In the days after Oct. 7, 2023, as the scale of the terror attacks and the impending Israeli response became clear, 10 veteran entrepreneurs — some with backgrounds in logistics and supply chains — quickly came together to organize flights back to Israel from the United States for reservists wanting to join their units and for shipping vital non-combat aid to Israel Defense Forces, from reconnaissance drones to specially adapted first aid kits.

Nearly 20 months later, the ad hoc group — now dubbed Israel Friends — has provided some $50 million in on-the-ground aid to Israel, while operating with 5% overhead, far below the normal range of 15%-35%. Modeling itself like a startup has allowed the group to be “extremely nimble” and quickly find solutions to needs, said Israel Friends CEO Kyle Blank.

Earlier this month, some of the founders and eight donors who have helped raise funds for Israel Friends projects visited Israel on a five-day “Founding Ambassador Mission.”

Seeing how their donations directly impacted individual lives was deeply meaningful, one of the participants, Elizabeth Marcus of Boston, told eJewishPhilanthropy, just after handing out a first aid kit to a soldier on a base where the group had sponsored a barbecue.

“There’s a lot of people out there doing a lot of good things, but this seems to be something much more immediate, much more personal,” said Marcus. “Somebody needs a drone — it was given to them the next day. That was what this is all about. They’re not waiting to get it. [The soldiers] get it immediately. They’re thanking us, but we’re thanking them. They have no idea how much this means to us.”

Marcus’ comment about getting a soldier a drone within a day was not hypothetical. During the trip, an IDF soldier approached members of the mission as they were serving lunch at a rest station for troops in front of Moshav Shuva near the Gaza border and told them that his unit’s drone had broken the day before during an operation. By the next day, Israel Friends had delivered a new one.

During the weeklong visit, the delegation traveled to southern and northern Israel, meeting with soldiers and survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, heard briefings from military leaders and politicians, and spoke with mental health leaders about the growing psychological needs in Israel. They also visited the innovative IDF Drone Academy, with which Israel Friends has partnered to provide reconnaissance drones — none that carry munitions — and other technologies for testing when requested.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel Friends has donated over 15,000 advanced individual first aid kits, equipped more than 1,000 vehicles with protective systems and provided non-combat drones, surveillance systems and protective gear to troops. Through a partnership with the Israeli startup HealthyMind, which uses an online platform and software to connect patients with case managers, psychologists and psychiatrists, Israel Friends has also worked to reduce wait times for mental health treatment from 200 days to under a week, as need for mental health care in Israel has skyrocket. A private family donation through Israel Friends has also helped launch a therapeutic farm for treating post-traumatic stress disorder in northern Israel.

Simon Wasserberger of New York said he felt “shocked and useless” following the Oct. 7 attacks. But a chance meeting and conversation with Israel Friends co-founder Teddy Raskin through a mutual friend shortly after the attacks had him on a plane to Israel within 48 hours, armed with a plan to hike part of the Sea-to-Sea Hiking Trail in Israel (between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee) to raise funds for Israel Friends.

“Everyone in New York has given and given. There are so many worthwhile causes, it is hard to get people’s attention,” Wasserberger said. “[What drew me to Israel Friends] was how direct and transparent Israel Friends is. You can see exactly where the funds are going, product by product. And the percentage of overhead is unheard of. People who supported me [on the hike] could see where every dime was going.” 

Raskin and fellow Israel Friends co-founder Michael Sinensky both owned competing — but friendly — supply-chain businesses. They first began cooperating after Russia’s invasion in 2022, providing aid to the Ukrainian army, through their newly formed Worldwide Friends Foundation. The foundation now includes two missions, Ukraine Friends and Israel Friends.

“We were so well prepared to be useful on Oct. 7 and 8[, 2023,] to help deliver critical supplies to Israel. This is what we do in our day jobs for a living. A) We have multiple supply chain companies, with technology-focused global reach, and B) We just did the same thing in a much more complicated landscape in Ukraine for the same products,” said Raskin. “We were like, are you kidding? The hard part was emotional. We just couldn’t believe that Israel needed this. We couldn’t get our heads around this.”

In the early days, many of the founders invested their own funds to get the needed equipment to Israel as quickly as possible, he said.

“We really try to find the most efficient and effective way to deliver aid, change the landscape at least by [a factor of 10] and have a real relationship with our partners or benefactors,” said Raskin. “We’re trying to play our part as part of the global Diaspora to get things off the ground fast, efficiently, effectively, and step in almost to supercharge these things.”

Three months after receiving funding from a single family donation through Israel Friends for the Matanya Farm, a therapeutic farm for PTSD recovery and vulnerable communities outside of Afula, farm founder Sendi Ben Zaken is already welcoming groups, families and volunteers to help him build the farm. Together, they have planted fruit trees and tended to the rows of fresh vegetables growing in the organic garden. The vegetables are then donated to another of his projects, a soup kitchen in Afula. A petting zoo is in the finishing stages in a back corner of the farm, a carpentry shop has been set up and two black horses for therapeutic riding therapy are settled in their corral.

Being able to receive funds so quickly allowed him to start building the farm together with the benefactors rather than having to wait for bureaucratic processes to receive funding for the crucially needed center in the north, said Ben Zaken, who served in the Golani Brigade with Israel Friends co-founder Lior Benjamin. Five of Ben Zaken’s friends were killed in the West Bank counterterrorism Operation Defensive Shield 23 years ago, and he has watched other friends struggle with PTSD, he said. The farm is named in honor of one friend who committed suicide because of untreated PTSD.

Hopes are that after having provided the higher-cost funding to develop the land, the farm will be given government funding in the near future, said Raskin, as cost of maintenance is very low. The Afula Municipality has been very supportive of the farm, and issued all the necessary permits “right away,” he said. 

“War has come to Israel and I know there will be a lot of  people who will need us,” said Ben Zaken. “We have no place like this in the north where we have a lot of fighters who go to fight but then have no place for them to come back to.”