusively for Passover. But with so many people unable to manage the holiday preparations, expenses, and enforced social isolation, the workload must fall on fewer shoulders as it meets everyone’s needs.

• Quarantined Israelis and many fellow citizens are not earning incomes.
• Quarantined Israelis can’t go shopping.
• Stores may only admit 100 shoppers at a time, reducing the opportunities to acquire Passover necessities.
• People in high-risk categories (anyone over age 60, people of any age with chronic illnesses, etc.) are asked not to enter crowds according to Israel’s Ministry of Health.

Who is hurt the most? The hourly workers and widows who were already struggling to make ends meet and now even their minimum income is gone. They are turning to us, and therefore to you, for help.

We are being inundated with phone calls for food now – and for help with Passover. Last year, Yad Ezra V’Shulamit distributed food packages to 30,000 families. This year we have already received requests from more than 40,000 families and that number is growing hourly.

Aryeh Lurie, the founder of Yad Ezra V’Shulamit wrote a personal letter that we would like to share with everyone.

“I’m asking something outrageous. Whatever you usually donate for Passover, please double it. The virus has already affected donations and we don’t have what we need to provide food for Pesach to the 180,000 people who depend on us.

Help us make sure that the poor should have food for the holiday and afterwards if need be. We hope it doesn’t happen, but just as you prepare for your family, we are trying to prepare for our Jewish family in Israel who need a helping hand.

I’m calling on all our Jewish sisters and brothers to open your hands to Israel’s poor in these trying times. Charity saves donors from death. Together we can unite to make sure that Passover is sweet for all of us.”

Recent Israeli government restrictions due to Corona restriction gatherings for ten people. We are unable to distribute food baskets with this limited number. We will try to personally deliver food baskets to as many homes as we can, but we cannot reach the 40,000 people we supply for Passover – and now.

We are advised to buy food vouchers worth baskets and send to people’s homes because stores will be open and people can buy for themselves.

We must begin this process immediately to ensure that people receive vouchers before Passover.

We appeal to you in this desperate situation. I know you also feel the effects of Corona yourself. We appeal to you for compassion for the poor in Israel who have no way to buy food ‘just in case’ let alone Passover which is around the corner.

Contact us at 972.2.585.6002 or 972.2.540.0058, or at feedisrael@yadezra.net. Or click here to make your tax-deductible donation. There’s nothing like laboring for the love of fellow Jews. It’s the sort of fun that warms the body and the heart.

Yad Ezra V’Shulamit is a registered charity in Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Please make a note that the donation is for Yad Ezra V’Shulamit for all online donations, wire transfers and checks.