Tema Klausner, president of World Emunah, told participants in the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on Monday about the importance of the organization and its vision. She said that since it was founded 90 years ago, its motto has been that every Jew is responsible for one another. This remains the key phrase of the organization to this day.
Emunah’s responsibility for every Jew, said Klausner, is epitomized by its children’s home for boys – just one of the five children’s homes that the organization operates. The Emunah children’s home works with the boys, teaching them how to learn, and how to act appropriately. The students succeed, get jobs, many go to the army, marry, and have children of their own, who do not need to go to a children’s home.
“This is more than charity,” she said. This is what we do. This is changing lives.”
Klausner explained the differences between Emunah Israel and World Emunah. The local branch of the organization, Emunah Israel, is one of the country’s 20 largest social service organizations.
It operates daycare centers, children’s homes, a women’s shelter, a college, and resilience therapy centers, which are of vital importance during the current situation in Israel.
World Emunah, she shared, is the umbrella organization that brings together all of the supporters worldwide. “We share the stories of what Emunah is doing, we bring people from countries around the world to Israel to connect them, and we try to create a very strong connection between people around the world and Israel.”
Klausner, who participated in a panel at the conference entitled “Engines of Resilience” with Professor Eduard Yakubov, president of Holon Institute of Technology, and Rabbi Zalman Duchman, executive director of Colel Chabad, said, “We speak for the religious Zionist community. We speak for women. We speak loud and clear.”
This article was written in cooperation with World Emunah.