Hurricane Helene followed by Hurricane Milton have caused tremendous devastation in four states.

As the hurricanes were approaching, the calls started coming in from various national disaster organizations asking: “Are you ready?” “Can we count on the Jews?”

Who would have imagined that the OU is receiving calls from Greek Orthodox, Lutherans and many other faith-based organizations, including Nechama Jewish response to Disaster.

For 18 years we have worked with so many faith-based organizations, and thanks to our incredible participants have created such a Kiddush Hashem that they keep asking for us to come back.

At the same time we were receiving calls from Jewish schools from across the country asking: “Can we help?” “Our students are ready to go!”

Let’s take a moment to thank the schools that not only answered the call but made the call even before the hurricanes hit.

Starting Chol Hamoed, OU Relief Missions has sent 10 groups to help with the disaster recovery and we have many more groups lined up for the next few months.

Diana in Asheville, North Carolina, spoke to us and said she prayed to Jesus for help and then she opened her door and saw that he sent God’s chosen people to help her. In Diana’s words: “Thank you to the Jewish heroes.” Her neighbors came by to see what was going on and she kept repeating: “Look at how incredible God’s chosen people are; I knew he would answer my prayers.”

Going from house to house, helping people in their hour of need, we have heard many times how grateful people are for the help from “God’s chosen ones.”

The work we are doing is gutting out homes, and this means going through all the household belongings that are soaked and transporting them to the dumpster. After we finish that part, next comes the furniture removal, then the carpets and then the drywall. We work with gloves and masks and certainly build up a sweat.

A deacon and a pastor who worked with us expressed that the work we do is the greatest form of Israel and Jewish advocacy. Many of our friends have unfriended people on social media who have posted “From the River to the Sea.”

We have started working with our students on how to respond when people say, “We stand with Israel” and “We pray for you every Sunday.” We teach our participants how to turn this into a conversation.

We have run over 275 missions with over 5,000 participants; we have been on the forefront of many disasters and are changing what many people think about the Jewish people.

The question is: What drives the Jewish youth of today to leave the comfort of their homes and go and do hard labor? We have done this in the heat of August and in the freezing snow. What education are these teens receiving in their schools and in their homes?

I believe that part of the answer is as simple as, “This is what we do; this the Jewish thing. We help people out in their time of need.”

We teach our kids Torah values; we teach them to care about others; we educate them that not everything is about us but what God wants from us and how we can serve Hashem better.

The result of these missions is that the students return home, return to school, being much more passionate about their own Judaism. The result is that they know they made a difference and they did it in the name of Hashem.

We are now taking applications from shuls, college students, young professionals, empty nesters and of course high schools as the work will be continuing for a while. Find out more at https://oureliefmissions.org

Rabbi Ethan Katz is the founder and director of OU Relief Missions.