Jewish organizations, including three Bay Area federations, have raised more than $6 million — for relief efforts stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The $6 million in Jewish donations is part of an estimated $1 billion which has been given by a wide variety of organizations, campaigns and corporations.
Locally, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation has collected more than $681,500 — $47,000 in the last week alone. The Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay has amassed $19,000, and the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose has received roughly $8,000.
All three Bay Area federations have forwarded 100 percent of all donations to its umbrella organization, the New York-based United Jewish Communities, and say they will continue to send emergency funds for as long as donations come in.
Like other organizations collecting money for victims of the terrorist attacks, UJC is proceeding cautiously in deciding how to allocate $3.5 million it has received from federations throughout North America. All Jewish groups interviewed said they are not taking out any money for overhead costs and that their funds will assist both Jews and non-Jews.
Sam Salkin, chief executive officer of the JCF, said, “The focus of the philanthropy is those who have experienced loss and suffering, with no focus on Jews per se.”
Salkin and other federation leaders said they are not worried about emergency relief donations draining the fund-raising pool for their annual campaigns.
“In fact, I think history shows that when something drastic or terrible happens like this, overall philanthropy increases,” said Jon Friedenberg, executive director of the San Jose federation. “We clearly have concerns with the economy and the situation of the stock market; that is where the danger lies in terms of local fund-raising. But, if anything, I think we’ll see more philanthropy rather than less as a result of Sept. 11.”
Salkin concurred, emphasizing that those who donated money to the victims of terrorism understand the special effort was “over, above and distinct from other communal needs.”
While some Jewish organizations are collecting more money for Sept. 11 relief than for other disaster-relief efforts, others are raising less or the same.
Some Jewish officials say that is because there are so many venues raising money.
“There’s been such an outpouring from everywhere, whereas usually we’re one of the few organizations collecting for international disasters,” said Jessica Alexander, a spokeswoman for the American Jewish World Service, which has raised approximately $450,000 for Sept. 11 relief efforts. The AJWS says it hopes to give the majority of the money it raises to low-income families affected by the attacks, particularly people who have lost their jobs as a result.
Because it is such a decentralized and vast pool of money, those involved with the aid efforts worry that some victims will go overlooked while others will receive duplicate help from multiple sources.
In addition, it is not yet clear what sort of government and insurance benefits many families of victims will receive.
“Other than making short-term emergency grants, we will pause and make certain that our funds are used for areas that have not been covered by the government or other philanthropic areas, and therefore are used for maximum relief effort both short term and longer term,” said John Ruskay, executive vice president of the UJA-Federation of Greater New York.
The New York federation has raised more than $2 million so far for a fund that will benefit terrorist victims in Israel as well as those affected by the domestic terrorist attacks.
That fund was in the process of being created this summer — initially just for terrorist victims in Israel — and was expanded to include United States victims after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In addition, the New York federation expects to receive money through the UJC and the New York Times, which is raising money for several New York social service agencies. Those funds will be reserved for victims of the American attacks only.
Jewish agencies serving the families of terrorist victims are applying to the UJC fund to help individuals with such things as counseling, and personal and medical expenses stemming from the terrorist attacks. The fund is expected to assist victims affected by both the New York and Washington attacks.
Among its first actions, UJA-Federation of Greater New York has made emergency grants to the Orthodox Union, to provide people to fill night shifts at Jewish funeral homes — and has given more than $500,000 in loan guarantees to the Hebrew Free Loan Society.
Other Jewish groups raising funds include:
*The Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations has raised approximately $300,000 so far, but it is still expecting more money from numerous synagogue fund-raisers. It has allocated a combined $200,000 to the Sept. 11 Fund of the United Way and New York Community Trust, and has not yet decided where the rest of its money will go.
*B’nai B’rith International, which has raised approximately $100,000, plans to allocate most of the money to counseling centers assisting terrorist victims.
*The National Council of Young Israel, an umbrella group for approximately 100 Orthodox synagogues, is raising money to give to a variety of groups, including the American Red Cross, the UJC emergency fund, funds for families of New York police and firefighters and New York Jewish agencies that have offered assistance in response to the attacks.