News Update

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <Prozion1@aol.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 6:16 PM
Subject: News Update
To: Prozion1@aol.com

Dear Members,

Considering events in the north of Israel at the moment, we are sending a special email update this week to keep you informed about the tragedy and remarkable and ongoing efforts of our movement in Israel; who we have been in regular contact with.  The recent update from the IMPJ has informed us that the fire fighters how seem to have the fire under control.  Since the fire started, thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.  The fire has claimed at least 42 lives and more than 4 million trees on nearly 10,000 acres of land.  Israel is mourning for those they have lost, and aid for the victims is of the Movement's greatest concern at this moment.  

During the weekend:

• The IMPJ has been communicating with all the main agencies in charge of the crisis; agencies they have been in touch with since the Lebanon War in 2006.
• The IMPJ congregation in Haifa and the Carmel (Or Chadash, Shirat Hayam, Ohel Avraham and Sulam Yaakov in Zikhron Yaacov) are in touch with their members and staff from the evacuated areas.  They are all safe.  The Leo Beck school assisted it's students from Tirat Carmel and Ussfiya that have been evacuated. The students and their families are all safe, and the majority of them have already returned home.
• Congregation Ohel Avraham held Shabbat services and candle lighting in the firefighters' headquarters in Haifa university with the participation of hundreds of rescue workers and fire fighters.
• The Leo Beck students packaged during the weekend, hundreds of kits with food and supplies for the fire fighters. The community center has been opened as a rest area for rescue workers.
• Since this afternoon, Keren B'Kavod, with Leo Beck center are providing hundreds of hot meals for fire-fighters andrescue workers 

In the next 24 hours, as the focus in the North is moving from putting out the fire to rehabilitating the people and land that were affected we are adjusting to provide any help necessary.

• Noar Telem will assist Keren B'Kavod in packaging supplies for rescue workers and for displaced families.
• Noar Telem will be heading north to organize activities for the displaced children from kibbutz Beit Oren and Ein Hod, who are now residing in Kibbutz Nachsholim. 
• Keren B'Kavod is now focusing on identifying needs for the future, with our staff on-the ground visiting the area in order to determine how we can best help in rehabilitation.

Please pass this information around your communities.  We have also attached a misheberach that was written by the IMPJ. FPJ, the UK's fundraising arm for Progressive Judaism in Israel, is organizing an appeal for which you can donate to.  More information for this can be found at www.fpjie.org.uk.  Pro-Zion will send further updates throughout this crisis.

The Chair of the IMPJ wrote a couple of days ago asking us to reflect on the power of fire, for good and for evil, as we light the chanukah candles.  We urge you to do the same and think about both the miracles of Chanukah and of the victims of the tragedy in Israel.

Shavua Tov,

Charlie, Daniel and all at Pro-Zion