Helping Victims

This year’s Purim was very different.

Once again, Moshe Gruenberg of Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP) reached out to the Russian Jewish Community Foundation (RJCF) regarding vital needs for Israel and its people, and the RJCF responded immediately.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has faced a horrific, violent war begun by Hamas plus a war with Iran and the RJCF has responded each time by raising emergency funds for CTVP projects. This time, Moshe described their current project – a summer camp for widows and orphans whose husbands and fathers have fallen in the war since October 7th. As the war has dragged on, more and more families’ lives have been shattered, more children have been traumatized by losing a parent in the horrendous battles in Gaza and in the north, or worse, become orphans. The CTVP Summer Camp of Hope and Healing is vital in bringing these children comfort they so badly need - it is a sanctuary of healing, strength, resilience, and Jewish pride for thousands of Israeli children.

Moshe added that “your community's tzedakah helps bring the suffering families in Israel hope and support. Knowing that you care deeply for all those in Israel whose lives have been shattered brings much comfort. We thank RJCF and your community for your care and concern and much needed aid.”

Together we pray with everyone around the world that peace will come to Israel very soon.

At CTVP’s Camp for Bereaved Families, the deepest pain meets the purest compassion.

• A child laughs for the first time in months.
•  A mother falls asleep without fear.
• A family remembers, if only for a moment, what it means to breathe without pain.

 For more pictures and videos, join our Instagram Channel 

We Want to Help Again...

This year, Moshe Gruenberg of Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP) approached the Russian Jewish Community Foundation (RJCF) and asked them for assistance.

The RJCF has helped in the past, and Moshe asked for more help now, as Israel has and continues to face the horrendous war that began on October 7, 2023.

He spoke with Lina Klebaner, President of the RJCF, who said that “We, at RJCF have raised emergency funds for Israel again.  Because Chabad’s Terror Victims Project is on the ground and so effective, RJCF wants to donate again knowing that you’ll effectively bring the help and hope so urgently needed in Israel now”.

Moshe gave an update about what CTVP was doing as the war’s dragged on, and more and more families’ lives were being shattered.  He said that there are so many widows now, most of them young with small children, as more soldiers have lost their lives fighting in Gaza and in the north.

This has resulted in many more orphans as well. Children whose mothers must now struggle  alone to raise their children in the midst of war and violence - mothers who urgently need all the help and support we can provide for them.

The hospitals and rehabilitation centers have so many more patients to treat as well, many of them soldiers and victims of terror - and their families also need help as they try to be with their loved ones in the hospitals while also making certain that their families at home are being taken care of.

Reservists are being called up to serve many times creating more stress for their families. And the families of hostages wait in agony for their loved ones suffering under such horrific, in- human conditions in Gaza.

Moshe said:  “We deeply appreciate that RJCF wants to stand with us again and help us. Your community's tzedakah helps bring the suffering families in Israel hope and support. Knowing that you care deeply for all those suffering in Israel brings much comfort. We thank RJCF and your community for your care and concern.”

And we pray with everyone around the world that peace will come to Israel very soon.

Her name was Ohr which means light. She was 22 years old and never missed lighting Shabbos candles.

Last week, in the Gaza War, she gave up her life defending Israel.

We are giving out 1,000,000 Shabbos candles to Jews throughout Israel to honor her memory and bring more light into the world in this time of darkness

According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe: Darkness, no matter how ominous and intimidating, is merely the absence of light. Light need not combat and overpower darkness in order to displace it — where light is, darkness is not. A thimbleful of light will therefore banish a roomful of darkness.

This evening, before sundown, please light Shabbos candles in your own home and encourage others you know to do this also. Click here for candle lighting time in your area.

Let’s band together, Jews from all walks of life, and show the world the power of light.

Seven Families Celebrating Shabbat on Holocaust Remembrance Day…
…Seven Families Torn Apart by Terror

They heard shots being fired.

Eli and Natali, husband and wife, both ran outside and found a terrorist spraying bullets everywhere in front of the nearby synagogue.

Natali was administering CPR when she was murdered. Standing by his wife Natali, Eli was gunned down in cold blood.

Bringing comfort to the grief-stricken families of Eli and Natali Mizrahi - married just two years - who were murdered as they tried to save the other victims.

On Friday night, seven families were celebrating Shabbat in Neve Ya’akov, Jerusalem. It was also the day set aside as Holocaust Remembrance Day…

…Now, this is a day these seven families will remember as the day their loved ones were murdered by those who once again wish to slaughter Jews.

Asher Natan was another victim, only 14, the oldest of 8 children. He’d gone to meet friends after the Shabbat meal. Suddenly his parents heard the sound of shots ringing out. Asher’s father ran to find his son. By the time he reached him, Asher was lifeless.

