Relief effort unites Jews in common goal

By Michael Orbach

The staggering scope of the humanitarian crisis in Haiti after the earthquake there has united groups across the Jewish spectrum in the common goal of trying to help victims and support their family and friends here in New York.

Soon after the quake hit and the extent of the damage became apparent, the Orthodox Union launched a Haiti Earthquake Disaster Fund with all proceeds going to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Rabbi Steven Weil, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, said that the Jewish fundraising effort for Haiti was “not unique.”

“This fits the context of Jewish giving and being responsible for humanity.,” Weil said.

“We raised funds after Hurricane Katrina; the OU raised funds for the survivors of the [South Asian] tsunami. You look at Psalm 145, verse 9; it says G-d has compassion on all creatures. We have an obligation to imitate G-d.”

Rabbi Hershel Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere sent an e-mail to shul members on Friday urging them to donate to the OU fund. For him, the disaster in Haiti brought to mind a lesson he learned from his rebbe, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, at Yeshiva University. In 1967, a tribe in the southwestern province of Nigeria seceded to form the independent Republic of Biafra. What followed was a devastating civil war that left three million Nigerians dead. Under the tutelage of Rav Lichtenstein, Rabbi Billet recalled a morning spent at the Isaiah Wall near the United Nations, at a protest rally in support of Biafra.

“[Rav Lichtenstein] said we have to go to the rally,” Rabbi Billet explained by phone. “It was the dead of winter; we davened vasikin [prayed at sunrise]; we ate breakfast; we had shiur from eight-thirty to ten-thirty and then we traveled down to the UN.”

“The demonstration was not a very successful one. But the memory of it lingers with me,” Rabbi Billet recalled in his email to shul members. “Rav Lichtenstein impressed upon our impressionable souls that a Jew must care about all of mankind and must reach out to help those who are suffering regardless of race or religion. The Jewish people should know better than anyone about the deafening silence of the world during the terrible times of Jewish suffering.”

According to Michael Geller, media relations manager at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the total effort has raised over $1.5 million for Haiti relief so far. The funds will be used to purchase medical supplies and equipment such as infant incubators for the Israel Defense Force (IDF) units in Haiti who set up the first functioning field hospital there after the earthquake, including operation rooms and sophisticated medical imaging. The JDC funds will also be used to buy medical supplies for the non-government organization, Heart to Heart. The Joint will also work with the Afya Foundation to supply basic necessities like mattresses and sleeping bags.

“Since the beginning of JDC’s history it’s been involved in relieving humanitarian crisis; Jewish tradition especially tikkun olam continues to guide the work we do today,” Geller said.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, also was raising funds for the JDC.

“It comes from our tradition we have always looked beyond our own community to the people in need. There is a long historical precedent for it. It’s not always appreciated. We don’t do it for what we get for it, we do it because it’s the right thing to do,” Hoenlein said.

The crisis has also prompted a strong response in more right-of-center Orthodox communities in Flatbush, Borough Park, Crown Heights and Monsey, all near or next door to neighborhoods with large Haitian populations.

On Wednesday, the day after the earthquake, Agudath Israel of America sent an email to its members exhorting them to donate to the relief effort.

“Jews are rachmonim (merciful), and so we feel for the suffering of others. And so it is only natural that Jews should want to do something to try to ease the suffering of survivors of natural disasters,” explained Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudath Israel’s director of public affairs.

He also stressed a lesson to be learned from the tragedy.

“Even more important is that we react with personal introspection and determination to be better people ourselves. In 1923, when there was a large earthquake in Japan, no less a personage than the Chofetz Chaim reacted with visible shock, undertook to fast and insisted that the tragedy should spur all Jews to repentance.”

In a meeting between Jewish and Haitian community leaders in Brooklyn ten computers were presented for use by the Haitian community to respond to the disaster, as well as communication equipment such as satellite phones, according to Chaskel Bennett, a member of Agudath Israel’s board of directors. Other pledges of clothing and goods are forthcoming as well, he said.

The event was spearheaded by Assemblyman Dov Hikind and Congresswoman Yvette Clark.

“The Jewish response to the pain of others is legendary and today’s gathering is a continuation of the special heart the Jewish community always shows in times of crisis,” Clark said at the gathering.

Hamodia, a daily newspaper that is a strong voice in the Charedi community, offered $10,000 worth of free advertising to the relief effort.

Yosef Rapaport, the newspaper’s director of political and community affairs, said that it was a decision made by the publisher, Ruth Lichtenstein, who lost relatives in the Holocaust.

“Tragedy and suffering hurts,” he said. “I’m thinking we don’t have any excess space to splurge around but it seems so obvious and poshut (simple); the Jewish thing to do in such a time.”