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“Fear not, Avram, I am a shield to you” (Bereishit 15:1). This is the first time the word magen appears in the Torah. God speaks it to a man who has just fought a war to protect his own, and who now faces the uncertainty of what comes next. The shield is not a metaphor. It is a promise made to someone standing in real danger.
Today in Israel, over three million people — a third of the country’s population — lack access to adequate shelter from missile attack. Sixteen percent of the population depends on shared building shelters, the communal miklat in the basement or ground floor. According to Israel’s State Comptroller, roughly 12% of these shelters are officially classified lo tiqni — non-compliant with civil defense standards. Cracked seals, pipe penetrations through reinforced walls, missing or damaged blast doors, broken ventilation. The families who depend on these shelters know the situation. When the siren sounds, most go to the miklat anyway — because a compromised shelter still offers more protection than a stairwell. They sit with their children in a room they know isn’t adequate and wait for the all-clear.
Israel’s layered air defense systems have performed remarkably, but no defense system is infinite. As the threat environment intensifies, the physical shelter is becoming the last and most reliable layer of civilian protection. What stands between a family and an incoming missile is, increasingly, the walls of the room they are sitting in. Those walls have to hold. That door has to seal.
Magen Avraham Shelter Fund exists to make that happen.
We fund the repair and upgrade of shared building shelters that have been officially designated non-compliant. Bringing a shelter back to standard typically costs between $10,000 and $20,000 — real money, but not enormous sums. These are fixable problems: a blast door replacement, a wall seal, ventilation repair. Yet after years of war and economic strain, most Israeli families and building committees simply cannot cover the cost on their own.
How it works: An elected vaad bayit (building committee) representative applies through our application form, describing the shelter’s deficiencies and the repairs needed. Once approved, the vaad representative submits a grant request with itemized invoices from a licensed contractor. The grant is transferred directly to the building’s vaad account — no intermediaries, no overhead on the ground. Money moves from donor to building committee to contractor, against verified invoices, for verified repairs.
Our goal: 33 shelters. We are raising $500,000 to bring at least 33 non-compliant building shelters back to full civil defense standard. Each shelter protects every family in the building — typically dozens of residents, including children and elderly who cannot easily reach alternative shelter. Every $15,000 raised is one more building where the families inside can shelter with confidence when the siren sounds. Thirty-three shelters means hundreds of families who no longer have to sit in a room they know can’t protect them and hope for the best.
Why donate? When God said anokhi magen lakh to Avram, He did not promise that danger would not come — only that there would be a shield. Today, for families across Israel, that shield is a concrete room that needs a new door, a sealed wall, a functioning ventilation system. The danger is here. The repairs are straightforward. The cost is within reach. Be the magen. Your tax-deductible donation goes directly toward bringing one more shelter back to the standard that protects the people inside it.
Magen Avraham Shelter Fund is a program of Rekonect, a 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Nonprofit Organization.
Recent Donations ($621.83 total)
Jacob Lehman
$51.81
Joan Futterman
$122.28
Emma Fialkoff
$180.00
Kerry Salkin
$111.92
Contact Magen Avraham Shelter Fund
Frequently Asked Questions
A Community Support Fund (CSF) is a grassroots fundraising program hosted by Rekonect. Each CSF is run by an independent organizer raising money for a specific cause they care about, with Rekonect providing the legal, financial, and technical infrastructure to make it possible. Donations to a CSF go to Rekonect, which then disburses the funds to support the cause according to the program’s purpose. This model lets organizers focus on the work itself rather than the overhead of starting and running a nonprofit from scratch.
Rekonect is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit that sponsors grassroots fundraising programs. You can read more about us in our mission and manifesto. Every CSF goes through a vetting process before going live: we verify the organizer’s identity, review the cause description for legitimacy and alignment with our mission, and conduct a post-approval onboarding call to confirm the program’s scope and operations. Causes that pass vetting are hosted on our platform; those that don’t, aren’t.
Yes, for US taxpayers. Rekonect is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit (EIN 82-4750961), and donations are deductible to the extent allowed by US law. Tax deductibility applies to US donors only — we do not currently offer Israeli or other foreign tax-deductible giving. You will receive a tax receipt by email immediately after your donation, and all your receipts are also available in your donor account.
Rekonect retains a 2% administrative fee, and our platform partner BrightLeaf Giving retains 4.5%, for a combined 6.5% that supports the infrastructure making CSFs possible. Credit card processing fees are 3.5% and donors have the option to cover these fees at checkout. We keep these costs as low as we can while still operating responsibly, and every fee is disclosed transparently rather than hidden in the math.
Donations are held by Rekonect and disbursed against documented requests from the CSF organizer. Vendor payments require invoices, stipends require electronically signed agreements, and direct grants require an attestation of need from the recipient. Every disbursement is capped at $10,000 and requires approval from both Rekonect and our platform partner before funds are released. This structure ensures that money moves only against verified requests for purposes consistent with the CSF’s stated mission.
We accept Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) grants and wire transfers in addition to credit card and ACH donations. Stock and check donations are not currently supported. Full instructions for each accepted donation method are available directly on the donation form — select your preferred method and the form will guide you through the next steps.
Yes. Recurring donations are available on a monthly basis — select the recurring option on the donation form when you give. To change the amount, pause, or cancel a recurring donation, email us at the address listed on our contact page and we’ll handle it promptly. Self-service management of recurring donations through the donor account is on our roadmap.
Yes to both. The donation form includes a dedication field where you can mark your gift in honor of, in memory of, or in celebration of someone, with an optional message. You can also choose to send the honoree an e-card acknowledging your gift. To give anonymously, select the anonymous option on the donation form — your information will still reach the program for receipt purposes, but your name won’t appear in public donor listings.
Yes. All donations are processed through a PCI-compliant payment processor that handles card data according to industry security standards. Rekonect itself does not store any card information on its servers — payment details are tokenized through the processor and never touch our systems. Your financial information is protected by the same standards used by major financial institutions.
A donor account is optional but useful. It gives you faster checkout on future gifts, access to your full giving history and tax receipts in one place, and a record of any dedications you’ve made. Additional features — including saved payment methods and self-service management of recurring donations — are on our roadmap. Account creation is free and takes about a minute.