UPDATE: Relief for Haiti earthquake victims

(Photo: Matt Marek/American Red Cross) 
See today's report: Jewish Groups Mobilizing Aid for Haiti Quake from the JTA.

• Cash donations avoid the complicated, costly, and time-consuming process of collecting, sorting, packing, transporting, unloading, resorting, storing, repackaging, and distributing donated goods and cash donations also help get the local economy back on its feet. According to NYC OEM, New York City government operations will not be able to support efforts to gather and distribute donated goods.
• Learn about new IRS regulations about Haiti-related donations here.
  
• Beware of fraud. Some fraudsters have already come forward to take advantage of people's generosity, see the FBI alert here.
• Credible responding agencies. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security donors to visit www.interaction.org to obtain a list of credible responding agencies for international emergencies and www.give.org to get valuable information on making informed decisions when supporting charities

Click on the following links to find out more and to donate to these worthy causes:

• The Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (an arm of the JDC) is the lead agency for the Jewish Federations of North America (including our own UJA-Federation of New York). JDC is currently supporting Heart to Heart International to support search-and-rescue efforts; food, water and clothing; temporary shelters; medical aid, equipment, and psycho-trauma services to victims of the earthquake. JDC is also working with the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces and has purchased critical medical equipment for its field hospital, including infant incubators for its neonatal unit and orthopedic devices. Further partnerships are being explored for the next phase of JDC's support for Haiti's victims. Click here to donate through UJA-Federation. Find out more about their efforts.
• American Jewish Committee.
  
• American Jewish World Service
• American Red Cross has an extensive partnership with the Haitian Red Cross. To help immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill ($4 million was raised through texting yesterday). Read Terry Bischoff's moving description of ARC's activities here.
• B'nai B'rith International.
• K.I.D.S. (Kids in Distressed Situations)
• Magen David Adom
  
• Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City
• National Council of Young Israel.
• Orthodox Union.
• Samuel Dalembert Foundation
• UJA-Federation of New York
  
• Union for Reform Judaism
• UNICEF. 
• United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
• World ORT.
• ZAKA