Jewish and Israeli relief organizations are responding to a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar, which dealt a severe blow to the war-torn country’s infrastructure over the weekend, killing over 2,000 and injuring thousands more. Fatalities are likely to climb significantly as the dust settles and more aid reaches the area, according to Avital Sandler-Loeff, executive director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s disaster relief and international development unit.

“The magnitude of this disaster is huge,” Sandler-Loeff told eJewishPhilanthropy. “People are lying on the streets in the rubble. There are no refugee camps yet and no tents, nowhere for them to sleep. We hope that things will get better because in about two weeks, the rainy season is about to start.”

The epicenter of Friday’s earthquake was located near Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, toppling structures and reducing much of the area’s infrastructure to rubble. The infrastructure was already spread thin by a preexisting crisis: the Burmese Civil War, which has internally displaced millions since May 2021, but has also drawn a number of aid organizations to the area, meaning they already had a presence in the country ahead of the earthquake.

The Jewish community in Myanmar — which consists of fewer than two dozen members — is located outside of the disaster zone and has been relatively unscathed by the crisis, according to Sandler-Loeff. JDC, which largely works through partnership with local organizations, is also sending a small team to assess immediate needs, which include clean water, medical supplies, food, and sanitation infrastructure. It will take several months to meet these needs completely, she said, and rebuilding will take years.

“It will take years — at least two years to see the place rebuilt. Taking into consideration that the war is still there, it might take even more,” she told eJP.

Dyonna Ginsburg, the CEO of Olam — a network of 78 Jewish and Israeli organizations that work in the fields of humanitarian aid, international development and global volunteering — said that a number of organizations in her network, including JDC, are responding to the crisis. The State of Israel has also deployed a team of experts — military and civilian — to Thailand to assist in search-and-rescue operations there, the military said earlier this week.

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This article was originally published in eJewish Philanthropy on April 2, 2025. Click the link above to read the full piece.