FUNDRAISING
If there’s one area in world Jewry where Bukharian truly shine, besides, you know, diamonds, it’s building and preserving cemeteries—honoring those who came before us and ensuring their memory endures.
Now, Bukharian philanthropist Jack Abraham is helping bring that tradition of remembrance to Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the Israeli communities devastated by the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Representatives of Be’eri recently visited Queens on August 31, 2026 for a fundraising event at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates, organized with Jewish National Fund-USA and Abraham and his family. The gathering was part of the kibbutz’s broader rebuilding effort and focused in particular on raising funds for a new cemetery and memorial site honoring the 102 members who were murdered and fallen on October 7.
The planned site will combine a cemetery with an open memorial garden, ceremonial plaza, monuments and a lookout toward the Gaza border—a place intended not only for remembrance, but also for gathering, education and renewal.
Among the Be’eri representatives visiting Queens were Avida Bachar, Chairman of the Kibbutz Rehabilitation Association, and Yarden Tzemach, a member of its fundraising and rebuilding team. Both suffered devastating losses on October 7. Bachar survived the attack with his daughter Hadar, but his wife Dana and 15-year-old son Carmel were murdered; Tzemach’s brother Shachar was killed while fighting with Be’eri’s emergency squad.
Abraham has a personal connection to the kibbutz: he lived in Be’eri in 1956–57. Today, he and his family are helping ensure its dead are remembered as its survivors rebuild.
So far, Abraham told The Bukharian Times, the campaign has raised $53,200—with more still needed. Donations made through JNF-USA will receive additional matching support from JNF-USA and Abraham and his family.
“WE JUST STARTED,” ABRAHAM SAID. “THEY REALLY NEED MORE HELP.”
And for a community that has long understood that rebuilding the future also means preserving the past, it is a mission close to home.
By Erin Levi