The first Jewish high school of its kind in the world, Yeshivas Nefesh Dovid (YND), founded in 2001, channels the knowledge of Torah into the hearts, minds and lives of deaf and hard-of-hearing young men. YND, with its sterling secular educational program, is a valuable support system for this population throughout the global Jewish community. YND accepts young men in their teens from yeshivos, Jewish Day Schools, and public schools and addresses all the emotional and academic challenges that those with hearing loss typically deal with on a daily basis regardless of mode of communication.

A unique aspect of the program is the presence of role models who are deaf or hard-of-hearing themselves, including Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Kakon, the Dean and Rosh Yeshiva, and co-founder Dr. Hart Bressler, MD. In addition to trained and qualified rebbeim and teachers, sign language interpreting services, speech pathology, audiology services and an array of recreational activities all complement the program. Upon graduation, the students receive an internationally recognized Ontario Secondary Diploma. Since its inception, YND’s current home base at the Yeshiva Gedolah of Toronto only serves to further integrate the students with hearing peers and the community at large.

Rabbi Kakon earned his Master’s Degree in Talmudical Law and s’micha (rabbinical ordination) from Ner Israel Rabbinical College of Baltimore, Maryland. He also holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland. As a licensed therapist, Rabbi Kakon provided clinical therapy services for several years.

While in Baltimore, he also founded and directed the only overnight camp for deaf and hard-of-hearing Jewish adolescent boys at Ner Israel Campus for seven summers. The success of the program and the necessity for a year-around education for this population resulted in Rabbi Kakon and his family’s relocation to Toronto to co-found YND.

Rabbi Kakon, a descendant of the Ropshitzer Rebbe and a ninth generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, is a charismatic teacher whose unique experiences and achievements inspire people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

Rabbi Yechiel Z. Eckstein, founder and chairman of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada, has devoted the past 25 years to building bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews and broad support for the State of Israel. He is recognized as the world’s leading Jewish authority on evangelical Christians.

Rabbi Eckstein received Orthodox Rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University in New York. He holds master’s degrees from Yeshiva University and Columbia University, where he also completed studies for his doctorate. Rabbi Eckstein has served on the faculties of Columbia University, Chicago Theological Seminary and Northern Baptist Seminary. He currently serves on the executive committee of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and on the boards of directors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and Keren Hayesod.

This year our journey through Israel will include: Jerusalem, both the modern-day capital and the Old City; Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee; Mount Carmel and the Golan Heights; the Garden Tomb; Masada and the Dead Sea; and many other exciting biblical sites.

You will also meet with key Israeli leaders, and receive a firsthand introduction to our lifesaving projects (On Wings of Eagles and Guardians of Israel) that you make possible throughout the Holy Land.

And as a special highlight, I look forward to sharing a traditional Sabbath meal with you during our 2009 tour, at which time we will discuss the warm relationship between Jews and Christians who love and support Israel.

Based on the testimonies of the hundreds of Fellowship friends who have participated in our previous tours, I can assure you this year’s tour will be an unforgettable time of blessing, enjoyment, and spiritual growth for you!

I believe you will be deeply touched–and changed–by this journey of a lifetime to the Holy Land.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Susana, 85, lives alone in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. She never married or had children, and has no living relatives.

Life as an elderly Jew in this part of the world is a constant struggle, filled with poverty, isolation, and loneliness. Susana lives in a dilapidated two room flat, with one room uninhabitable due to fire damage. Her meager monthly pension of $55 is simply not enough to cover even her most basic living expenses or the medications she needs to treat her high blood pressure, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses.

Thankfully for Susana, The Fellowship’s Isaiah 58 partners fund a nearby Hesed center. Through Hesed—a Hebrew word meaning “loving kindness”—Susana is provided with critically important goods and services like home care, medical assistance, food packages, and rehabilitation equipment. She also enjoys an active social life at Hesed’s Day Center, where she has the opportunity to enjoy the company of other people her age.

Susana recognizes the importance of Hesed in her life. She is especially grateful for the friendships that have grown and blossomed since she started visiting the center. “Very few people know how difficult it is to be so lonely,” she says. “I am lucky to have the support of Hesed and to be able to participate in the Day Center program. Because of Hesed I have a family here!”

There are thousands of elderly Soviet Jews like Susana who live in shocking poverty and rely on Isaiah 58 for their survival. Please give to Isaiah 58 today to help ease their suffering.

Posted by Moishe Alexander

Poverty continues to be a desperate problem in Israel. Reports show that in 2006 the number of poor Israelis rose to over 20 percent of the population, a staggering 1.6 million people – including one in three Israeli children and over 20 percent of Israel’s elderly, which includes tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors. The Fellowship’s Guardians of Israel program responds to this desperate situation through initiatives that ease the suffering of needy Israelis by providing:

* Food distributed through soup kitchens, meals on wheels and food box programs
* Medical assistance, including prescription programs, support for doctor visits and in-home medical care
* Support for the elderly including food, medicine, and grants to pay for essential needs such as winter heating
* Support for children including school hot lunch and school supply programs, day care centers, and children’s homes
* Emergency relief in the form of housing, clothing, food, and medical care for Israelis with nowhere else to turn

Our Mission

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews™ of Canada is a registered Canadian non-profit. Our charitable registration number is 86941 1587 RR0001.

