This isn’t the first time KSDS extended a helping hand to hurricane refugees. When I was sitting in shul, I immediately thought we could do something to help those impacted by water.” “The way to respond to tragedies like this is not to throw in the towel and feel God is wreaking havoc, but to counteract the words by supporting those who are affected. “The liturgy of the High Holidays - particularly the well-known line in the Unetanah Tokef which states, ‘Who shall perish by water and who by fire’ - comes to mind during a time like this,” says Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, KSDS’s head of school. At least 17 people have been killed as a result of Florence and the storm has left catastrophic flooding in its wake. However, Florence, which has been called “the storm of a lifetime,” is currently impacting millions of lives up and down the East Coast, with North Carolina being hit the hardest.
The Baileys have since returned home and are back at their own school, since the hurricane passed by their area completely. Ryan spent the day in fourth grade while Caleb attended a second grade class, with both boys joining their cousins’ classes at KSDS. “And when I couldn’t get to them on Wednesday, when school resumed, the teachers treated my kids as one of their own. “Rabbi Gruenberg had my sister and her family over for Rosh Hashanah lunch, and it was so thoughtful of him to include my kids so they could celebrate the holiday,” Bailey says of Chizuk Amuno’s new senior spiritual leader. Gruenberg of Chizuk Amuno Congregation (Provided Photo)
This was the first time we’ve had a mandatory evacuation, and it’s been unnerving and harder doing it by myself since my husband has had to work.”īailey says what made the evacuation a bit easier for her family was the generosity and kindness of the entire KSDS and Chizuk Amuno Congregation communities. “I packed up and made my way to Baltimore. “On Monday, my husband said we needed to leave Norfolk, and that night the governor issued a mandatory evacuation for our area,” says Bailey. “They treated them as part of the community, made them feel really special and helped make them feel like the situation was normal.”īut for the two youngsters - whose mom and youngest brother were still in Norfolk, while their dad is the domestic operations plans officer for the Virginia National Guard and responsible for state emergencies planning - the situation was anything but normal. “Krieger Schechter Day School welcomed my kids right in,” says Robyn Bailey, whose sister, Jodi Wahlberg, is a KSDS middle school teacher. When 9-year-old Ryan Bailey and his little brother, Caleb, 6 came to visit family in Baltimore last week for Rosh Hashanah, little did they know they would stay longer than anticipated.īecause of Hurricane Florence, Ryan and Caleb - who live in Norfolk, Va., and attend the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater in Virginia Beach - were still in Charm City when the holiday ended and most Jewish day schools resumed.Īs planned, they returned to school the day after the Jewish new year.
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