Hurricane Sandy

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the umbrella group for organized philanthropy in major cities and regions, announced Oct. 30 that it has opened its Hurricane Relief Fund for donations towards recovery and rebuilding from the devastation Hurricane Sandy caused on the East Coast.

In the wake of a frighteningly widespread and devastating storm and on the eve of a high-stakes and bitter presidential election, much of our country is in need of healing and repair — physical, political and emotional.

She was a political activist who had just started a teaching job at Bushwick High School for Social Justice. He was a student at Brooklyn College with a degree in theater design. Lifelong friends, they lived near each other in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn, though they were not dating. On Monday night, as the winds of Hurricane Sandy howled and the rain fell, Jessie Streich-Kest, 24, and Jacob Vogelman, 25, took Max, her mixed pit bull, for a walk in their neighborhood.

On the night Hurricane Sandy roared in, as two giant trees sandwiched my house and pierced the garage roof, it felt like the world itself was crashing down.  We were seeing before our eyes an undoing of the primordial act of order.  In Genesis, a wind brought about a separation of earthly and heavenly waters, and then a separation of water from dry land.  But with Sandy, the waters of the deep appeared to be reclaiming that coastline and undoing that initial act of separation.

After suspending service to and from Israel because of Hurricane Sandy, El Al, Israel's national airline, added two flights to its schedule to make up for canceled flights.

One will depart Tel Aviv for New York on Friday morning at 1:10 a.m., local time, and another will depart New York for Tel Aviv on Saturday night, 11:30 p.m.

"We continue to keep those affected by the hurricane in our thoughts and prayers," the airline said in a statement.

Two young Jews were killed in Brooklyn by a falling tree during superstorm Sandy.

The pair were out walking a dog Monday night in the storm's high winds.

The dead were identified by The New York Observer as Jessie Streich-Kest, 24, who worked as a high school teacher in the city, and Jacob Vogelman, a student at Brooklyn College. The two had been friends since middle school, according to the Observer.

They were discovered dead Monday, crushed by the fallen tree. The dog was taken to an emergency veterinary clinic.

Two young Jews were killed in Brooklyn by a falling tree during superstorm Sandy.

The pair were out walking a dog Monday night in the storm's high winds.

The dead were identified by The New York Observer as Jessie Streich-Kest, 24, who worked as a high school teacher in the city, and Jacob Vogelman, a student at Brooklyn College. The two had been friends since middle school, according to the Observer.

They were discovered dead Monday, crushed by the fallen tree. The dog was taken to an emergency veterinary clinic.

UPDATED 10/31 11:00 AM

On Tuesday morning, a few hours after the most fearsome hurricane in New York history delivered a knockout punch here, Yanky Meyer spent an hour in a southern Brooklyn neighborhood that had briefly turned into one of the city’s most dangerous.

Meyer, director of the Misaskim emergency crisis organization, went to Sea Gate, a gated community that borders on Gravesend Bay, to help shepherd some holdouts to safety.