AFYE/B’ezri: $900k Distributed for Purim, Pesach on the Way

The Chesed Machine Never Stops

by KR

0 Comments | Monday, March 24, 2025 under Holidays for IDF Soldiers, Help the needy on Passover, Help the needy of Israel on Passover

What’s the most efficient way to produce something essential? Build a machine to do it.

That’s exactly what American Friends of Yad Eliezer/B’ezri did, and our well-oiled Chesed Machine has been churning out essential poverty relief in Israel for over four decades.
The AFYE/B’ezri machine is made up of numerous moving parts including its 15+ programs, its offices in Jerusalem, the U.S., Canada, England, Australia, and South Africa, along with a dedicated network of volunteers across Israel and donors across the world. These are the gears, pistons, bearings and springs that propel the machine forward, ensuring that every year, tens of thousands of struggling Israeli families receive the support they desperately need, to retain a sense of stability in their homes.

Support That Goes Beyond Essentials

With minimal overhead (just 4%) and maximum efficiency, AFYE/B’zri is constantly streamlining so that every dollar donated is used to its fullest potential. And our ability to provide assistance goes far beyond the basics. We not only allocate food support and baby formula for poor families, we also step in with aid for emergencies, be it help for a pressing dental expense, funds to keep the electricity connected, an urgent home repair or any number of unexpected circumstances that families don’t have the means to cover. Hundreds of almanos with children at home are provided for on a monthly basis with vital stipends to sustain their households. When countrywide crises strike (such as the pandemic or the current war with Hamas) AFYE/B’ezri’s engines keep running strong, keeping families afloat. 

The work doesn’t stop there, either. AFYE/B’ezri believes that simcha is a critical component of people’s lives, so we also help struggling families with costs for wedding celebrations and tefillin for bar mitzvahs. We provide support for holidays throughout the year, ensuring that those in need can experience ‘simchat ha’chag’ with the same dignity as their friends and neighbors. 
Case in point, thanks to all its moving parts across the globe, AFYE/B’ezri just wrapped up an exceptionally successful Purim campaign: $900,000 in matanos l’evyonim were distributed to 4,750 needy families plus 820 Almanos in 50 communities throughout Israel. The funds helped them purchase their holiday necessities- shalach manos, costumes, food for dignified seudas…and it was possible only thanks to this critical aid and the people behind the scenes who made it happen. That included the B’nai David-Judea Congregation of Los Angeles and Mekor Habracha Center City Synagogue in Philadelphia, plus AFYE/B’ezri’s many other generous supporters who are inspired to create meaningful change.
 

Full Speed Ahead: Preparing for Pesach

But poverty rates are at all time highs, so there is no rest for the machine. With Purim now in the rearview mirror, AFYE/B’ezri is once again in gear, surging forward to help the needy with costs for Pesach, one of the most expensive times of the year, and especially this year,
due to the war economy. To alleviate their strain, AFYE/B’ezri will provide maos chitim to a variety of needy families including 2,800 struggling households and 700 divorced mothers. Also receiving help are 850 women in our organization’s Keren Almanos (Widows Fund), who will receive an extra holiday subsidy on top of their April stipend. 3,550 IDF soldiers in need, including 700 Miluim soldiers, will receive help as well. All recipients will have the newfound ability to shop for matza, wine, chicken, produce and their other Pesach necessities with confidence and without anxiety or the shame of having to return basic products they can’t afford, to the shelf.
 

Fueled by Compassion

The chesed machine is continually humming, providing not only material aid, but emotional support and encouragement- families genuinely feel there’s someone out there who cares. It’s a model of achdut and cooperation, demonstrating the profound impact of working together to make a difference in the lives of those in need. Every donation, every volunteer, every friend and partner is a vital cog in this incredible machine that keeps turning with compassion, day after day.

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