by Jay Newton Small
Jan. 21, 2010

Jean Marc Loremas, 46, carried his niece more than a mile from their home in the La Plaine area of Port-au-Prince to a sparsely populated industrial zone. There he nodded to two foreign guards in olive green fatigues and about a dozen semiambulatory earthquake victims who were already lined up on various pallets, crutches and canes before pounding on a metal sliding gate.

“Shalom?” came the response as the eyehole shot back. Loremas explained his needs, and soon an Israeli doctor came out to examine the woman’s broken femur. Read more . . .

TO: ARC/GNY Staff
FROM: Terry Bischoff, Chief Executive Officer
DATE: January 22, 2010

Nine days after the earthquake in Haiti that caused so much devastation and destruction, affecting lives, buildings and the infrastructure of the country, the American Red Cross continues to accelerate its efforts on the ground, engage and support the Haitian communities in the United States and raise the funding that will be required to support the response and recovery work that will be needed. Here are the highlights since our last communication and I also encourage you to look on our website: www.nyredcross.org and the NHQ website: www.redcross.org where many of these highlights are reported in more detail.

• President & CEO, Gail McGovern, accompanied International Services Senior Vice President, David Meltzer to the Dominican Republic on Tuesday where she began planning for a multi-year recovery operation with other Red Cross leaders from around the world and heads of state in the region. As learned from our response and recovery efforts after the Tsunami, it is essential to provide the immediate on the ground aid and at the same time begin to plan for the long term recovery of this devastated country.

  On Wednesday Gail and David witnessed the extensive damage and need as well as the growing presence of Red Cross services. Through first aid posts, hospitals, relief distribution sites, water trucking programs and family links stations, volunteers and staff from seven Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies, including the Magen David Adom, are beginning to make life better for the survivors. This is the largest single-country deployment in global Red Cross history.




• More than 70 Creole speaking American Red Cross volunteers have been trained and today will join the USNS Comfort, offshore in Haiti , to translate for patients receiving medical care from the US Military. I am proud to tell you that 43 of those volunteers come from the New York area and our People Resources and Disaster Services teams worked tirelessly to get these selfless volunteers, screened, oriented and supplied with the essential information they need for this 30 day deployment, while Marketing/PR worked with the media to share this remarkable story.

  On Wednesday evening, the New York volunteers who joined this specific mission attended a “Send-Off” attended by Vice Chair of the Board, Blake Moore and Board member, the Rev. Calvin Butts. They were joined by NYC council member Dr. Mathieu Eugene, who is Haitian and represents the community in Brooklyn , Diahann Billings-Burford, Chief Service Officer for the Mayor’s Office of NYC Service, and representatives of the NAACP, Local 1199 SEIU and Haitian Americans United for Progress.




• Here in New York , particularly in Brooklyn with the largest Haitian community in our area, we are providing significant crisis counseling support through the schools and the churches. We also remain in touch with many of our partner groups who work in the affected communities.




• The Chapter’s Emergency Communication Center continues to field calls from our community with questions regarding donations, volunteers and connecting families. Since the earthquake struck, they have answered over 4,300 calls.




• There are a number of telethons this coming weekend and we have been supporting them with pre-recorded messages that will be incorporated into these events – these include MTV (Friday), Univision (Saturday) and A & E (Sunday). In addition I have been interviewed by Crain’s for an article that was very positive and we are still receiving requests for updates from our various local television stations. Yesterday, Rosemary Mackey accompanied by more than 20 volunteers in their Red Cross jackets had the opportunity to open the NASDAQ and talk about the Red Cross’ relief efforts and to remind the listeners that individual and community preparedness is important for us all as we never know when disaster may strike. Bob Imbornoni will be the Sunday morning guest at 11:30am on WABC’s program TIEMPO – a station that targets Hispanic issues.




• he development department continues to receive contributions from generous corporations, foundations and individual donors in our community. With the help of volunteers, we have processed 150 3rd-party agreements with individuals and organizations who are arranging fund-raisers in support of the Red Cross for Haitian relief efforts.




