Safed, which was the target of many enemy missile attacks in the recent war, is finally seeing some good come of that very difficult experience. Meir Panim’s ongoing activities in Safed produced a close partnership between the organization and the city which has led to a promising initiative.

This year, the annual convention honoring Meir Panim and Power of Giving’s volunteers took place in the Cultural Center in Or Akiva on Monday, 15 Heshvan, the birthday of Meir’ke Zilbershlag, z”l. About 600 volunteers from all over the country were in attendance.

As a Jewish girl reaches the age of passage into adulthood, Bat Mitzvah, she learns to reinforce her commitment to Mitzvot and good deeds that help to repair the world, known as the Jewish value of tikkun olam.

Yeshiva University and Meir Panim co-sponsored a fascinating “solidarity mission” to Northern Israel during Chol Hamoed Sukkot that attracted over 150 people, many of them visitors from North America who were eager to partake in a different kind of encounter with Israeli society.

Each night, after her mother had fallen asleep, S. would embark on a midnight excursion of burglarizing homes in Kiryat Gat. She would put the stolen money into her mother’s purse without telling her.

Aventura resident Joey Cohen, a loan officer with the Dadeland branch of Chase Bank, recently organized “Hoops for Soups”, a basketball tournament fundraiser benefiting Meir Panim, which was held at the Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center in North Miami Beach.

Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, volunteered at the Meir Panim soup kitchen in Jerusalem along with his children and grandchildren on their visit to Israel for the holiday of Sukkot.

Many of the distinguished Rabbis and approximately eighty individuals from the surrounding Teaneck and Englewood communities joined the Stern’s in their home to hear an update on the current status of Northern residents from Mr. David Zilbershlag, founder of Meir Panim.

A basketball tournament to raise $10,000+ towards Meir Panim Relief Centers is currently being launched by Joey Cohen, a Meir Panim volunteer in North Miami Beach.

On Tuesday August 15, 2006, a benefit to boost Meir Panim’s relief activities on the northern front was held at Congregation Bet Shaul U'Miriam in Brooklyn.

Twelve enthusiastic Yeshiva University and Stern College students, along with several talented arts and fashion instructors from the metropolitan New York region created a very different summer reality for themselves and groups of underprivileged youngsters in several impoverished Southern Israeli towns.

Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind and Queens Councilman Dave Weprin had never exposed themselves to the dangers associated with visiting a front-line war zone until last week, when the two NYC politicians and 16 other people from the metropolitan area flew to Israel.

As soon as the war broke out about four weeks ago, the Susterman family members decided to come to Israel in a show of solidarity with the northern residents.

Having reached the 26th day of fighting in the north, the initial “first aid” for the northern residents rendered by the coalition of a number of social organizations has unfortunately become a routine.

Each morning, Yossi Klein travels from Jerusalem to Haifa, laden with boxes of food, toys and mattresses. He goes from bomb shelter to bomb shelter, listening to people’s heart-chilling stories and returns home with a long list of requests, having promised to return the following day. Yossi hasn’t lost his “power of giving”…

The Jewish Nation is in the midst of an existential war that terror organizations from the north and south have imposed upon it. The goal of these terror organizations, which are backed by terrorist nations such as Syria and Iran, is not just to kidnap soldiers and harm civilians, but to wipe the State of Israel off the map.

In light of the recent events in northern Israel, large volunteer organizations in Israel have combined forces by forming a coalition to help residents on the front line with material and emotional support.

On Tuesday July 27th Meir Panim was thrilled to welcome a group from Temple Am David in Warwick, RI. Led by Cantor Richard Perlman, who is a long time friend and supporter of Meir Panim, the group proudly presented a generous donation to Meir Panim.

A new truck, donated in the memory of Mordechai and Chaya Korach, z”l by a special family from Jerusalem, was launched this past month by Meir Panim.