“Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house…?”
Isaiah 58:7
Dear Friends,
Though it is still mid-winter, we are already preparing for Passover. Families will soon gather to remember the Lord’s deliverance, to retell the story of freedom, and to welcome children and grandchildren around the Seder table.
Yet many households are approaching this season with anxiety, not anticipation. A recent study reported that almost 27% of Israeli families, about 867,256 households, live with food insecurity, including roughly 1.2 million children.
For many years, Vision for Israel has responded to this need with a simple, dignified Passover aid initiative. In March, we will distribute hundreds of gift cards to families who are struggling, so they can buy the food they need for the holiday. Each card is about $110, and that amount can stock a family’s kitchen with basics for the week and the special items required for Passover.
These gift cards do more than provide calories. They allow parents to walk into a neighborhood shop like anyone else, choose what their children will actually eat, and purchase the kosher-for-Passover staples that can be especially costly: matzah, wine or grape juice, eggs, fresh produce, chicken, and cleaning supplies to remove leaven from the home. For a family living paycheck to paycheck, those extra holiday costs can feel impossible. A gift card says, “You are not forgotten,” and it lets a mother or father provide for the table with honor. And it arrives at exactly the moment the pressure is highest.
Passover begins at sundown on April 1. We are praying to reach as many families as possible before that evening. Last year, thanks to your generosity, we were able to bless about 1,200 families. This year, with prices still high and more families quietly slipping into hardship, the need is even greater.
Let us tell you about one of those quiet families. Avi, a father from Ma’ale Adumim, contacted us with a discreet request for assistance. Heavy ongoing expenses had pushed the family into deepening financial difficulty and mounting debts. Their eldest son, age 21, has a complex medical condition and has undergone several repeated surgeries, leaving them with significant medical bills. Avi shared that his wife works in the municipality, and they felt embarrassed to apply for welfare. They simply needed someone to stand with them, privately, without judgment.
After reviewing the situation, we provided a gift card. Avi responded with heartfelt gratitude. Then he said something we will never forget: he wished “that we would never meet again,” meaning he hoped the family would soon emerge from this crisis and never need such help again.
Every gift card is a reminder that the Body of Messiah has not forgotten Israel’s vulnerable. Some donors choose to sponsor two, five, or ten families at once, and every amount is put to work immediately. Most of all, please pray that these households feel the Lord’s comfort as they prepare for the holiday.
Dear friends, you can make that kind of discreet mercy possible. Your gift of $130 feeds a family for Passover. Please give today and dedicate your gift to “Aid to the Poor” so more families can enter this season with dignity, provision, and peace.
With gratitude,
Barry & Batya
