Nonsectarian Aid, Jewish Values: This Disaster Relief Expert Reflects on JDC’s Global Work

When an earthquake strikes or a hurricane lands, Mickey Noam-Alon is often one of the first people on the ground. The director of JDC’s disaster response program, Noam-Alon has more than 15 years of experience organizing and executing complex humanitarian interventions around the globe. In this reflection, he walks us through JDC’s efforts in Turkey and Myanmar, what makes JDC’s approach unique and effective, and what fuels his commitment to nonsectarian aid — and the people he serves. 

A View of Disaster

The scale was enormous. 

Apartment blocks and office buildings had collapsed into rubble. Search-and-rescue teams picked through the ruins. Everyday people dug through crushed metal, stone, and glass. Community members climbed up mountains of debris, pulling friends and family out of the destruction. 

I’m describing what could be any disaster zone around the world, but this was Turkey in February 2023. A magnitude-7.8 earthquake had just ripped the country apart, and I was here with JDC’s disaster response team to ensure victims had what they needed to survive and rebuild. 

JDC was on the ground in Gaziantep — the earthquake’s epicenter — within hours. Thanks to our deep and lasting connections with the Jewish community of Turkey, we reached Gaziantep quickly and launched our response immediately. 

So many people desperately needed all of the basics — food, shelter, medicine — and it was my job, as director of JDC’s disaster response team, to manage and execute this nimble, decisive operation.

I’ve been in the disaster sector for 15 years. I started out as a photojournalist, and in 2010, joined a humanitarian delegation to Haiti right after their devastating magnitude-7.1 earthquake.

As a photojournalist working with an NGO, I got to spend a lot of time on the ground. I made connections with local communities and learned about their lives. Most journalists don’t get to spend time in this kind of setting, and telling stories like these is a privilege and responsibility that I don’t take for granted. 

Today, I still love photography — but I wanted to offer something tangible, too. That’s what led me to humanitarian work. 

A Tailored Response

In Turkey, all it took was 103 seconds— less than two minutes — for more than 50,000 people to perish and 500,000 buildings to collapse. The earthquake encompassed 1,000 square kilometers, and over 13 million people were affected.

On the one hand, it’s difficult to grasp the enormity of these numbers. On the other hand, there isn’t time to do much thinking at all — you just have to act. The earthquake hit at 4 a.m and at 7 a.m., JDC was already on the phone with local staff and the Jewish community. Just a few hours after that, we were on the ground, helping to lead our multipronged disaster-response efforts. 

Our top priority was healthcare, as victims were in dire need of medical assistance. In response, we procured four ambulances, able to reach hundreds of thousands of people across southern Turkey, and brought medical equipment to hospitals and temporary clinics that were set up following the earthquake. 

Another immediate concern was housing. It was winter — the weather was freezing and it was snowing. Many earthquake survivors had to sleep in their cars, if they had them. Of course, they couldn’t walk into their homes and retrieve coats and blankets. And forget about taking a warm shower — or any shower at all. 

Thankfully, we were able to provide shelter to more than 2,000 people in hotel rooms, tents, containers, and converted dormitories. For those without food and heat, we worked with our partners to set up a kitchen that served 10,000 meals per day and we delivered over 11,000 blankets to those enduring the cold. We also supported a pop-up store in Nurdağı that reached more than 3,000 children in just two days.

But that wasn’t all: There was still the question of livelihood. How would these people support themselves now that their homes, streets, and offices were destroyed?

In partnership with the Bülbülzade Foundation, we launched a sewing project for women living in the container cities. Having lost their income and their homes, these women could now regain a sense of purpose and provide for their families. With the fabric, sewing machines, and training we facilitated, these women sewed trousers, pajamas, sweaters, and blouses for those whose belongings had been destroyed. They also received much-needed psychosocial support. 

What started as a sewing project became an entire social world for these women — a place where people from all walks of life, people who had been displaced, could find each other. Even now, two years after the earthquake, the sewing workshops serve as a vital multi-purpose community center for the still-displaced women and children living in “container cities.” 

