Kenneth R. Heyman is president and Max L. Kleinman is executive vice president of the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

Recently there have been inaccurate allegations in some quarters stating that one third of all Israel Emergency Campaign funds raised by United Jewish Communities nationally were allocated to Arab and Druse citizens. We want to address this issue factually and philosophically.

As of Oct. 13, the IEC has raised more than $330 million, of which $92 million in allocations have been made. To date, 3 percent of all IEC funds raised were used to evacuate Israeli Arabs and Druse children from the North. This happened during the war, when thousands of missiles were falling, at the same time that the Jewish Agency for Israel evacuated tens of thousands of Jewish youngsters.

These children participated in camping and recreational programs out of harm’s way.

The bulk of the remaining funds raised by the IEC will be allocated in upcoming months by top lay and professional leaders of the UJC, which also had the responsibility for coordinating the fund-raising effort. The overwhelming preponderance of the funds to be allocated will be used for Jews in the form of rebuilding businesses and communal infrastructure, assisting families of fallen and injured IDF soldiers, trauma counseling, and other social services. However, the IEC will assist non-Jewish populations, in coordination with the Israeli government, where it can do the most good and is consistent with the IEC’s mission.

Philosophically speaking, our UJA Campaign raises funds annually to primarily address the needs of Jews in Israel, worldwide, and in our own local community of MetroWest. But our biblical tradition teaches us to “not stand idly by when the blood of your neighbor is shed.” During the war, dozens of missiles were raining down daily on Haifa, Kiryat Sh’mona, Nahariya, and other cities and villages in the North. Would the UJC’s critics have the Jewish Agency, our overseas beneficiary, interrogate those youngsters and their parents caught in the cross fire regarding religious or ethnic background?

“From Memory to History,” an exhibit at the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany, highlights the horror of Nazi-occupied Europe, where Jews were selected for deportation and death. In the powerful film Hotel Rwanda, only Caucasians were given safe passage out of Rwanda. We learn from our history that the gift of life must never be rationed by ethnicity, religion, or race.

Regarding the Victims’ Fund for Fallen or Injured IDF Soldiers, would it be ethical if we ignored the needs of fallen or injured Druse soldiers who have given so much in defense of our people? We met a Druse mayor two weeks before the war. We were impressed with his love of Israel, but he informed us of the enormous pressure being applied to his community by hostile Arabs to side with their cause. Anything we can do to assist this community is not only the right thing to do ethically, but also the smart thing.

There has been scandalous behavior by Arab leaders, including some in the Knesset. They should be dealt with within the limits of Israeli law. But political and legal questions must be addressed by the Israeli government. The IEC’s province is to address human-service needs.

In another relatively recent conflict, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, our overseas beneficiary, evacuated Jews and Muslims out of harm’s way from Yugoslavia. In fact, many Arab and Islamic countries forget the fact that the West saved thousands of Muslims from ethnic cleansing. When the JDC had an opportunity to save lives, it acted without prejudice. It is this same ethical imperative that has galvanized the Jewish community into a leadership position of advocacy efforts to save Africans from the genocide going on in Darfur.

United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ has tried to address important issues and needs on their own merits. We were the first federation to provide social service allocations for Gaza evacuees and one of the first to assist the Gush Etzion community during the Second Intifada. We are the leading federation in the country to fund programs in Israel to promote greater respect for diversity and dialogue between the secular and the religious. Now we are raising resources, through the IEC, to help address the needs of Israeli Jews and those of their neighbors, in an appropriate and proportionate way, in coordination with the Israeli government. We will not stand idly by.