In the South, we’re pretty familiar with hurricanes. Katrina, Isaac, Camille … we’re used to pretty regular encounters with powerful and potentially devastating storms. All this week, all of us down here have been watching the images on-screen, scrolling through the Facebook posts, and frequently checking in with our friends and families up North.
If there’s one silver lining around the awful storm clouds of a monster like Hurricane Sandy, it’s always the tremendous sense of community and human decency that are unleashed by these disasters. It brings to mind the word klal – “community.”
There will never be a storm mightier than Hurricane Klal – the swirling, powerful, whirlwind of communal compassion.
If you’re looking for a way to join in the effort, to help and to support all of our fellow citizens impacted by Hurricane Sandy, here are some ways that you can get involved, near or far away from where this storm struck:
- You can contribute online to the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund established by UJA New York
- You can also give online to the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey’s Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund
- You can give to the Red Cross, which is serving the entire impacted area
- You can give to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City
- If you are in New York, you can donate blood, help clean up the city, or contact your congregation, JCC, or other communal agency to see where the current most urgent needs may be
Wishing everyone a safe and peaceful Shabbat, all along the Eastern seaboard and all over the world. Be safe, be well, and shalom, y’all.
