This High Holy Days season, JVP Portland is asking the community to raise $5,400 for our friends at Gaza Soup Kitchen — a grassroots, Gazan-led organization feeding families in the middle of unimaginable scarcity caused by Israel's genocide. We're launching the fundraiser now, with a direct appeal at our Tashlich gathering on September 20th, and we want to reach the full goal before the holidays close.

The High Holy Days ask us to do more than atone. They ask us to act.

This year, we're channeling our reflection, our solidarity, and our hope into material support for Palestinians in Gaza. Last year, our community came together to raise more than $3,000 for Gaza Soup Kitchen. This year, we're committing to raise $5,400!

Who they are: Gaza Soup Kitchen isn't an outside aid group it was founded by and for Gazans feeding their own community. What started as a single effort feeding 150 families a day in 2024 has grown into a wide-reaching operation across active kitchen sites throughout Gaza, cooking simple, nourishing meals — rice, pasta, khubeza — often with painfully limited supplies. Their work now reaches far beyond meals alone: they run water trucks, food parcel deliveries, and a weekly medical clinic, all sustained by grassroots donations.

Their impact, by the numbers:

Our goal of $5,400 covers roughly five kitchens for one day.

As we stand at the water's edge on Tashlich and let go of what no longer serves us, let's pick up this work together. Let's turn reflection into action, and action into solidarity.

Thank you for being part of it.