Shaul Chai, 68, had been at a relative’s house and was shot as he walked home, passing the synagogue where the shooting was taking place.

These are three of the seven victims whose lives were brutally destroyed.

Consoling the Chai family as they mourned the loss of family member Shaul, who was walking past the synagogue where the shooting was happening.

With the help of the local Shluchim, we have been with these seven grieving families since the shooting – helping with funerals, shiva, and food and doing whatever we can to help them at this most horrific and tragic time.

Please help us help them. Your partnership makes everything we do possible.

We Want to Help…

They wanted so much to help as Israel faced unceasing rocket fire over 11 straight days.

So Dr. Lana M. Rifkin contacted Dr. Mendy Uminer of Chabad of Chestnut Hill and told him :

“Our organization, Russian Jewish Community Foundation (RJCF), has raised emergency funds for Israel.  We’re looking for a non-profit that is on the ground and has been, specifically during the rocket attacks and now during the cease-fire we hope will last.”

Rabbi Uminer immediately put Dr. Rifkin in touch with Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP).

Dr. Rifkin asked what CTVP was doing to help the suffering families. Moshe Gruenberg of CTVP told her that among many other things, emergency aid was being distributed to families who lost their homes from rocket strikes. CTVP was ensuring that the children of Ashkelon and Sderot were  being treated by post trauma professionals. Presents were being delivered to the children of the Eshkol region (over 1500 rockets fell there over the 11 days). CTVP is organizing a Bar Mitzvah for a child whose father was severely hurt in a direct rocket attack.

Moshe told her CTVP is there for the families of victims of terror and war and has been since the Six-Day War in 1967.  Dr. Rifkin  knew her organization had found the right people to most effectively utilize the funds they had raised.  

Moshe said:   “We deeply appreciate that they want to stand with us and help us. As soon as it is possible to come to Israel, we invite them to go with us to the hospitals and areas hardest hit by the rockets.  RJCF and their community's monetary commitment will help bring these families support and their presence will bring  comfort. We thank RJCF and their community for their care and concern.”

And we pray with everyone around the world that the cease-fire will last.

Rabbi Moshe Gruenberg, Director of Chabad Terror Victims Project, talks about the organization's work assisting victims of Hamas rocket attacks.

For over 50 years, the Chabad Terror Victims Project (CTVP) has been assisting and comforting Jewish families during times of conflict in Israel. The organization was started by the Lubavitcher Rebbe after the Yom Kippur War.

“Because of all the young soldiers who were falling, most of them were young husbands, and there were many orphans and widows, the Lubavitcher Rebbe started an organization that Chabad emissaries and widows of other soldiers that have fallen will comfort the families of the dead,” said Rabbi Moshe Gruenberg Director of CTVP), in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva.

Today, the help that CTVP gives involves many different ways of assistance.

“There are many different way of assistance. Both spiritual and physical material assistance,” said Gruenberg. “We help them in every sense with bar mitzvahs, conducting weddings, britot – whatever they need. And also financial means. We’re there for them throughout the year. We’re in touch with them throughout the year. At least once or twice a year we visit each one of the families throughout the country.”

During Operation Guardian of the Walls they were out in the field. They visited Ashkelon and Eshkol, Ashdod and Be'er Sheva. “We were there when the sirens were going off. We visited the bomb shelters in Ashkelon.”

They met a family at the Ashkelon Barzilai Medical Center. The father was “severely injured by a direct rocket at the home. When we met him he was crying, he had tears in his eyes. He told us my son’s having a bar mitzvah in two weeks. We’re thinking twice about conducting the bar mitzvah. We told them there’s no way, you have to do the bar mitzvah. We’ll take it upon ourself to do this bar mitzvah.”

Otherwise, the boy would be traumatized by not having his bar mitzvah, and it would be a win for Hamas. They “took it upon themselves to take care of (the bar mitzvah).”

They sent them shopping to get clothing. They hope the father will be able to leave the hospital and be part of “this amazing bar mitzvah. It’s going to be a real miracle.”

They also plan on taking him once he’s out of the hospital to the Kotel for a “thanksgiving party.”

Gruenberg said that it’s hard to understand what the people hit by rockets go through unless you visit them or are there during the attacks.

“It dawned on us what these people go through, a rain of rockets, over 1,000 rockets hit Ashkelon, 1,500 rockets hit Eshkol. The kids are traumatized.

And it’s been going on for 21 years.”

