The assistance will be awarded to small business owners from the Northern Communities whose earnings were adversely affected by missile fire during the last few weeks, and they have experienced severe financial distress.

The grant for each small business will range between 2000 and 4000 Shekels and is intended to serve as preliminary and immediate assistance in providing for the essential needs of the business owner who was sidelined in the course of the war. Priority in granting assistance will be accorded to persons of limited economic means, and to communities which were most severely damaged during the war. Applications for receipt of assistance will be processed via the Initiative Promotion Centers which are spread throughout the North. Criteria for eligibility and forms for submission of applications appear on www.jewishagency.org, the internet site of the Jewish Agency.

Zeev Bielski, the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, stated that "World Jewry, in unprecedented scope, has enlisted to assist the northern communities during the course of the war. Presently the Jewish Agency is in the vanguard of the efforts to rehabilitate the Northern communities and restore normalcy to their residents via contributions from Jewish communities the world over."

Let it be noted that since the beginning of the war, the Jewish Agency has initiated widespread activities on behalf of the northern residents in the sum of about 200 million Shekels. With the assistance of contributions from World Jewry, the Jewish Agency absorbed scores of thousands of children from the Northern communities in special summer camps located in central Israel, invested heavily in ameliorating the living conditions of scores of thousands compelled to wait in public shelters by installing air conditioners, television sets and emergency equipment in thousands of shelters in the North while extracting thousands of the shelter dwellers for "breathing spells" in Central Israel.

The activities were financed by contributions which were raised from Jewish Communities worldwide, primarily by the United Jewish Communities, the Federations of North America (UJC) as well as by Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal. Additionally, the Jewish Agency raised substantial contributions in Israel from commercial companies and private donors.

For further information contact:
Michael Jankelowitz,
Liaison to the Foreign Press, Jewish Agency for Israel
Mobile: +972-52-6130220;
Voice-mail: +972-2-620-2780
michaelj@jafi.org
website: www.jewishagency.org