Baruch Hashem NCSY

Just weeks after a vicious tornado destroyed many rural areas in Alabama, a team of eight high school girls, from the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls (SKA) and from the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR), arrived on the scene after organizing a New York NCSY relief mission.

Our trip began on Friday May 20th in Atlanta, Georgia. Spending Shabbos in Atlanta was eye opening; we saw immense kindness from the community, as well as Rabbi Chaim Neiditch, Southern NCSY’s Regional Director & Atlanta Director, who organized our Shabbos meals and lodging. Many of the locals were quite surprised to hear that a Jewish group of girls from New York would be assisting in the tornado relief effort. The community was excited to be a part of the mission by giving us a beautiful Shabbos experience to start off our trip.

Early Sunday morning we departed for Birmingham, Alabama. We made our way to Knesseth Israel, a local shul, and met with members from NECHAMA, a Jewish organization that provides disaster relief, that assigned us one specific home in Pratt City to work on in the coming days. As we drove in the direction of the home, the complete destruction and devastation became very real.

We saw the uprooted trees, mangled street signs, and buildings without roofs; we were compelled to capture these scenes in our photos. We couldn’t imagine anything worse, but only a few blocks later we saw the real extent of the damage.

Homes were completely knocked down with only a doorway or staircase remaining. Mattresses were hanging from tree branches and homes were reduced to piles of debris with remnants of a bathtub or kitchen table among them. When we pulled up to our work site, we all just paused. It was as if a giant foot had come down and stomped on the house. All that remained was debris, cinder blocks, and chunks of dry wall. Not only were we in shock from the extent of the damage, but we were also nervous that we wouldn’t be able to do enough to help. The challenge appeared too great to be conquered. The destruction seemed overwhelming not only to us, but to the homeowners, who we had the privilege of meeting.