Hamodia News- by Dovid Margolin
BROOKLYN, NY – Sandy was the storm that no one in New York thought could ever happen. Now, one week later, communities across the city are struggling to put the shattered pieces back together. While many anticipated a powerful storm sweeping across the city and took some precautions, few were prepared for the destruction that would follow. In the wake of a slow and uncertain response from city, state, and federal officials, the responsibility of cleaning out the massive damage wreaked on shuls and community centers has fallen squarely on those that run them.
When initial forecasts for Sandy were being broadcast, Chabad of W. Brighton Beach set up what they thought would be ample safeguards, only to sadly be proven wrong. Founded in 1985 by Rabbi Zushe and Rebbetzin Esther Winner, Chabad runs programming out of both the Seabreeze Jewish Center on Seabreeze Ave, and the Chabad-Neshama Center, which includes a burgeoning preschool, on Ocean Parkway and Brighton Beach Ave.
“Monday we prepared for a one-foot flood. By Hurricane Irene we barely had an inch of flooding. Monday night we decided to stay in the neighborhood because we were afraid that without electricity, widespread looting would break out,” says Srolik Winner, 21. “As my brother [Mendel, 19] and I walked down Ocean Parkway towards the Chabad Center on Monday evening, we could see that the storm drains were starting to back up, and the street was starting to flood. That moment seemed like it would be the worst of the storm.”
On their return walk home, the storm had already taken a turn for the worse. “I felt a gust of wind like I’ve never felt in my life. My brother and I held onto one of those Ocean Parkway benches with all our might; we were worried we could be blown away. Water was slapping against our faces, and then I realized that what I was tasting was salt water from the ocean. ... we rushed home.”
Once back at their home adjacent to the Seabreeze Jewish Center, with their basement by that time fully flooded and the outdoor water level rising rapidly, Srolik and Mendel Winner and their father took their already prepared emergency bags, and readied themselves for the short walk to the more solidly constructed Jewish Center next door.
“I opened the front door of our house, and all I could see was water,” remembers Srolik Winner. “The tops of some cars were peeking out, but the beach had basically relocated to right outside my front stoop. It was frightening.”
Once in the shul next door they realized that while the sifrei Torah in the main shul were secured, the sifrei Torah in the small beis medrash in the basement were at risk.
“My sons and I carried sifrei Torah through five feet of freezing cold sewer water. We carried them on our heads. Thank G-d we were able to bring them to higher ground, to safety. But everything else in shul, is trashed,” explained Rabbi Zushe Winner.
Rabbi Shimmy Silver and his wife, Sarah, have been overseeing the Chabad-Neshama summer and winter camps, and directing the Chabad-Neshama Preschool since they moved to Brighton Beach in 2010. Today the camp and preschool serves almost 200 mostly local Jewish-Russian unaffiliated children. In anticipation of the storm, the Silvers and their young son evacuated from Brighton Beach, worried that their ninth-floor apartment would be dangerous to occupy in case of a prolonged blackout.
Returning to Brighton Beach on Tuesday morning following the storm, Rabbi Silver was met by a stark scene of destruction that grew steadily worse as he advanced down Ocean Parkway. “There were cars scattered all over the street; they were perched on benches, I saw one on a mailbox. Every car was moved from its original parking spot.
“When I reached the preschool, I couldn’t even push the door open. I just stood there, in sort of a daze. I needed time to just absorb the massive amount of damage that lay before me,” says Silver. “There was sand and empty bottles and other debris that was swept in by the water all the way from the beach.”
“The classrooms are gone. The toys and books and tables and chairs are gone. There is no school,” sighs Sarah Silver, who serves as principal of the pre-school. “We just had a curriculum night for parents and teachers a week earlier and the teachers were busy preparing their classrooms. It was all just washed away in a few hours.”
However, as the breadth of the damage sinks in, the Silvers stress that they have already moved on to the daunting challenge of rebuilding.
“We need to reopen our pre-school ASAP,” says Rabbi Silver. “Even a temporary location will have to be local, because almost no one in the community has a car that survived the storm. If we don’t have pre-school running soon, unfortunately many parents will have to send their children to other schools, cutting off what is in many cases their only connection to Judaism.”
Sarah Silver adds that parents have been very understanding and have personally volunteered their time to help in the long process of cleaning out the dirt and sand that was washed into the classrooms.
Still, the estimated $30,000 worth of damage to the classrooms alone will take more than just volunteerism to overcome.
But it is not physical damage alone that is plaguing Brighton Beach. The lack of electricity and clean water, both of which have still not been restored in many parts of the neighborhood, has led to the deaths of a number of elderly citizens, two of whom lived in the Silvers’ apartment complex.
“The situation here is still grave,” says Rabbi Silver. “Two Hatzalah ambulances are parked outside the Amalgamated Warbasse Buildings here in Brighton Beach treating the hundreds of elderly people living without electricity.”
With a shudder Rabbi Silver tells Hamodia of seeing an elderly Jewish man surveying the damage to his home before suddenly collapsing on the sidewalk. The man was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Rabbi Zushe Winner’s son, Rabbi Moshe Winner, has been the director of Chabad of W. Brighton Beach since 2009. He too evacuated from Brighton Beach on Sunday before the storm, but has since returned with his family after his home’s electricity and water were restored.
He tells Hamodia that because of the confusion that still mars the rescue efforts, Chabad has become a go-to source for help and inspiration by locals and concerned relatives all around the world.
“This past Sunday morning I received a call from a woman in Israel whose mother and two uncles live in Brighton Beach,” says Winner. “She located her mother but could not get through to her uncles. After trying to contact the building’s management and the National Guard, she finally called us. We instantly sent a group of teenage volunteers laden with food and water to check up on these seniors, and baruch Hashem they were just slightly worried and confused, but overall they were all right.”
Rabbi Moshe Winner, who runs Chabad’s popular youth programs, also gathered 50 local teenagers who spent their Sunday distributing hot food to hungry residents of Brighton Beach. Standing at a table set with sternos on Ocean Parkway, teens handed out hot kugel, chicken, egg salad, and fresh-packed sandwiches.
“There are many organizations doing good work here, including giving out food, which is desperately needed here. Unfortunately I don’t think any of that food is kosher, so we took it upon ourselves to hand out hot, delicious kosher food.”
The thousands of dollars worth of food, all donated by the Malka family of Crown Heights, was devoured by locals within a few hours of the stands being set up. Other groups of students went door-to-door with food packages, delivering them to relieved seniors.
Rabbi Moshe Winner’s wife, Leah Winner, hosts a Jewish Music for Kids and Moms (JM for KM) program at the Chabad Center every Sunday. This past week, unable to do it at the still-heatless Chabad Center, Winner decided to transfer the program to her apartment and drop the minimal cover charge.
“I wanted to give people a place to go with their children. Some of the mothers came early this week so that they could use my shower, because they don’t have hot water. Everyone stayed longer after the program and they were exchanging numbers offering each other help. The one silver lining to this whole disaster is the way this community has really come together.”
“We’re planning on rebuilding and growing even bigger than we were before the storm,” says Rabbi Moshe Winner. “The community’s response has been tremendous, and we have gotten many donations from people we don’t even know. Unfortunately many of our own long-time supporters have been greatly affected by the storm; some of our supporters have lost literally millions of dollars as a result of Sandy. We’re hoping that the amazing trend of giving that we have seen until now continues, and we’ll be back up and running in the next few weeks.”
To make a donation, checks should be made out to Chabad, and sent to Chabad at 2997 Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11235
