ATZUM is happy to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Abe and Gert Nutkis Scholarship. The application deadline is March 15, 2012.

The application can be found here.

The Abe and Gert Nutkis Scholarship is intended to enable young adults to study and volunteer in Israel. The recipients will receive up to $5,000, so that they can study in a co-educational institution, while volunteering a minimum of four hours a week, either with ATZUM or an organization approved by ATZUM. Priority will be given to applicants with financial need and those who have little or no previous experience in Israel.

Past recipients have lived in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and various other locations throughout Israel. Their courses have covered a wide range of topics from religion to art history. In addition, candidates are afforded the opportunity to learn Hebrew as well as experience and explore Israeli Society.

If you are interested in applying for one of next year’s scholarships, please begin the application process today!

Dear Friends,

Several years ago, I was unaware that sexual slavery not only exists in Israel but is a thriving business. It brings up to three quarters of a billion dollars a year into Israel’s economy. I was unaware that 3,200 women, many of them orphans, all of them poor, are trafficked across Israel’s borders every year. I was unaware that for a few thousand dollars, I could buy a girl or a woman, and sell her body to others to use and abuse as they saw fit. I was unaware that despite Israel having strong anti-sexual slavery and anti-trafficking laws, they are rarely enforced.

Several years ago I was unaware about the realities of sexual slavery in Israel, and worse I was doing nothing about it. Then I had a cup of coffee and a conversation with the wrong person. You should be very careful with whom you have coffee. Without much introduction I was made aware. Someone forced me to acknowledge the presence in Israel of an industry so perverse it undermines the ability of a just society to exist. She provided me with this information, and left me with difficult questions about what to do with it.

There are many reasons for not doing anything; I’ve heard nearly all of them.

Yet Israel was created with a hope and the dream we would proactively be a model for decency and dignity, a prophetic light for other nations” (Isaiah 49:6). We always recognized this would not be an easy task and this undersanding is embedded in the name of the State, Medinat Yisrael, a nation that would wrestle with God — and wrestling with God can be exhausting, and exhilirating. For engaging ultimate resposnibility is to engage difficult questions for which we will not have all the answers. To wrestle with ultimacy is to refuse to undermine our dignity.

Thus, we need choose to engage this struggle, refuse to tolerate sexual slavery on the streets of Israel. There are many ways to do this, and each of us has something to bring to this effort. I encourage you to get involved.  Read this newsletter, learn more about our Task Force on Human Trafficking, send a letter to a Knneset Member, donate money or time. Contact us to see what  you can do to help. Join us in wrestling with God.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Levi Lauer
Founding Executive Director, ATZUM

ATZUM has officially launched the ‘Jewish Tooth Fairy Fund,’ an initiative focused on providing a full range of dental services to Israeli survivors of terror attacks and their families who cannot afford the treatments and have no access to dental insurance.

In addition to actually funding the dental care of 10-15 survivors of terror per year – including routine dental treatments and endodontic, periodontic and prosthodontic services – the initiative also hopes to identify and recruit Israeli dentists and dental suppliers who would offer their services at a reduced fee to survivors of terror and their families.

“Due to the severity of their injuries, survivors of terror frequently suffer from acute dental issues that demand immediate and extensive treatment.  We have found that death or injury also leaves families unable to afford even the most routine dental care,” explained Rabbi Levi Lauer, Founding Executive Director of ATZUM.

“With the launch of this unique initiative, ATZUM will be able to provide these individuals with financial and practical assistance to obtain any necessary dental care services.” 

The ‘Jewish Tooth Fairy Fund’ is the brainchild of Rachel Rudman, Dara Freedman-Weiss and Dena Rapoport, graduate students who spent last year studying and volunteering in Israel.  Studying this year in New York, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. respectively, the three have begun fundraising for the project with the goal of collecting $50,000 by the end of 2012.  ATZUM seeks additional donors to augment their efforts.

“Though my original objective was to simply meet with the students to discuss ATZUM’s projects and the issues we are facing with our clients, it quickly became so much more,” said Karyn London, the coordinator of ATZUM’s Roberta Project for Survivors of Terror.

“The students chose to become actively engaged in our projects, focusing on the dental needs of survivors of terror and making it their mission to find a solution to this problem.  It is very inspiring to see young graduate students take on a project like this and commit themselves to seeing it through to the end.”

We at ATZUM understand that there are times – like the holidays – that are always more difficult times for Survivor of Terror families who regularly cope with grief, pain, trauma, sadness and anger.  It is our deepest wish to strengthen them during this period and to remind them that they are not alone.

Leading up to the New Year, we endeavored to speak personally to these families wishing them health and strength and a peaceful beginning of the year.

There are those families who in addition to the anguish and pain have a meager income which makes the holiday season even more challenging.  With the assistance of many friends and donors, ATZUM distributed food coupons for Rosh Hashana to these families enabling them to brighten their holiday table and bringing joy to their hearts.

Here’s to a year of peace and healing!

Last night in Israel we entered upon Yom Hazikaron , our national day of mourning and honoring the memory of Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror. This year, just like every year, I phoned many of the families ATZUM has worked with over the years. [Read more...]

The official Hebrew name for Holocaust Remembrance Day, is Yom Hazikaron L’Shoah V’Lagvurah (Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day). By using the term gvurah, heroism, we usually refer to the Jewish heroes who went through the atrocities of the Holocaust.

However, there is another type of heroism that we can find in the Holocaust, and that is the heroism of the Righteous Among the Nations. Non Jews who defied all of their surroundings, who went against the laws of their countries, who acted differently than all of their society, who risked their own lives, and very often the lives of their families, all in order to save Jews.

Click here to read stories of the Righteous Among the Nations, the rescuers.

Yael Rosen

Project Coordinator, Righteous Among the Nations

ATZUM is saddened to announce the passing of Galina Imshenik. Galina Imshenik saved the life of a Jewish toddler, Elena Dolgov. Elena’s biological mother survived the Holocaust, but she always remained very close to her “second mother”, Galina. In Galina’s last years, Elena nursed her day and night. Here is their story. …Keep Reading

ATZUM along with all of Israel mourns the loss of Udi and Rut Fogel and the three of their children Yoav , Elad and Hadas who were brutally murdered by terrorists Friday night in their home in Itamar.

We embrace  the Fogel and Ben Yishai families and especially the orphans Tamar, Roei and Yishai.

May they be comforted among the mourners of Zion.