IsraAid
Encyclopedia
The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid (IsraAID) is an Israel
i-based humanitarian organization that responds to emergencies all over the world with targeted help. This includes every aspect of disaster relief, from search and rescue
to rebuilding communities and schools, to providing aid packages, medical assistance, and micro-financing
to rebuild businesses and post-psychotrauma care
.
The organization's stated goal is to "improve and expand international humanitarian assistance activities provided from Israel through cooperation between Israeli aid organizations."
According to one of the founding members, Alan Schneider
, IsraAID is a "constitutional body" of Israeli and diaspora
organizations committed to the Jewish tradition of helping others ("Tikkun Olam
"). IsraAID coordinates the activities, and provides financial aid to the Israeli and Jewish non governmental organizations under its umbrella.
organizations, youth movements, solidarity movements, and friendship societies.
The following are among the members organizations:
IsraAID is privately-funded by individual Israeli and North American donors as well as by partner organizations like B'nai B'rith
.
victims in Sri Lanka
, but since Sri Lanka declined that offer, Israel instead sent a smaller number of IDF personnel along with an 82 ton planeload of relief supplies, including blankets, food, water, baby food and over nine tons of medicine. The relief effort was coordinated by IsraAID.
2005 -- Israel provided tsunami crisis relief for Sri Lanka "spearheaded" by IsraAID. A humanitarian team of 14 medical and logistical personnel was sent to Sri Lanka to help those affected by the tsunami.
2007 -- IsraAID sent six doctors and nurses to Peru
to assist in rescue efforts and provide medical care after a major earthquake
.
2007-- Israeli volunteers went to a refugee camp on the Kenya
n border to provide relief for Muslim
refugees in Somalia
. The Jerusalem AIDS Project, an Israeli organization under the umbrella of IsraAID which promotes HIV/AIDS education and prevention, distributed clothes for infants and toddlers. Later they would meet with IsraAID in order to purchase basic medical equipment.
2008 -- B'nai B'rith International, one of the founding members of IsraAID and in partnership with IsraAID, provided thousands of meals to an estimated 35,000 Georgian
war refugees.
2008 -- Israeli aid teams went to Myanmar
to help with recovery after a major cyclone
. According to the Jerusalem Post:
2009 -- IsraAID sent six volunteer doctors, nurses and paramedics to the Philippines to assist Operation Blessing International
after two devastating typhoons.
2010 -- In response to the earthquake in Haiti
, IsraAID, sent a 15-person search-and-rescue team, which includes emergency medical staff to Haiti
. The IsraAID team set up treatment rooms to treat the injured at the collapsed main hospital in Port-au-Prince, as well as outside the city in a makeshift clinic in a football stadium, and has helped coordinate relief supply logistics. In February, IsraAID opened a child education center in February in the Pétionville
refugee camp, the largest refugee camp in Port-au-Prince area, together with other agencies, such as Operation Blessing
. The center was set up initially in the tents from the IDF
’s field hospital.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i-based humanitarian organization that responds to emergencies all over the world with targeted help. This includes every aspect of disaster relief, from search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
to rebuilding communities and schools, to providing aid packages, medical assistance, and micro-financing
Microfinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
to rebuild businesses and post-psychotrauma care
Psychological resilience
Resilience in psychology refers to the idea of an individual's tendency to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal functioning, or using the experience of exposure to adversity to produce a “steeling effect” and function...
.
Purpose
IsraAID was founded in 2001 with the purpose of bringing together Israeli and Jewish aid organizations with expertise in the fields required to provide humanitarian aid in the wake of a disaster.The organization's stated goal is to "improve and expand international humanitarian assistance activities provided from Israel through cooperation between Israeli aid organizations."
According to one of the founding members, Alan Schneider
Alan Schneider
Alan Schneider was an American theatre director and mentor responsible for more than 100 theatre productions. In 1984 he was honored with a Drama Desk Special Award for serving a wide range of playwrights...
, IsraAID is a "constitutional body" of Israeli and diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
organizations committed to the Jewish tradition of helping others ("Tikkun Olam
Tikkun olam
Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world." In Judaism, the concept of tikkun olam originated in the early rabbinic period...
"). IsraAID coordinates the activities, and provides financial aid to the Israeli and Jewish non governmental organizations under its umbrella.
Structure and funding
IsraAID is an umbrella organization consisting of Jewish and Israeli search and rescue, medical and relief groups that provide aid worldwide to people in need, regardless of race, religion, nationality or disability. The group is chaired by Shachar Zahavi and comprises over 35 humanitarian aidHumanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
organizations, youth movements, solidarity movements, and friendship societies.
