Hasdei Naomi - Food to the Needy

Hasdei Naomi was founded in 1984 by Rabbi Yosef Cohen.

While sending his small children to school, he noticed that there were children arriving with torn briefcases and worn out clothing and he was deeply disturbed by this sight and felt badly for those families.

Rabbi Cohen, went, himself, from door to door, collecting food products and distributed them to the poor. After a while an entire array of volunteers was added, storage warehouses were formed, mobile collection-carts were distributed for collecting products. And today, Hasdei Naomi supports over a thousand families on a permanent basis as well as many others from time to time.

“Hasdei Naomi” takes care of those children and sends their families a box of basic products, such as canned goods, oil, vegetables, bread, laundry powder and sweets for the child. Dozens of products are being sent every month to more than 5000 families. The value of one box is about 500 NIS (today 500 Israeli shekels = 143.95 U.S. dollars).

The boxes which are given to needy families and widows, are distributed by a messenger from a courier service, in order to disguise the purpose of the mission and to spare the women and children the unnecessary embarrassment.

Donate to Hasdei Naomi; Click aqui

Dil Se Campaign - Delhi, India.

Do not bet indifferent 

Dil Se envisions a humane and just society, which is free from hunger, hatred, violence, injustice and every form of deprivation which denies to people their social and economic right; where every person has equitable access to life of hope and dignity.

The Dil Se Campaign was launched in June 2005.The Government of Delhi identified the Centre for Equity Studies (CES) as the nodal agency for managing residential homes for street children in allocated government buildings. Since then CES has been coordinating the Dil Se Campaign in managing these residential homes in Delhi and later in Hyderabad.

Aman Biradari is a well-known social campaign and this is an umbrella campaign for The Dil Se Campaign (For more general information of Aman Biradari, visit the homepage; http://www.amanbiradari.org/dilse.html

The Centre for Equity Studies (CES) was founded in August 2000. It is an autonomous institution engaged in research and advocacy on issues of social injustice. It seeks to enquire into the nature and causes of social injustice and inequity and to collectively find methods of moving towards a more equitable world. It attempts to influence public policy in favour of people suffering from injustice.

DIL SE CAMPAIGN'S WORKS:
Dil Se and People - Dil Se Events - Education - Field Works - Residential Homes

STORIES OF STREET CHILDREN
How The Dil Se Campaign Started and Why We Should Start It.

VOLUNTEER FOR CHILDREN
You can simply click here and volunteer us to share your gifts with our children contributing to the futures of them and India.

Want to help? Make contact, click Dil Se Campaign

The Feast of Purim

Purim in 2011 will start on Sunday, the 20th of March and will continue for 2 days until Monday, the 21st of March. On Jewish calendar, on year 5771, start on 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar II and continues until the night 15th of Adar II.
Note that in the Jewish calander, a holiday begins on the on the sunset of the previous day, so observing the Jews begin celebrate the Purim on the sunset of Saturday, the 19th of March.

*The month that was reversed from grief to joy. Esther 9:22
*When the month of Adar enters, we increase in joy. Talmud, Taanit 26b

There are many joyous dates on the Jewish calendar, but besides Purim, none of them affect the entire month, causing it to be auspicious and joyous. What is the intrinsic connection between Purim and Adar? Perhaps a comprehension of the unique nature of Purim will allow us to understand why its joy extends throughout the entire month of Adar.

The Hebrew Month of Adar is synonymous with joy because Adar has traditionally been a month of hope and good luck for the Jewish people. Adar is the last of the months on the Jewish calendar, and in this way represents completion.

The sages say that Adar is the best month to try to remove your personal barriers to holiness. And by removing those barriers, you creates the potential for the greatest joy.

The 'Mitzvot' of Purim (The main 'precepts' of Purim)
1) Listen to the Megillah (Scroll of Esther)
2) Give to the Needy (Matanot La’evyonim)
3) Send Food Portions to Friends (Mishloach Manot
4) Eat, Drink and Be Merry
- Special Prayers (Al Hanissim, Torah reading). On Purim we include the Al HaNissim prayer, which describes the Purim miracle, in the evening, morning and afternoon prayers, as well as in the Grace After Meals. In the morning service there is a special reading from the Torah scroll in the synagogue (Exodus 17:8–16).
- Purim Customs: Masquerades and Hamantashen
A time-honored Purim custom is for children to dress up and disguise themselves—an allusion to the fact that the miracle of Purim was disguised in natural garments. This is also the significance behind a traditional Purim food, the hamantash—a pastry whose filling is hidden within a three-cornered crust.

