The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) said that it has sent money to the Jewish community in Japan to provide relief for victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the island nation last Friday.
The JDC said it was empowering the community in Tokyo to channel donations to local NGOs engaged in providing aid to the beleaguered parts of the country.
"Our prayers and sympathies go out to the families of those lost in the earthquake in Japan and as we have before in Haiti and in nations struck by the Indian Ocean Tsunami, JDC will leverage its disaster relief expertise and strong partnerships in the region to react swiftly and sympathetically to the needs of victims," said Steven Schwager, JDC’s Chief Executive Officer.
The 8.9 earthquake, the most powerful to hit Japan in more than 100 years, has killed hundreds of people and caused untold damage through massive flooding across the island.
Critical failures at three nuclear power plants in the region have further complicated efforts, adding the risk of rescue crews and survivors being exposed to radiation.
JDC worked in Japan before the American entrance into World War II when the organization helped support Jewish refugees – including renowned religious leaders and yeshiva scholars – in Kobe, Japan who fled Hitler’s Europe. Today, several thousand Jews live and work in Japan.
Some 2,000 Jews live in Japan, mostly residing in the capital and its suburbs.
Israeli emergency response group ZAKA said its plans to send a team to Japan were on hold until the situation there stabilized.
“We plan on sending a team out there, but with the situation as volatile as it is, the safety of the rescue teams is of great importance,” ZAKA spokeswoman Lydia Weitzman said.
A six-man team sent by Israeli humanitarian group IsraAID-FIRST, which left Israel on Sunday, was still making its way to the country, where it hopes to join search and rescue efforts.
Israel's Foreign Ministry made frantic efforts over the weekend to make contact with Israelis traveling or living in Japan. On Sunday, six Israelis - five of them businessmen - were still listed as missing.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Saturday that his country had experienced the worst devastation since 1945.
“The current situation of the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plants is in a way the most severe crisis in the past 65 years since World War II,” he was quoted as saying.