Israel Sends Help, Expertise to Nepal
This past weekend the world witnessed a devastating earthquake in Nepal. As of this writing over 5,000 have been confirmed dead and many thousands still missing. As Jews, I think we can take tremendous pride in the response from Israel to the crisis. Israel has already dispatched its mobile medical unit as well as one of its elite search and rescue units to the area to help and support the local authorities. Once again Israel responds to a country with few Jews let alone synagogues or other Jewish institutions. Unfortunately, Israel has a lot of experience in the area of aiding victims of tragedies and searching through the ruble of collapsed buildings, but they have been able to learn a great deal from these experiences. Other countries are now blessed to be able to benefit from that knowledge.
We complain about the lack of progress in the quest for a two-state solution. We grumble about the lack of freedom of religions for Jews in Israel. We worry about the growing number of families falling below the poverty line there. But we should also stop to recognize the good that Israel does for others around the world.
There is a nice article from Standwithisrael.com that goes deeper into Israel’s response to the Nepal tragedy.
