Add meaning to your family or group trip to Israel

Join together with victims of terror

OneFamily Fund is the national organization assisting Israel’s victims of terror.

Since 2001, OneFamily has developed a comprehensive assistance structure aimed at addressing the financial, emotional, material and legal needs of Israel’s 17,000 terror victims and their families. Our programs empower victims of terror to cope with their pain and anguish, provide the ability to rebuild their lives and their families’ futures – in the embrace of a supportive and caring group of people who understand what they are going through.

With 37 unique expert staff members, 730 volunteers, 4 assistance centres around Israel, and endless love, OneFamily has supported most victims to return to their families, their jobs and their lives with strength and determination to overcome the horrors they have experienced with the empowerment to embrace the future. OneFamily continues to provide support to all victims and their families to maintain their recover, rehabilitation and reintegration.

Today, OneFamily supports 1,322 injured families, 1,340 bereaved families and 983 bereaved, maimed, and traumatized youth and young adults.

We encourage you to become part of our family – to meet and develop relationships with victims and their families. Learn about their experiences and their journey to recover after injury or bereavement from acts of terror.

1. The Mitzvah of Memory

A class (with or without Torah sources) that explores the Jewish idea of carrying on a memory. Looking at how and when this is a mitzvah that we can all do.

Duration: 45 minutes
Participants: Suitable for big or small groups, any ages except small children
Cost: $150 for 25 people or less.

2. Mindee’s Trunk

Mindee Levinger is our Jerusalem Coordinator. We have a “trunk” for donations that people bring from abroad, but in reality Mindee spreads love and a feeling of connection to children who are bereaved, injured, suffering from PTSD and sometimes a cruel combination of these throughout the Jerusalem area from the trunk of her car. Visitors are asked to shop for an appropriate gift prior to their trip and bring it with them to Israel. They will drop off donated items, and learn about OneFamily at our Jerusalem Office. They will meet Mindee and hear about her heroic work, the stories of families she touches every day and how their gifts will touch those families.

Duration: 90 minutes
Participants: Families, small groups
Cost: $100 + Participants are asked to bring gifts appropriate for children of at least a $20 value and will be encouraged to leave a monetary donation.

3. Learning and Healing Through Art

Memorializing collage – We will sit together with a bereaved parent and hear the story of their child, then, working together we will create a unique piece of art that is an expression of that child’s life and legacy in this world. Replicas of the collage will be made for each participant to take home.

Duration: 45 minutes
Participants: Suitable for groups up to 25, any ages
*Designed to be combined with “Mitzvah of Memory” program if desired.
Cost: $500 (includes supplies and facilitator)

4. Connecting through Cooking

Mothers utilize their child’s favorite food as a doorway to share about their experience. Together, the group and the mothers cook recipes and later enjoy a special and meaningful meal together.

Duration: 2 hours (including lunch or dinner)
Participants: Suitable for adults missions or families
Cost: $600 for a dairy meal and $800 for a meat meal

5. Home visit

A family touring Israel can have a visit arranged to visit a survivor of terror and his/her family. The visit will be customized for the size of the group coming, the location in Israel where they would like to visit (or their twin community), and the ages of the participating family members.

Duration: 2 hours
Participants: Small groups, all ages
Cost: $300 (some of the money will go directly to help the visited family)

6. Being a Spokesperson for the Forgotten

This is a practical workshop. We will teach how terror victims from years past are all but “forgotten” and yet why there needs are as present as ever. We will teach the 3 effective things each participant can do to become a spokesperson on behalf of the lost and forgotten, the living survivors and the bereaved families who still suffer years after their loss. Touching on useful hasbara strategies in general, this workshop will include role playing games on how to speak up and out most effectively to educate others about Israel’s terror victims.

Duration: 2 hours, including 20 minute movie
Participants: suitable for large and small groups, young adults and older.
Cost: $200

7. Teen Mifgash / Meet a Madrich

A discussion will be led by OneFamilycounselor (madrichim) about the work that they do as “big brothers” and “big sisters” with OneFamily youth. First the madrichim will explain what they do, why it is so helpful, and what they gain from the experience, and then they will share some of their stories. There will be time for visitors to ask questions. Then appropriate ice-breaking games and get-to-know you activities will be introduced with open ended social time together in our youth lounge, with music and refreshments. (Or outside in the garden when weather permits.) The mifgash will end with an “email swap”, encouraging each teen visitor to remain in touch with at least one madrich.

Duration: 2 hours
Participants: groups (any size), ideal for teens and young adults, or families
Cost: $400

8. Take Care of the Orphan and the Widow

A class (with or without Torah sources) on the mitzvah of caring for the Orphan and Widow. An interactive discussion about just what our obligation entails, and how and why this mitzvah is both critical and accessible to us all. Concludes with empowering calls to action that each participant can implement at home.

Duration: 45 minute class, +20 minute movie
Participants: Suitable for large and small groups, teens and older.
Cost: $300

9. Men’s Choir

Book a performance for your mission or group by our Men’s Choir. AOneFamily representative will introduce the group and explain how a weekly choir has become a tremendous source of support and counseling for bereaved fathers. The choir will then perform a selection of songs; this will end with the choir teaching the audience a song and everyone singing together.

Duration: 75 minutes, including refreshments and time for the audience and choir to meet.
Participants: Medium to large sized groups,
Cost: $1000 + this involves travel for choir members to our location and because of the distance a meal – however the meal can be arranged together with the visiting group

For more details on any of the above, please contact the OneFamily office at info@onefamilyfund.ca

Adopt a Family

Through a careful process that takes into consideration the character of both the supporting community and the families in Israel, Adopt-a-Family creates a match that provides the families in Israel with a partner in life to provide long-term financial and emotional support. One Family Fund provides the mechanism for maintaining contact with the family, getting updated information on their condition and their financial needs.

One Family has successfully matched over 200 victims and their families with caring communities and individuals around the world. The “adopting” community commits to provide specific financial assistance for a specific period of time (usually $7,500 for one year). One Family serves as a vehicle for this support and for facilitating direct contact between the victim’s family and the adopting community.

Statements and Testimonials

Our family was looking to support a grass roots organization in Israel. We were introduced to One Family Fund by Pam Albert and through One Family’s Adopt-a-Family program we were able to adopt Orly Vaknin, one of the survivors of the Hebrew University bombing. We have personally visited Orly in Israel and she has visited us here in Canada. She has become part of our family and we are in regular contact with her.

Orly is a warm, sensitive and spirited young woman who has courageously opened her heart to us and other One Family supporters.

Through Orly our family has developed an even closer bond and connection to Israel. My wife and I and especially our children have a much greater understanding of the situation in Israel today and the sacrifices and struggles that Israelis are faced with every day.

Karen and Tom Ehrlich