The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has granted $1.8 million to the Israel Education Fund (IEF) – a partnership of The Jewish Federations of North America and The Jewish Agency for Israel – and to Amigour, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Jewish Agency, to provide new homes for dozens of vulnerable senior citizens in Israel.

The grant will create 55 additional housing units for elderly senior citizens, many of whom are Holocaust survivors, in Amigour’s Kiryat Ono Sheltered Housing Facility. Construction is set to begin this summer, and the apartments will be completed by December 2014.

Amigour, which provides flexible housing solutions for economically disadvantaged new immigrants and Israeli senior citizens, operates 57 sheltered housing projects throughout Israel and serves 7,500 vulnerable senior citizens. Residents in Amigour sheltered housing facilities pay a low monthly rent, and benefit from the organization’s range of social and cultural services. Read more »

Overnight, a major political shift occurred in Israel resulting in the broadest unity government in Israel’s history and the cancellation of early elections which were recently announced for September 4.

Opposition party, Kadima, formed by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has joined the Netanyahu coalition government. Kadima’s current chairman, Shaul Mofaz, who just two weeks ago beat Tzippi Livni for Kadima’s top spot, will now be Israel’s senior vice prime minister and will fill in for Prime Minister Netanyahu when he is abroad.

The drama began when the early election bill passed the cabinet late yesterday (Monday) afternoon and was sent to the Knesset plenum for a speedy three rounds of voting that would likely have taken just a few hours. According to all reports, the Knesset would have easily passed the vote and thus dissolved itself late last night.

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin opened by welcoming the 18th Knesset to “what will almost certainly be its last session.” The first reading of the dissolution bill quickly passed, but behind the scenes there was intense and secret maneuvering that not a single commentator or journalist in the country had predicted. Read more »

The Jewish Federations of North America is asking communities to support an online petition by Jewish Community Centers urging the International Olympic Committee to devote one minute of silence to the “Munich 11” at the 2012 Olympic Games in London this summer.

The petition, initiated by the Jewish Community Center of Rockland County, N.Y., a member organization of the JCC Association, acknowledges the 11 Israeli athletes that were murdered at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. Read more »

The Jewish Federations of North America, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, were privileged to host former President Bill Clinton in Palm Beach last month, where he provided fascinating insights on a range of global issues to more than 650 members of the Jewish Federations’ King David Society (KDS).

In addition to support from the Daniel and Ewa Abraham Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank provided sponsorship for the event and Palm Beach lay leader Cynthia Freeman provided copies of President Clinton’s new book, “Back to Work,” to participants. Read more »

Here’s an excerpt:

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On a Friday night in 1985, Joan Kutner was cleaning up after a religious school dinner at Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego when a fellow congregant burst into the kitchen in tears. A young woman, the congregant said, was picking out chicken and challah from the dumpster to feed her three children. Kutner hurried to see for herself.

Kutner vowed not to turn her back on the hunger and desperation she witnessed. Six months later, her synagogue had raised $35,000, enough to kick off the CBI Hunger Project in partnership with St. Vincent de Paul Village. Run by volunteers, the grassroots project has now served more than 900,000 meals, feeding 700 people every Sunday morning. Kutner, a psychiatric nurse who was raised on a farm in Western Pennsylvania, says sharing food was always a way of life. “I contribute to international organizations, but my big goal is still to take care of those at home,” says Kutner. “I was able to get people of all ages and walks of life involved in the common goal of helping.”

For Diane Fisher, dedicating her personal and professional efforts to anti-hunger education, advocacy and direct service projects is her version of tikkun olam. “The whole food system is broken in a fundamental way,” says Fisher, 57, director of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of the Silicon Valley. “Food is a basic human right, but there is no equal access.” The JCRC is part of a community-wide interfaith coalition dedicated to cutting local poverty in half in 10 years. It has sponsored experiential events, including Oxfam Hunger Banquets (guests receive different dinners—filling, simple or sparse—based on randomly assigned income levels), Food Stamp Challenges (participants live on the average food stamp benefit of $31.50 a week), and screenings of a documentary called Food Stamped.”

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