How You Can Help

America has been hit by what is likely the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression. Many Jewish communities have been hit hard, with a staggering number of families struggling with joblessness.

Last week Hershel Puretz paid 50,000 shekels [almost $13,000] in bi-monthly heating bills to the Israel Electric Corporation. Does he own several windswept mansions? A large factory? A hotel? No, Hershel, originally from Brooklyn, lives in a modest apartment in Jerusalem's Mattersdorf neighborhood. A full-time yeshiva student, he is 30 years old, married, and has three children. The heating bills are not his at all. They belong to a couple hundred destitute Israeli families.