Chabad Steps Up As Flooding Creates Crises in Irkutsk Province

Fifteen people were killed and thousands more displaced following flooding in the Irkutsk district of Siberia, Russia. The flooding was the worst in the cities of Nizhnyudinsk and Tulin, both cities with a Jewish presence.

When the extent of the disaster was discovered, the large Jewish community in the city of Irkutsk, led by the city’s rabbi and Chabad emissary Rabbi Aharon HaCohen Wagner, organized a large number of Jewish communities in these areas in response.

At the initiative of Rabbi Wagner, humanitarian aid including food and drink shipments, were sent to the disaster zone.

Rabbi Berel Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, was updated by Rabbi Wagner that the ancient synagogue in the city of Nizhnyudinsk, which has been standing for hundreds of years, and is located just a few meters away from the great bridge in the center of the city, was thankfully above the flooded rivers water line, even as many houses around it were destroyed.

The ancient cemetery in the town of Toulan, was unfortunately flooded with water.