With so much sadness in the news, I wanted to share with you a bit of a bright spot: our efforts to respond to this crisis as a community have been overwhelming.

With so much need, it's clear that we've learned important lessons from the 2006 Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead in 2009: we are now experiencing government, major Jewish organizations, NGOs and funders working in concert to maximize our response, define the division of responsibilities and avoid duplication of efforts

• Municipalities and Home Front Defense are providing for immediate basic needs of people in the affected areas—food, shelter and medicine, while NGOs give service to citizens on an individual basis—help in shelters, respite, special needs (as per our list) JFNA, JDC, and JAFI are also providing systemic supports to big swaths of the population. As is usual in crisis, it's the most vulnerable—elderly, children at risk and special needs populations—that suffer the most.
  
  
• JFN is an active participant in the consortium of NGOs in the south and umbrella organizations, which are working together to coordinate among themselves, setting priorities and areas of service. We are in permanent contact with the National Emergency Authority, and we are their "go-to" connection to the philanthropic community.
  
  
• At JFN Israel, we're continuing to serve as the point of contact for all our global funders who wish to raise awareness of an activity they are supporting in the south, through the funder-to-funder list on our website. In addition, we're working with the Forum of Foundations in Israel, creating one clearinghouse of funder recommendations.
  
  

The response from JFN members and other funders has been emotional and heartwarming: heeding our advice, keeping us updated about their funding to avoid duplication, and proving once again that kol Israel arevim ze la ze, we truly stand together in unity.