Hurricane of Chessed • Satmar Jews came to the rescue

Apparently something happened in Satmar following hurricane disaster: The first episode was the Rebbe himself who contrary to the accepted tradition did not abandon his Chassidim to their fate, and remained with them in the darkness that prevails in Kiryat Yoel.

Thus, the extreme Chassidus left their four walls and came to help ordinary Jews who are not part of them, including Lithuanians.

Orthodox neighborhoods in downtown Brooklyn are recovering slowly, and most of them received assistance from the authorities. But neighborhoods such as Far Rockaway and Basswatter on the coast, remained without help and assistance.

No wonder that when Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the site he was greeted with contempt.

The Satmar Rebbe learned about the residents hardships on Thursday, he contacted Satmar activists in Williamsburg and asked them to come to the aid of the Jews in the neighborhoods.

Activists including Yoel Itzkowitz and Yoel Friedman in cooperation with the 'Shomrim' organization quickly organized emergency aid to the region.

They recruited generators, water pumps and precious commodity of all - fuel for the cars, and sent them to the neighborhoods.

The Satmar institutions also recruited their bus and filled it with Shabbos food dishes which included cholent, meat, fish and challa and went out to the neighborhood.
When Satmar agents, 15 in total, arrived at the neighborhood, they were shocked by what they saw: three days after the hurricane and most of the houses were still full of water, with no trace of federal aid services.

Activists began pumping water from the local Shul and opened a soup kitchen for food distribution. Residents thronged to the place, and received sandwiches and hot dishes.
By morning, the activists had managed to empty water from a hundred apartments and a few Shuls and food distribution was held for Shabbos.

Yesterday (Motzei Shabbos) the activists went out to the neighborhoods and again pumped water from the homes. During that time the activist Rabbi Aryeh Leib Glantz alerted federal authorities and FEMA organization to the area.

This evening the rescue train continues to flow from Satmar to the neighborhoods. Satmar meat camps launched 300 hot meals for dinner and generators and water pumps.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!