Ve’ahavta has set up a crisis fund to help the residents of Slave Lake, Alta., recover from the disastrous wildfire that devastated their town over the May 14-15 weekend.

Map of Alberta with Slave Lake marked, position A.       [Google Maps]

Many of Slave Lake’s approximately 7,000 residents lost their homes, and the fire wiped out many buildings and community properties. About 105,000 hectares of land have been scorched and destroyed.

The Toronto-based Jewish humanitarian non-profit organization announced  that it had set up the fund in co-operation with the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, under the auspices of the organization’s new Canadian Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (CJCDR).

At present, the coalition is a collection of various “local Toronto synagogues” and individuals who “wish to give quietly,” said Seymour Epstein, Ve’ahavta’s director of international & education department.

Epstein said his organization and the Edmonton federation want to help with “secondary and tertiary” response efforts for Slave Lake residents.

This help will include distributing gift cards to residents through the local Salvation Army for use at the local mall – one of the few buildings that survived the fires – and donating books to help restore and restock the town’s library once it’s rebuilt.

“This is a Jewish effort. Jews care about books and reading… we can help them in this regard,” Epstein said, adding that this was still just “an idea which hasn’t been settled yet.”

Local authorities in Slave Lake guess it may be weeks before residents are allowed back to salvage what’s left of their homes and begin rebuilding.

Epstein said Ve’ahavta will keep the crisis fund open for “a few weeks” until things normalize in Slave Lake.

“The Edmonton federation will be the main co-ordinator on the ground for our relief efforts,” he said.

Russ Joseph, CEO of the Edmonton federation, told The CJN his community wanted to come forward and help in any it could.

Edmonton’s Jewish community has approximately 5,000 people, he said. While there is no “significant presence” of Jews in Slave Lake, the relief effort “has everything to do with tikkun olam,” Joseph added.

“This hits close to home and we feel the need to respond. We have an obligation to try and help… and make a difference in the lives of some of the people in Slave Lake.”

Slave Lake is about 250 kilometres north of Edmonton.

At The CJN’s May 20 deadline, the CJCDR Slave Lake fund had only accumulated “a few hundred dollars” 24 hours after being announced, Epstein said, noting that it was still very early.

For more information or to donate, visit www.veahavta.org.