Perilous Times
December 17, 2010
U.S. Jews and Evangelicals Help Israel Rebuild After
Fires
Michele Chabin
Religion News Service
JERUSALEM (RNS) American Jews and evangelical Christians are
taking a central role in rebuilding the Carmel region in northern
Israel after a deadly fire decimated large swaths of the Carmel
forest and left many people homeless.
Several Jewish and evangelical Christian organizations have
launched fund-raising drives to assist the region after a massive
wildfire in early December killed 43 people in one of Israel's few
green belts. It took a team of international fire fighters to put
out the blaze.
The fire highlighted the woeful state of Israel's fire service,
which employs fewer than 1,500 fire fighters in a nation of 7
million people. There is a severe shortage of fire trucks and the
under-funded service does not own a single fire-fighting plane.
American Jews and evangelical Christians, who have a long
tradition of funding everything from Israeli tree plantings and
soup kitchens to ambulances and bomb shelters, will be
supplementing Israeli government aid for fire relief. They hope to
raise several million dollars.
Israel's Ministry of Tourism and the Jewish National Fund USA
announced a joint plan to raise funds from American Jews and U.S.
evangelicals. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov instructed his
North American representatives to increase marketing and
fundraising to fund the planting of trees on Tu Bishvat, a holiday
celebrating trees and nature, in late January.
The New York-based Orthodox Union said it will donate 100 percent
of donations collected for fire relief to organizations providing
"rescue, relief, emergency services and support."
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has earmarked
$3 million in emergency aid "to help stricken families and
communities." Israeli media reports accused Eli Yishai, the
ultra-Orthodox Jew who oversees the fire service, of previously
refusing IFCJ's previous offer of several fire trucks because he
considers it a missionary organization.
Some have suggested the Israeli government, and not foreign
donors, should foot the entire bill for the damage caused by what
they consider gross government negligence.
"The fact that (Israel) doesn't possess adequate firefighting
equipment is its own fault," commentator Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in
Atlantic magazine. "At some point, the good-hearted Diaspora Jews
who still think of Israel as a charity case are going to have to
tell their cousins to learn to fully fund basic services like fire
fighting."