The following are among the members organizations:
- Aid Without Borders
- American Jewish CommitteeAmerican Jewish CommitteeThe American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
- The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee IsraelAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution CommitteeThe American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is a worldwide Jewish relief organization headquartered in New York. It was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries....
(AJJDC), - B'nai B'rithB'nai B'rithB'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....
World Center - Fast Israeli Rescue and Search Team (F.I.R.S.T.)
- Israeli Friends of Tibet
- Jerusalem AIDS ProjectJerusalem AIDS ProjectThe Jerusalem AIDS Project is an international HIV/AIDS-focused NGO, founded in 1986 and based in Jerusalem, Israel. It is a national , regional and international leader in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in young people, including school pupils, university students and men and women in uniform,...
- Magen David AdomMagen David AdomThe Magen David Adom is Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service. The name means "Red Star of David"...
- Save a Child's HeartSave a Child's HeartSave a Child's Heart is a humanitarian organization with a mission to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease, and who cannot get adequate medical care in their home countries. It also works to create centers of pediatric...
- The American Jewish Committee (AJC)
- The Humanitarian Fund of the Kibbutz Movement
- United Jewish CommunitiesUnited Jewish CommunitiesThe Jewish Federations of North America , is an American Jewish umbrella organization representing 157 Jewish Federations and the Network of Independent Communities, 400 smaller Jewish communities across North America. The JFNA was formed from the 1999 merger of the United Jewish Appeal, the...
(UJC) - United Jewish CommunitiesUnited Jewish CommunitiesThe Jewish Federations of North America , is an American Jewish umbrella organization representing 157 Jewish Federations and the Network of Independent Communities, 400 smaller Jewish communities across North America. The JFNA was formed from the 1999 merger of the United Jewish Appeal, the...
IsraAID is privately-funded by individual Israeli and North American donors as well as by partner organizations like B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International |Covenant]]" is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world. It was initially founded as the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith in New York City, on , 1843, by Henry Jones and 11 others....
.
Projects
2004 -- In 2004 Israel sent 150 army doctors and search and resue teams to tsunamiTsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
victims in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, but since Sri Lanka declined that offer, Israel instead sent a smaller number of IDF personnel along with an 82 ton planeload of relief supplies, including blankets, food, water, baby food and over nine tons of medicine. The relief effort was coordinated by IsraAID.
2005 -- Israel provided tsunami crisis relief for Sri Lanka "spearheaded" by IsraAID. A humanitarian team of 14 medical and logistical personnel was sent to Sri Lanka to help those affected by the tsunami.
2007 -- IsraAID sent six doctors and nurses to Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
to assist in rescue efforts and provide medical care after a major earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
.
2007-- Israeli volunteers went to a refugee camp on the Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n border to provide relief for Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
refugees in Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
. The Jerusalem AIDS Project, an Israeli organization under the umbrella of IsraAID which promotes HIV/AIDS education and prevention, distributed clothes for infants and toddlers. Later they would meet with IsraAID in order to purchase basic medical equipment.
2008 -- B'nai B'rith International, one of the founding members of IsraAID and in partnership with IsraAID, provided thousands of meals to an estimated 35,000 Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
war refugees.
2008 -- Israeli aid teams went to Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
to help with recovery after a major cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...
. According to the Jerusalem Post:
The IsraAID organization, which sends help to foreign countries in need, will be sending to Myanmar a highly trained search-and-rescue team and a 10-member team of doctors and nurses. The teams will bring with them crucial supplies, including plastic sheeting, food, household appliances and water filters.
2009 -- IsraAID sent six volunteer doctors, nurses and paramedics to the Philippines to assist Operation Blessing International
Operation Blessing International
Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation is a non-profit 501 non-profit humanitarian organization based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA and has an operation named Operation Blessing Foundation Philippines, Inc...
after two devastating typhoons.
2010 -- In response to the earthquake in Haiti
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
, IsraAID, sent a 15-person search-and-rescue team, which includes emergency medical staff to Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. The IsraAID team set up treatment rooms to treat the injured at the collapsed main hospital in Port-au-Prince, as well as outside the city in a makeshift clinic in a football stadium, and has helped coordinate relief supply logistics. In February, IsraAID opened a child education center in February in the Pétionville
Pétionville
Pétion-Ville is a commune and a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in the hills east and separate of the city itself on the northern hills of the Massif de la Selle. It was named after Alexandre Sabès Pétion , the Haitian general and president later recognized as one of the country's four founding...
refugee camp, the largest refugee camp in Port-au-Prince area, together with other agencies, such as Operation Blessing
Operation Blessing International
Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation is a non-profit 501 non-profit humanitarian organization based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA and has an operation named Operation Blessing Foundation Philippines, Inc...
. The center was set up initially in the tents from the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
’s field hospital.