In a recent Haaretz article, Lisa Bronstein, chief human resource officer of Jewish Family and Career Services of Atlanta, was quoted regarding the agency's efforts to prepare for any assistance the South Florida community requires.

“We immediately sent out a communication to our employees to see who would be willing to personally open up their homes for housing for the evacuees,” she says. “It was just very heartwarming to see how many people said ‘I have one bedroom, I have two bedrooms, or I don’t have an extra bedroom but I have two extra couches.’”

“We also have a kosher food pantry that is stocked and we have a whole bunch of employees that are ready to deliver food wherever it’s needed,” Bronstein adds.

JFCS provides close to 15,000 people with about 40 different services ranging from mental health programs to career help, mentoring, help with substance abuse, domestic and many others. It also has a donated emergency assistance fund that may be of some help in the aftermath of Dorian.

Bronstein says that beyond the basic assistance, JFCS employees are ready to provide, the clinical team at the organization is also prepared to help evacuees cope with the disaster. “These are tough issues for everybody to deal with, people experience a lot of distress and fear,” she says.

Serveral Atlanta-area Jewish organizations, led by the Jewish Federation of Atlanta, have been coordinating resources in anticipation of the storm's impact. See the list of organizations at jewishatlanta.org/disasterrelief/