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JNF's famous blue fundraising box gets a
facelift with a wrap-around label
featuring facts deisgned for kids. These
type of boxes will be used by Detroit
children collecting pennies toward a
1 million-penny goal, or $10,000 for JNF.
Israel's Carmel forest fire sparks
rapid responses from Detroiters.
Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
I
t's as immutable as a law of physics, and almost sounds like one:
When things heat up in Israel, the Jews of Metro Detroit start mov-
ing faster.
So when a major forest fire broke out in Israel on Dec. 2 — started
either by arson or an accident and prolonged by dry brush from a sum-
mer drought, high winds and a lack of firefighting equipment — Jews
here looked for ways to help.
Efforts began immediately with a Jewish National Fund (JNF) pho-
nathon Dec. 12 and evolved into various plans, including one to raise 1
million pennies by Tu b'Shevat, the New Year of the Trees, which falls on
15 Shevet, or Jan. 30.
Like Israelis, Detroiters were confounded by Israel's lack of firefight-
ing resources and horrified by the ghastly deaths of 40 prison guards
trapped in a bus as well as Haifa's fire chief and a 16-year-old volunteer
who had rushed to help.
Israeli officials said the blaze was the worst such disaster in Israel's
history, scorching 10,000 acres of pine forest and burning 100 homes. At
its peak, the fire spread across a 50-square-kilometer area of the Carmel
region, coming perilously close to Haifa, Israel's third-largest city.
At the weekly Israel cabinet meeting last Sunday, the cabinet approved
about $4.2 million to rehabilitate and upgrade the infrastructure dam-
aged by the Carmel fire. Water, sewage, electricity, roads, playgrounds
and more in Ein Hud, Ein Hod, Yemin Orde, Nir Etzion and Beit Oren will
be upgraded to restore services as quickly as possible to the damaged
area.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also pledged that within a year a
memorial will be built for those who perished as "a monument to their
heroism and their sacrifice."
While the focus is on rebuilding, an ongoing investigation seeks to
determine how things spiraled out of control, assess blame and recom-
mend reforms. Israel's Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said there is
not enough evidence to merit opening a criminal investigation; but any
criminal findings from the state comptroller's investigation will go to the
attorney general anyway.
Blue Boxes like these have been a staple in Jewish homes worldwide for years, even
before Israel was a nation. The shape and designs may have evolved since JNF was
founded in 1901 at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, but the message
and the cause have stayed the same — helping to build and maintain the physical
land of the Jewish state.
Mobilizing Funds
JNF leapt into action around the world and locally with its Operation
Cannel Renewal: From Black to Green campaign and on the ground
efforts. The folks who for more than 100 years have planted trees and
purchased and cared for the land on behalf of the Jewish people knew
-
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From The Ashes on page 20
iN
January 6 • 2011
19