• Bonnie McElveen-Hunter visited the Chapter briefly yesterday to thank the staff for the incredible work they are doing. She briefed us on the visit by President Obama and the First Lady to National Headquarters earlier this week and then she made calls to some of our major donors to thank them for their past support and to encourage them to continue their generosity. Board members, Blake Moore and Bill Gray have also telephoned some of our major corporate leaders and major individual donors to thank them for their support.

There is much left to be done which I will share with you in the days and weeks ahead.

By Gabrielle Birkner
Published January 20, 2010

Each year on Yom Kippur, Rudolph Dana locks himself in his Pétionville, Haiti, home — protected by guard dogs and security personnel — and passes the Day of Atonement fasting, praying and reciting the traditional liturgy of repentance and forgiveness.

Up until about 10 years ago, Haiti’s tiny Jewish community would gather in a home on Yom Kippur and pray alongside a video recording of a Yom Kippur service that Dana’s brother-in-law, a cantor at a New Jersey synagogue, had mailed to him. But in recent years, the community has become too small and disjointed to warrant even such modest holiday gatherings. Read more . . .

By James Barron
Published: January 21, 2010

The plane, a 50-seat regional aircraft that was less than a third full when it took off from La Guardia Airport, had been climbing through the early-morning sky for about 25 minutes. A 17-year-old passenger in a whitish sweater took out something he had carried onboard, and strapped it onto his wrist and his head. Read more. . .

By Ethan Bronner
Published: January 21, 2010

JERUSALEM — The editorial cartoon in Thursday’s mass-circulation Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot showed American soldiers digging among the ruins of Haiti. From within the rubble, a voice calls out, “Would you mind checking to see if the Israelis are available?” Read more . . .

Millions of lives-and the future of a nation-are still in jeopardy.

One week after a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti, global relief efforts are battling the clock and multiple aftershocks to meet the vast humanitarian needs of the Haitian people. The good news is that JDC and its partners on the ground are reaching victims every hour with critical medical, nutritional, and material relief.

Supporters of JDC are directly responsible for this progress to date:

• As of January 20, JDC has received more than 8,000 individual gifts-exceeding $1.5 million-for Haiti relief. An additional $2 million has been raised for JDC Haiti relief by the Jewish Federations of North America.
• Within days of the disaster, JDC-supported relief agency Heart to Heart International and its team of doctors and nurses were on the ground providing critical medical aid first in Port-au-Prince and later in Leogane, an isolated town where little other assistance has reached.
• The Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces, another JDC partner, is operating a field hospital in Port-au-Prince that is saving lives and administering vital medical care. JDC helped equip the hospital with high-demand orthopedic devices and infant incubators for its neonatal unit. This effort has been widely reported in the news, including on CNN , FoxNews , and Israel’s Channel 2 (please view this link in Internet Explorer).
•  Working in collaboration with the Afya Foundation, JDC sent a container of mattresses and much-needed medical supplies to Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health, a renowned local NGO. A second container is being shipped on Friday and a third will follow.
•  JDC is also supporting EcoWorks International which is currently setting up a feeding program for victims.
•  Further partnerships with local NGOs are being explored by JDC to provide emergency assistance during this initial stage of its disaster response.
•  JDC is continuing to coordinate its activities with the White House, the Department of State, USAID, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli relief agencies, the United Nations, and the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief.

JDC’s work and impact will be felt long after images of the devastation disappear from the news. As with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, JDC will reserve a large portion of funds raised for Haiti relief for intermediate and long-term rebuilding and reconstruction programs. The goal is to effect sustainable improvements in health, education, and employment throughout the island nation.
 
JDC brings unparalleled experience to this effort through its International Development Program (IDP), which has provided immediate relief and long-term development assistance to victims of natural and manmade disasters in more than 60 countries.
 
To Make a Contribution:
Online: www.JDC.org
By Phone: 212-687-6200
By Mail: check payable to
JDC-Haiti Earthquake Relief
P.O. Box 530
132 East 43rd St
New York, NY, 10017

By Uriel Heilman · January 19, 2010

NEW YORK (JTA) — The text messages started coming in to Shachar Zahavi’s cell phone in the middle of the night: “What are we going to do about Haiti?”

Zahavi, chairman of IsraAid, a coordinating organization for 17 Israeli and Jewish humanitarian groups, hadn’t even heard yet about the earthquake that had rocked Port-au-Prince, leaving untold thousands dead. Read more . . .