The Jewish Communal Fund (JCF), the largest Jewish donor advised fund in the country, announced today that it was making an emergency grant of $100,000 to the Israel Trauma Coalition from its Special Gifts Fund, JCF’s institutional endowment.
The Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC), which was created by UJA-Federation of New York in 2001, brings together more than 40 organizations in Israel to help individuals and communities cope with the psychological stress from the unrelenting violence. ITC offers crisis counseling and support for those suffering from post-traumatic stress. During the current conflict, ITC has seen a 1300% increase in requests for help as more Israelis are living under a barrage of rocket attacks.
“As the largest network of Jewish funders in the country, we felt that it was our responsibility to act swiftly to provide psychological counseling to those who are suffering from crippling anxiety and fear as a result of the constant threat of rocket fire,” said Susan F. Dickman, Executive Vice President and CEO of Jewish Communal Fund. “We mourn the loss of innocent life on both sides and pray for a peaceful resolution.”
During the past month, as more than 2,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel, ITC has provided more than 2,000 sessions to people with anxiety, 400 sessions for families, and its staff and volunteers have answered more than 1,500 calls a day on its emergency hotlines.
The Eshkol Resilience Center, one of ITC’s five Resilience Centers located near the Gaza border, has treated over 450 people suffering from anxiety and post-traumatic stress, and supported parents, children, and staff of all 32 villages and kibbutzim in the Eshkol Region.
In addition to JCF’s institutional grant, JCF fund holders have generously made 458 grants of more than $1.8 million to a variety of charities that are helping the people of Israel during this difficult time, including UJA-Federation of New York’s Israel Emergency Fund.
Since 1999, the JCF Special Gifts Fund has granted more than $10 million to more than a dozen worthy causes in the Jewish community in New York and abroad. Recent grants include $300,000 to help construct MJHS’s Children’s Hospice, the first of its kind in New York City, and $250,000 to the UJA-Federation of New York’s Enhanced Support Services for Jewish Single-Parent Families Initiative.
A leader in the world of Jewish philanthropy, JCF continues to be the largest and most active Jewish donor advised fund in the country with over $1.2 billion in charitable assets under management. In FY 2014, JCF distributed a record $329 million in grants to charities in all sectors, representing 27 percent of assets, well above the industry average.
This article is cross-posted on eJewishphilanthropy.