American Jews Raised $1 Billion for Israel in First Month of Hamas War, Researchers Find

Jews in North America raised approximately $1 billion for Israel in the first month of its war with the Hamas terror group, according to a new study.

The report, published in Hebrew by scholars at Haifa University’s Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies, detailed the “immense scale of American Jewry’s activities during the first month of the war.”

According to the study, the Jewish Federations of North America — one of the largest Jewish and pro-Israel charity networks in the world — raised more than $600 million alone in the war’s first weeks.

The amount raised by the Jewish Federations of North America almost double what was raised during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when the organization received and contributed $360 million to the war effort.

The $602 million raised by the federations far exceeded their $500 million goal, which they announced at the start of the fundraising campaign immediately after Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians, across southern Israel and kidnapped 240 others as hostages.

The additional $400 million outlined in this week’s report is an estimation of donations raised in multiple campaigns by other Jewish-affiliated organizations. This money was donated to various sources such as Magen David Adom, Israel’s first responder service, as well as other hospitals and groups supporting Israel.

The report — titled “Standing Together: American Jewry and Israel in the First Month of the War,” said it was “based on data from leading American Jewish organizations, along with interviews, testimonies, and public statements from community leaders, federation heads, rabbis, volunteers, and ordinary citizens.”

The donations also included “many tons of supplies ranging from hygiene products and heating equipment for soldiers to toys for displaced children.” Such items featured prominently early in the war as there were fears of shortages of essential gear for soldiers, as well as to assist with the hundreds of thousands of evacuees from their homes in the north and south of Israel.

Beyond money and other donations, the American Jewish community has shown support for the Jewish state in other ways since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7.

Last month, for example, hundreds of thousands of Jewish Americans and pro-Israel advocates packed the National Mall in Washington, DC to demand the release of hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza and to demonstrate support for both the Jewish state and the Jewish community amid a global surge in antisemitism that has followed the Palestinian terror group’s Oct 7. Massacre.

The rally was both the largest ever pro-Israel gathering and the largest Jewish gathering in US history.

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