The event, hosted by Alpha Epsilon Pi and the Hillel Foundation, cost $10 to enter and was open to everyone. Matt Van Horn, the president of the fraternity and a marketing and entrepreneurship junior, said he hoped the event would raise a lot of money for the cause. "We are hoping to raise $1,000 from 100 poker participants," Van Horn said. Van Horn also said proceeds from the event were going toward a good cause. "Alpha Epsilon Pi's national philanthropy is to raise money for two Ethiopian Jewish Community Centers in Israel," Van Horn said. "Seventy-two percent of Ethiopian Jews live below the poverty level." Aaron Pratt, a Jewish Campus Services Core Fellow at the Hillel Foundation, also said the poker event was a great way to raise money for Ethiopians living in Israel. "Israel is kind of a patchwork country of different ethnicities," Pratt said. "The Ethiopian Jews have a really hard time trying to adapt, and a lot of times they are very, very poor." According to Alpha Epsilon Pi's Web site, today about 80,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, with 55 percent having arrived in Israel since 1990.
Also, while the Ethiopian community's quality of life has increased dramatically over levels in Ethiopia, a great deal of work still needs to be done in order to integrate Ethiopian community into mainstream Israeli society, according to the Web site.
No comments:
Post a Comment