A small community in the hinterlands : Meet the Jews of Tokyo – The Forward forward.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forward.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Shortly after a tsunami devastated Japan in March 2011, Andrew Scheer gathered up food and supplies from where he lived on the Upper West Side and traveled there.
The March 11 2011 earthquake and tsunami pummeled northeastern Japan, particularly the region of Fukushima where a nuclear reactor melted down. It spiraled into an unprecedented crisis. Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported over 22,000 people dead or missing because of the disaster.
Scheer, back then a 24 year old New York University graduate, knew that the Jewish community of Japan had to be reeling from the disaster.
“I went to Gourmet Glatt and some kosher supermarkets; loaded up,” he said.“I was on the phone with each of the rabbis, the rebbetzins” of the few synagogues in Tokyo. “The holiday of Passover was coming up, so he asked them, “What do you need? I’m in America, I can get anything.”