This Rosh Hashanah, Love Your Neighbor in Israel

Dear Friends,

Even though we are in peak summer, our hearts turn toward the High Holidays. On the evening of September 11, Rosh Hashanah will arrive, ushering in the Jewish New Year. It is one of the most sacred seasons on the calendar, a time of reflection, of return, and of renewed hope. Across Israel, families will gather to dip apples in honey and to pray for a sweet year ahead.

But for far too many families this year, the table will be bare.

The rising cost of living, the strain of ongoing conflict, and the quiet weight of poverty have left countless households unable to meet even their most basic needs. Behind every statistic is a story: a parent skipping a meal so a child can eat, an elderly Holocaust survivor choosing between medicine and groceries, a soldier’s family struggling to make ends meet while their loved one stands on the front lines.

At Vision for Israel, we are preparing once again to bring light into this season. This year, our goal is to reach 1,200 to 1,400 families in need, placing into the hands of each one a gift card loaded with 400 NIS, about $130. Our team will begin the distribution in August, working without rest to ensure that every family is reached before Rosh Hashanah begins. No one should have to welcome the New Year feeling forgotten.

These gift cards will reach the most vulnerable among us. They will go to families struggling to stay afloat, to the elderly and to Holocaust survivors living out their final years, to survivors of terror who carry wounds both seen and unseen, and to the brave soldiers who have given so much to defend this land.

One of those we hold close to our hearts is a woman named Paula*.

Paula is an elderly woman who lives in a neglected house in Ma’ale Adumim, sharing her home with her grandson. He is unemployed and struggling with his mental health, and so the care she might have hoped for in her later years simply is not there. Paula herself is facing serious medical problems. She has undergone many surgeries, going in and out of hospitals more times than she can count. She no longer has the strength to care for her home, and the difficulties she carries have turned ordinary days into a daily struggle for survival.

And yet Paula is not alone. Vision for Israel has been caring for her for many years, and her gratitude humbles us still. She knows, even in the hardest moments, that she has not been abandoned.

This is what your gift makes possible. For Paula, and for thousands like her, a gift card is so much more than groceries. It is a message that she is seen. It is the reassurance that in the midst of pain and exhaustion, someone remembered her. It is dignity restored at a sacred time of year.

Will you help us reach every family before Rosh Hashanah? A single gift of $130 can fill a table, lift a burden, and remind a family that they are loved. Two gifts can reach two homes. Five can reach five.

Please give today and help us welcome a family into the New Year with hope.


With love and gratitude,
Barry & Batya Segal


*Name has been changed.