Sandy’s Wrath Spurs Comprehensive Jewish Community Response
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Rabbi Yakov Horowitz collecting donations from students.
(Photo courtesy of Rabbi Horowitz)
NEW YORK—Hurricane Sandy stormed into New York and New Jersey with unmitigated force, carrying death and destruction, disrupting lives, and devastating neighborhoods in America’s most densely populated regions – which happen to be home to some of the country’s largest Jewish populations.
In response, the Jewish community banded together to meet immediate needs and plan for a long-term revival.
Cheryl Fishbein, chair of the Emergency Committee of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), told JNS.org Sunday that the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY) is working on insurance – or lack thereof – issues.
“We’re pulling together, recognizing that people have really been demolished,” Fishbein said.
“The entire community – religious, not religious, left to right, Chabad and secular, synagogues, organizations – everybody is under the tent, a tent that stretches as big as it can possibly be,” she said. “People need to know we’re out there, checking on one another, making sure everyone is safe.”
Carol Goldstein, president of the Marks Jewish Community House in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, detailed the work being done by volunteers and staff. “I’m so proud to be part of an agency that exemplifies the Jewish belief we are responsible one to another,” she said.
Marks Jewish Community House Executive Director Alex Budnitsky, together with staff and volunteers, climbed innumerable flights of stairs, carrying meals and water to those trapped in high-rise apartments without electricity. Brooklyn’s Neptune Avenue, he said, “truly looked like a war zone.”
“I applaud the efforts of the volunteers of the community,” he said. “The response is unprecedented. People of all ages from all over Brooklyn have given their time, energy, knowledge, language skills and more to make sure care is taken of everybody from seniors to kids.”
Several Jewish communal organizations joined together to create the The Emergency Sandy Chesed. The fund will be managed by Chevra Hatzalah with the support of local Hatzolah groups, Shomrim, Misaskim, Chaveirim, Met Council on Jewish Poverty, Yad Ephraim and neighborhood Jewish community councils.
Volunteers from synagogues and Entwine, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) young leadership program that usually works in eastern European Jewish communities, were on the ground in Brooklyn, according to Goldstein. The director of a clinic in Kharkov, Ukraine, asked how he could help Russian-speaking Jews in Brooklyn. Teens whose classes were canceled visited the elderly and calls were made to Holocaust survivors, she said.
Sigal Greenfeld Middelman arrived in New York just days before the storm. She is chaperon of the Israeli contingent of the America Israel Friendship League’s YASE (Young Ambassadors Student Exchange) program. Sandy, she said, created “a really awful situation.”
“I had to keep the kids calm and assure their safety – especially without electricity,” she told JNS.org. “Parents were worried – there was no phone service for days.” E-mail and Skype helped Middelman keep parents 6,000 miles away as calm as possible.
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who represents several of the devastated Brooklyn neighborhoods, said Sandy should lead to a “massive reordering of priorities.” His district includes Sea Gate, a historic “gated community” that suffered massive wind and water damage. Many homes were entirely washed away. Rabbi Chaim Brikman of Chabad by the Ocean, which serves Sea Gate and Coney Island, said that Sandy “hit with about 10 feet of water.”
“Everything was destroyed – offices, classrooms, the library,” Rabbi Brikman said. “Somehow I had the intuition to bring all the Torahs to the upper floor – some are over 100 years old.”
Rivkah Brikman, the rabbi’s wife, stressed that the storm did not stop Shabbat. “Homemade food came from Crown Heights,” she said. “We gathered in one of only three undamaged homes. Even without heat, the warm feelings made it the most beautiful Shabbat ever.”
“This is a very loving community,” she added. “Everyone is helping one another – Jews and non-Jews: reaching out to one another. No hurricane will stop us.”
In Manhattan Beach, Congregation Shaarey Torah had 25 people in the shul, usually known as the Shtieble, on Shabbat morning braving the lack of lights and heat. In fact, Manhattan Beach, of all places, actually hosted refugees, as those without electricity were hosted in homes that were not affected by the storm.
