In the Aftermath of Terror: Chabad Reaches Out

When terror strikes in an Israeli city, throwing untold numbers of lives into painful chaos, it's often hard to know precisely in which ways to help. Unfortunately, relief organizations such as Chabad's Terror Victims Relief Project have a lot of experience.

"We had a long period of calm here in Hadera, and although there have been several attacks in the past, people were already feeling more secure," says Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz, program director at Chabad of Hadera, a working-class town near the Northern Shomron. Schwartz, along with Hadera's Chabad Rabbis Yochanan Butman and Klomnius Kupzik, is working with Chabad's central Terror Relief Project director Rabbi Menachem Kutner to offer support and aid to victims of Wednesday's devastating attack at a market in Hadera, which killed five and wounded dozens.

From all too many previous experiences, Chabad workers know that the real assistance is needed several days after the attack, when many of the wounded return home from the hospital to lives turned upside down. Chabad representatives visit with victims while they are still in the hospital to determine the level of assistance each will need in the weeks and months to come. "Some families will simply need moral support, others will need hot meals delivered and several basic needs looked after for them, and still others will need financial assistance on a large scale to get their lives back together," says Rabbi Menachem Kutner. Kutner arrived in Hadera Thursday and is working with Chabad's local team to coordinate the relief effort in the city.