Jewish communities, like others across the state, are taking steps to meet their own needs. In Dallas, one of the two Jewish senior centers in the area lost the main power and backup generator, forcing the team to quickly relocate residents to the other senior center in the area – luckily, he had a room available and it opened. recently.
Two emergency response units run by Orthodox Jews, Hatzalah of Dallas and the newly formed Texas Chaverim, both founded by a local resident, Baruch Shawel, sent patrols to help residents with flat batteries, medical emergencies and other problems.
“It’s been very wild here,” said Hannah Lebovits, a professor at the University of Texas-Arlington who lives in an orthodox community in northern Dallas, about the continuous blackouts that accompany other problems like loss of heat and water pressure. “Fortunately, in the Jewish community, we often quickly create our own mutual aid systems.”
Still, Lebovits said: “It shouldn’t be Chaverim doing this. It must be the city of Dallas knocking on my door and checking on me. “
In Houston, too, Jewish leaders are relying on the coordination work set in place long before the unusual cold wave set in. Traumatized by the Jewish patchwork response to Hurricane Harvey’s devastating floods, the Greater Houston Jewish Federation convened the Jewish Action and Response Network in early 2020, even before the pandemic.
“After Harvey, each synagogue gave its own answer. They made their own food. It was not coordinated, ”said Jackie Fisherman, director of the network and director of government affairs for the Houston federation. “We think there should be a better way.”