Reflecting on Our Impact Together

As we reach the end of 2025, I’ve been reflecting on everything Chai Vekayam has been able to build together with you. This year carried deep heartbreak and extraordinary courage, and through it all, our community chose to respond with generosity, action, and pride.

Because of you, Chai Vekayam supported seven fundraisers this year alone. Together, we raised over $13,400 for Yarden Bibas’ rehabilitation through the Bibas Sweater initiative. We sent 84 care baskets to families in Israel, all assembled by an Israeli small business that sources every product locally. We created the Blue Bat Yam Sweater to support families whose homes were destroyed, and the Gray 8104 Sweater to fund equipment for IDF Unit 8104. We raised funds for LA wildfire relief, supported an Ometz youth cohort fundraiser benefiting an IDF dinner, and raised over $1,700 through Boots for Israel. What began as small, grassroots efforts became real, tangible impact because this community showed up.

This year, Chai Vekayam also partnered with eight Jewish businesses and organizations, including Coastal Tribe San Diego, Chai Society AZ, Casa26, Friends of Kayla, Roxo Salon, Meetoosh, Ken Jewish Community, and dyeGirl. These collaborations expanded what Jewish pride can look like when creativity, commerce, and purpose meet.

On campuses, we worked with five universities and schools: Elon University Chabad, University of Arkansas Hillel, Chapman University Chabad, Kansas University SSI, and Brandeis School. In a year when antisemitism made visibility feel vulnerable, these partnerships gave students a way to show up boldly and proudly, wearing their identity with confidence and community behind them.

We gathered in person more than ever before, hosting 11 events that brought people together in meaningful ways. From Shabbat dinners and holiday celebrations to launch parties, popups, and community gatherings, these moments reminded us that Jewish life is lived through connection. In total, Chai Vekayam showed up at 26 booths and popups across 13 cities, including Philadelphia, San Diego, Chicago, Orange County, Dallas, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Miami, Queens, Brooklyn, and more. Every city, every table, every conversation mattered.

So many of us are connected to someone who was murdered at Nova or held hostage in Gaza. That pain is personal and collective. It can feel overwhelming and helpless. But through Chai Vekayam, we’ve been able to turn grief into action, fear into presence, and isolation into community. By sending baskets, raising funds, attending events, and choosing to wear Jewish pride visibly, we answered hate with love and silence with strength.

Every sweatshirt worn, every keychain clipped, every event attended became part of this impact. None of this happened without you. This community is the reason Chai Vekayam exists, and the reason it continues to grow.

Thank you for being part of the Chai Vekayam family. Together, we are living proof of what it means to endure, to show up, and to keep choosing light.

Chai Vekayam. Am Yisrael Chai.