Earthquake in Chile, aftershock in Woodmere

By Michael Orbach

Issue of March 5, 2010/ 20 Adar 5770

For Jessica and Ephraim Nudman, the earthquake in Chile reverberated in Woodmere.

The family emigrated to the United States from Chile eleven years ago when Ephraim was doing his residency at Cornell University. With an assimilation rate of close to 75% in Chile, the Nudmans feared for the religious future of their two children and decided to permanently relocate to New York. Both visit Chile regularly to see their parents and siblings who live in Santiago, where most of the religious community is settled.

They found out about the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile late Shabbat morning when a non-observant friend left a message on the family’s answering machine.

“I was having my coffee and there was an earthquake, [one of] the biggest in history and there was no communication to see what happened. I didn’t hear until Shabbos was off. I was miserable,” Jessica related.

It was hours later, after Shabbat ended, that she learned that her family was okay.

“Thank G-d for text messages and e-mail,” she said, explaining that phone lines in Chile were down until Monday.

The earthquake itself wasn’t the most worrisome part of the disaster for the Nudmans. Buildings in Chile are made to withstand seismic shocks; both Nudmans were in Chile in 1985 when a 7.4 earthquake hit the country with relatively little damage. Their greater worry was over the health of elderly family members.

“The concern for my parents was not the earthquake, it’s their reaction. My father has high blood pressure; a scare could be dangerous,” said Jessica. “My Shabbos was a little stressful,” Ephraim said.

Their family in Chile heard the megillah late Saturday night. Severe aftershocks interrupted the reading, the Nudmans were told.

The observant Jewish community in Chile has grown recently with the opening of an Aish HaTorah branch, in addition to a Chabad House. Chile’s first religious school, Maimonides, opened its doors about ten years ago. Rabbi Avi Horowitz, the principal of the school, was visiting his brother in Woodmere with his family when the earthquake hit.

Like the Nudmans, he wasn’t worried about buildings.

“I was worried about people’s losses in things that are built less well. There were people in the community who suffered serious losses,” he said.

Horowitz was scheduled to fly home to Chile on Monday evening; school was supposed to resume on Wednesday. The school will reopen this coming Monday, though Horowitz is unsure of when he’ll be able to fly back. He explained that while the damage caused by the quake is nothing like the scope of destruction suffered in Haiti, rebuilding will still be difficult.

“Things you won’t see are the personal sufferings of people — that isn’t newsworthy. These are the things that are coming to me: community things, people [who] need help,” said Horowitz.

The earthquake also laid bare harsh divisions between the have and the have-nots of Chile, which is considered economically sound and stable by the standards of the South American continent.

“Everyone in Chile, even from the top-down, thought this huge earthquake would go unnoticed without any great effects because they think Chile is about the residential areas of the middle and higher class, and it’s just a lot of things,” Horowitz explained. “The damage is subtle, under the surface.”