With Israel in desperate need of aid to fight the fire ravaging its north last week, countries from four continents sent help, including those with whom Israel has been at odds lately, such as Turkey.
Now that the fire is out, the question is what will Israel’s close friends, the American Jewish community, do to aid in the recovery process?
Damage estimates are ranging as high as $75 million, and the American Jewish community has opened fundraising mailboxes, started as emergency campaigns while the blaze — the worst fire in Israel’s history — was still burning.
The national branches of the three largest U.S. Jewish religious denominations launched fire assistance funds and asked their rabbis to address the topic in their sermons last Shabbat. Dozens of the country’s largest organizations, including the Jewish federation system, the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International, also started funds.
The heaviest lifting in the nonprofit world likely will be done by the Jewish National Fund, which, since Israel’s founding, has been responsible for the forestation of the country.
With some 12,000 acres scorched and an estimated 5 million trees burned, the JNF has launched a $10 million campaign to be split between reforestation and other causes, such as rebuilding tourism in the area. In less than a week, JNF had raised nearly $2 million in cash and pledges. A number of organizations, such as Hadassah, have pledged to help JNF pay for more trees.
The fire broke out at 12:02 p.m. local time Dec. 2, the first day of Chanukah, in a forested area near the Druze village of Usfiya in northern Israel. It ended up burning a 20 square miles of the Carmel forest, a popular nature spot on Haifa’s outskirts that is one of Israel’s greenest areas. The fire was brought under control late in the day Dec. 5, and further weakened Dec. 6 after overnight rains.
The 82-hour blaze claimed the lives of 42 people and burned dozens of homes as well as half of one of the country’s most popular forests. Approximately 17,000 people were evacuated from their homes.
The majority of the deaths occurred some five hours after the fire began, when a bus filled with Israeli Prison Service cadets burned completely, killing 37 of its 50 passengers. The bus, carrying staff to help evacuate more than 500 prisoners from the Damon jail inside the fire zone, was trapped and engulfed in flames after a fallen tree blocked the road.
Reforesting the area will be a slow process, according to the JNF’s director of forestry for the northern region, Omri Bonneh. For the first year, JNF says it won’t plant any trees, allowing the land to replenish itself.
It’s not clear how much the American Jewish organizations’ total campaign will be; in some cases it’s not yet clear where the money will go.
The American Jewish Committee pledged $100,000 for reforestation, saying it will plant 10,000 trees to commemorate the 42 people killed in the wildfire.
B’nai B’rith International, which by Dec. 7 had collected $12,000, will use the money to address unmet needs, according to its vice president of programming, Rhonda Love.
Last week, Magen David Adom, Israel’s version of the Red Cross, deployed hundreds of medics, paramedics, emergency vehicles and volunteers to the scene of the fire. Its American fundraising arm, the American Friends of Magen David Adom, had raised about $150,000 online since the fire broke out, according to its director of marketing, Robert Kern.
A number of organizations are focusing on helping Yemin Orde, a youth village for immigrants to Israel that was 40 percent destroyed in the fire.
Hadassah is providing space for 500 families dislocated by the fire by opening several youth villages with which it is associated. The Jewish Agency for Israel has made space in its facilities for Yemin Orde to continue operating.
The two overseas arms of the North American federation system have been on the ground since the fire began. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee helped out in the evacuation of residents and supplied emergency needs such as food and blankets. Now the JDC is planning to provide programs for the disabled, psycho-social support and emergency preparedness, according to spokesman Michael Geller.
The Jewish Agency brought hundreds of children from the stricken area to Tel Aviv for respite, and planned to bring 4,000 by the end of Chanukah.
JDC and the Jewish Agency also are working on coordinating youth volunteers. In the long term, the fire could provide the Jewish Agency with an opportunity to test the value of a new strategic plan that places more emphasis on creating volunteer opportunities in Israel.
The agency has proposed a plan to focus volunteer mentors on the Druze town of Tirat HaCarmel, a development town near Haifa that was evacuated during the fire. Agency officials also have talked to the Jewish Federations of North America about creating, through the agency’s MASA program, a project to bring diaspora Jews to help in rehabilitating the animal wildlife in Israel’s north, according to Jewish Agency Director General Alan Hoffmann.
Agency officials also said they would like to set up a fund for grants to victims of the fire, much like the fund it has for victims of terror that gives out up to $35,000 to individuals and families affected by terrorism.
How much exactly the JDC and Jewish Agency will be able to do in the long run will be determined largely by how much the federations are able to raise for them. That’s not yet clear, though insiders said the federations would probably allocate approximately $2 million.
The question now is whether money will continue to come in now that the fire has been extinguished.
“It is clear that when the fires stop burning, also the flames of philanthropy tend to die down,” Hoffman said. “But there are clear needs that have been created here. The question is how can world Jewry play a part in restoring this place to where it was before, and that will require resources.”
The Associated Press and Ynetnews contributed to this report.
Where to donate
S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation: www.bit.ly/fR2RyU
Jewish Federation of the East Bay: www.bit.ly/gNb0Gs
Jewish National Fund: www.bit.ly/fq8wxP
Jewish Federations of North America: www.bit.ly/gX5mle
Orthodox Union: www.ou.org/fire
American Jewish Committee: www.bit.ly/fhBIUt
Rambam Medical Center, Haifa: www.aforam.org
Yemin Orde Youth Center: www.yeminorde.org
Making Mount Carmel Green Again: www.bit.ly/fwxTjv
American Friends of the Magen David Adom, Israeli Red Cross: www.afmda.org
B’nai B’rith Israel Emergency Fund: www.bnaibrith.org
Jewish Agency for Israel: www.jafi.org
America Jewish Joint Distribution Committee: www.jdc.org
J Street: www.jstreet.org
Zaka (recovery and identification organization): www.zaka.us