Gaza Soup Kitchen Update
Dear Community,
Moadim L’Simcha! We are feeling simcha, joy, as we take in the news of the ceasefire deal and hostage release and are hopeful this will be the beginning of lasting peace, rebuilding, accountability and healing. May this ceasefire deal mean humanitarian aid will begin to flow abundantly into Gaza.
In great part thanks to you and your communities' organizing and generosity we surpassed our initial goal of raising $180,000 for the Gaza Soup Kitchen as part of our High Holiday Tzedakah Campaign. It was incredibly moving to see how many congregations got involved and engaged your members in learning about and supporting Gaza Soup Kitchen. We would not have reached or surpassed our goal without your efforts.
We would so appreciate it if you could send us stories or anecdotes about bringing this Tzedakah campaign to your community, or sermons or other ways that this campaign was shared about in your High Holiday services. Thank you!
Given that the needs for sustenance and nourishment will painfully continue, we will continue the Tzedakah campaign through to Shemini Atzeret, 10/14.
Amidst all they are facing, the Gaza Soup Kitchen team posted a generous note of gratitude on their Instagram Page (@gazasoupkitchen) specifically for this community and we wanted to make sure to share it with you.
Image description: A Gaza Soup Kitchen team member holds their hand out with a phone displaying ‘Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza’ with a backdrop of food boxes stacked outside.
An excerpt of their post reads:
“Today’s food distribution in Gaza’s middle area was made possible thanks to one of our long-time partners - a small collective of rabbis and Jewish Americans who have never turned their backs on Gaza. They organize fundraising drives, share our stories and remind their communities that standing for justice means standing with Palestinians.
Our team in Gaza wanted to pause today just to honor them - we see you, we appreciate you, and we love that you walk this path with us. They choose clarity over comfort in a world that often confuses right and wrong. This work isn’t easy - not for use under siege, and not for them, as a moral minority speaking up in their own circles. But together, we meet hunger with humanity and despair with dignity.
These parcels reached mothers holding it all together, children whose eyes carry too much, fathers in wheelchairs, and families with no breadwinner - people living in tents and broken homes, clinging to faith and hope. Each parcel is a lifeline, a gesture of care in a place where every day is a struggle.
This distribution is part of our ongoing work. Our eight kitchens now serve a variety of dishes - from eggplant and potatoes to pastas and traditional meals - feeding hundreds of families daily. Flexible initiative teams deliver care packages to hospitals like Al-Aqsa, prioritizing children facing acute malnutrition, and take essential supplies into makeshift communities”.
Thank you,
TheJewsforFoodAidForPeopleInGaza Team