By COLlive reporter
As residents from all over New York and New Jersey have begun clean up from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, the shluchim to Long Beach, Long Island find themselves with no home and a badly damaged shul.
Rabbi Eli Goodman and his wife Beila along with their 4 children run the BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach NY. The Goodman family home as well as the offices are located right near the boardwalk and on the ground floor. From the front door of their home one can see the beach a mere 20 ft away.
Before the storm began the Goodman family evacuated to a friend’s home taking with them their Rebbe dollars, passports and a change of clothing.
As Hurricane Sandy crashed on to the shores of Long Beach, the water rushed in from the beach filling all the streets, flooding homes, moving cars, tearing up the iconic Long Beach boardwalk, and smashing through 2ft thick cement walls meant to hold back the sea.
When they returned after the storm, the scene that met their eyes was one of devastation, utter chaos and destruction, Rabbi Goodman told COLlive.
“Close to 2ft of sand cover the floor throughout the apartment, with dishes, seforim, toys and other household items trapped within,” he said. “The water levels had reached 4 to 5 feet, ruining many shelves of seforim and books including a Chosson Shas and leather Siddurim from our wedding. Photos of the children litter the floor along with chairs, clothing and large pieces of wood from the boardwalk,” he describes.
The Chabad House is flooded with 4 ft of water destroying the social hall, stage, kitchen and many seforim.
After the storm, friends and family traveled to Long Beach to check on the Goodmans to make sure that they were ok. “With Hashem’s help,” Rabbi Goodman says, “all members of the Goodman family are OK!”
Friends, family and members of the community of Long Beach gathered at the Goodman home this morning to assess the damage and salvage whatever they could. Seforim from the top shelf, toys that can be cleaned, dishes and other household items were packed into boxes. A small amount of the wet and soggy clothing was stuffed in bags and transported to Crown Heights for cleaning.
The city of Long Beach is without phone connectivity, power and all water is contaminated and cannot be consumed. A city official told Rabbi Goodman that utilities are not expected to be running for a month due to the damage from the storm.
Rabbi Goodman and his family are now effectively homeless!
The Goodman family will be staying with family in Crown Heights pending them finding a proper location to house them until they can rebuild their home literally from scratch.
The family, as well as the Chabad house, are in desperate need of funds.
The Chabad House needs a generator to provide electricity for Shabbos and pumps to empty the shul. Clothing must be bought for the children and contractors need to be paid to clean out the house. Most important, the family needs a new home so they can continue with their shlichus.
The Goodman’s siblings created a fund as soon as they knew the apartment flooded, with the intention of raising funds for the next week. With communications down, they had no idea what their needs were, but knew they had minimal funds with them. Now that contact has been made, they know their needs and have increased the amount accordingly.
To help the Goodman Family please donate here.
Click here to donate
Note: To donate in Australia, please click on the link above, and choose “Buy as Guest.”
With Hashem’s help, the Goodman family will rebuild their home and continue with their shlichus in the near future.
—-
A number of shluchim in Brooklyn and the larger New York area were hit really hard by the hurricane. Some had their homes and Chabad houses flooded with five feet of water and had much of their belongings destroyed.
These shluchim need help clearing their homes of debris and providing much needed supplies to their communities.
If you would like to volunteer please fill out the form below.
Click here
this is terrible
notice all the seforim that are ruined
moshiach now
The walls of water are rising higher. There’s another storm on its way in 3-4 days. Hashem is telling you IT’S TIME NOW to return to Eretz Yisrael.
this is terrible!
notice all the seforim that are ruined 🙁
Moshiach now!
mushky and shternie i miss you
Please send or drop off at
Goodman Relief Fund C/O Dini Scharfstein
627 E. New York Ave #6RF
Brooklyn, NY 11203
I have a beautiful 12-18 months Columbia down snowsuit, navy blue. Would they have a need for it?
I’ll check back on this thread iyH. Went to them for a Purim Program one time, so I know how the pictures looked “before” 🙁
O.M.G.
This men is warm kind and a Mench
Please help him rebuild
Checkout as guest.
how can a donation be made if one does not have a paypal account?
