Students affiliated with the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation at State University in Buffalo and campers at Ramah Camp in the Poconos were in the vanguard of groups aiding victims of the floods that devastated parts of upper New York State and Pennsylvania in the wake of tropical storm Agnes, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned.
Camp Ramah, one of a network of summer camps maintained by the Conservative movement in American Judaism, sent substantial food supplies to the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area. It also provided temporary living quarters for the parents of campers whose homes in the stricken area were flooded. The camp sent clean-up crews consisting of adults and youngsters aged 10-18 to assist in cleaning synagogues in the region damaged by flood waters.
The Hillel House on the Buffalo campus served as a drop-off point for food, clothing and medical supplies donated for flood victims in upper NY State.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
