Orthodox Volunteers Shake Off Prohibition To Help Harvey-Stricken Churches

ZAKA volunteers help clear out a synagogue in Houston damaged by flooding during Hurricane Harvey. Image by facebook

By Ari Feldman September 6, 2017

Volunteers with ZAKA, a search and rescue operation run by Israeli Orthodox Jews, are helping repair Houston churches damaged by intense flooding during Hurricane Harvey, reported Breaking Israel News. The decision to help the churches breaks with a custom against entering Christian houses of worship that many Orthodox Jews adhere to.

ZAKA chairman Yehuda Zahav told BIN that there was a “religious imperative to help, since every man was created in God’s image.”

The volunteers are helping with the restoration of Gulf Meadows Church, which is in an area of Houston that reported several dozen rescue requests during the storm and subsequent flooding.

“Throughout history we stayed far away since the church presented both spiritual and physical threats to our people,” said Rabbi Weisz, the publisher of Breaking Israel News. “Nevertheless, Yehuda Meshi Zahav didn’t hesitate to send the Ultra-Orthodox ZAKA volunteers to assist the Gulf Meadow Church suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.”

“We are blessed and privileged to number one have anybody come from Israel, but secondarily to have religious people come with shoulder to shoulder help, we are honored beyond belief,” the church’s pastor, Becky Keenan, said.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO