Kupat Hachesed Ashdod - About us

The central Tzedaka organization of the citizens of the city of Ashdod is under the guidance and direction of all of the Rabbis and Halachic authorities of the city. The organization helps poor families, orphans and widows, unhealthy and needy people..

Foundation

The tzedaka fund was opened in the year1993 תשס"ג/ by the initiation of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel David HaCohen Gross, shlit"a and HaGaon HaRav Pinchas Schreiber, shlit"a with a number of community leaders who contributed to the project. The City Rabbis requested the organization of a central tzedaka fund since the needs of the community were not being answered by private donations to the needy families.

The city of Ashdod is a fairly new destination for young families, which now has the third largest concentration of Orthodox residents for a city its size. The five thousand families who reside there are mostly large families who have moved there in the past ten years. As a result of this, the Orthodox community does not have a strong enough financial base.

In response to this dilemma, the fund was created in order to be the relief fund for these thousands of families who would otherwise need to rely on tzedaka organizations that provide for the general Orthodox communities. Finally, it was the Kupat HaChesed-Ashdod who took responsibility to care for the needy families of the city.

The Fund acts as a Central Fund

The individuality of this fund is unique in its function as a charity fund for the unification of the city's various communities since the creation of the organization. The Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Chassidic and Lithuanian Rabbis of Ashdod all depend on the fund for their community activities and financial donations.

Major fund Activities

Even though the fund cares for all of the community's needs please note the specific issues with which the center assists:

• general assistance and daily moral support for families in distress including: hardship cases, widows and orphans and ill people, or large families whose finances do not cover their needs.
• constant financial support for families whose employment income is inadequate to pay family's bill, etc.- this is a special project that is one of its kind and successful in restoring the status of the family from needy to self-supporting.
• חלוקת מוצרי מזון בימי שישי. מידי יום שישי יוצאים עשרות מתנדבים לבתי משפחות מצוקהdistribution on Fridays. Every Friday tens of volunteers deliver food to needy families , these food packages include everything that a family needs to prepare Shabbat meals. The happiness at the Shabbat meals is due to the caring of the tzedaka fund since it is known that without the meals would be lacking.
• Support for holidays(chagim). This is a special fund for many families when every Jewish family has larger than normal expenses.
• exceptional support, including funds for medical treatment or emergency care that cause the family to enter an unending cycle of debts that can last a lifetime. In these cases after receiving approval from the tzedaka committee, the family is given the funds to cover the whole debt.

Fund incomes

The tzedaka fund is supplied 100% from public donations, no government assistance or other form of charity funds is given. The financiers of the kupa have collected many letters from contributors from all around the world that they have sent donations in order to help relieve the difficulties that these many Jewish families are living. It is understood that the support for these hardship cases is dependant on the expanse of the feelings of those who donate tzedaka. The more funds received will enable us to give more and more for the benefit of these families.

There is no end to the stories that have collected in the offices of Kupat HaChesed-Ashdod from contributors who have received in return their own personal "salvation" after donating tzedaka. Even though each story has a different ending and individual need, each started the moment the money was donated. These stories arrive from all around the world, from every type of difficulty in that a Jew can find himself and afterward found a resolve of giving a monetary donation for the benefit of a desperate family.

With thanks and good wishes

The families wholeheartedly thank all the contributors and supporters of this organization and the Rabbis of Ashdod give their blessings to you along with the blessings of the Ashdod community.