As soon as news broke of the devastating condo building collapse in Surfside, Florida, a heavily Jewish town near Miami, Jewish groups sprang into action providing relief to victims and their families.
Services offered by Jewish organizations included everything from raising funds, providing donations of household items, search and rescue operations, aiding with housing and food, and tending to spiritual needs.
The Shul of Bay Harbour, which is located a mile north of the collapsed building, on Thursday received a truck full of emergency supplies, reported Local 10.
Shlomi Ezra, who owns the Solo Asian Bar and Grill in nearby Aventura, said that he initially thought of providing food to friends and families who were waiting for updates on the status of loved ones.
“We realized that there was so much food over there, so we got the community together to help to help with other things,” Ezra told Local 10. “People lost everything.”
The Shul's Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar said that some of the 159 unaccounted people were regular attendees.
“There are very few words that could give anybody consolation because you are dealing with an unimaginable, horrific tragedy,” he said.
The Shul has also set up a fund for financial donations and an emergency hotline, 305-868-1411.
So far, it has received more than $240,000 in donations form over 2,000 donors.
The synagogue working with another nearby Chabad center is asking for toiletries, blankets and toys to give to survivors.
Nearby kosher restaurants have also been handing out food to building residents who are now without homes, and to emergency crews and first responders.
Lipskar told CNN, “This is something that transcends our capacity for understanding. We accept it and we have to learn, as we do in our culture, resilience and to move forward because challenges don’t hold us back.”
The Jewish Federation of Miami released a statement expressing their shock at the devastation.
“We join with the entire community to mourn the loss of life and pray for a full recovery of those injured, even as we hold out hope for the fate of those who remain missing,” they stated.
“We are grateful to the first responders who put themselves in harm's way to rescue people trapped in their apartments, as well as beneath the wreckage, and who remain steadfastly on the scene carrying out search and rescue efforts.”
With “tremendous needs” emerging, the Federation has set about partnering with their network agencies, elected officials, local synagogues, the Red Cross and the United Way of Miami-Dade to provide relief to victims of the disaster.
Besides an emergency fund for the short and long-term needs of families and individuals, they are also providing a chaplaincy service, crisis counselling and housing assistance.
“Sadly, we know that there may be families who require help arranging appropriate funeral and burial services for loved ones in the days ahead. Federation is ready to provide assistance as necessary as this tragedy continues to unfold.”
As the initial search and rescue phase of the disaster comes to a halt, local officials are beginning to look ahead toward examining what could have triggered the collapse.
“This was not an act of G-d,” Surfside Town Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer said in an interview with USA Today. “This was not a natural disaster. Buildings don’t just fall.”
Many of the unaccounted for residents of the building are Jewish.
Family, friends and former students are "hoping for a miracle" that an elderly former popular physical education teacher and his wife will be found alive.
Two brothers, both doctors, disappeared when the building collapsed, one of whom had travelled from out of state to visit their sick father. Soriya Cohen has spent hours frantically appealing for the whereabouts of her husband Brad Cohen and his brother Gary.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)