This Hanukkah season, Stephen Wise Temple and Schools encourage all members of our community to get out in the world and help make a difference. Below, you will find eight different ways you can be of service not just during the holidays, but all year round. The Talmud says: “One person’s candle is light for many.” This Hanukkah, we invite you to be the light.

How You Can Help Israel

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to the Jewish Federation’s Solidarity Campaign.The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles is creating an emergency Israel fund through which your contributions will be directed where they are needed most in Israel.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to the Jewish Federations of North America’s “Operation Swords of Iron” Campaign.

Following Hamas’ unprecedented attack over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel is at war to defend itself and has given the order for the IDF to commence “Operation Swords of Iron.”

The Jewish Federations of North America are responding, working with partners to support victims of terror, help rebuild damaged infrastructure, and address the trauma caused by this horrific attack.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to United Hatzalah of Israel’s Emergency Campaign.The money will be used for desperately needed supplies to provide UH volunteers with the equipment they need to save lives and the protective equipment to keep themselves safe. The goal of the campaign is to raise $20 million to equip an additional 1,000 United Hatzalah volunteers with protective vests and helmets, oxygen tanks, defibrillators, trauma bandages, and tourniquets.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to Friends of the IDF

Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces is a 501(c)3 organization and the sole organization authorized to collect charitable donations on behalf of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces across the United States. Donations will go to fund critical needs for IDF soldiers, such as temporary field hospitals, intensive care ambulances, hygiene kits, and plasma kits.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to Magen David Adom Israel

Magen David Adom is Israel’s national emergency medical services organization. They are on the front lines of saving lives in Israel. With emergency ambulances, boats, helicopters, and motorcycles, MDA is guaranteed to provide the best of care in critical situations.

IsraAID’s mission is to support people affected by humanitarian crisis. They partner with local communities around the world to provide urgent aid, assist in recovery, and reduce the risk of future disasters. IsraAID is partnering with local and civil society organizations to coordinate humanitarian efforts, providing psychosocial support & urgent aid to vulnerable communities, evacuees and their families.

Israeli Wounded Veterans’ mission is to support the rehabilitation, rebuilding, and enhancement of the lives of disabled Israeli veterans and victims of terror. At our state-of-the-art Beit Halochem (House of the Warriors) rehabilitation centers in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and Beer Sheva, we serve more than 51,000 disabled veterans, terror attack survivors, and family members.Our commitment is to raising awareness and funds for a broad range of social, cultural, and sports training programs, offering scholarships, developing new initiatives, and providing specialized adapted equipment for our centers. Through these programs, we aim to empower these heroic men and women to rebuild their lives with a renewed sense of purpose and dignity.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to the Association for Spiritual Care in Israel

The Association for Spiritual Care in Israel (ASCI) is a non-profit ensuring that all Israelis experiencing a wide variety of crises can receive accessible, professional spiritual care.

Your donation makes it possible to continue the activities of ASCI in promoting spiritual care as a recognized profession in institutions and government bodies, ensuring proper training for students, and enhancing professional advancement for qualified spiritual caregivers.

Apart from one salaried part-time (20%) administrator employed by the ASCI, all of the work undertaken by the association is executed by volunteer members of the association. 

Given the magnitude and severity of humanitarian need, we’ve launched the HIAS Emergency Response in Israel to address access to basic food and household supplies, cash assistance, housing support, psychosocial support, and community-building programs on a needs-based approach for Israelis of all backgrounds in addition to the diverse asylum seeker population we currently serve. We’re leaning into the expertise honed by crisis response in places as varied as Ukraine, Chad, and Venezuela, which includes working with established local partners to avoid repetition and filling the missing gaps.

Donations to HIAS Israel can be made here. You can also review our detailed fact sheet, the column and email below from HIAS President & CEO Mark Hetfield, and our statement condemning the attack.

Home to HIAS’ longest-running country office, Israel’s existence expedited the reality in which the vast majority of global Jewry achieved political freedom of movement by the end of the 20th century. We proudly helped build the state. This fact allowed HIAS to fully expand its mission to proudly serve forcibly displaced people of all backgrounds across five continents in the name of the Jewish community.

