Newsletter for June 7, 2024

Shalom ZOA Members, Friends and Supporters of Israel,

We hope that this email finds you and your loved ones well. Please be sure to share all or part of this newsletter with your email contacts, on social media and in the community. Please make them aware of circumstances and situations around us, our advocacy items and resources, and what Greater Philadelphia ZOA and ZOA are doing in support of the Jewish community, Israel and Zionism. Thank you!

Upcoming Self-Defense/Safety Courses

Greater Philadelphia ZOA plans to facilitate the courses below in Bala Cynwyd in early evenings beginning in June. If you would like to take one or more of these courses or the class, please phone our office:

Developing a personal and home protection plan (not about guns) and “Stop the Bleed.”
Self-defense firearm basics, legal use of force, violent encounters and their aftermath, gear and gadgets – what you need and where to get it.
For women: Firearm basics for women – for new shooters or a refresher, intermediate firearm fundamentals for women, defensive pistol fundamentals for women.
We will also schedule the firearms safety class that we will facilitate, that will include instruction and time on the firing range.

To learn more about one or all of these courses, please call the Greater Philadelphia ZOA Office at 610-660-9466. Phone calls only! Registration for these courses and the separate firearms-safety class will close shortly.

Upcoming ZOA Event (new date) – You Must Pre-Register:

Greater Philadelphia ZOA Needs Your Financial Support

No other organization is doing the valuable work that ZOA is doing to expose and combat Jew-hatred, educate the community, promote Zionism, and to boldly promote and defend Zionism and Israel!

We encourage education, advocacy and activism like no one else — so that together, ZOA and you can help Israel, the Jewish community, the Zionist movement and the mutually beneficial U.S.-Israel relationship.

Now more than ever: Please support our work as generously as you can.

To donate electronically, go to:
https://zoa.org/donate/philly/

and follow the multi-step process. If you do not have or want a Paypal account and are having difficulty making a donation by credit card or debit card, please call our Office at 610-660-9466.

To donate by check, send to:

ZOA

PO Box 56

Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

We are grateful to those of you who have already donated. We appreciate each and every donation.

We Have An Exciting Special Event Planned. Save the Date, Get Involved:

Our Gala has a new name though like all of our past Galas, it will be an evening you won’t want to miss and that you can be a part of!

Contact us if you want to help make our Night of Appreciation an even greater success but being on one of our committees, or participating in the event itself. We look forward to announcing our deserving and exciting lineup of honorees shortly. Contact us at 610-660-9466 to reserve a table at the event, to reserve a page in our Ad Journal/Tribute Book or to be an event sponsor.

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Friends: Help us to recruit new members and advocates to our chapter. Please tell a friend or relative about Greater Philadelphia ZOA!

Use the graphic below on social media or in an email. Thank you!

ADVOCACY

Greater Philadelphia ZOA is encouraging you to engage in advocacy, monitor anti-Jewish activities, and to be pro-active in getting out in front of problems as much as possible – such as by sending in letters-to-the-editor and reaching out to media decision-makers; checking in on what is being discussed and taught in local schools, and through speaking with family and acquaintances to keep them informed with facts and to dispel the myths and lies. Remember: The Israel Defense Forces is the most humane military in the world; Israel and the Jewish People were attacked – and Israel must do what is necessary to eliminate the threat and rescue the captives kidnapped by Palestinian-Arabs; the relationship between the United States and Israel has always been mutually beneficial.

Please see a number of pro-Israel advocacy items and resources below.

Now more than ever – for Israel and for American and world Jewry – advocacy and activism is vitally important. There are many advocacy opportunities and needs. Please partake and encourage others to participate. While the needs are great in Israel, if you can: Please also support Greater Philadelphia ZOA’s fight in the information war.

In addition, accurate information and public opinion are vitally important. If you are the victim of Jew-hatred or are aware of anti-Jewish or anti-Israel activity, please report it to Greater Philadelphia ZOA. If we at Greater Philadelphia ZOA can be of help to you – or if you want to help us at this time – please reach out at 610-660-9466 or office@zoaphilly.org

New this week: How to succeed in chess

As important as advocacy and activism are, and we encourage them constantly and thank those who engage in them — advocacy and activism are not to be taken lightly, cannot be performed haphazardly — and activists must always think, plan and act multiple “moves” ahead.

Advocacy/activism are both “three-dimensional chess” and a “three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.” The moves you make; the pieces you move or tamper with or remove or try to squeeze in — lead to other moves and a string of repercussions and often unintended consequences if we are not careful and fail to plan for them.

Successful advocacy/activism is an art and a science – and never a “game.”

Done incorrectly, one might become the proverbial “bull in the china shop” and it could be a “china shop” where the china and the shards you create fight back.

Continue your important advocacy and activism but do it in this order: “ready, aim, fire” rather than “ready, fire, aim” or “fire, ready, aim.”

Greater Philadelphia ZOA is revitalizing our Advocacy Committee. If you would like to participate, email us with your name and phone number and we will be in contact with you. Thank you.

Please see more advocacy items, resources and tools below!

“Information Ambulance”

See our new promo commercial for our “Information Ambulance” and please continue to donate in support of this novel campaign to “rescue the truth” from the anti-Jewish liars and propagandists. They incite and exacerbate Jew-hatred – and our ambulance goes to the scene and sets the record straight!

Watch the brief video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pogFJzv7W_o

Please support our “Information Ambulance” to help keep it rolling.

To donate electronically, go to:
https://zoa.org/donate/philly/

and follow the multi-step process. If you do not have or want a Paypal account or are having difficulty making a donation by credit card or debit card, please call our Office at 610-660-9466.

To donate by check, send to:

ZOA

PO Box 56

Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

Be sure to note “ambulance” on the memo line.

Host an Event Featuring Our Presentation about Identifying and Combatting Jew-hatred

Now is the time for those in the Jewish community and our non-Jewish friends and allies to step up to put a stop to the rampant anti-Jewish activity and Jew-hatred that is enveloping nearly every facet of society. But how can you prevent and combat it if you don’t know the extent of it, and what and who its many sources are?

For large audiences or small; in a public space or in a home — Greater Philadelphia ZOA’s presentation, “Jew-Hatred: It’s Many Sources and What You Can Do About It,” is a timely audio-visual presentation that concentrates on the groups, entities and individuals who are endangering Jewish people, Jewish institutions and Israel – right here in our region. You will hear some of them in their own words; you will see what they have written; you will see what they have been doing and are planning. Our presentation also offers remedies and action items.

Following the presentation, there is time for a lively question-and-answer period and discussion.

To schedule an in-person presentation for a congregation, a group or in a home or office for a “parlor” meeting, please call Executive Director Steve Feldman at 610-660-9466.