Whats needed right away and what people in CH can help with is: money, GENERATORS, WATER PUMPS, gas and possibly shovels.
If you can help with those or would like to offer your help directly, you can email me at [email protected] and I will foreword your info to them directly.
There are people here in CH who are able and willing to go out and help shluchim in their cleanup effort, please post info, please help organize so we can go out and help.
when you click on the donate link here then after choosing amount etc you will come to a paypal new page which will open and on that page there is an option either to log in or at the bottom to buy as a guest without logging in. and there u can put in country name address and credit details.
Rabbi & Mrs Perl & Family you r amazing for all your help in evtg. you are amazing people!!! no words.
Looks crazy! You don’t need a paypal account to donate, it uses paypal but you can select your country and enter your credit card details without a paypal account!
Good luck Rabbi G
Sorry — your last action could not be completed
If you were making a purchase or sending money, we recommend that you check both your PayPal account and your email for a transaction confirmation after 30 minutes.
If you came to this page from another website, please return to that site (don’t use your browser’s Back button) and restart your activity.
If you came from PayPal’s website, click the PayPal logo in the upper-left corner to return to our home page and restart your activity. You might have to log in again.
just gonna say my 2 cents that video was taken after hours of cleaning and emptying things…looks a lot better than it was 🙂
Beila’s sister Bracha Kantor is collecting in Australia.
Please contact her on 0425-740-546
My heart goes out to you as I look at your home destroyed like that.
We say that from a fire vert men reich, can we say the same about a flood?
Wishing only bigger and better from this destruction!
I am trying to donate – as guest, but it is not able to complete the process. It keeps telling me to check my email in 30 minutes to see if there was a transaction otherwise try again. Did that twice. I really want to help. Is there another way to donate?
I go to the Chabad of Long Beach, they are great people with 4 beautiful kids, we will help them as much as we can.
they are the most devoted, special and always giving shluchim. so so sad!
i hear all their home, offices and shule are completely destroyed, i gave all my maaser money, i hope everyone can help out as much as they can
He organized that fair. i went to get away from CH for labor day. it was amazing.
Yashar Koach!
I’m soooo sorry about the tragedy!
I took the cover picture!! it was also on a previous collive article
https://collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=21651#comments
Moshiach now!
If such a tragedy were to R”L happen to yourself it would be one thing for you to say these pious platitudes of” it’s all from Hashem” and “Hashem must have confidence in _____”. I But when it happens to SOMEONE ELSE saying these things actually comes across as condescending and anything but compassionate. “Wow, you must be such a great person for this horrific thing to happen to you!” Can you appreciate how that’s not something a recent victim would like to hear? I’m sure you meant well, and that might be a nice attitude of bitachon with your… Read more »
But they are fellow shluchim and I feel their pain. Hope they get funding and rebuilt !kkarov mamosh. Now I don’t feel so bad that we are still without power in our home! BC Metzger
what a tragedy,this hurricane is causing us!!!!!!!!!
pllllease! YOU know them? well i don’t and im gonna give. cuz a. chassidim zayn ayn mishpochoh b. they’re ‘my brother and sister’ and c. they are a person
Moshiach NOW!
Wow, Hashem must have amazing confidence in them, tzeddaka is important but remember it all comes from Hashem. He easnted it to happen and therefore it will be OK. Help as much as you can. But the problem sint money its coach. B”H they left, think of it that way!
How horrible! Eli and Beila are the most amazing, dedicated and selfless shlichim. I just can’t even begin to imagine what they are going through.
My heart goes out to them and their family
BS”d
tried to donate from Australia didn’t work, please advise how we can also donate
Beila’s sister Bracha Kantor is collecting in Australia.
Please contact her on 0425-740-546
This is not just their home, the offices were on the same level and the Shul has 4 ft of water still inside.
This article only mentions their ground level apartment.
The chabad offices and hebrew school are on the same level, and saw clse to equal damage, not to mention the shul which is more inland. Pease donate…
when the paypal page loads hit “buy as a guest”
my canadian address doesnt work in paypal…
May Hashem help us help His children!
Please give!
Please donate they are amazing people!!!!!!!!
please give what you can
Moshiach now