Community Reports - California

Over 100 Kosher meals made by volunteers from the Sephardic Education Center in Los Angeles for local firefights and emergency service teams

This has been a tough winter for the Sephardic Community in the Los Angeles area, with the January 2025 Southern California wildfires ranging across LA County and its surroundings. Many community members were required to stay indoors due to poor air quality and smoke. Many more still were forced to evacuate and relocate to temporary shelters. Unfortunately, several of our community members even lost their homes in the fires.

In the face of this catastrophe, the Sephardic Community rapidly mobilized to help their fellow Sepharadim and Jews affected by the fires. The Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel (STTI), founded by Jews from Rhodes and Turkey, worked to help community members who were displaced, held community events indoors to help senior community members who were unable to go outside due to poor air quality, and raised funds for the thousands of people who lost their homes in LA County.

The Sephardic Educational Center launched a beautiful Judaica Replacement Initiative to help those who lost their homes in the fires replace treasured Jewish and Shabbat items, trying to provide a little comfort at a difficult time in people’s lives. SEC members also organized meal drives and cooked over a hundred kosher meals for local firefights and first responders battling the flames. And the Sephardic Brotherhood reached out to every single one of our Los Angeles Area Members, doing welfare check-ins, connecting members with emergency resources, and offering financial assistance if needed through the Henry J. Perahia Funds for the Needy. 

If you or someone you know are in need of support after the devastating fires, please reach out to us at info@sephardicbrotherhood.com or call us at 718-596-7968.