The Surfside neighborhood just a few blocks north of Miami Beach is one of the largest Jewish communities in the area. It is a global community with Jews from Central America, South America and Eastern Europe joining the strong local religious ties to Israel.
According to the Miami Herald the Israeli government has been in contact with Miami-Dade city officials and has offered their assistance in helping in the search for survivors of the Champlain Towers condo disaster. Here is what the Herald reported in this morning’s edition of the paper.
Maor Elbaz Starinsky, the newly appointed consul general, said he received phone calls from Israel’s ministers of foreign affairs and diaspora instructing Starinsky to offer “any possible help” to the communities impacted by the collapse.
“We bought medications, a couple thousand dollars worth of medications for Hatzalah,” Starinsky said, referring to the South Florida branch of the Jewish-led volunteer emergency services group that has aided first responders.
Unfortunately we do have experience with these kind of disasters in Israel,” Starinsky said. “Just a few weeks ago, we had thousands of rockets shelled on our country and missiles hit buildings.”
Starinsky said that staff in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office were still assessing the situation and had not responded to his offer.
Meanwhile, United Hatzalah of Israel, Israel’s largest all-volunteer EMS organization, working in conjunction with El Al Airlines, said in a press release that it has begun preparations to send a team from its Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit to provide psychological support and stabilization to the families and neighbors of those affected by the collapse of the building.
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