World Jewish Relief (WJR) has launched an emergency fundraising appeal after a pair of powerful earthquakes have left thousands dead in southeast Turkey and neighbouring Syria on Monday.
“An estimated 12 million people have been affected, with thousands killed and many thousand more injured as homes and buildings completely collapsed. With search and rescue missions underway, these numbers will continue to rise," the charity, whose work supports global disaster response said on Monday.
“World Jewish Relief is responding through our trusted local partner, helping to provide emergency shelter, blankets, heaters, clothes, food packages, and first aid kits to the worst affected in Turkey and surrounding areas.
“You can donate today at Turkey Earthquake Appeal,” the UK's main Jewish overseas aid organisation said in a statement on its website.
Distribution of soup at Kilis Community Centre (World Jewish Relief)
The charity has received a string endorsements from communal leaders, including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis who said on Tuesday: "The tragic earthquakes in Turkey on Monday morning will have an ongoing, devastating impact for Turkey and well beyond its borders. I encourage all who are able, to generously support World Jewish Relief’s Turkey Earthquake Appeal."
Liberal Judaism CEO Rabbi Charley Baginsky also expressed her support for WJR's efforts, saying: "Liberal Judaism are always so proud to support World Jewish Relief. We know with confidence that they will ensure that support reaches the places that need it. Right now the people of Turkey need more than our prayers, they need practical and financial response from our community, a community that understands that our particularistic Judaism calls on us to see the universal and to help repair the world in whatever ways we can."
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, the Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism in the UK said: "The disaster which has overtaken so many people in Turkey is unimaginable. In Temple times the High Priest prayed on Yom Kippur that people should not suffer the horror of earthquakes. How can we not do all we can to help! This emergency appeal by World Jewish Relief enables us to show the most basic humanity and do what help we can."
