Chai is the Hebrew word for life. Its number is 18. The Chai Club starts at double chai, 36 dollars a month, and every cent of it reaches a reservist's family.

A girl in Modiin opened her front door last winter certain it was her father, home early from miluim. It was two of our volunteers holding a candy platter. She smiled anyway, took it, and went back inside to a house that was still missing him.

That door is why the Chai Club exists.

A reservist's deployment does not happen once. It happens again every morning his family wakes up without him. The wife running the house alone. The kid asking when Abba is coming back. They carry it on the days the news has long moved on.

So we built support that works the same way. Steady, monthly, set once and felt all year.

Here is what your membership reaches.

At 36 dollars a month, double chai, a warm meal arrives at the door of a family running on empty. At 90 dollars a month, that meal comes with a child's birthday remembered, a carnival and a platter at the door. At 180 dollars a month, you carry a family of the fallen, and the kids who lost the most, for the long haul.

I learned this work the hard way. I joined the IDF at 44 through Shlav Bet and served as a logistics officer with Alog 99, the unit behind the 99th Battalion. I learned the war one supply run at a time, and I learned that the quiet daily grind on the home front is the part most people never see.

We run on a zero overhead model. Nothing is taken from your gift for salaries or admin. Smiles for the Kids holds the Candid Platinum Seal of Transparency and is a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 33-2583266.

Join the Chai Club today. Set it once, and a family feels you every month after.

The Chai Club

Monthly support for the families keeping life going at home. Starts at double chai, $36 a month.