In the two days since the Jewish Agency and Israel’s banking system launched their new grant program to assist reservists and their spouses who own small businesses, more than 2,400 people have applied for funds, according to Jewish Agency CEO Amira Ahronoviz.

In order to qualify for the grants, applicants or their spouses must have performed at least 60 days of reserve duty and their businesses must have seen a 20% reduction in income. The businesses must also have an annual income of less than NIS 10 million ($2.6 million). 

According to Ahronoviz, the 2,400 applicants have — on average — served 186 days of reserve duty and seen an 80% loss in income. “That shows that the need [for these grants] is tremendous. Tremendous,” Ahronoviz told eJewishPhilanthropy.

The grant program is dubbed Atzma’imnikim, a Hebrew portmanteau combining the word for independent business owners (atzma’im) and for reservists (miluimnikim). The program offers grants worth between NIS 7,000 ($1,820) and NIS 50,000 ($13,010), depending on a variety of factors, namely the size of the business, the amount of reserve duty performed and the business’ needs.

The goal of the grants is to give the small business owners a “lifesaver” that will give them the breathing room necessary to determine how they can get their business back on track, Ahronoviz said.

“This will give the business some time to understand what’s next, to receive the benefits they are eligible for from the government and other places, to make some decisions,” she said. “This will give them some immediate relief. It won’t let them take their business forward, but it will let them prevent a collapse.” 

Unlike salaried employees, whose income is provided by Israel’s National Insurance Institute, freelancers and small business owners are generally not fully compensated for their time serving in the reserves, often putting an undue burden on them. The program is open to the spouses of reservists as well, as they may have had to put their businesses on hold in order to care for the family while their husband or wife was away. Ahronoviz noted that in cases in which both spouses are freelancers or run small businesses, they can both apply for a grant.

“Reservists who are independent business owners were identified as the group that the degree to which they could be affected and the amount they were affected because of the war was the most significant,” Eitan Madmon, the CEO of the Association of the Banks in Israel, said in a statement. 

The Jewish Agency, which is administering the program, has brought on teams of underwriters to review the applications and determine how much each applicant will receive. Ahronoviz said the process of reviewing the applications and issuing the grants should take between 10 and 14 days.

“The men and women serving in the reserves are those allowing the Israel Defense Forces to continue fighting in this hard war that has been forced upon us since Oct. 7,” Jewish Agency Chairman Doron Almog said in a statement. “Every one of them leaves behind a family, work and their entire lives in order to fight for the State of Israel… This is our way of expressing our great appreciation for their sacrifice.”

Ahronoviz noted that the Jewish Agency has been working for decades to support small businesses in Israel’s geographic and socioeconomic periphery and has stepped this up since Oct. 7 with low- and no-interest loans through its own platforms and partnerships with other organizations.

After initially focusing on businesses in southern Israel and then northern Israel, Ahronoviz said the Jewish Agency launched Atzma’imnikim out of recognition of the sacrifices made by reservists throughout the more than 300 days of war.

“This population paid the biggest price, not only in putting themselves at risk and making the sacrifice of leaving their homes and families, but also sacrificing their financial standings,” she said. “This initiative is looking to address this at a large scale.”

The funds for the grants now come from a NIS 100 million ($26 million) contribution by the Israeli banking system, specifically the Leumi, Hapoalim, Mizrahi-Tefahot, Discount, Mercantile, Beinleumi, Massad and Yahav banks. According to Ahronoviz, this current level of funding is enough to provide grants to between 5,000 and 7,000 people.

While she called the NIS 100 million “unprecedented” and hailed the banking system’s contribution, she said the Jewish Agency hopes to find additional donors in order to provide additional grants. “NIS 100 million is a good start. We’d be happy for there to be more,” she said, adding in English: “The more the merrier.”