Help the Garfinkel family come home from Israel

During this awful time in Israel, there are so many worthy ways to donate to assist the community and people of Israel. In this case we are asking you to assist the Garfinkel family with the extraordinary additional costs of their flights home.

Tuvya and Natasha Garfinkel, along with their beautiful daughters Tiferet and Noa, were visiting family in Israel when Hamas attacked. They are in Mazkeret Batya, a town directly in the line of rocket fire. They have been living these last few days in the bunker of the family home.

Fortunately, they have managed to a flight out of Israel on Sunday, 15 October. Unfortunately, these flights home will cost them an additional $15,000 beyond what they were already spending on this trip. Insurance won’t cover the cost due to it being caused by an act of war and airlines are not showing much compassion either.

Additonally, regarding the newly announced repatriation flights, DFAT have currently told them to keep these tickets. If there is an update that gets them out of Israel without this cost, we will update you and arrange refunds for any donations. But at this stage, our understanding is, they will still be required to pay the $15,000.

With or without any financial assistance we can raise, they will be getting on that flight and making their way back to the safety of Melbourne, but we would like to assist them by not returning to a huge and unexpected financial hole they had no option to avoid.

If you are in a position to assist, any donation you can make would be so appreciated.

Thank you!