Through my VSO India pal Adva Rodogovsky I was connected with two INGOs, World Jewish Relief (WJR) and People in Need, (PIN) both working in Nepal to help earthquake victims. I wanted to help but wasn't sure what I could do from my current home in Karjanha, Siraha. Although maybe I could have helped to provide humanitarian assistance as a volunteer in Kathmandu I would have probably only added to the chaos at this point.
I spoke with Petr Navrat from PIN and Josh Simons from WJR both via Skype. Petr asked me to try to find some medical people and a number of supplies. Josh, who had never been in Nepal asked me to help him with some connections to people with disability and other populations whom WJR serves, as he would be coming to Kathmandu.
I was brought up in a Jewish household in the San Fernando Valley in southern California. I went to Hebrew School and had a bar mitzvah, i.e. when Jewish boys become 13 years old, they become accountable for their actions. As an adult, and when I was married, my former wife and I raised our children in a Jewish household, with my son Daniel having a bar mitzvah and my daughter Sarah having a bat mitzvah. We attended a temple in Waterford, Connecticut, Temple Emanu-el that my former wife's parents co-founded.
I have always questioned, don't really much like dogmatism. Daniel is now a monk with Self Realization Fellowship (SRF), Sarah, my sister Robyn and her husband Michael are all devotees of SRF, while my parents attend a local Chabad in Mission Viejo, California. All of this leaves me further questioning, realizing that no religion/order has a monopoly on what is "right". I believe what I believe, but still feel an affinity towards various aspects of Judaism.
Living in India for three years and the same in Nepal, I thought that I wouldn't meet many Jewish people. However, when I was in India I went to a temple where the Chabad rabbi killed in the Mumbai terror attacks had spent some time. I visited the outside of the Paradesi Synagogue which is located in the quarter of Old Cochin, Kerala known as Jew Town, and met some Jewish people working at the US Embassy in New Delhi. I met many Israelis in Puskar when I attended the camel festival in 2010. In Nepal I interviewed the then Israeli Ambassador, Hanan Goder-Goldberger for a TV show, went to his home for a Purim celebration and attended some services at Kathmandu Chabad with a VSO friend from Kenya.
I asked my friend Bishnu Subedi of Natural Trail to have a driver pick Josh up at the airport. I put Josh in touch with my former NGO Community Self Reliance Centre, an organisation that has been working with predominantly land poor people on rights issues throughout Nepal, with National Federation of the Disabled Nepal, with Engage, working with people with disability, mostly around sports and leadership, with the Spinal Injury Rehab Centre (SIRC) and other groups.
I don't know why, but on some level this is all a bit mind boggling to me, a Jewish kid from the San Fernando Valley, trying to help a Jewish organisation based in London to help people in Nepal suffering from a major earthquake. Maybe it's not so crazy given my life path. Whether we realize it or not and no matter how we try to be homogenous and fight against those who are not like us, we are a world of diversity. Through this and other experiences I'm coming to further realization that we are all dependent on one another, no matter what we believe and how we live. In fact this all really has nothing to do with what I or anyone else believes but has more to do with looking beyond our differences, finding commonalities and collaborating as many people are now doing in Nepal to help those whom are suffering.
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