Acheinu bnei yisrael, the soldiers fighting this intense war, need our help. There is a substantial shortage of protective and medical equipment, as the army has limited resources available, and simply do not have enough bulletproof vests, ambulance monitors, protective goggles, and other vital life protective and lifesaving equipment. Lo saamod al dam rei'echa!
We have both the obligation and the zchus to literally save the precious lives of those who are being moser nefesh for the welfare of toshvei Eretz Yisrael and klal yisrael.
We, the signatories of this letter are confident that all funds raised through this campaign are being treated responsibly, and with CPA oversight, going directly to the supplier without any overhead. We are overseeing the process all the way through to the ultimate delivery to the soldiers.
We not only are supportive of your active participation, but we urge it! We cannot overstate how critical it is that you very generously respond without losing any more time.
May this time of terror end quickly and may we be zocheh to the geulah sleimah bimheira biyomeinu, amen!
HaRav Shmuel Kaminetzky shlit”a
Rav Gershon Bess shlit”a
Rav Berish Goldenberg shlit”a
Rav Boruch Gradon shlit”a
ACHEINU EMERGENCY APPEAL - UPDATE
Dear Friends,
During the last week, a desperate need came to our attention. Many of our boys in Israel, on the front lines, and in the reserves, on bases and patrolling conflict zones are not equipped with life-saving bullet proof vests. Many are, and many are not. Some have older jackets that do not stop the modern munitions of today effectively, and some have only flack- jackets that do not stop bullets at all. As well, there are other life saving and life protecting items that they simply do not have.
We were incredulous at first and skeptical which is why we hesitated to send this out, even after we heard that the Baltimore kehilla last week adopted the cause of providing bullet proof vests for soldiers in Gaza. They immediately mobilized, raised money, and had the vests delivered within days! One of their children was serving in Gaza, and they assisted both in his platoon and others.
The below article was sent to us as well from a former Tzanchani:
“Below please find a link to an article regarding Rami Chachlons funeral. Rami was a tremendous caring amazing person who served in צנחנים for 19 years. He was assisting in the evacuation of wounded soldier 5 days ago when a terrorists threw a grenade at them. Shrapnel from the grenade pierced the circa 1970s flak jacket he was wearing and entered his heart. He hung on to life for 4 days and passed away over Shabbos. If he had been wearing a proper bullet proof vest this wouldn't have happened. “
Yehuda Kronenberg [medic] [son in law of Rabbi Landesman, formerly from LA] wrote the following to us; "Soldiers and medical teams in the Yehuda and Shomron area that also are doing 24 hour patrols and arrests: there is a vast shortage of bullet vests in the Yehuda and Shomron area (I am right now in the jenin area and myself and my team do NOT have any bullet vests or even flack jackets!!!) "
One soldier sent us this communication in writing directly:
“I can only tell you what my direct officer who is going to be giving us all of our equipment tomorrow said: we don't have any real bullet proof vests! All are old flack jackets, few have plates but almost all are just plain flak jackets.”
Yesterday, we were B"H able to wire funds for one monitor/defibrillator, and we have arranged for it to be servicing an army ambulance in Gaza by the beginning of this upcoming week. Without this monitor, the paramedics are extremely limited in their ability to treat a cardiac patient en-route to the hospital!
On Monday, we will bez"H be wiring funds for bullet proof vests for Nachal Reserves, who are beginning a shift this Monday in an area of Yehudah and Shomron that have seen shootouts in the last two weeks, and they have NO bullet proof vests! Currently, we only have enough funds to provide for a fraction of the needed vests of this one unit alone!
Our ambition is not only too provide vests for that unit but to provide additional medical supplies as well.
Many people have reacted with disbelief. The fact is that aside from bulletproof vests, the soldiers need goggles, special lights for their helmets, and the medics have asked us for 30,000 special tourniquets [called CAT’s, that can be applied by one person to themselves] as well as more monitors for ambulances. [We have been in contact with Magen David Adom who is doing great work saving soldiers lives, but is not able to supply equipment to the army to be used on the front lines].
Please note, the updated method for donating is below. Every cent is wired directly to the provider of the equipment and our volunteers who are on the ground and also in the IDF who are involved in ascertaining and confirming the need in each particular case, are also ensuring delivery of the needed equipment.
Goggles: cost per piece is 325 shekel
CATs: 83 Shekel. Approximately 30,000 pcs requested by medics for the soldiers.
Vests: Aprximately $1000/vest
Monitor: $23,600 is our recently reduced price. Only 1-2 monitors are currently available for immediate delivery.
Prices above include VAT (tax).
FOR CHECKS:
Kehilas Yaakov
7211 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Or
Shaarei Torah
334 North La Brea Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
FOR ONLINE CREDIT CARD DONATIONS:
Shaarei Torah, https://www.paypal.com/cgi-
Mickey Fenig, Tzvi Fleischmann, Ari Lindner
