Three important updates since last week:

Good News #1: One of our member-families has offered to match — DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR — the first $1,500 that is donated to our campaign to help send recently resettled refugee children to summer camp!  So, we now need to raise only $1,500 to meet our goal of $3,000!  The funds will be used to send refugee children to summer camp at the Wayne Y and Elizabeth Y in August for one or two weeks (depending on the total funds that we raise) .

If you can, please contribute.  Any amount would be appreciated.  The camp sessions are just around the corner and we need to make payment to the Y by July 25, so time is of the essence.

You can donate in one of two ways:

• By credit card online to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund at https://gofundme.com/SummerCampForRefugeeChildren-RabbisDiscretionaryFund

(Please note that the link in yesterday’s email incorrectly linked to a past campaign.  The link shown above is the correct one for the current campaign.)

• By check made out to the “Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund.”  Please bring or send your check to Congregation Shomrei Emunah, 67 Park Street, Montclair, NJ 07042 and indicate in the memo line that the donation should be directed to “Summer Camp Refugee Assistance.”

Good News #2: The response to our request for donations of an air conditioner and a fan for one of our families has been overwhelming!  So far we’ve been offered seven air conditioners and nine fans!  As a result, we expect to be able to offer cooling assistance to any of our five families who need it.

Good News #3: A couple of weeks ago, Bara’a Oudeh was hired by one of our families to cater a dinner for 26 people.  By all accounts, the food was delicious and the event a tremendous success!  If you are interested in hiring Bara’a or Rawda Hafez (another excellent cook who co-catered the Syrian Kiddush at Shomrei in March), please contact Andy () or Merrill ().

Thank you to everyone for the fantastic support!

Regards,
Judith, Mike, and Andy

Andy ()
Mike ()
Judith ()