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‘Shabbat from hell’

As the death toll mounted in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the organized Jewish world lined up immediately in support for the rescue and relief effort in the region.

Government and relief agencies from around the world, including Israel. were pouring into the impoverished Caribbean country.

Meanwhile, the list of Jewish nonprofits that opened mailboxes to help raise money for the rescue and relief effort was growing quickly.

A six-man rescue team from ZAKA — the Israeli rescue organization best known for its work in collecting human remains to ensure a proper Jewish burial— may actually have been the first on the ground in Haiti.

The team, which happened to be in Mexico on a search, dispatched to Haiti shortly after the disaster happened Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 12.

On arrival, the ZAKA team was dispatched to a collapsed 8-story university building where cries could be heard from the rubble.

Photos courtesy of ZAKA In a disturbing email that Mati Goldstein, head of the ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation managed to send to the ZAKA headquarters in Jerusalem, he wrote of the “Shabbat from hell.”

“Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It’s just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust – thousands of bodies everywhere. You have to understand that the situation is true madness, and the more time passes, there are more and more bodies, in numbers that cannot be grasped. It is beyond comprehension.”

Amid the stench and chaos, the ZAKA delegation took time out to recite Shabbat prayers — a surreal sight of ultra-Orthodox men wrapped in prayer shawls standing on the collapsed buildings. Many locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed facing Jerusalem. At the end of the prayers, they crowded around the delegation and kissed the prayer shawls.

A ZAKA rescue worker helps a woman pulled from a collapsed university building in Port-au-Prince. After 38 hours – working around the clock with rescue equipment supplied by the Mexican military — the ZAKA volunteers succeeded in pulling eight students alive from the rubble.

Saying volunteers would stay as long as needed, ZAKA officials said it needed emergency medical supplies, rescue and recovery equipment and satellite communications.

An Israeli Home Front Command delegation arrived soon after ZAKA. The Israeli team included a mobile hospital that had already treated hundreds of victims by the weekend. Other Israel Defense Force rescuers were credited with miraculously pulling a man alive out of a building five days after the quake.

IsraAID, the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid, also sent a 12-person search-andrescue team to Haiti.The coordinating body of Israeli and Jewish organizations, IsraAID also was considering sending a field hospital, including doctors and medical equipment, as well as humanitarian aid.

In addition, Magen David Adom, known as Israel’s 911, has assembled a team of specialists to set up field clinics with local emergency teams and the Red Cross and help trace those who are missing in the catastrophe. MDA was also planning to send a medical team of doctors, paramedics and medics who would work with similar delegations. Israel’s ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who also serves Haiti, said the morning after the quake, that the embassy had not been able to reach the few Jewish families living in Haiti due to downed telephone lines.

A number of other Jewish groups, including IsraAID and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American Jewish World Service, were collecting donations for their planned Haiti relief efforts.

“We are assessing where the gaps in service are and putting a process in place to help specific communities that might not be immediately served otherwise,” said Aaron Dorfman, the AJWS vice president for programs. “Because of the economic and political situation in Haiti, disasters like this have devastating consequences throughout the country. Our longstanding partnerships with grass-roots organizations in Haiti allow us to reach the poorest and most remote populations with the speed necessary to save lives.”

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) sounded a similar message.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti in the wake of this overwhelming disaster, and as we did following Hurricane Gustav in 2008, JDC will leverage its strong partnerships in the region to respond quickly and compassionately to the needs of those affected,” said Steven Schwager, JDC’s chief executive officer. “Now and in the months to come, JDC will provide both immediate relief as well as long-term assistance to help the Haitian people rebuild their lives.”

The Jewish Federations of North America is coordinating with the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief to assist victims of natural or man-made disasters on a nonsectarian basis. The coalition is managed by the JDC, which is the Jewish Federations’ foreign aid agency, and consists of organizations including the Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, World ORT, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, AJWS and American Jewish Committee, among others.

“The massive scale of the earthquake will require an international support network,” said Dennis Glick, the president of B’nai B’rith International, which is funneling money to Haiti through IsraAID. “Our ongoing partnership with IsraAID means our help can go a lot further. We extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Haiti as they face the consequences of another natural disaster.”

According to the Jewish Federations of North America, a Jewish presence in Haiti dates back to 1492. The interpreter on Christopher Columbus’ ship was Luis de Torres, a Converso. Today, Haiti’s Jewish population is approximately 25, centered around Port-au-Prince, the earthquake epicenter. Haiti and Israel have full diplomatic relations.

Jewish groups collecting donations for Haiti earthquake relief

American Friends of Magen David Adom
www.afmda.org.
American Jewish World Service
Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund
http://www.ajws.org/haitiearthquake
B’nai B’rith
B’nai B’rith Disaster Relief Fund
https://secure.ga1.org/05/web_relief_donations
(through IsrAID)

Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief
Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund
http://www.jdc.org.
coordinated by the Jewish Federations of North
America and managed by the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee (JDC) (see story for other
participating organizations)
ZAKA
ZAKA Haiti Fund
www.zaka.us