8 | OCTOBER 13 • 2022 

PURELY COMMENTARY

column
What I Saw as an Israeli Helping 
the Victims of Hurricane Fiona
M

y name is Tamar Shlezinger. I have 
a Ph.D. in social work and am a 
volunteer with United Hatzalah of 
Israel. Currently, I am taking part in the orga-
nization’s delegation to Puerto Rico to offer 
psychological and medical aid in the wake of 
Hurricane Fiona.
I landed in San Juan, Puerto 
Rico with my five partners, all 
United Hatzalah volunteers with 
a background in psychological 
treatment and emergency med-
ical aid. After members of the 
local Jewish community warmly 
welcomed us at the Chabad 
house, we started trying to 
identify the needs of the population. We were 
connected with Levid Ortiz, director of the 
aid group PR4PR, who has been spearheading 
support efforts for many underprivileged com-
munities. He identified communities that had 
been left out of the larger relief effort, and it 
was here that we focused our attention.
We drove to a warehouse where humanitar-
ian equipment and food were being packaged 
for distribution to the population the next day. 
Distributing food and equipment is not the 
principal goal of our mission. Rather, it serves 
as a way to establish a connection with the 
local population, so we can then assist them 
with our specific capabilities as members of 
the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit 
(PCRU), which provides psychological and 
emotional stabilization to victims.
We woke up early and started preparing 

ourselves for the busy day ahead of us. We 
didn’t really know what to expect. One of the 
main questions for us was what type of trau-
ma we would be dealing with. Were people 
mourning relatives or “just” the destruction 
of their property? This would determine our 
approach to treating them.
We were joined by a number of locals who 
had medical training and wanted to help us. 
They acted as translators and additional help-
ing hands. We were glad to have the compan-
ionship.
When we arrived in the first community, we 
witnessed the heavy destruction wreaked by 
the hurricane, which caused the local network 
of rivers to overflow, destroying thousands of 
houses. Thankfully, there had been few human 
casualties.

A CUMULATIVE EFFECT
Speaking to residents, one of the recurring 
things we heard from them was the cumula-
tive effect of being hit by two major hurricanes 
within the span of five years. The island had 
barely started recovering from Hurricane 
Maria, which brought devastation of even 
higher magnitude in 2017. Residents had 
feared a similar scenario, and now they told 
us that they were overwhelmed by a feeling of 
uncertainty about the future, as they knew that 
such catastrophes could easily repeat them-
selves. Imagine what it is like to rebuild your 
house for the second time, fearing that it might 
be destroyed again within the next few years.
In response, we provided the residents with 
tools to help them manage the emotions they 
were experiencing. We sat with them and 
spoke with them at length. We taught them 
breathing techniques and ways to control their 
thoughts in order to avoid being overwhelmed 
by anxiety. We also found that a medical 
checkup by our EMTs went a long way toward 
making residents feel looked after and in con-
trol of the situation.
One of the encounters that made an impres-
sion on me was when I met Norma, an elderly 
woman. She did not speak English, so I asked 
her granddaughter to act as an interpreter. She 
started speaking in Spanish, looking very emo-
tional, and soon she burst out crying, looking 

submerged by emotion. She continued speak-
ing for a long time while I waited patiently for 
the translation, convinced that it would be an 
expansive account of the difficulties she was 
dealing with. When her granddaughter final-
ly translated, it turned out that this woman, 
whose body language seemed to reflect enor-
mous pain, was talking about the fact that 
despite her sadness over her destroyed home, 
she was incredibly thankful that everyone in 
her family was healthy. She saw meaning in 
the fact that her family was able to help others, 
as her son, an engineer, was taking part in 
efforts to rebuild houses.
The ability to acknowledge pain and anx-
iety about the future on the one hand, while 
continuing to look at things with a broader 
perspective and see meaning in giving to oth-
ers, on the other hand, was extremely moving 
to me. While a lot of work awaits us, Norma 
gave me hope that we will find the resilience 
we need within the local population. I look 
forward to the days ahead and helping more 
people learn how to cope with the anxiety they 
are facing in the wake of another storm that 
has ravaged their homes. 

Tamar Shlezinger has a PhD. in social work and is a lec-

turer of social work studies at Tel Hai University. She has 

been active with United Hatzalah both as an EMT and as 

a member of the organization’s Psychotrauma and Crisis 

Response Unit for the past few years. She lives in Rosh 

Pina with her husband and four children.

Tamar 
Shlezinger
JNS.org

Dr. Tamar Shlezinger and Dr. Kamila Forkosh 
Lavan with local medical student Luis Vasquez 
and Israeli social worker Gabriella Rourka 
working with children at a shelter in Loiza, 
Puerto Rico.

Dr. Tamar Shlezinger and Dr. Kamila 
Forkosh Lavan working with children at a 
shelter in Loiza, Puerto Rico.

