Israel Relief and Recovery

Since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Mandel Foundation has allocated over $83 million in grants to support recovery and relief efforts. Immediately following the attacks, grants totaling over $20 million were distributed to the Jewish Federation of Cleveland Emergency Fund and the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) Israel Emergency Loan Fund. The Mandel Foundation Special Fund also distributed $4.6 million to organizations across Israel, supporting the delivery of meals and educational activities to evacuees, constructing temporary bomb shelters, and offering psychological support to trauma victims.

Support for Ongoing Recovery

In 2024, the Foundation provided $2 million to JFNA for ReGrow Israel. Following the destruction of agriculture equipment through targeted attacks on Western Negev farms, which are crucial for Israel’s food supply, these funds helped farmers to replace equipment and adopt sustainable practices to strengthen Israel’s food supply and long-term economic and environmental resilience.

To help rebuild Israel’s devastated communities, the Foundation granted $5 million to the nonprofit Staying Together to support the relocation of the 55 surviving families from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a devastated community on the Gaza border, to the agricultural settlement of Beit Nir. An additional $10 million was distributed to the Jewish Agency for Israel to support the Project Assurance Fund, designated for building homes and communities in Southern Israel.

To support community resilience and healing, the Foundation has designated $1.5 million for the Branco Weiss Institute to foster educational and cultural programming in heavily impacted communities; funded multi-year support for grief and trauma recovery through the Healing Place (“Makom Marpe”) in Emek Hefer; and funded the 710 Memorial project, which is led by a Mandel program graduate, to honor those who were killed and preserve the firsthand accounts of survivors for future generations.

Response to June 2025 Attacks

Following the June 2025 Iranian Missile barrages throughout Israel, the Foundation has allocated over $35 million to support emergency response efforts, including grants to the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Emergency Response, Recovery and Resilience campaign, Magen David Adom disaster response, United Hatzalah volunteer emergency medical service, and $26 million to support rebuilding efforts at the Weizmann Institute of Science.