Dear Friend -  

First of all, thank you so much to those who have given to help our neighbors struggling after Hurricane Sandy.  Your support is already making a difference to those who need help on the Lower East Side.  

With so many still without power or supplies, we still need contributions to make sure our Lower Manhattan community gets the help it needs. If you can, please make an emergency gift today!

We are pleased to share some of the ways your support is helping our clients, as well as to give some general updates from our staff who've been providing aid in the neighborhood. 

• We made contact with most of our vulnerable residents yesterday. Overall they are in good spirits, and they very much welcome and need the support we are providing. Most had no access to news and thus no idea what is going on in the outside world. They were particularly relieved to hear a timeline for the restoration of power and water.  


• Over the past two days, teams of Educational Alliance staff, along with our Rabbinic Interns and volunteers from synagogues, visited almost 150 seniors, delivering water, food, and someone to talk with. Among the responses: "You're kidding! That's amazing. You climbed all those stairs in the dark and came to check on me?"   


• We are using our offices at 232 East Broadway as a staging area to collect supplies for volunteers to deliver to those who need it. If you are interested in dropping off a donation, please do so between 9:30am and 2:30pm tomorrow, Friday, November 2. In addition to bottled water, we really need items to keep people warm: blankets, gloves, and canned kosher soup. We have also had requests for AA & DD batteries, 9-volt batteries, flashlights and lanterns, battery-powered radios, baby wipes, and Russian language newspapers.   


• We are delivering hot meals to many of our clients today. We are grateful to synagogues Rodeph Shalom and B'nai Jeshurun and City Meals on Wheels for providing these meals.     


• We have been in close contact with government officials, particularly State Senator Daniel Squadron, Council Member Chin, and Governor Cuomo's office, and we have been informed that help is on the way, in the form of generators, water trucks, and food deliveries. We are helping direct these resources to the areas where the need is greatest.

In the coming days, we will continue our outreach efforts and respond, as they arise, to any additional needs that develop.

Sincerely yours,

Robin Bernstein

President & CEO

Educational Alliance

P.S. We just received more good news from State Senator Squadron: He confirmed that the City is setting up food and water distribution sites throughout the blackout zone in Lower Manhattan. The sites that will open at 3PM south of 14th Street are as follows:  

• 10th Street between Avenues C and D
• Catherine Street between Monroe and Cherry Streets (Smith Houses)
• Pitt and Houston Streets
• Grand and Clinton Streets - water only
• Bowery and Division Street (Confucius Plaza)

One of our Trustees discovered this bake sale today on the Upper East Side. Special thanks to our young and creative supporters!