NY Fabric Store Family’s Charity: We Train People to Fight in Towns in Occupied Territories With Other Civilians Around Us

Arthur and Hadassah Marcus live on the Upper West side. They're married. Must be pushing 60. I'm sure they're nice people. Their son Jay lives in the Occupied Territories. Arthur says he and his son work for Marcus Fabrics on 6th Avenue in New York but Jay spends 35 hours a week working for the Central Fund for Israel, which shares Marcus Fabric's address and gives money to the settlers. Arthur spends half his time on the Central Fund. And Hadassah spends half her time on the Central Fund. They do it for love, too, baby. They don't get any money. They do it for devotion, while they're selling fabric. That's what Zionism is: it's like Communism, something people believe in with all their hearts that is gonna change the world.

Without doing any fundraising, they raised $8 million tax deductible dollars, according to their latest report, for the year 2005. Most of it was humanitarian aid. But a lot was to answer "urgent security" needs. From their 2004 gov't filings, here are some of the settler security forces they're giving money to. All emphases here are from Weiss and Adam Horowitz:

Amitzhttp://www.amitz.org/index.php. "Amit"z is an umbrella organization that unites early response teams,
"kitot konenut", from settlements in Judea and Samaria . Our important
and very much needed goals are to provide the necessary equipment and
training that's needed to protect the men, women and children living in
these communities.
" They have videos also – http://www.amitz.org/Amitz-en.php.
They also have a letter from recommendation from the
High Commander of Security Coordinators in the Benyamin Region – http://www.amitz.org/images/letter-from-KtzinHagmar.gif.

In 2004 they got $37,214 from the Central Fund.

Magen Yehudahttp://www.magenyehuda.net/. Here's what they say about themselves:

Magen Yehuda is an organization run by volunteers
who started its activities in 2004 because of
the needs that arouse during of all the terror
attacks in the towns and settlements in and out
of the green line.

During the last few years the terrorists don't
just capture a few people as hostages as they
did in the past but are out to kill as many people
as they can find who are vulnerable, women, children,
elderly people and whole families just sitting
down to a quiet dinner.

Due to the situation an immediate need arose to
organize a unit of quick action in as many towns
as possible.
These units are comprised of local people who
can react quickly in an emergency situation such
as terrorists entering the town or a house or
cutting a hole in the protective fence. 

These units were formed by the army and given
basic equipment and weapons by the army but because
of a lack of funds they received very basic training
which is not enough to deal with the difficult
situations which they have had to deal with.
In comparison similar army units that are trained
to fight terrorists in a populated residential
area train for many months before they are allowed
to go on duty.

This is where Magen Yehuda comes into the picture.
Magen Yehuda provides short, intensive, high quality
training sessions and preparation for these special
units in the towns and settlements. The training
is especially for these units and the particular
type of fighting they might have to do in the
midst of their town with people around in order
to save their friends and families.

The training sessions are planned and approved
by the army and with army assistance such as targets,
bullets and a place to train, when budget allows
it.

And here's their video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhGIFYofNyY. This is also interesting because as you know Israel
is always trying to draw a separation between the government (including
the military) and the settlements whereas these folks highlight their
coordination with the IDF.

If that wasn't enough they also highlight a thank you from the
settlement Efrat for a training. The thank you is signed by Colonel Nir
Salomon who is (or was) the IDF commander in charge of all the army's
activities from Ma'ale Adumim to Hebron in the south – http://www.magenyehuda.net/idf.asp.

In 2004 they got at least $54,300 from the Central Fund.

Uri Karzen Security. Horowitz couldn't find a website for them, but he could find Uri Karzen's LinkedIn page – http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/779/25b,
where it says he lives in Kiryat Arba and is the Director of Security
at Municipal Council of Hebron, so we can only imagine what role he
played in the recent violence there. Oh, and his page also says that
his interests are "Torah, investments, scuba diving, seeing Israel by foot." How nice.

In 2004 they got $36,184 from the Central Fund

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