How Five Towners are aiding Israel and you can help too

Five Towns community members are doing their part in supporting Israel. Individuals are collaborating with grassroots organizations and family members in Israel to send necessary supplies for solider and civilians.

Gabi Chutter is the American liaison  for the Soldiers Save Lives organization, created in memory of David Newman, an Israeli man who was killed at the Nova Festival in recent Hamas attacks.

“We’re basically doing humanitarian work for the soldiers,” Chutter said.

The support effort was made possible under Chayal el Chayal, an organization that gives back to Lone Soldiers serving as part of Israel Defense forces, in response to the recent demand for supplies.

Marc Bodner, the father of Isaac, a soldier in the Israeli Air Force and Yonatan, a yeshiva student in Jerusalem, is helping to coordinate aid for Israel in the United States. His sons organized Soldiers Save Lives and Bodner has helped to spread the word and manage intake of donations and shipments.

“For the first three days we were collecting a huge slew of items ranging from personal hygiene products like tooth paste and toothbrushes and gold bond powder and feminine hygiene products, to underwear for both genders,” Bodner said. “We were receiving a lot of requests for base layer, we actually have 64 pallets of base layer, men’s and women’s tops and bottoms, that have been donated that will be shipped in the next couple of days.”

Since the start of donations and shipments, the group’s need has shifted to tactical gear.

“The problem with tactical gear is that it’s expensive, it’s hard to get, it’s hard to export, it’s hard to import, there’s certain requirements that the Israeli government has on what soldiers in battle can wear, what soldiers on guard duty can wear,” Bodner said. “We don’t want people spending money and sending things needlessly.”

Right now, Bodner said they are looking for sponsors of soldiers and bulk donations of specific supplies.

“The next step is to try to raise $1,000 per solider for tactical gear, to get the community in Great Neck to commit to 100 soldiers,” Bodner said. “I’m telling people if you want to focus on a specific items that we know we’ll need, tourniquets, if we could get 1,000 tourniquets, grass roots, great, get them to us, we’ll try to get them to Israel at some point.”

Donations have been accepted in Queens, Brooklyn, Riverdale, Great Neck and Teaneck, New Jersey. Volunteers from the Five Towns including seniors from Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway and The Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys have processed donations in Lawrence.

“I have cousins and family in Israel, friends on the boarder right now, friends missing in action and felt useless, felt helpless,” Joey Cohen, a high school volunteer said.

Avi Mandel, a volunteer manager, drove from Maryland to help.

“I heard what’s going on and these are my people,” Mandel said. “I used to live in Israel, my grandmother was born there.”

The group has chartered three flights and plans for more in the coming days. They anticipate changes in what supplies are needed.

Donations are also being accepted at Inwood locations, communicated through WhatsApp groups.

“The response has been overwhelming, we’ve actually had to turn people away so we can make sure we can handle the intake,” Asher Halpert, a coordinator in Inwood said.

More information on donating for a specific need is available at CauseMatch.com/SSU.