Santiago – Jewish communities bordering the Pacific Ocean emerged largely unscathed after one of the largest earthquakes on record sent buildings and bridges crashing down to their foundations throughout the South American country of Chile. As word spread of the devastation Saturday night – after the close of the holy day of Shabbat – Jewish residents in the Chilean capital of Santiago and half a world away in Hawaii celebrated their deliverance from harm while they took part in Purim festivities. They also turned their attention to how they could help those who weren’t so lucky.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“Our hearts and prayers are with the victims of this horrible tragedy,” said Chaya Perman, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Chile, who since 1981, has run a network of programs for the country’s estimated 16,000 Jewish community members, most of them centered in Santiago. “Thank G-d, the Jewish community is okay.”
The magnitude 8.8 quake struck just after 3:30 local time early Saturday morning, rousing hordes of sleeping citizens and tourists, who sought shelter in doorways and in the streets outside high-rise buildings. News reports and first-person accounts said that the shaking lasted for about 90-seconds, and that most of the damage was centered in the cities of Concepcion and Talca, just 100 kilometers from the coast.
Perman reported that there was some light damage to the Chabad House, but that plans for the Purim holiday – which recalls the victory of the Persian Jews against an evil plot by a royal aide, as told in the Scroll of Esther – went ahead as scheduled. On Saturday night, the community gathered for a reading of the scroll, known in Hebrew as the megillah, and was set to host a customary feast on Sunday.
Marcelo Lewkow, national director of ORT Chile, a Jewish charity that supports schools and other communal infrastructure, told the EJewishPhilanthropy blog that 60 percent of the capital was without power, and that local officials had told people to stay indoors.
Immediately following the quake, “the communication system was very fragile,” said Lewkow. “Cell phones were off and sending [text] message was the only way people could be in conact.”
Throughout the city, “synagogues and schools are okay, pending a deeper evaluation by professionals, but there is no visible damage to the buildings or hydraulic systems,” he added. “Ort in Chile has two headquarters which both seem to be alright, and all personnel are safe and sound.”
On Sunday, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which supported missions from Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic and other relief efforts in Haiti following that country’s devastating earthquake last month, announced its intention to collect funds for Chile’s victims.
“Our hearts go out to the people of Chile,” said the organization’s CEO, Steven Schwager. “JDC will leverage our strong partnerships in the region, including the local Chilean Jewish community, to provide a quick and effective response to the needs of those affected.”
The Tsunami That Wasn’t
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, where threats of a tsunami led emergency personnel to evacuate beaches, low-lying areas, and the first three floors of hotels, fears of destruction proved largely unfounded. Footage shot by local television stations showed erratic surges in harbor tidal levels, but there was no loss of life, and very little property damage.
The accounts contrasted sharply with the havoc wreaked by a 1960 magnitude 9.5 earthquake in Chile that, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, sent a tidal wave across the Pacific, claiming 200 lives in Japan, Hawaii and the Philippines.
“It was the tsunami that wasn’t,” Pearl Krasnjansky, co-director of Chabad of Hawaii, said of the Saturday evacuations.
Because of the strictures associated with Shabbat, the Krasnjanskys didn’t have a television or radio on throughout the day.
“Someone woke us up and told us to drive away,” said Krasnjansky, who lives in Honolulu. “Our synagogue is in the hotel area, but one and a half blocks from the ocean. We went up to the second floor and waited it out.
“The tsunami was supposed to hit at 11:15 a.m.,” she continued. “Our nine-year-old said that we’d be okay, because that’s when we normally read from the Torah.”
Purim festivities in Honolulu continued as planned Saturday night, but the fate of a Sunday party in Hilo, where Rabbi Avremel and Rivka Chazanow spend Shabbat once a month, was up in the air.
“We all evacuated from the first couple of streets and walked up the hill over to the university,” said Avremel Chazanow, director of Chabad of the Big Island. “It was a beautiful day, but got very windy as the time for the tsunami approached. Students came in and saw us praying, and others came and sat down for the Shabbat meal.”
Yudi Weinbaum, a kosher caterer who lives in Honolulu with his wife and two kids, said that it was miraculous that Hawaii was spared.
“Because we’re on an island, the effects of a tsunami could knock out power and water supplies,” he said. “We can’t just drive over to the next state.”
thank you, shluchei harebbe!!