Three adorable puppies rescued in the Negev

Published on June 4, 2013

Rescuers search Oklahoma tornado town ruins as recovery starts

Published on May 22, 2013

Rescue workers with sniffer dogs picked through the ruins of an Oklahoma town on Wednesday to ensure no survivors remained buried after a deadly tornado left thousands homeless and trying to salvage what was left of their belongings.

A prayer for Oklahoma

Published on May 21, 2013

Lord our God, we stood before You just a week ago to receive the Ten Statements of Your Torah. We stood, as though with our ancestors, and listened to the Torah reader chant descriptions of the smoking mountain, the thunderous rumbling, and the long-awaited voice of God.

Chabad center taking in Oklahomans displaced by deadly tornado

Published on May 21, 2013

A Chabad center in Oklahoma City opened its building as a shelter for those displaced by a deadly tornado.

Pan Pacific Park draws generations for Yom HaShoah

By Ryan Torok
Published on April 10, 2013

As Holocaust survivor Robert Geminder led a walking tour in Pan Pacific Park on April 7, pre-arranged memory markers — labeled “ghettos,” “camps,” “resistance” and “rescue” — transformed an outdoor path into a historical timeline.

About a dog, lost and found

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on April 22, 2012

Pet Rescue or a Scam?

By Julia Bendis
Published on April 4, 2011

Israel team of volunteers to help with search and rescue efforts in Japan

Published on March 11, 2011

ZAKA International Rescue Unit said Friday it will send a team of trained volunteers from Israel to help the search and rescue efforts in Japan, following the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that rocked the country earlier that day.

Chilean miners invited to visit Israel

Published on October 20, 2010

Israel’s tourism minister invited the 33 rescued Chilean miners to spend Christmas in Israel.

Israel invites Chilean miners for a ‘spiritual’ Christmas in the Holy Land

Published on October 18, 2010

Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov on Monday extended an official invitation to the 33 Chilean miners who were rescued last week to experience a "spiritual journey" this Christmas in the Holy Land.

Jewish businessman gifting rescued miners

Published on October 13, 2010

Chilean mining executive Leonardo Farkas has written $10,000 checks to each of the 33 miners that are being rescued from a collapsed mine in Chile after being trapped for more than two months.

Volunteers needed to search Lake Piru for missing father

By The Web Guy
Published on August 26, 2008

Milken JCC board rejects Federation offer

By Jane Ulman
Published on June 14, 2007

Up to now, the New JCC at Milken has avoided closure and selling off its property, the fate of many former Los Angeles JCCs, because of its unique history.

A night at the homeless shelter

By Jackie Greenspan
Published on November 30, 2006

545 San Pedro Street is an address I will never forget.

It is the Union Rescue Mission downtown, inhabited by homeless individuals that reside in their designated corners on Skid Row. My school, Milken Community High School, offered a community service experience for 21 students, and I found myself at the Union Rescue Mission.

There is God in this place

By Rabbi Judith HaLevy
Published on November 30, 2006

I reached back to cover the asparagus fern I had placed just behind the front seat. (At that time I was told no out-of-state plants were allowed.) The car swerved, ran over the embankment and careened down a ditch at top speed.

Tale of heroics, terror from the top of the world

By Sarah Price Brown
Published on November 30, 2006

Experiencing the classic symptoms of altitude sickness -- fatigue and hallucinations -- Hall had refused to continue down the mountain and ended up passing out. The two sherpas with him concluded, after poking Hall in the eye and getting no response, that Hall was dead. Suffering from lack of oxygen themselves, they hurried down the mountain.

To comfort me, first comfort yourself

By Rabbi Anne Brener
Published on November 2, 2006

The wisdom to help others is not privileged information. It is taught to all of us through our life experiences.

Let My People Watch TV

By Tom Tugend
Published on March 30, 2006

A new version of "The Ten Commandments," with its timeless themes of slavery and freedom, faith and doubt, adultery and fidelity, battles and miracles, has been shaped into a four-hour miniseries by ABC-TV.