Our mission is to foster better relations and understanding between Christians and Jews; encourage greater cooperation between both communities on issues of shared biblical concern; and support Israel and Jews in crises or need.

Building Bridges

Misunderstanding and prejudice between Jews and Christians remain today, in large part, due to a lack of communication between the two groups. This is particularly true in Jewish relations with Evangelicals. Issues inevitably arise that create tension and ill will between the communities. In addition, many opportunities for inter-religious cooperation through joint programs on behalf of shared concerns are lost due to this lack of communication. It is against such a 2,000 year backdrop of fear, ignorance and mistrust that the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada carries out its bridge-building work.

He is miffed that the government of Israel is seemingly Welsching on several million dollars that it pledged to help the Heftsiba school system in the FSU.

Heftsiba, which was started as a covert operation run out of the office of Israel’s prime minister during the 1960s as a way to sneak Zionist education, Hebrew education and Jewish religious supplies to Soviet Jews, became its own school system after the fall of communism. It was run out of the Israeli Education Ministry for nearly 20 years before being handed off to the Jewish Agency for Israel about two years ago, according to Eckstein.

Last year the 26-school Heftsiba system looked like it was going to be a casualty of the economic downturn, the Madoff scandal and the Jewish Agency facing an $80 million budget cut. But then in February Eckstein’s IFCJ stepped in with emergency funding.

Eckstein said that he would match up to $5 million in funding over the course of this year to keep the schools afloat, so long as other Jewish donors matched the funds. The Israeli government pledged to pitch in $1 million. Based on that pledge, the fellowship cut a $1 million check to Heftsiba.

According to Eckstein, Israel has yet to pay up, even though it said it would do so immediately.

“The bottom line is that the government said it would take care of Heftsiba, but it hasn’t even sent the money it owes from six months ago, and yesterday I get a letter from the school in Kharkov, Ukraine, that they are closing their doors,” Eckstein told The Fundermentalist on Tuesday. “They never got the money from the government of Israel and have no reassurance they will be able to get funding in September, so there goes 125 Jewish kids in Harkov, who don’t have a Jewish future.”

Eckstein said that he has been pushing the government to come up with the money. But the responsibility for paying the $1 million is being passed from ministry to ministry, with no one wanting the money to come out of their own budget, Eckstein said.

He had a meeting with Knesset members on June 2 to press for the money. He was unable to get an answer, but was told that the Education Ministry will take over the Heftsiba system from the Jewish Agency next fall.

The Israeli government pledged to “give $1 million, and it hasn’t even done that yet, and they are going ahead and accepting commitments for next year before they have even honored their commitment from past six months,” Eckstein said, chiding the Israeli government. “Who is to believe them? I certainly don’t.”

The money to Heftsiba was part of an $12 million pledge that the fellowship made to save three Jewish school systems in the FSU, including $6 million to keep the Chabad school system running. The Chabad system was heavily financed by Lev Leviev, the diamond mogul who saw his stock plummet by 90 percent, losing him a half a billion dollars over the past year.

The fellowship also gave $1 million to the Shma Yisrael school system, which had been heavily financed by the Reichmann family of Canada.

While most charities are floundering, the fellowship is on pace to raise more money this year than it ever has. Last year the organization took in roughly $90 million; this year, Eckstein said, it is already 20 percent above pace. He project that the fellowship will end up raising between $110 million and $120 million in 2009.

But Eckstein wants to know why the Jewish community is not stepping up to offer more assistance to Jews in the former Soviet Union, after spending 20 years of helping to build a community there.

“The Jewish community can’t come up with $2 million for future of Jewish children?” he said.

Even taking into account the Madoff scam and the economic crisis, Eckstein said it was a “shonda” — or shame — “that world Jewry, can’t pay for the $2 million and it has to have Christians from California or from Florida pay.”

http://blogs.jta.org/philanthropy/article/2009/07/14/1006538/eckstein-wants-to-know-why-the-jews-arent-saving-fsu-jewry

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC Canadian funding corp CEO

About The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews™ of Canada:

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews™ of Canada is a registered Canadian non-profit. Our charitable registration number is 86941 1587 RR0001.

Our mission is to foster better relations and understanding between Christians and Jews; encourage greater cooperation between both communities on issues of shared biblical concern; and support Israel and Jews in crises or need.

Building Bridges

Misunderstanding and prejudice between Jews and Christians remain today, in large part, due to a lack of communication between the two groups. This is particularly true in Jewish relations with Evangelicals. Issues inevitably arise that create tension and ill will between the communities. In addition, many opportunities for inter-religious cooperation through joint programs on behalf of shared concerns are lost due to this lack of communication. It is against such a 2,000 year backdrop of fear, ignorance and mistrust that the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada carries out its bridge-building work.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada was founded by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein to promote greater understanding between Jews and Christians and to build Christian support for Israel and other shared concerns. Like its sister organization in the U.S., the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada operates under the leadership of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, and is governed by an independent Board of Directors representing both faiths who share our strong belief in building bridges between the Christian and Jewish communities.

Our Vision

That Christians and Jews would reverse their 2,000-year history of discord and replace it with a relationship marked by dialogue, better understanding, respect, fellowship, and active cooperation on issues of common concern. Our mission to foster better relations and understanding between Christians and Jews, help build support for Israel, and cooperate in building a more moral society through open dialogue, education, and sensitization of people of faith around the world.