They also say that prophecy can only come to someone who is happy. Jeremiah, Samuel, King David and others were not moping around in a bad mood when they received prophecy. The tradition says that some of the prophets even used music to help put them in an elevated mood in order to experience prophecy.

True happiness is not achieved by satisfying our physical desires, as the body would have us thinking. Just as the prophet uses music to lighten his mood in order to access the spiritual world, true happiness comes through using the pleasures of this world to elevate our consciousness in order to bind our thoughts to spirituality.

Adar is characterized by joy because it is the month of transforming dread into joy. Adar was the month that Haman selected for grief and mourning to us, but for the past 2,400 years has instead been a time of rejoicing and celebration. It's when we see G-d's hand in our lifes -- and realize how we gives our potential to defeat our enemies, then we have discovered the source of life's greatest joy. This Adar, may we be inspired to conquer enemies -- whether they come from afar, or from deep inside ourselves. That is the great opportunity of this month.

It can actually be argued that, in a certain sense, our perpetual relationship with G-d is more evident when we are exiled and downtrodden due to our sins, and G-d still interferes on our behalf, as was demonstrated by the Purim miracle. This phenomenon demonstrates the durability of our relationship; the ability of our essential identity to survive no matter our external state.

All other holidays celebrate the 'highs' of our nation. And therefore their joy is limited, because highs don't last.

Purim celebrates a time when we were at a low point in our history – but our relationship with G-d remained intact. Its joy is therefore greater than the joy of any other holiday, because it demonstrates the essential nature of our relationship with G-d -- and that is a constant.

The Jerusalem Hills Children's Home

The Jerusalem Hills Children's Home, is JWI (Jewish Women International) cornerstone program since 1943, treats Israel's most vulnerable and neglected children, helping them to overcome the trauma of their early years.

The Children's Home offers a home and treatment for about 100 boys and girls ages 7-18 from all sectors of Israeli life. The facility is internationally known for its unique approach, emphasizing drug-free treatment, intensive counseling, family involvement in the rehabilitative process, and an intensive training program for professional staff. Children are able to attend school on-site as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. In addition to residential treatment, the Children's Home also runs an out-patient clinic.

An accredited training center for special education, social work and clinical psychology students, the Children's Home conducts research programs and exchanges information with Ben Gurion University, Hebrew University, the Yale University Child Study Center, Baylor University and other international institutions. Mental health professionals worldwide look to the program for new methods to aid troubled children.

Almost 1,000 children have graduated from the Children's Home, with an average stay of four years. The program is credited with the greatest success -- a recovery rate of 60% -- of any institution of its kind. It is a registered "amutah" (a not-for-profit organization) funded by Israel’s Ministries of Health, Education, and Welfare, and supported by JWI and friends throughout the world.

Please support the Children's Home with a donation today.

On July 7, 2009, the Children's Home dedicated its brand new facility in Kyriat Yearim, outside Jerusalem.

The Giving Pledge - Eli & Edythe Broad

Eli Broad is Los Angeles’ biggest philanthropist, who has given away over $2 billion, but he and his wife Edythe pledged on June 16, 2010 to do even better in the future by distributing 75 percent of their total wealth, currently standing at $5.7 billion, “during and/or after our lifetimes.”

In announcing the pledges, Broad joined two of America’s wealthiest philanthropists, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, in their so-called “The Giving Pledge” which urges wealthy Americans to donate at least half their fortunes to charitable causes.

Born into a “liberal Jewish household” of Lithuanian immigrants in New York City, Broad, now 77, moved to Los Angeles in 1961, making an initial fortune as mass homebuilder, and a second through the giant financial services company SunAmerica.
Doing philanthropy is much harder than running two Fortune 500 companies,” Broad said in an e-mailed statement, according to businessweek.com.

A 2003 study by researcher Gary Tobin found that Jewish mega-donors, those contributing over $10 million each year to charities, apportioned only 6 percent to Jewish causes, including support for Israeli institutions.

The reasons for the modest proportion of rich Jewish for giving going to Jewish causes include the ever-growing integration of Jewish giving into everything that includes ”repairing the world” (Tikkun Olam) and the timidity of Jewish organizations in developing projects for mega-donations.

With that in mind, Broad told The Journal some years ago, “If I find a Jewish philanthropy of merit, I will support it.”

Learn more about The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation - http://www.broadfoundation.org/