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Coping After Terror Attacks - New Fund Provides Assistance
By Michele Chabin
(April 18, 2002)
The Jewish Agency has just launched a new campaign to raise millions
of dollars to assist terror victims. The money will be used to expand
an existing fund that is already helping victims and their families
recover from terror-related tragedy.
The Terror Victim Fund was created after the tragic attack on
the Dolphinarium discotheque, an attack that killed and wounded
dozens of young Israelis, most of them of Russian descent.
"The Dolphinarium attack was a shock for all of us,"
says Ofra Friedman, director of the Jewish Agency's Israel section,
explaining why the fund was initially established. Explaining why
it is now being expanded, its budget increased to help the hundreds
of victims in need of assistance, she says, "we feel we have
to be in the forefront of those who are helping. Let's face it,
the government can't do everything."
Boaz Herman, the agency's coordinator of Israel activities in
the unit for financial resource development, says the fund -- begun
after the suicide attack on the Dophinarium discotheque -- exists
"to fill the gap that government agencies sometimes cannot
fill."
Although the various governmental agencies, such as Bituach Leumi,
[Israeli National Insurance?] as well as the ministries of Defense
and Absorption, provide the bulk of benefits to victims and their
families, such as disability payments or job retraining, "they
can't do everything," Herman stresses.
"Each agency has a certain mandate, a certain set of guidelines
of what it can and cannot provide. And all of the agencies have
limited budgets. Our goal has always been to work with the agencies
in cooperation, not to duplicate their efforts."
In the event of a terror attack, for example, Jewish Agency representatives
consult with social workers from the various governmental bodies,
and often with the individual families, to determine how the Agency
can help most.
"Our goal is to solve a specific problem," Herman says.
"In one case, we had a new immigrant soldier from Ethiopia
who lost his leg in a terror attack. He came from a poor family,
and although the Ministry of Defense provided him with a subsidy
to pay his rent, his apartment was unfurnished. He needed a refrigerator
and an oven, things not provided by the government, so we purchased
the items for him and had them delivered."
In another instance, a young woman who made aliyah six years ago
was wounded in a bus bombing in Haifa. Injured in the face and eyes,
she required special corrective eye glasses, something not provided
by the government. The Jewish Agency purchased the glasses.
Ofra Friedman says that immigrants are particularly vulnerable
during times of extreme crisis. "Olim tend to live in a lower
economic bracket than veteran Israelis," says Friedman. "Many,
especially those who came to Israel at an older age, aren't fluent
in Hebrew and therefore have a harder time coping with the country's
bureaucracy and mentality. Also, they often don't have the safety
net of family and friends other Israelis have. There' s definitely
a gap between newcomers and old-timers," she concludes.
This gap has surfaced several times recently, when immigrants
with little or no family in Israel have found themselves without
a support system.
"There was a family in Haifa that was so lonely because,
after the shiva, no one came to visit them," says Dalia Sarfati,
director of the Agency's northern Absorption and Community section.
"When one of our staff members came to visit, they cried."
The fund has also been instrumental in reuniting Israel-based
terror victims and mourners with their families overseas.
In several cases during since the start of the intifada, Agency
personnel in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere have had to track
down far-flung family members to inform them that a loved one has
been injured or killed. The fund has paid for airplane tickets to
Israel, so that family could attend a funeral or be at a victim's
bedside.
The fund has even provided the taxi fare to and from a hospital,
as well as food during a shiva, for those who would otherwise have
done without.
Points to Ponder
- What sort of activities can you do to help Israeli victims of
terror?
- Raise funds in your community to
support their care and rehabilitation
- Find out personal stories and publicize
them in the media
- Get your local school or JCC to
start a pen-pal project between your community and terror
victims
- With Antisemitism on the rise around the world, victims of
terror can also be found in other Jewish communities.
- What can you do to help them?
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