How can the worldwide Jewish community help those traumatized by rocket fire in Israel? There are 400 Chabad Centers in Israel with over 1,000 emissaries. “Each and every one of the Chabad Centers is actually a bridge, Chabad of Israel acts as a bridge to worldwide Jewry, the Diaspora. And the emissaries around the world ask ‘What can we do to help? Our community wants to help.'”

For instance, the Jewish community in Durban, South Africa sent special presents for the kids of Ashkelon. There was also money to help buy cheesecakes, and to send candy packages to families.

“It gives them a fulfilment that they feel they’ve here with us. We’re standing together as one large family,” he said.

With Operation Guardian of the Walls, everyone was trying to imagine what a “victory picture” would look like. “As we sit here there’s not just one picture. There’s thousands of pictures. And these are all those stories of the bar mitzvah, the wedding, all these people that we helped and assisted, these are the victory pictures. That we stand together, the Jewish community as a whole outside the country, stands together with the Jewish community in Israel.”

"You’re here. That’s all I need.”

For the first time we were able to go out and help people in the areas hit by rockets and assist families in shelters.

One of the areas we visited was Yahud, a city close to Ben Gurion airport.

We joined a family frantically searching through the rubble of what had been their beautiful home. It had taken a direct hit from a rocket from Gaza at 3am.

Miraculously, miraculously, no one was hurt.

Their gratitude left me speechless. Here they were searching and hoping to find some remnants of their life, yet they were so thankful and grateful to us for being there with them.

As we were leaving – we had many other areas we had to visit before dark – I recognized the street, despite the devastation.

A young widow who we’ve been helping for the past three years lives on that same street. I told Rabbi Kutner we have to check in on her to see how she’s doing.

What greeted me was the most incredible experience I have had since I joined CTVP.

When she saw us, she covered her face with her hands to hide her tears. When we asked her what she needs right now and what we could do to help, she just shook her head, but the tears didn’t stop.

“Last night,” she said, “when the rockets hit, the children were so scared, they were crying and wailing from fear. I too was as frightened as they were, but I knew I had to be strong for them. I’m alone with the children and I had no one to turn to. You’re here. That’s all I need.”

Then, we went to Holon, accompanied by the local Chabad Shluchim Rabbis Gorlik and Gurary, where we visited with the four wounded victims – two seriously, two moderately – by a rocket that hit next to a bus.

A little 5-year-old girl was among the wounded.

Tonight, when I go to bed and say the Shema, I’ll be praying that I won’t be woken up by sirens or ground trembling rockets and that tomorrow I’ll wake up to a better day.

But I am grateful for today. Today, a young widow taught me that just my presence can be a blessing. What a gift.

Moshe Grunberg

Please stand with the people of Israel.

Please make the largest donation to CTVP you can during this emergency.

They need us and we need you. Thank you.

 CTVP Mobilizes to Aid Victims of Fire All Across Israel

Immediately upon returning from the convention of Chabad Shluchim in New York, Rabbi Menachem Kutner, Director of Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP) and Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Freiman, Shaliach in Zichron Yaakov, began visiting families in that area who have been impacted by the terrible fires that raged everywhere. Fires that are the newest weapon in the terrorists’ arsenal of violence.

This is just the beginning as Rabbi Kutner will be going to all the families and, with the help of the Shluchim in the Chabad Houses in their areas, will bring relief efforts to all the suffering families.

Rabbis Kutner and Freiman sat with several families the first day, listening to their stories and assessing what their immediate needs are so that they could provide not only emotional comfort, but replace the basic needs lost in the fires.

In one home the father was distraught. His tallis and tefillin had been burned and there was no trace of them. Rabbis Kutner and Freiman left and returned a short time later with a tallis, tefillin, a set of Jewish books, and a tzedakah box.  The father was overwhelmed with gratitude, tears falling from his eyes.

In another home, it became clear immediately that the family could not remain there, there was too much damage. CTVP arranged to have them moved to another apartment.  Rabbi Freiman invited them to come to all the Shabbos meals in his home.

One of the items this family lost in the fire was their washing machine which is critically important for a family with children. The government would eventually cover the cost of this, but it could take three months, so Rabbi Kutner told them not to worry. CTVP would provide one for them right away.

In another home, Rabbi Kutner said, it was eerie. The ground floor, which had mezuzahs on all the doorposts, was not damaged. The top floor, however, where there were none, was totally destroyed. CTVP is helping this family with basic needs now, and once the repairs are done, will provide them with new mezuzahs for the top floor.

We will keep you updated as Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP) and the 300 Chabad Houses across Israel move forward in relief efforts – efforts only possible through your partnership and generosity. Thank you. 

To make an emergency donation directly to Chabad’s Terror Victims Project, go to ctvp.org/fire.