The Friends of Bezalel USA and Bezalel UK launch Emergency Support Fund for Bezalel

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem is very grateful to the Friends of Bezalel in the USA and Bezalel UK for joining our immediate efforts and initiating an Emergency Support Fund to assist the Bezalel community.

“We understand that the entire population of Israel is affected by the Hamas incursion and its deadly consequences, including every member of Bezalel Academy’s immediate 3500-member community of students, faculty, and staff. Currently Bezalel’s academic semester has been delayed and will commence on December 3rd.

The emotional and economic toll on our community remains unknown in the face of this gruesome war. One member of the administrative staff’s daughter witnessed and survived the storming of a southern military base. Another faced the disappearance of her immediate family and their subsequent death. Many students and faculty from the South face similar circumstances or are amongst the 300,000 drafted to join the IDF.

Our community is channeling sorrow into action and creativity, and we are witnessing first-hand the nature of Israel’s creative flame, as represented by Bezalel Academy for almost 120 years. Civil society initiatives and volunteerism are coming to light from within the Academy, where our people are accessing reserves of hope to be productive and designing solutions for crises. Bezalel’s campus studios are activated by designers producing new items for the IDF, emergency studios are functioning in medical centers, and this is only the beginning.

The work being done at Bezalel right now is not decorative, but it is to design solutions for saving lives. Now is the time to show the Academy just how much we, as Bezalel UK along with our Bezalel Friends in the USA and beyond, believe in the role that culture, art, and design plays in democracy, diplomacy, progress, and survival.

The Emergency Support Fund to address the immediate needs of the Bezalel community and its artists and designers, and we hope you will consider donating funds to support these efforts. Your donations will be allocated as follows:

• To help promote Bezalel’s ‘Doing Good’ Emergency Initiatives led by artists and designers responding to current needs arising across Israel. (see examples on the Doing Good page on our website)
• To financially assist students with living stipends and scholarships for those who have been drafted, those who have lost jobs, or who have been affected by the events of October 7th.
• (More than 350 students have been drafted, 48 come from the South and another almost 400 have stated they have been directly affected from the war.)
• To support Bezalel’s 3,500-member community itself, both emotionally and practically - helping faculty, teaching assistants, staff and students and their families, both Jews and Arabs.

The funds we raise will be dispersed through Bezalel’s Management and Dean’s Office to the specific needs that are arising daily in Bezalel’s community. Funds raised will have a real effect, and donors will receive regular updates and direct reporting on their donation’s precise allocation and impact.

We will keep you posted on how the Artists and Designers of Israel are galvanizing during the ongoing crisis and we thank you for any support you can give at this time.

In the not-too-distant future, we know that Bezalel will strive once more to be an open community, where all segments of society will come together to make sense of their life experiences through artistic expression."

For More Information and How to make a Donation:

In the USA:
Tax deductible donations in the USA can be made to the Friends of Bezalel Inc., a 501c3 association:

1. Via debit or credit card
https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=rbKoL9
2. Via Bank Transfer:
The banking details of the American Friends of Bezalel, is as follows:
Account Name: Friends of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Inc.
Account No.:  03-6766-2
Bank: Israel Discount Bank of NY
Bank Address: 511 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017
ABA No.: 026009768

For more information:
Dana Gluck
Executive Director
Friends of Bezalel
email: dg@bezalelfriends.org

In the UK:
For tax-deductible donations, Bezalel UK works under the auspices of UK Gives Ltd. (charity no. 1161366), as one of their Israeli-based projects.

To make your donation:

1. Via debit or credit card:
https://secured.israelgives.org/pay/makedonation?MakeDonation=1&AmutaGovId=580044345

2. Via Bank Transfer:
Bank: Bank: Lloyds Bank
Sort code: 771703
Account: 39408560

For reference, please be sure to mark in the “notes/reference” the ID number of Bezalel Academy: 580044345

UK Gives will issue a tax receipt to your email, and we will send confirmation as well once we see the donation has gone through.

For more information:
Danna Heller
Bezalel UK Director, London
email: danna@bezaleluk.org

In Israel (or from other countries*)

Tax deductible donations in Israel can be made directly to Bezalel Academy (a non-profit organization with Article 46A status)

1. Via Bank Transfer
Name of Account: Bezalel Academy
Name of Bank: Bank Leumi Le-Israel BM
Bank Code: 10
Branch Address: 1-3 Kiryat Hamada, Jerusalem
Branch: Jerusalem Main 901
Account no. 28780063
Swift No: LUMILITXXX
IBAN: IL810109010000028780063
2. Via debit or credit card (tax receipt also relevant for Canada and France)
https://secured.israelgives.org/pay/makedonation?MakeDonation=1&AmutaGovId=580044345

For more information:
Tali Dowek
Vice President for Resource Development
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem
email: tali@bezalel.ac.il