American Jewish Committee (AJC), the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, is partnering with IsraAID, the Israeli humanitarian relief group, in delivering urgent aid to people in areas of the Philippines devastated by Super Typhoon Rai, known locally as Odette.

The AJC donation will help IsraAID provide psychological first aid and distribute urgently needed relief items, including fresh water, food and hygiene items. The typhoon, which made nine landfalls over two days, left more than 1.8 million people affected by severe flooding, landslides and large-scale destruction. It was the fourth destructive typhoon to hit the island nation since 2013.

“Our longstanding friendship with the Philippines, and our Jewish values to assist those in need, summon us to respond with empathy and generosity. We are pleased to join with IsraAID, as we have done in previous crises in the Philippines, in delivering urgent humanitarian assistance,” said Shira Loewenberg, Director of AJC’s Asia Pacific Institute.

AJC supported IsraAID’s relief efforts in the Philippines after Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, Typhoon Hagupit in 2014, and Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

“Once again, together with AJC, our long-term partners, we are responding to a terrible disaster that claimed the lives of so many,” said IsraAID CEO Yotam Polizer. “Thanks to AJC’s leadership we are able to provide both immediate relief and long-term recovery that is so desperately needed in the Philippines”

AJC's donation to support IsraAID’ s efforts in the Philippines came from the agency’s Heilbrunn Humanitarian Relief Fund.

Humanitarian relief has been a core of AJC's work for more than a century, and has long partnered with IsraAID in crises around the world.

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