Aiding Jewish Communities in Times of Crisis and Calm

The crisis began over Shabbat, and Bahia Blanca lost power, making communications very difficult, said Ariel Jenik, JDC’s deputy director for Latin America. Luckily, the vice president of the Jewish community was visiting Buenos Aires that weekend, enabling closer coordination and quick decision-making — like the choice to quickly fly in Jessica Korenblum, JDC’s welfare director in the region.

By Sunday night, she was on the ground in Bahia Blanca, working with local leaders to assess the damage and check in by phone and through home visits with the at-risk Jews JDC serves in the city — along with other Jewish families made suddenly vulnerable by the flooding.

“A situation like this was unprecedented, but we relied on our unique expertise,” Jenik said. “We convened and organized efforts and managed ideas, putting all of that together to make something doable, helpful, and very impactful.”

One of JDC’s first actions was to wire the Jewish community emergency financial assistance — flexible funds that would allow them to meet concrete needs in real time as they arose. The organization also convened a small working group of key stakeholders who collaborated to build a bridge between donation sites in Buenos Aires — Jewish Community Centers (JCCs), day schools, and synagogues — and institutions in Bahia Blanca that needed support.

Within the week, two large donated trucks — the result of a community- wide emergency campaign — were packed with supplies like clothing, medical equipment, and canned food, and driven from the capital to the most impacted areas.

Jenik said JDC encouraged the community to hold Shabbat services two weeks after the disaster as a source of spiritual strength, even though synagogues were still waterlogged and required cleanup — helping to facilitate a partnership with a Buenos Aires congregation.

Beyond those immediate priorities, the organization also began preparing for long-term needs related to the community’s psychological recovery and resilience, even coordinating a Zoom meeting with an Argentine emergency response expert now living in Israel.

“We knew what the aftermath would look like, so we started working in advance,” Jenik said.

The response was a continuation of JDC’s long-term efforts to strengthen Jewish life in Bahia Blanca — bolstering the Jewish community’s Board through coaching and seminars on topics like fundraising and governance, and investing in its emerging leaders through the Kidum initiative, a network of 14 Jewish communities in Argentina’s provinces that face similar challenges and come together for virtual and in-person training.

“Because we already have a presence there and a close working relationship, we were able to take on this role in the middle of an emergency,” Jenik said.

That’s a testament to JDC’s legacy of impact in Argentina and across Latin America — responding to financial crises, cultivating the next generation of community changemakers, and more.

“The flood was a very focused crisis in one particular small community, but many people in Argentina understand JDC’s role as a major player at critical moments like this,” Jenik said. “When JDC picks up the phone to call, the person on the other side always answers.”