Jews donate to Christchurch victims

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The impact also resonated throughout the Jewish world, and as a result, more than A$1 million (R9.8 million) will be handed over from the Jewish communities of Pittsburgh, Sydney, and New Zealand to the Muslim community of Christchurch. The Pittsburgh Jewish community suffered a terrorist attack last October, with 11 people killed.

The funds will be handed over at a function to be hosted by the mayor of Christchurch on 17 July. It will be followed by visits to the mosques where the attacks took place by New Zealand Jewish Council President Stephen Goodman, and Sydney-based NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Chief Executive Vic Alhadeff.

The funds were raised for counselling and support services, medical treatment, financial planning, education, and vocational training for the families of the victims. The money will be managed by the Christchurch Foundation.

The funds will also be used to advance interfaith activities to foster greater connection between the Jewish and Muslim communities of New Zealand.

Alhadeff will present a cheque of A$71 000 (R700 454) raised from the Sydney Jewish community via a crowdfunding campaign which was launched within hours of the massacre.

“The massacre occurred at a time when people were at their most vulnerable – at prayer in a house of worship,” Alhadeff said. “An attack on one faith is an attack on us all. We extend our hand in friendship in calling for an end to racism, an end to anti-Semitism, an end to Islamophobia, and an end to bigotry in all its forms.”

“Our faiths share the Abrahamic tradition, and Jews and Muslims have both suffered racism historically and today,” said Goodman. “The Jewish community, both in New Zealand and overseas, wanted the victims of the mosque attacks to know that we see them, we empathise with them, and we support them.

One of the first communities to get in touch was the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in America. The Muslim community of Pittsburgh started a fundraising campaign to support Jewish victims within hours of the attack on their synagogue last October, and the Pittsburgh Jewish community wanted to repay that kindness.

Sheikh Ibrar Sheikh of the Federation of Islamic Association of New Zealand said the support from the global Jewish community was “very gratefully received”.

“To know that our Jewish brothers and sisters understand what we have gone through, and are still going through, and are there to help us in our recovery, is very important to us,” he said.