A message from our CEO and Board President

Dear friend,

NECHAMA provides security, stability, and nechama (Hebrew for comfort) for victims of natural disasters. As 2024 comes to an end, NECHAMA has good reason to be hopeful. Our wonderful staff and volunteers are on the ground right now assisting strangers whose lives were upended by Hurricane Helene. We help them clean up, start rebuilding, and begin returning their lives to normal. Most importantly, we share in their hope for the future. We can’t do this without your financial support and partnership, and we deeply appreciate your ongoing commitment to NECHAMA.

Disaster relief is the platform that allows NECHAMA to actively engage and build the identity of the next generation of Jews, and our work in the field helps combat the virulent antisemitism that has swept through this country. One of NECHAMA’s core values is Lo Ta’Amod. Originally from Leviticus, the Talmud has interpreted this as the obligation to not stand idly by when crisis strikes and to aid others, regardless of risk to ourselves. With the exponential increase in extreme weather events, there has never been more need for NECHAMA’s work. Our efforts to deliver comfort and hope are limited only by resources.

Our work in Western North Carolina is vital but much more needs to be done. To help more families, to spread more comfort and hope, to represent Jewish ideals more broadly – we need more volunteers and we need more financial resources. Please don’t stand idly by. If you show up to volunteer, your time and talent will be well used and appreciated. You will engage in debris and brush removal, mucking and gutting of houses (taking them down to the studs if necessary), mold mitigation and much more.

Hundreds of supporters just like you have already provided direct assistance in North Carolina and hundreds more provided virtual assistance and case management in the immediate aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Many volunteered as NECHAMA responded to tornado recovery in Oklahoma, flood relief in Northern Iowa, and other hurricanes in Florida and Louisiana. NECHAMA builds these smaller and more localized responses into our budget. Your support of NECHAMA through this appeal allows us to jump right in when the need emerges without having to wait for grants to be accepted and donations to accrue.

Your donation will bring hope and assistance to families still waiting for help long after the storm has passed. Your support provides nechama for all those affected by disaster, especially when the events leave the headlines and public support diminishes.

Many thanks,

Stephan Kline, CEO Stephen Matloff, Board President