BeNafsham is a charitable initiative funded by UJA, and carried out by Jewish Federations of Canada - United Israel Appeal (“JFC-UIA”), through their projects together with Teva and Social Finance Israel (SFI). BeNafsham’s charitable purpose is to relieve the distress of Israelis affected by national trauma and to promote mental health. It does this by strengthening the psychological resilience, wellbeing and professional capacity of the mental healthcare professionals who treat those affected, so they can keep providing effective care to the people who need it most.

The initiative brings together the philanthropic, business and social impact sectors to support organizations that employ therapists and other mental healthcare professionals. Program activities include building sustainable organizational resilience to provide care effectively, despite the circumstances, providing professional support, supervision and peer communities, and offering supportive care to help prevent burnout and secondary trauma among caregivers. By making sure the people who care for others are supported themselves, the program helps keep effective mental healthcare available to those in need.

BeNafsham was officially launched in late August 2026. Representatives from UJA, JFC-UIA, Teva, SFI had the opportunity to meet with representatives of all 18 NGOs selected to take part in the program - who are supporting thousands of caregivers, providing hundreds of thousands of Israelis life improving and saving services. It was a particularly meaningful gathering and a wonderful opportunity to bring the partners and participating organizations together, hear more about their work and begin the journey together.

There is a saying to ‘put on your oxygen mask first’ – that if you’re not looking after yourself, you won’t have the strength to support others. But this can be especially difficult for people in caring and therapeutic positions, particularly in trauma-related fields.

This new initiative will work to help ensure that therapists and other mental healthcare professionals are given the support they need to ensure they have their ‘oxygen mask on’ as they help build strength and resilience not only for those affected Israelis, but for themselves as well.