We are currently supporting the following causes:

Week 1 of each month: Eitan Greenspan, the Messianic Jewish prisoner we have been helping for awhile.

Week 3 of each month: At the Chicago UMJC conference, Knesset Member Elhanon Glazier presented a need at a hospital school in Israel for disabled children. The hospital is the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, south of Tel Aviv. Most of the 80 students, ages 3-8, are afflicted with some version of cerebal palsy. Most, if not all of them, have full mental faculties - in fact, some are advanced.

The goal of the school is to assist the children and their families with
various physical, speech and occupational therapies, including corrective surgeries, in order to normalize their lives as much as possible. The school actually transports the children back and forth to their homes every day, throughout central Israel. At age 9 the children are transferred out of the school - 80% of them enter regular schools.

The needs of the school are great. The government has agreed to finance the much needed building of a new school, but it’s far below the budget necessary to have a school integrated with a medical staff. In addition, the existing school will be razed where the new school will be erected. Hence, funding is needed to provide them an interim place. The administration was excited about our potential involvement in assisting these children and their families.

The UMJC is hoping to raise significant funds for this project through our member congregations. We are hoping to make a statement on behalf of the Messianic Jewish movement and its commitment to the State of Israel. Our efforts have already reached the ears of Knesset member Glazier as mentioned above. Ruach Israel’s Shabbat School and Hebrew School are combining their efforts to support this worthy cause. Please be generous as they tell you more about this tikkun olam project in the coming months.