TYA, Toimchei Yoitzei Anglia, modelled on the charities of yesteryear that once supported olim to Israel from Poland, Hungary, and Austria, today serves that role for Jews of English origin. This year, TYA’s founder was injured, leaving a fundraising crisis at the helm of the organisation. The rest of TYA’s management has rallied, and is launching a newly innovative drive to fulfill TYA’s supporting role.
The brainchild of askonim in the Anglo-Jewish sector, chief among them Rabbi Nosson Yaffe of Gateshead and Israel, TYA was founded to fill a gaping void. Rabbi Yaffe, active in the wider charity sector in Israel, realized that English olim, innately dignified and averse to requesting charity, were silently suffering serious financial hardship. TYA has changed the situation dramatically by raising funds from Anglo-Jewry to help their overseas brethren and friends in a discreet and honourable manner. Distribution of funds takes place twice a year, in the crunch periods of Tishrei and Nissan.
For the past 12 years, Elul signals fundraising season for the TYA team. Rabbi Yaffe spearheads the print and publicity campaign, and spurs all other connected askonim to do more than their utmost to bring in the sums that will ease Yom Tov expenses for TYA’s beneficiaries. The size of the check dictates how much needy families can buy of Yom Tov food, winter clothes, new shoes for the children, and other Yom Tov necessities, with every penny raised making a difference. Without the check from TYA the families just do not have the funds to by basic necessities for Yom Tov.
This year, Rabbi Yaffe was injured in a terrible car accident in New York, on a fundraising trip for a yeshiva. B’chasdei Hashem, his injuries were not critical, but they were significantly severe. With thirteen cracked ribs, a broken sternum, and a punctured lung, Rabbi Yaffe is in constant agony, in no condition to run campaigns and raise funds. In an emotional video appeal, Rabbi Yaffe asks to generously support TYA.
TYA is in desperate need of an emergency measure to finance its Tishrei distribution to over 1200 families throughout Israel, and has launched a Chesed Fund appeal, to help meet a target of £200,000 for Yom Tov. This will allow donations to be made through an online portal, streamlining the movement of funds.
TYA is the only tzedaka exclusively serving English Jews in Eretz Yisrael, helping your relatives, your neighbors, and your ex-classmates. So as not to cause recipients embarrassment, TYA’s distribution is done discreetly and respectfully. TYA’s checks have no strings attached and can be used for the families’ most urgent needs, be it food basics, Yom Tov essentials, a gift to bring the wife simchas Yom Tov, or urgently needed clothes for the growing children. TYA has lists of needy English Jews in Israel waiting for help. Help them now!
TYA wants to pay to make Yom Tov a true Zman Simchaseinu for our loved ones across the sea, helping in the ways we all would like to. The organisation has the distribution method down to a science, ready to go into efficient action. What TYA needs now is the public’s support to provide funds to cover the cheques for over 1200 destitute families. With its new fundraising campaign, TYA is relying on the wider English Jewish public to respond to the need of English Yidden in Israel, with heart-warming donations bridging the physical distance and inspiring joy.