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| Young British Jews helping poor children in Israel
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LONDON (EJP)---A group of 14 young Jews in London has formed an organisation to raise funds and awareness of an Israeli charity providing soup kitchens and relief for the poor.
The group, Young Meir Panim (YMP), chaired by Rebecca Masri, wants to raise money as well as the profile of Meir Panim, a not for profit Israeli charity, with the aim of building and funding a £1.9 million soup kitchen in Kiryat Gat, in the south of Israel.
Meir Panim helps the Israeli poor, while YMP will focus on helping children, and the group hopes the new soup kitchen will feed around 5,000 children aged between four and six per day. The charity helps anyone who needs help, regardless of race, creed or religion.
Professional solutions
Meir Panim, meaning ‘a friendly face’, was established in 2000 by Dudi and Rivka Zilbershlag, in memory of their son who died from a rare liver disease.
The charity’s website says they wanted to provide professional, immediate and effective solutions to the needy, while maintaining their dignity and sensitivity, and they set up a soup kitchen in their home town of Jerusalem to provide a hot lunch for the destitute.
Acquiring space near Jerusalem bus station, the charity began work and says it now has 14 branches, providing food relief through its network of soup kitchens as well as after school children’s clubs, vocational training and senior citizen clubs. It says this has enabled thousands of Israelis to look forward to a better future.
The YMP committee, formed in May, cites 20 per cent of Israel’s total population as living below the poverty line, with the rate of unemployment standing at 10 per cent and growing.
New events
Masri, who says the group will hold events around five time a year, and aims to raise Meir Panim’s profile amongst 18 to 30-year-olds, explained: “[The charity] is in response to the increasing figures of children in Israel affected by the vast spread of poverty.
“The committee is mainly young professionals so our audience tends to follow suit. We have some well known Israeli supporters who have and will attend our events.
“Meir Panim was chosen because it is a non-discriminatory and non-profit organisation in Israel which combats poverty and mass produces food to feed those children in Israel who go without, as a result of poor economic conditions. This phenomenon is too great for the government to deal with and survives only on the generosity of other people.”
She herself got involved in the cause after finding out and being shocked by the numbers of children in Israel who go hungry, and said she wanted to volunteer for an organisation which supported children and was completely non profit making and open to all.
“Young Meir Panim has no office and no overheads,” she added. “All donations go straight to helping the needy in Israel.”
The group’s launch party will be held in October.
For more information on the group or its launch party, visit www.ympuk.org or call 07795 491 111.
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