David Harris
Help Provide Emergency Relief to Victims of Hurricane Harvey
First Emergency Grant of $500,000 Delivered to Houston Federation
JFNA’s Emergency Committee met this afternoon and approved the first grant of $500,000 to the Houston Federation to support the immediate relief and recovery efforts of the local community. The funds will be used to assist displaced families with temporary housing and food, and supplies to clean up an estimated 1,000 homes of Jewish community members that sustained severe flood damage.
First National Federation Team Arrives in Houston
A team of three senior professionals from JFNA, UJA Federation of New York, and the Los Angeles Jewish Federation arrived this afternoon to begin supporting the local Federation and community in organizing their recovery efforts. The team will be particularly focused in helping determine the range of social and educational needs facing community members, assessing the damage to local institutions and organization and how they can be helped to get back in operation, and developing mechanisms for managing the professional and volunteer service efforts.
This team joins a strong team of local Houston professionals from Federation, JFS, JCC and other institutions who unfortunately have gained much experience with floods in recent years and from assisting New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Federation Funding Efforts
Fundraising efforts across the Federation system, including mass appeals, approaches to foundations, and grants from local Federation emergency funds and endowments continue to grow. We estimate that more than $2.5M has been raised, including funds raised in Houston. —Jerry Silverman
In a response to the catastrophic floods striking Texas, Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s national organization, has opened an emergency relief fund to support communities and individuals in Houston, San Antonio, Galveston, Corpus Christi, and other areas that have been hammered by Hurricane Harvey.
Help Provide Emergency Relief.
Hurricane Harvey, the category 4 storm that bombarded the Gulf Coast on Saturday, August-26th, with home-ripping winds and extensive damage, continues to dump rain in large areas of central Texas. It has left hundreds of thousands of people without power or access to food and water and shut down municipal services, highways, schools, and community institutions. The extensive damage is continuing to mount.
A Half-Year of Rainfall in Houston Over a Three-Day Period.
This historic weather event has already produced more than a half-year of rainfall in Houston over a three-day period, and continues to fall. The Houston Jewish community has been hit especially hard by the storm.
While we do not yet know the full extent of the damage, we know that most of Houston’s Jewish institutions have flooded. We know that:
71% of their Jewish population lives in areas that have seen massive flooding and Jews have been displaced from their homes with flooding ranging from six inches to ten feet.
Close to 12,000 elderly members in this community live in areas impacted by flooding.
We also know that they will need help to recover, and that we must act immediately to stabilize their community and provide necessary short- and long-term support.
I hope you will consider supporting the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, which will be used to assist those impacted by this historic storm. Together, we can make a difference in helping the Houston community recover.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Texas.
Danielle V. Minson
Chief Development Officer
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
