Haiti hits close to home

By Michael Orbach

The tragedy in Haiti hit close to home for two men who work in the Five Towns community.

Vanel Desruisseaux and Alony Robert, both employed in the kitchen at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Elementary School, lost family members in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti last week.

Desruisseaux, 65, lost five cousins, three from his mother’s side and two from his father’s side. Robert, 38, whose family lives in a town close to Port-au-Prince, lost two cousins in the quake.

“Big problem, big problems,” said Desruisseaux, a burly man who sports a trim beard flecked with gray. Neither of the men speaks English fluently and both have heavy Haitian accents. Desruisseaux has been living in America since 2003; Robert has been here since 2002. Each left Haiti on account of the dire economic situation there and has a large family back home. Desruisseaux’s wife and daughter live in Haiti as do Robert’s brothers and sisters.

“Everybody comes here looking for a job,” said Robert, who was waiting for a phone call with a Bluetooth headset in his ear while he was interviewed. “No jobs in my country.”

The two men send a portion of their salaries to their relatives in Haiti, and they profess to loving everything about America. Desruisseaux visited his home country for a week in December for his daughter’s wedding. The two men live in Brooklyn and take the Long Island Rail Road to work each morning.

Both men heard news about the earthquake through text messages last Tuesday, but were left in suspense about their relatives’ situations. Desruisseaux managed to get in touch with his daughter, but could not connect to the rest of his family.

He began sobbing in the HAFTR kitchen when his brother called him on Thursday afternoon; he had thought he was killed in the disaster. One of Desruisseaux’s cousins wasn’t as lucky. She had been rescued from the rubble, but succumbed to her injuries after doctors were forced to amputate her legs.

They have been glued to CNN since the earthquake.

“My family in Haiti,” Desruisseaux said, “No food, no water, no house to sleep in.”

On Monday, at HAFTR’s annual Siddur Chagigit, where kindergartners are each presented with their first Siddur, Rabbi David Liebtag, the principal, made an impassioned appeal on behalf of the two men and the situation in Haiti.

“The men are so sweet and kind, they are outstanding gentlemen,” Rabbi Liebtag explained later in a telephone interview. “One of the things we teach in HAFTR is to emulate the characteristics of G-d we see throughout the Torah. G-d is benevolent and the world was created on the foundation of righteousness. It’s an intuitive response, we don’t need a Talmudic explanation for it.”

Rabbi Liebtag said they hope to collect money for the church the men belong to, which in turn will donate the money to the Haitian relief effort. A shoe drive is being planned in the school and the monthly charity that the school collects will go to aid Haiti as well.

“It’s an axiomatic past and present Jewish teaching,” he said.

In the kitchen Tuesday morning, a week after the earthquake, Desruisseaux and Robert were back at work — Desruisseaux slicing a purple head of cabbage and Robert warming up lasagna for the day’s lunch. A makeshift pushka fashioned from a plastic container was at the kitchen window with a sign taped to it asking for loose change.

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