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Misaskim's Emergency Response
Date: March 13, 2010
Torrential
rains, raving fires, downed electricity
and emergency landing - it's mind-boggling
to think how many times Misaskim
answered calls for help within
twenty-four-hours.
It
started minutes after Shabbos
when Misaskim received a call
from Teaneck, NJ, that a tree
fell and killed two people coming
home from shul. When all of humanity
huddled indoors and complained
about the howling winds outside,
twelve Misaskim volunteers and
the Chaplain from the Teaneck
Police Dept. Rabbi Abe Friedman,
stood in the pouring rain for
hours to clean up the accident
disaster site al pi halacha. Afterwards,
Misaskim arranged for the shmira
overnight and in the morning a
Misaskim team was dispatched to
the morgue in Bergen County to
have the bodies released in a
timely manner, without comprising
the kavod hames. B”h, Sunday night,
one aron was on the 7:30 flight
to Eretz Yisroel and the second
levaye took place on Monday morning.
While
in the morgue, the Director of
Public Safety for Kiryas Yoel,
Rabbi Moses Vitriol, who was there
at the time, to help Misaskim
expedite the release of the niftarim
noticed two Jewish-sounding names
of bodies scheduled for an autopsy
on the following day; Ron Sandburg
and Elliot Nissenbaum. After inquiring,
Misaskim was told that these were
victims of a Motzei Shabbos fatal
fire in Fort Lee, NJ, and since
no family member had objected
to the autopsy they were going
to happen Monday morning. It was
difficult to track down the next
of kin. The police department
refused to share the information,
due to privacy laws. Numerous
other law enforcement agencies
were asked to help, but these
efforts yielded no result. By
sheer coincidence, Rabbi Vitriol
recalled doing a business dealing
with those men in the 1990's and
recalled the name of their real
estate management company. After
many more leads, Misaskim heard
that they recently closed a mortgage
deal with a prominent mortgage
firm, and the firm's president
connected Misaskim with the sister
of Mr. Ron Sandberg from Brooklyn,
NY and the sister of Mr. Elliot
Nissenbaum from Boston, Massachusetts.
Both women came down to Bergen
Counties Coroners Office signed
the ID documents and objection
for the autopsy. Both bodies were
released Monday afternoon to the
funeral homes, once again, without
compromising the kavod haniftar.
On
that very same day, Misaskim received
a frantic call from Telshe Yeshiva
in Riverdale, NY. Their electricity
was down due to the horrific storm.
Besides for bittul torah, they
had an event scheduled for that
evening. Misaskim supplied a generator,
restored the Bais Midrash´s electricity
temporarily, and earned the zechus
of two hundred bachurim´s torah
learning – and a successful gathering.
To
top off the eventful day, a family
flying their ten-day-old newborn
on a incubator from Eretz Yisroel
to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital
in New York for emergency heart
surgery called out to Misaskim
to help them transport the baby
to the hospital from the airport.
Misakim, once again, found the
heart, time and resources to answer
this plea for help. All this in
just a mere 24 hours.
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