Tracks of an Ethiopian Exodus

By Uriel Heilman
Published on March 2, 2006

Along with thousands of other Ethiopians fleeing their country, which at the time was ruled by communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Jews settled in refugee camps in Sudan and waited for Mossad operatives to take them out.

A Developing Reputation

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on December 29, 2005

The two young, sari-clad women, one in blue and one in orange, stand in the thatched-roof meeting hall, take hold of the microphone and join their voices.
"We don't need any fancy materials," they croon by heart. "What we need is just some food to live. We don't ask for a refrigerator, a TV or a car. We just need some small capital to start a business."
The audience of women in the village of Alamarai Kuppam applaud with enthusiasm. The few men, seated or hovering around the edges, are more circumspect, but they, too, nod approvingly.
Call it women's lib, post-tsunami-India style.
The outpouring of financial support that followed the 2004 tsunami has accelerated efforts to improve the lives of rural women -- an initiative that goes well beyond helping families recover from the tsunami.

City’s Plight Brings Flood of Memories

By Rabbi Anne Brener
Published on September 8, 2005

In New Orleans, the Jews are the only ones buried in the ground. Others, if their mourners have any means at all, are laid with the expectation of eternal rest in stone crypts to protect them from rising waters. My mother used to say, "Someday, we Jews'll all be floatin' down the river."

Just as in California, where we know that one day "the big one" will come, in New Orleans, we knew that someday the water would overtake us. But the denial overtakes the wisdom, and we stay and build lives. I think of Pompeii. New Orleans was so beautiful.

Report From Phuket Faith and Tsunami:  A Rescue Mission

By Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm
Published on January 6, 2005

Ten minutes after the tsunami hit, my phone started ringing. It's been ringing ever since, 24 hours a day -- husbands looking for wives, mothers looking for daughters, friends looking for their traveling companions.

The Mickey Rule

By Sam Shmikler
Published on September 2, 2004

There seems to be an unwritten rule that states: "If you are going through a convulsive experience, you ought to be open to those with equally or more compelling issues." Whatever happened to: "Put your own mask on first, then, tighten the straps before you try to assist others"?

Mom, Can We Keep Him?

By Rachel Brand
Published on November 7, 2002

If your kids are out of the house and you're experiencing empty-nest syndrome, how about considering adoption?

Passover Rescue

By Uriel Heilman
Published on March 28, 2002

Five months ago, Beatrice Ballageure was struggling to make ends meet as a single, 47-year-old Jewish woman living in the capital city of an economically depressed Argentina. She had lost her job several months earlier, but she owned her own apartment and had enough money in the bank to afford basic expenses. She had friends with jobs, and she knew she could rely on her family if real trouble ever came. Then the bottom fell out of Argentina's economy.

Federations Send Aid to Argentina

By Rachel Pomerance
Published on March 7, 2002

The United Jewish Communities has pledged more than $40 million this year for the rescue and relief of the Jews of Argentina.

Volunteer Lifesavers

By Julie G Fax
Published on November 29, 2001

Hatzolah Volunteer Emergency Medical Rescue Squad, long a fixture in New York, just went public in Los Angeles, serving a circumscribed area of the mostly Orthodox Beverly-La Brea Jewish community and becoming the only volunteer Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) corps in the city.

Out on a Limb

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 23, 2000

During the darkest days of the Holocaust, 63 diplomats from 24 countries risked their careers, in some cases their lives, by issuing unauthorized visas and protective letters to save an estimated 200,000 Jews.The deeds of four of these brave envoys are honored in the documentary film "Diplomats for the Damned," to air Sun., Nov. 26, on the History Channel.

Relief Is in Sight

By Gil Sedan
Published on September 2, 1999

A middle-aged man climbed up to the cabin of a crane and drew the operator's attention to a small suitcase on top of a pile of rubble left by last month's killer earthquake in Turkey.