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Presenting "Birthright Journal" by Joe Getzoff
Joe Getzoff is a 23-old recent grad of Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA) where he majored in English and Religion. In January, 2006 Joe participated in a Birthright Israel trip. He is currently the Receptionist/Administrative Assistant here at the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. Birthright Israel (taglit in Hebrew) was launched in 2000 with impetus and funding from Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinheart. Its main goal is to get young Jews to visit Israel at no cost to the participants. The trips are ten days long. Birthright has sent over 100,000 young Jews to Israel at a cost of more than $250 million to the program. Quite a feat! Given how powerful and complex a trip to Israel can be and the short timeframe and focus of the Birthright program, some participants may feel disoriented and/or confused - awash in multiple feelings. Joe was just such a person. His journal is a poetic/artistic expression of some of the feelings that were stirred up by the trip. In his own words:
We invite comments. This is not a forum to debate the Birthright Israel program. We invite folks to respond to the specifics of Joe's story and to reflect on their own trips to Israel in light of Joe's. We'd especially like to hear from people who 18 - 30. Sign up to get notification by e-mail of the latest installment of Joe's journal:
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Birthright Journal
 
 Darfur Syndicate |
Birth Right for low income middleagers
Does anyone know of any organizations that sponsor trips to Israel with scholarships for low income people. I have always wanted to visit Israel and learn about my homeland's past, present and workings toward the future. my community sponsors a partial scholarship but as a person who is on disability the scholarship doesn't avail me to the trip. If anyone knows of such a program please list it here and send me an email at Jloischild@aol.com, Shalom, Judith
Our domestic and
Our domestic and international projects continue to grow in number. Since our last report we took on a number of new projects and revitalized some of our mainstays. This edition of the HOT News features 43 of the programs and projects that are currently funded by Hands on Tzedakah and also gives updates about our continuing work with disaster relief and disaster preparedness. Some of the programs are quite large and result in a cadre of beneficiaries both domestic and in Israel that depend on HOT">HOT for substantial regular support. As you, our donors, increase your annual commitment to Hands On Tzedakah you are enabling HOT to become more available to those who would not otherwise be helped.
Since Day 1, we have encouraged our donors to choose where they want their charitable dollars to go. It is a philosophy that HOT’s founders believe benefits both donors and beneficiaries. HOT seeks to be partners
in programs where our funding serves to make a profound difference in people's lives
with our donors by enabling them to see, touch, and feel the effect of their dollars at work.
It is in that vein that we have endorsed designated giving. HOT sponsors many programs within several categories of needs. You can learn about the projects we support in the HOT News on the following pages and we direct your attention to the bolded lines at the end of each write-up that quantifies the project’s needs.
There are many individuals who work on behalf of Hands On Tzedakah. In Israel, we have agents on the ground. While we are committed to visiting Israel regularly, we must have people we trust implicitly to deal with the day-to-day issues of the projects we fund as well as future programs we investigate. We have volunteers who help us and another agent, whom we pay, (remember 100% of our expenses and overhead are paid for by a special grant from one of our donors so 100% of all donations go directly to a project or program) and works for us providing accountability to all our Israel projects. What we also strive for is finding programs, projects and organizations that can partner with each other.
Locally, we work with community service coordinators from the schools and members of the clergy. A college student at Columbia University volunteers his time to update our website.
We think of our donors as investors who are generous, but cost conscious, and like all good investors, want to understand all the investment opportunities, and pick the one that makes the most sense to them. In our fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, for the first time, we raised in excess of $1,000,000 ($1,170,000 from 198 investors).
To read more about our projects and HOT’s other beneficiaries log onto www.handsontzedakah.org and find out how you can directly contact the people working first-hand on any of the projects in this report.
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