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Thank You for Participating in Our Yemen Relief Project

November 15, 2017 Billy Thank You No comments

Thank you for joining us in extending a helping hand to the Republic of Yemen, in the Arabian Peninsula, as it contends with violence and famine and disease resulting from six years of internal and external conflicts. 7 million people are at risk of famine, with more than a million children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition. The nation has been struck by a cholera epidemic and the national blood bank may close due to lack of funds.

We’re forwarding 100% of your donations to this project to the International Rescue Committee as its teams provide clean water, medicine, nutrition services and other urgent aid to as many people as possible.

This problem isn’t going away anytime soon, so we’ll keep this project open. To donate, just click on “Yemen Relief Project” at jonahmac.org/donate.

Most sincerely,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, Inc.

Don Jones

Helen Krim

Rabbi Hillel and Rita Cohn

Thank You for Participating in Our Charlottesville Project

November 15, 2017 Billy Thank You No comments

We’re so grateful that you’ve chosen to join us in standing up against racism, white supremacists, and hatred in our country. The Jonah Maccabee Foundation is working with organizations that are fighting the efforts of those who would reserve American soil only for those who fit the description of their choosing. We’re forwarding every penny of these donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center which always stands at the forefront of these critical battles on America’s streets and in her courtrooms.

Most sincerely,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, Inc.

Don Jones

Beth, Dusan and Natasha Nesic … in memory of Jane Y. Hecht

Danielle Rodnizki … in memory of Heather Heyer

Thank You for Participating in Our Hurricane Harvey Relief Project

September 6, 2017 Billy Thank You No comments

Hurricane Harvey has caused so much upheaval and devastation in Texas. Your donations help us to help them. Together. The Jonah Maccabee Foundation is working with Save the Children to provide needed assistance. But this is likely only the beginning of vital relief projects. First, we help with shelter and clothing and food. Down the road, folks down there may need more help during the rebuilding years. Jonah’s family and friends will lend a helping hand then too. We hope you’ll stick with us.

Most sincerely,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, Inc.

Jeanne and Murray Bodin

Don Jones

Ira and Julia Levin

Ripples

August 29, 2017 Billy Jonah 1 comment

Drop a pebble in the water — just a splash and it’s gone,
But there’s half a hundred ripples circling on and on and on,
Spreading, spreading from the center, flowing on out to the sea,
And there’s just no way of telling where the end is going to be.

Dear Jonah,

At the turn of the 20th century, James W. Foley, the Poet Laureate of North Dakota (!), must have thrown his share of pebbles into water as he thought about the impact even the tiniest participants in Creation can have on the world.

I, of course, contemplate this all the time. Whenever I think about your 19 years, I want to know that your short life meant something, and that it made a difference to have you among us.

Recently, I discovered a ripple of yours that has continued reverberating through the universe even eight years after your death. What’s magnificent about this particular ripple is that it only reached me a few weeks ago.

These events started more than ten years ago. Who knows how much of the story we got right, but there are enough people who have told me it seems to have happened this way that I feel comfortable setting it down for posterity — because if you didn’t do this, Jonah, you were certainly capable of it!

As one of my favorite Hasidic stories concludes, “They don’t tell stories like this about you or me.”

Charlottesville!

August 14, 2017 Billy What's Happening? No comments

In light of Saturday’s events in Charlottesville, we’re adding a new project to our agenda. It’s vital that every American stand in opposition to racism, white supremacists, and hatred. Committed to helping create a world where kids can grow up healthy and whole, The Jonah Maccabee Foundation is working with organizations that are fighting the efforts of those who would reserve American soil only for those who fit the description of their choosing.

Please DONATE TO OUR “CHARLOTTESVILLE PROJECT” HERE by designating in the space provided on the form that you’d like your gift to join this battle for America’s soul. We’ll forward every penny to the Southern Poverty Law Center and others of our friends and heroes at the forefront of these critical battles on America’s streets and in her courtrooms.

We are so grateful to have you join us in this effort.

Most sincerely,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, Inc.

Join JMF’s effort to help families in war-torn Yemen

August 11, 2017 Billy Grants, What's Happening? No comments

Far away and out of mind, but the Republic of Yemen, in the Arabian Peninsula, is contending with violence and famine and disease as a result of six years of internal and external conflicts. 7 million people are at risk of famine, with more than a million children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition. The nation has been struck by a cholera epidemic and the national blood bank may close due to lack of funds.