Each facet of our response was tailored to the unique and difficult circumstances the earthquake victims were forced to endure — and since then, we’ve worked with our partners to launch a powerful, yet nimble long-term recovery.

Today, the work continues. We are now developing a project to establish a prosthetics lab to help more than 800 injured children who are still awaiting care.

The Myanmar Earthquake

There’s one secret ingredient to every successful disaster response: humility.

You come into an affected community that you often know very little about — and many times, you see people come together and support each other before you ever touch ground. People in Malawi, where we responded to Cyclone Jude in 2024, understand how things work in Malawi better than anyone. The same goes for Turkey and everywhere else. 

No matter how hard we may try, we can’t replace local knowledge. What we can do is bring resources to help people get back on their feet. We can leverage our know-how, innovative technologies, and century-plus experience to fuel an effective recovery, both now and long into the future. 

That’s precisely what we did this spring when a devastating earthquake struck Myanmar. 

In terms of infrastructure, Myanmar is one of the most vulnerable places in the world. Medical services are sorely lacking, malaria and dengue outbreaks are severe and common, and electricity is spotty — up to four hours a day, and that’s only in the major cities. 

Add to this context a magnitude-7.7 earthquake, and you get an utter catastrophe. 

The earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28th, 2025, shattered its already crumbling infrastructure, killing more than 3,600 people, injuring 5,000 more, and displacing over 200,000 from their homes. The quake was felt as far as China and Thailand, even toppling high-rise buildings in faraway Bangkok. Then, as if to repeat itself, a magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck moments after the first. 

In Inle Lake, a large body of water near Mandalay, residents had built houses on stilts above the water. These communities had been there for generations, but all of it collapsed in an instant when the earthquake struck. People found themselves jumping into the water, struggling to swim to shore. Some even suffered electrocution from downed poles. 

Immediately after the earthquakes, we activated our Go/No-Go app, confirming the urgent need for a response. Within hours, a seasoned consultant from our roster flew in from Thailand to join the effort. Thanks to the flexibility enabled by our Disaster Fund, JDC was among the first international responders, and the first Jewish humanitarian organization, to operate on the ground in Myanmar.  

Severe challenges, including power outages and damaged infrastructure, hindered access and aid delivery. But we were able to tap into our own networks to identify and work with trusted local partners embedded within affected communities. These partnerships ensured that aid reached some of the most remote and vulnerable populations without delay.

Their needs were enormous. Hundreds of thousands of people were now living on the street. The problem wasn’t just that they were homeless — monsoon season was approaching, and the threat of waterborne disease was reaching a fever pitch. The heat was intense, too, and there wasn’t any proper sanitation. 

The first thing we did was distribute basic necessities, like hygiene kits, tarps for shelter, mosquito nets, and other critical supplies. We also started working on sanitation infrastructure, supplying purifiers to those who had lost access to potable water. 

This is just the beginning — together with our partners, we are there for Myanmar’s earthquake survivors. 

Nonsectarian Aid Steeped in Jewish Values

No matter who you are — or what disaster you’ve endured — you want and deserve to be treated not like a victim or survivor, but a dignified human being. 

JDC’s approach is unique, not only because we have the extensive connections and experience to roll out far-reaching humanitarian efforts, but because we help restore a sense of purpose to those who have lost everything. Like anyone, these people have agency and dignity, and part of our work is to empower them to reclaim ownership over their lives so that, after we leave, they are even more resilient than before. 

This is what ignites the passion for the work I do here at JDC. 

As Jews, we often talk about the “Jewish world.” But we’re also a part of the larger world — it’s a shared experience. At no time is this more apparent than during a disaster — an earthquake, cyclone, or tsunami affects everyone in its path, regardless of their identity. JDC has done monumental things in its 110-year history, including providing a meaningful Jewish response to major disasters. Our job now is to continue and extend our Jewish values to the most vulnerable. 

Given the challenges we face, there is no mission more urgent.

Mickey Noam-Alon serves as the director of JDC’s disaster response program.

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