The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), together with the Jewish community of Venezuela, is responding to the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela overnight. JDC is working with the Jewish community and local partners in the region to provide immediate relief to both the Jewish community and the broader population, including food, water, medicine, and temporary shelter. The organization’s emergency response team is poised to dispatch once the airport in Caracas opens. To support JDC’s relief efforts for those affected by the earthquakes in Venezuela, please visit: JDC.org/VenezuelaEarthquake2026
“We are deeply saddened by the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela and the growing loss of life and destruction they have caused,” said JDC CEO Ariel Zwang. “In these critical hours and days, we are working hand in hand with the Venezuelan Jewish community and our local partners to deliver urgent relief to those affected and to reach the most vulnerable, who are always hardest hit by disasters. As needs continue to evolve, we stand ready to expand our response and are committed to supporting communities as they begin the long and difficult process of recovery and rebuilding.”
JDC’s deep and decades-long work with the Venezuelan Jewish community includes a wide-ranging and sophisticated social service and humanitarian aid operation supporting its most vulnerable members. Nearly all of Venezuela’s approximately 3,000 Jews live in Caracas. JDC began immediately coordinating with the community after the earthquakes, including the Hebraica JCC in Caracas and the headquarters of Union Israelita de Caracas, longtime partners that are already serving as emergency shelters for more than 400 people evacuated from their homes.
JDC’s history of disaster response efforts in the region has included the cataclysmic 2010 and 2021 earthquakes in Haiti, the 2025 floods in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, and the 2025 Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean.
The disaster relief programs of JDC are funded by its Disaster Fund and special appeals of the Jewish Federations of North America as well as tens of thousands of individual donors to JDC. JDC’s relief activities are coordinated with local and international partners.
JDC, which leads the Jewish community response to disaster and international development crises, has responded to previous disasters in addition to those in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the 2025 earthquake in Myanmar, 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco, 2022 flooding in Pakistan, the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and Asia, as well as natural disasters in Mozambique, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Mexico.
JDC also leads the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR), made up of 49 mostly North American Jewish organizations that address disasters and development challenges worldwide.
