Keren B’Kavod, IRAC’s
humanitarian aid project, has a “no photography” policy. For Keren
B’Kavod, whose name translates to “The Dignity Fund,” dignity begins with a
decision not to exploit needy people by photographing them in misery. This goes against tradition – we’ve been trained that the way to our wallets
must be through emotional extortion, and so we’re given photos of children with
distended bellies and families with sad-eyed looks of deprivation. I like
to call it humanitarian aid pornography.
Keren B’Kavod rejects this
practice. We give with dignity by breaking with tradition. We take
photos of happy people packing food and care packages for others; we photograph
the hands that give and not the hands that receive.
Lately, Keren B’Kavod has
been logging especially long hours. While most of the country was still
in full Purim mode, our Keren B’Kavod team was busy coordinating with dozens of
Reform congregations, schools, and welfare agencies to pull together enough
volunteers to pack hundreds of holiday food and care packages to be distributed
throughout Israel during the Pesach season. Tons and tons of packages
will soon be filled with rice, olives, canned carrots and peas, hummus, tuna,
potato flour, chicken soup, matza meal, pickles, pineapples, chocolate spread
and cocoa, jam, coffee, tea, toothpaste and shampoo.
One of the most impressive
things about Keren B’Kavod is its practice of giving to absolutely every sector
of Israeli society: Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouins, foreign
workers, refugees; our Reform Jewish congregations are the only religious
stream in Israel which gives to minorities. There is no discrimination,
and no one is turned away. We operate according to the teaching “let all who
are hungry come and eat” by recognizing that food alone is insufficient
nourishment. To this end, recipients of the packages often work alongside
volunteers, and the project is turned from simple packing into something
empowering and fun. Israelis who would not encounter each other in daily
life are brought together.
And while Israelis have a
reputation for being lazy philanthropists, over 50% of donations to come from within Israel. But we never have enough food to give to
all our recipients. The need is greater than ever before.
Please join me in giving to
Keren B’Kavod. Click here to make a donation to Keren B’Kavod – just $54
will buy enough food to fill a box and have it delivered to a family this
Pesach.