We’re preparing to forward grants from The Jonah Maccabee Foundation to help kids who are caught in this disaster. We hope you will join us by making a generous donation that we will send to folks who are working in the trenches there.

Please DONATE FOR YEMEN RELIEF HERE. We’ll be working with the International Rescue Committee as they deploy emergency response teams to provide clean water, medicine, nutrition services and other urgent aid to as many people as possible.

We are so grateful to have you join us in this effort. All unspecified donations between now and the end of August will go directly to relief projects in Yemen.

Most sincerely,
Ellen, Billy, Katie, Mark and Aiden
The Jonah Maccabee Foundation, Inc.

Donate at The Jonah Maccabee Foundation.

Screen Door

June 27, 2017 Billy Jonah No comments

Dear Jonah,

I have a love-hate relationship with doors, in particular the one that stands at the front entrance to our home. Not the entry door, the heavy one that “defends the castle,” but the second layer, the screen (or storm) door that permits light and air (but not bugs).

Jonah pursues Aiden (noodle in hand) 1221 Avon Dr, Cincinnati (Feb 2006)

When you were sixteen years old, I took you, Katie and Aiden back to 1221 Avon Drive (in my hometown of Cincinnati) where I lived the first sixteen years of my life. You and Aiden reenacted that fateful day when Uncle Jimmy, noodle in hand (from the bowl of chicken noodle soup he’d previously been slurping), chased six-year-old me through the hallway that led from our kitchen to the front door.

Remembering A Friend

June 19, 2017 Billy Jonah No comments

Meet Alessandra Rabellino. Ale (pronounced “Allie”) is 24, lives in Atlanta, and is a graduate student in design at the Portfolio Center.

Ale and Jonah met during her freshman year of high school at a weekend retreat for Jewish youth group leaders. This was Ale’s first time attending the retreat, held at Kutz Camp in upstate New York, and she didn’t know anyone there. Although she’d never really been shy, she felt out of place in this very new environment. But not more than two minutes after she got off the bus and finished signing in, a cute boy with auburn hair approached her and asked if it was her first time at Kutz, flashing a warm, welcoming grin that melted away any reservations she may have had about being there. She imagined that smile had a similar effect of many others. The boy she had just met was Jonah Maccabee Dreskin, a cool high school senior whom everyone seemed to know and love.

Freehand

June 12, 2017 Billy Jonah 4 comments

Dear Jonah,

You haunt my life. But in a good way. Wherever I go, if you were there, I feel it.

I feel you.

I can be driving down the road and, if I see something that was part of my experience with you, your presence comes pouring into me. I can be reading a book and, if I encounter a turn of a phrase that once came from you, the book recedes as your story moves into my foreground.

I love those moments. They contain the requisite pang of remembering you’re no longer in this universe. But they also remind me how sweet it was to have had you here in the first place.

Recently, I finished a Shabbat service at temple and was putting my things together to head home when I noticed a discarded piece of paper on the sanctuary floor. It was filled with the drawings of a child whose parent had (wisely) provided pen and paper to keep the child quietly busy throughout the service.

Thanks to all who have contributed to our Summer Campaign ’17!

June 9, 2017 Billy Thank You No comments

We are so grateful that you take the time and dollars to support our work. It’s so incredibly gratifying. This list of Summer Campaign 2017 donors is a small but earnest way to thank you. May our efforts bring ever-increasing goodness into young lives!

The campaign continues through June 30, 2017. Please give generously at jonahmac.org/donate.

The Dreskins

Danny Siegel … yashir koakh and kol hakavod big time!

Gwynne and Alan Ross … in memory of Brad Gaber

Leona Paul … in memory of my darling daughter, Susan Sirkman

Thank You for Participating in Our Yemen Relief Project

Thank You for Participating in Our Charlottesville Project

Thank You for Participating in Our Hurricane Harvey Relief Project

Ripples

Charlottesville!

Join JMF’s effort to help families in war-torn Yemen

Screen Door

Remembering A Friend

Freehand

Thanks to all who have contributed to our Summer Campaign ’17!

JMF on Facebook!

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