Olivia Link: I recently had the pleasure to listen to Jewish-Filipino Geraldine Acuna-Sunshine recount her hands-on experience helping tsunami victims from her home island in the Philippines. I was struck as she recounted in emotional detail the Jewish community’s outreach to victims of the tsunami. You would think the affairs of a country like the Philippines would not reach Jews on a religious level, yet the Joint Distribution Committee and the Israeli Defense Forces immediately set out to aid communities affected by the tsunami, driven by the Jewish act of hesed, or compassionate outreach. This international bond of hesed helped the needy Jewish communities in the Philippines and proved that being a Jew means compassion for others.
בְנֵי־לֹ֣וט
Bnei Lot are of an ancient origin. In the migratory tradition of Ruth begun more than two millennia ago, a remnant of David and Solomon migrated into Maritime Southeast Asia which comprises what is now Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, and Singapore, as well as Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, with a sizeable minority of Malays migrating back to their tribal allotments in Sephardic Judah, besides Terrestrial and Figurative Jordan.