Letters from Israel

Today our TBS Mission departs for Israel! The 15 people on this mission represent our entire community. We will spend the next five days bearing witness, volunteering, and hearing stories. We will travel south to visit Kibbutz Kfar Aza and other places devastated by Hamas on October 7. We will volunteer in Jerusalem to pack supplies for IDF soldiers, and in Tel Aviv we will do the mitzvah of bikkur holim and visit patients and staff at a Rehab Hospital. We will also show our support at Hostages Square and visit our Sister Synagogue, Kehillat Ma’ayanot, on Shabbat. It will be a very full and meaningful week.    

We will do our best to bring all of you with us by sharing regular updates on our TBS Facebook page, and on our website. We will also share reflections from our trip on Shabbat morning, February 24.  

We are grateful to be part of a community that cares so deeply about Israel and the Jewish people. We have been able to express this support because of the tzedakah you have given to my Tzedakah Fund and to our TBS Stands with Israel Fund. We will be using these funds to sponsor a barbecue for IDF soldiers on this trip, to help families at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, as well as for other donations for those in need. However, we know that the need to support Israel, and to help us continue to support Israel and fight the rising antisemitism in the US, will only grow.    

That is why we have consolidated our tzedakah efforts into the Am Yisrael Hai Fund.  This fund will support our family in Israel directly, and by educating and empowering learners of all ages in our TBS family to be proud Jews who stand with Israel and the Jewish people. It is a fund that will allow us to strengthen our efforts in educating our students at TBS and supporting our students on campuses, as well as provide programming and support for our community and in Israel. I invite you to give tzedakah to the Am Yisrael Hai Fund in support of our Israel Mission and all our efforts to build a stronger and safer Jewish future.  

To Contribute Online: Visit our donations page at www.tbsonline.org/payment.php and use the dropdown menu under "type" to select the Am Yisrael Hai Fund.
To Donate via Check: Send a check payable to Temple Beth Sholom, 1901 Kresson Road Cherry Hill, NJ 08003, indicating the Am Yisrael Hai Fund in the memo field.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement for our TBS Israel Mission. I am so proud of what we have done and continue to do for Israel and the Jewish people. I look forward to your  comments on Facebook and seeing you back at TBS after our return on February 18.  

Shavuah tov, wishing you a good week, and yahad n’natzei’ah – Together we will prevail.  

Shalom,  

Rabbi Micah Peltz