Optimizing Recovery to Build a Stronger Israel

Today, JDC is dedicated to rebuilding Israel’s battered periphery, leveraging our unique role as a trusted partner of Israeli NGOs, the business sector, the government, and municipalities.

In the North, we’re focused on helping local municipalities, regional authorities, and cities maximize government funding to support tens of thousands of returning evacuees with critical infrastructure like housing, healthcare, education, and social services. This work also includes consulting on regional development plans to attract new residents and boost the local economy.

“There are so many ‘third sector’ organizations in this space, along with many government ministries,” said Noga Gil Bassi, project manager for the Northern Initiative through JDC ELKA, which works to reconstruct public systems in Israel. “Our job is to be that bridge.”

In the wake of new and urgent demands from the public, and with many welfare department staff in Israel’s North themselves coping with personal loss, trauma, or significant understaffing, JDC is working closely with these departments to strengthen their ability to respond — bolstering digital capacities and data-driven work, enhancing infrastructure, and equipping professionals with new tools and skills through targeted training.

“Cooperating with JDC, especially during the most difficult times, enables us to better care for the vulnerable, respond with flexibility to changing situations, and quickly provide our residents with vital assistance,” said Salam Sabag, director of the social services department in Hurfeish, a Druze town close to Israel’s border with Lebanon.

The robust infrastructure put into place in the months after October 7 also enabled JDC to jump into action during the June 2025 Iranian attacks, which killed dozens and displaced tens of thousands in cities like Bnei Brak, Bat Yam, and Be’er Sheva.

Along with Tamra, those municipalities are now the pilot sites for a coordinated JDC humanitarian response centered on basic necessities for evacuees; flexible emergency funding allocated by expert city professionals; expansion of a network of mobile rights centers where people can learn about and access the government benefits to which they are entitled; and the launch of a comprehensive housing initiative — currently operating in Bat Yam and Ramat Gan for residents whose homes were hit by Iranian missiles — aimed at helping low-income and vulnerable Israelis secure new places to live.

“They stepped in at exactly the right time, strengthening the municipal response to the most vulnerable populations,” said Geula Yisrael, director of social services in Bat Yam.

Across the country, our Mashiv Haruach (Reviving the Spirit) community resilience initiative focuses on at-risk cities that could otherwise slip through the cracks — places like Ashkelon, Rahat, and Ofakim in the South, and Nahariya in the North.

The program looks different in each municipality, tailored to each city’s unique needs. For example, in the Bedouin city of Rahat, a special effort was made to empower often-underserved women and children, and in seaside Ashkelon, where the initiative has impacted more than 55,000 people, a community center is planned to entice residents back to the waterfront.

“We’ve built a model that rests on convenient and easily accessible assistance and building community cohesion,” said Aya Nahum Karpivka, the JDC professional who leads Mashiv HaRuach in Ashkelon. “This isn’t a classic JDC program — it started as an immediate response to the emergency and now gives municipal workers, civilians, city management, and first responders the feeling that someone really sees them, understands the hard times they’re living through, and will be here to stay.”