In recent days the Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County has received phone calls and e-mails criticizing our Israel Emergency Campaign and that of the entire UJC/Jewish federation system, which provided vital aid to the most vulnerable populations of Israel’s North during this summer’s war and continues to help Israelis recover and rebuild.

These allegations stated — incorrectly — that “one-third” of the funds are designated for non-Jewish residents of Israel. In fact, about three percent of the national IEC money raised to date has gone to non-Jewish Israelis in the North.

So far, UJC/federations have raised more than $320 million for the IEC. More than $92 million has been allocated to the federation system’s main overseas funding partners, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the Ethiopian National Project. Our partners, working directly and with scores of local nonprofit agencies, have so far spent $50 million on vulnerable populations — children, the elderly, the disabled, recent immigrants, low-income families, and terror victims.

From its outset, the IEC has aimed at helping all vulnerable Israelis under fire from Hizbullah terrorists, whether Arab, Druze, or Jews. Israel, as a democratic state, and the Jewish Agency have always provided aid and benefits to all Israelis, including minorities, some of whom serve in the Israeli army. Israel has never applied an ethnic or political litmus test to those in need, and the government today follows the same principle in its own rebuilding efforts.

We are enormously proud not only of the IEC’s broad goals, but of our far-reaching impact to date.

During the conflict, major efforts included moving children out of harm’s way to summer camps outside the range of missiles; funding community center programs; upgrading bomb shelters with such improvements as air-conditioners and televisions and providing activity kits for children in shelters; and delivering meals and health-care aid to elderly, immobile people.

Now the IEC is focused on recovery and rebuilding. We’re providing funds to repair absorption centers damaged by missiles, awarding scholarships to university students who could not work during the summer to earn money for tuition because of military service, offering aid to small businesses facing bankruptcy due to the conflict, providing school supplies for the indigent, extending post-trauma counseling, and giving assistance to food-supply programs.

Our efforts are also intended to be as strategic as possible, to provide longer-term solutions to emerging needs.

For details about the IEC and other wonderful services being provided through our regular annual Jewish Federation Campaign, please visit our Web site. Become part of the process and be involved in the building of a stronger and more vibrant Jewish community in Monmouth County, Israel, and throughout the world. For more information and to volunteer, call the federation in Deal at 732-531-6200 or in Manalapan at 732-866-4300.