Camp Fund to Assist Young Ukrainian Shluchim

The Keren Yisroel Fund, which assists shluchim with grants to send a child to overnight summer camp, announced that they year they will also be helping Shluchim families displaced from the war in Europe.

The Keren Yisroel Fund, which for years has been quietly assisting Shluchim with their expenses to send a child to overnight summer camp, announced that they year they will also be helping Shluchim families displaced from the war in Europe.

Since its founding by Rabbi Nissan Mangel, the iconic rov of Ksav Sofer, scholar and lecturer, together with an anonymous donor, the fund has distributed over a million and half dollars, giving campers a meaningful and fun summer while taking off a small load from their parents’ shoulder.

This year, in addition to the 100 Shluchim recipients of grants of $770, the donor has pledged an additional sum, to assist the families of Shluchim who have escaped war savaged Ukraine, with a significant grant towards their camp fees. The grants will be given based on a raffle for all those who apply for them at www.thechabadcenter.org/campfund .

For the young Shluchim, a summer in a Chabad camp is invigorating. As one Shliach sayid, “The chassidishe environment gives us the ability to infuse our son with a koch in chasidishkiet and in the Rebbes inyonim and directives, so that he can continue to grow as a chayal of the Rebbe.”

A shliach, in a far-flung community in Florida says that for them it would have been a difficult financial decision to send their child to an overnight camp, “In these uncertain times, summer camp seems a long way away, but acts of kindness like this bring us some solace and comfort.”

After their daughter came back from camp, they were even more thankful that Keren Yisroel had made it possible, “The combination of fresh air, sports, camaraderie and Torah study and inspiration will take place over a few weeks, but the impression will last a lifetime.”

Unique in the process of Keren Yisroel is that no one knows the recipients and there are no strings attached. One just needs to apply by a certain date, a raffle decides who they are and a check is sent to the recipient.

As Rabbi Chaim Shaul Bruk of Chabad of Montona says, “The Keren Yisroel Camp Fund has made sending our kids to a Jewish, Chabad, summer camp a stress-free experience. They partner with us, no strings attached; they simply enjoy helping Shluchim’s children have a summer full of memories without the financial hardship that camp can create for their already burdened parents.”

“For the children of Shluchim – many who study in online schools,” writes a shliach in the South, “the fund has done wonders.”

“Having the opportunity to go to a summer camp with other children as herself, gives her a sense of belonging to a greater family of shluchim, and spend quality time with other Lubavitch children in a real life setting,” he said.

Shluchim from Ukraine, who need a grant to send their children to camp, should visit www.thechabadcenter.org/campfund to apply.