CARACAS, VENEZUELA – JUNE 26: A customer pays with a twenty US dollar bill at a bakery shop on June 26, 2019 in Caracas, Venezuela. Everyday, more Venezuelans use American dollar notes to buy groceries, pay a hair cut or fill the tank of their cars and motorbikes. As IMF forecasts a 10 million percent inflation for 2019 in Venezuela, using dollars is a way to protect savings. Today, one US Dollar is worth 6,359 bolivares soberanos according to Venezuela Central Bank. Due to official restrictions, most people get dollars in the black market at higher rates. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/Getty Images) B’nai B’rith International announced in a March 19 press release that it’s launching an emergency fund to provide aid against the coronavirus outbreak.
According to the press release, B’nai B’rith is diverting $10,000 from the organization’s Disaster Relief Fund toward the cause.
“The funds we raise will go to international assistance to help struggling communities around the world,” the press release states. “As an international organization, we will work with our members and supporters across the globe to determine the most urgent needs and best meet them.”
The Journal’s Debra Nussbaum Cohen previously reported on how various Jewish free loan associations are ramping up efforts to make capital available to small businesses that are adversely affected during social distancing as well as to those who are having trouble paying medical bills. Some, such as San Francisco’s Hebrew Free Loan Association (HFLASF), are offering interest-free loans of up to $10,000.
“By offering this type of support, it provides the financial help people will desperately need right now, and also gives everyone who hears about it a sense of emotional support — that there are agencies willing to provide this kind of relief,” HFLASF Executive Director Cynthia Rogoway told Cohen.
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