Tagged Hurricane Harvey

IsraAID brings Israeli relief skills to the American season of disasters

Niveen Rizkalla working with IsraAID in Santa Rosa, Calif., in the wake of deadly wildfires there.(Courtesy of IsraAID

WASHINGTON (JTA) — For 17 years, the Israeli NGO IsraAID has been performing search and rescue, purifying water, providing emergency medical assistance and walking victims of trauma back to psychological health in dozens of disaster-hit countries. But no season has been busier than this past summer and fall, its… Read more »

Federations create hurricane relief fund

Rescue workers and volunteers help residents make their way out of a flooded neighborhood in Houston following Hurricane Harvey, Aug. 29, 2017. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona is joining with the Jewish Federations of North America to help the victims of Hurricane Irma, which battered the Caribbean and the eastern United States earlier this month. At least 42 people in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have died as a result… Read more »

How Houston’s synagogues are handling the High Holidays after Harvey

A room in United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, stripped of its furniture and floors. (Courtesy of United Orthodox Synagogues)

  {JTA) — A few weeks ago, Holly Davies was getting ready to homeschool her kids and preparing the family for the High Holidays. When Hurricane Harvey hit, she helped evacuate 150 people from her neighborhood by airboat and shelter nearly 100 people in a local church. Then came… Read more »

The top 10 moments that mattered to Jews in 5777

(JTA) — This Jewish year was not a quiet one, to say the least. From the tumultuous first eight months of Donald Trump’s presidency, to a wave of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, to a neo-Nazi protest in Charlottesville that turned violent, to the twin weather catastrophes of… Read more »

Rabbi leads a team of spiritual first responders in storm-tossed Texas

Rabbi Shira Stern of Marlboro, N.J., is a disaster spiritual care provider for the American Red Cross. (Courtesy of Stern)

(JTA) — It was a day before Hurricane Harvey was due to make landfall, and Rabbi Shira Stern knew she was headed for Texas. As a director of Disaster Spiritual Care for the American Red Cross, she knew there would be people who would have other needs beyond shelter,… Read more »

Jewish summer camps are reopening to host Houston victims

Rescue workers and volunteers help residents make their way out of a flooded neighborhood after it was inundated with rain following Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Aug. 29, 2017. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Three weeks ago, Lauren Laderman left Camp Young Judaea-Texas after serving as the unit head for 14-year-olds this summer. Then Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast, and Laderman was back at camp, this time preparing the cabins for evacuees in need of a place to live. On Tuesday,… Read more »

Jewish Federations respond to Hurricane Harvey

The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona has joined with the Jewish Federations of North America to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey, now a tropical storm. In an email to the community today, Stuart Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, and Shelly Silverman, JFSA chair, wrote: “Over the past few… Read more »