Visit Kavod.org to make your contribution to Israel Emergency Relief

Support Housing Services

L.A. Family Housing helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty through a continuum of housing enriched with supportive services. Stephen Wise Temple and Wise School support L.A. Family Housing throughout the year in many ways, including volunteer work at the North Hollywood shelter by prepping and serving meals. Every other month, the “Lunch Bunch” assembles bagged lunches that are delivered to the shelter by volunteers—each lunch includes vegetables grown in our Wise Pe’ah Garden. Wise School children prepare Mother’s Day baskets for the women of the shelter each year in May. During Sukkot in 2022, our Wise families helped assemble “good night” boxes for recently-housed children, and one of our member families helped organize a back-to-school event for underserved youth through L.A. Family Housing. This organization does so much to help the many needs of these families, and we hope you will join us throughout the year in doing your part too!

Provide for International Disaster Relief

IsraAID: If you have an upcoming Bat/Bar Mitzvah, support IsraAID’s Better Together Partnership Program.

Wise proudly champions the incredible life-saving work of IsraAid by dedicating one of our sukkot each year to increasing awareness about the work of this incredible organization. Since its inception, IsraAID has worked in emergency and long-term development settings in over 50 countries. Drawing on an extensive roster of leading Israeli and international experts, the organization is in a unique position to design and implement high-quality, cost-effective, and innovative programming that fully reflects the immediate and long-term needs of populations affected by disasters worldwide.

Strengthen the Mind, Body, and Spirit of Israel’s Disabled

Wise has been a longtime partner of the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled. You can choose to start a Mitzvah Project, holding charity events that ISCD will help publicize and support. You can donate to American Friends of ISCD, or attend ISCD’s comedy night on Dec. 12 at the Hollywood Improv. Wise members who purchase a $180 ticket to the event can enter “WISE” in the “More Information” box at checkout to be invited to the pre-show VIP event, and pick who they sit with.

Assist Veterans

Help newly housed (formerly unhoused) US Veterans settle into their new housing with the Wise Homes For Heroes.

Over the past several years, the generosity of the Wise community has helped hundreds of veterans feel at home in new, permanent housing after living on the streets. Through our work with Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH), we are able to assist vets with new furniture, appliances, and amenities that truly make them feel at home.

Give the Gift of Reading

Help strengthen Wise Readers to Leaders – the city-wide literacy program started and supported by Stephen Wise Temple! Donate, volunteer, or encourage your teen to volunteer!

Stephen Wise Temple’s flagship literacy enrichment program provides vital summer support to the must vulnerable LAUSD students. Wise Readers to Leaders impacts hundreds of students in grades K-8 from low-income communities and at-risk environments across Los Angeles with free literacy activities that help prevent summer learning loss. Coupled with “camp style” enrichment activities, Readers to Leaders fosters self-confidence and nurtures positive attitudes towards learning through science, dance, music, sports, and more. Readers to Leaders extends its reach from the classroom into homes by offering free learning workshops for parents, including financial literacy, nutrition, and resume writing. This approach makes Readers to Leaders not just a literacy program, but a multi-faceted wrap-around life support and skills program built on the foundation of reading.

Take Action for the Climate

Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action is an organization that is building a movement of American Jews confronting the climate crisis with spiritual audacity and bold political action. You can get involved by making calls to your government representatives, join or start a Dayenu Circle, or donate.

Hazon is a transformative movement weaving sustainability into the fabric of Jewish life, in order to create a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable world for all.  Learn about interfaith climate action with the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development.

Give Blood or Become an Organ Donor

Sign up to donate blood with the Red Cross (or other program of your choice)! Wise is holding its winter blood drive on Dec. 15 in the Udko Room off of the Sanctuary. You can sign up HERE and find out more HERE.

You can also become an organ donor. Find out more from One Legacy.

Help Those With Disabilities

Support Beit Issie Shapiro, Israel’s leading developer and provider of innovative therapies and state-of-the-art services for children and adults across the entire range of disabilities impacting on over half a million people annually. Our Aaron Milken Center has been one of the biggest supporters of Beit Issie Shapiro for many years, raising over $100,000 to date. Our students spend their preschool years of preschool learning all about how their weekly tzedakah can help friends over in Israel. You can donate HERE.