Wednesday, July 06, 2005

SHALOM!

 
The Wailing WallSeek and you shall find.

Ever since the news of the Anglican cowardice it’s been a frustrating search to find a place to sign on for investment in Israel. And then along came an ad from The Jerusalem Post for an organization called The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

In addition to a petition you can sign to protest the perfidy of the mainstream Christian churches, they have a number of organizations you can support: Guardians of Israel describe their work:
    a program to alleviate the suffering of poor Israelis, help those who have lost family members in terrorist attacks and help to prevent future attacks. Your support of Guardians allows us to fund initiatives that provide needy Israelis with food, housing, childcare, and language and job training, and helps build a future for those whose lives and families have been devastated by terrorism.
Isaiah 58 helps elderly and poverty-stricken Jews left in the collapsing Soviet Union:
    The near-total economic collapse of the former Soviet republics following the breakup of the Soviet Union was devastating to elderly Jews. More than 80 percent are trying to survive on meager government pensions of $25-45 per month. More than 60 percent have no family; many lost all their relatives during the Holocaust or to brutal Communist repression during the Soviet regime and are too old or too ill to come to Israel.
On Wings of Angels suppports the travel of Russian Jews emigrating to Israel:
    When the 74-year reign of Communism ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the door to freedom opened for one of the most oppressed groups of people on earth — Soviet Jews, who long had been denied permission to return to Israel, their ancestral homeland.
Stand for Israel:
    ...aims to engage people both spiritually and politically on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, by encouraging them to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and providing them with the facts they need to advocate for the Jewish State and fight anti-Israel bias in the media.
Each of these groups are under the umbrella of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Each of them has a good rating from Give.org . Over eighty-two percent of the monies raised goes to their programs. The rest is divided between fund-rasing expenses and administrative costs, with the latter being the least amount.

There is some real choice here re: social programs. Choose the one which most appeals to your heart.

Me? I’m feeding the kids In Israel and the old people in Russia.

Meanwhile, I’m still looking for a fund to actually invest in, one that is publicly traded and has a balance sheet. The Christian in me likes the idea of charity, but the free market side of my soul wants to express itself, too. If nothing else, investing in something you believe in puts a thumb into the eye of the silly Utopian pie-in-the-sky idea of living interest-free.

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