As Shabbat approached on Nov. 2, the UJA Federation of New York distributed more than 800 challot to people hurt by the storm. By Shabbat eve, many Chabad centers had reopened their facilities; some organized virtual bake-a-thons to produce challot – even when power was out – and many organized Shabbat meals.
In Freehold, a town on the hard-hit New Jersey shore, Rabbi Avrohom Bernstein invited people to share a Friday night meal – even without electricity.
“It’s a very meaningful time, because people really put things into perspective,” he told Chabad.org. “There are things that we take for granted so many times.” Rabbi Eliezer Zaklikovsky of the Chabad Jewish center of Monroe, N.J., distributed self-heating kosher meals to Jewish college students in area shelters.
“We’re trying to get hot soup as well,” said Rabbi Zaklikovsky. “Our spirit is strong. The damage is great, but we’re trying to move on.”
Other communities also felt the affects of the hurricane on Shabbat – because they hosted many refugees. At Congregation Etz Chaim of Flatbush, Rabbi Shmuel Friedler welcomed all the guests who had to leave their homes, which, according to one observer, made up more than 50 percent of the congregation.
The JCC in Manhattan prepared meals for more than 1,000 people in shelters at John Jay College and at George Washington High School. Water, blankets, clothing, and toys were given to more than 600 people.
Aileen Gitelson, CEO of JASA (Jewish Agency for Services to the Aged), told JNS.org that the agency staff “has gone above and beyond the call of duty to assure the provisions are made for seniors in New York City.”
JASA provides 650,000 meals a year. Gitelson said its meals program is now back in full force, as all 18 senior centers its serves have been reopened and only one of its Far Rockaway buildings was without power as of Sunday, Nov. 4.
Volunteers assess the damage in Sea Gate, Brooklyn.
“Despite being urged to evacuate, perhaps 30 to 40 percent of the residents remained in their homes, even in the dark,” Gitelson said. “Everyone was visited or called; everyone is safe.”
Peter Brick, chief operating officer of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (“Met Council”) in New York, told JNS.org that a major food depot used to service the Met Council client’s needs had flooded, but assured that Met Council and UJA are working together to get food and water to thousands of Jews who were or are still without power, heat, or elevator service.
“The network of volunteers and staff is tremendous,” Brick said. “We are working with [the] Hatzolah [emergency medical team], going door to door, to make sure all the seniors are okay.”
The URJ is working with 180 congregations from affected areas, Freelander (its senior vice president) said, dealing with challenges such as finding alternative sites for services and religious school classes. The point is “for our member congregations to know that they’re never alone,” he said.
Additionally, URJ’s Disaster Relief Fund is contributing to recovery efforts for both Jews and non-Jews. UJA of New York, JFNA, Chabad, and the National Council of Young Israel, among other groups, also set up relief funds.
Jewish communities outside the tri-state area have also geared up to help. One example is Silver Spring, Md., where an ad hoc Greater Washingon Relief Committee has decided to “twin” with a devastated community in the tri-state area, and also will put on a relief concert.
A Lakewood resident set up a Sandy Shabbos relief website (www.lakewoodsandy.com) so that families in Lakewood can share their houses with those who have been displaced. And one day after the storm, a group of organizations from Baltimore (Chesed Fund, Northern Park Heights Community Emergency Response Team, Baltimore’s Hatzalah, Shomrim and Chaverim) sent four large rented trucks filled with generators, lanterns, sump pumps, dry ice, batteries, and radios to a very dark and desolate Far Rockaway.
Several days later, four more trucks were on their way, this time filled with new and gently used clothing, linens, toiletries, and other necessities. They also brought over 400 assorted gas cans and a dozen more generators.
Closer to where Sandy’s winds were felt the most, at Yeshiva Darchei Noam in Monsey, N.Y., the students waited until their lights came back on and then gave to areas harder hit, raising in one day $5,000 in cash and double that amount in new clothing and household goods.
“I wanted to do something very tangible so that children should know exactly where the money raised is going – to make it real for the kids,” said Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, dean of the yeshiva. “And the students felt very connected.”
(With additional reporting by Jacob
Kamaras of JNS and Jewish Press staff)
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