When Hurricane Sandy devastated the Rockaway peninsula, it also severely damaged West End Temple, a 74 year old Reform Jewish synagogue. 

West End Temple is not only a vibrant center of Jewish learning and celebration, it is also a second home to so many of the children who live in the Rockaways. West End Temple is a neighborhood community center, open to all local residents. Over 200 children walk through its doors every week, not only to attend the best nursery school on the peninsula, or its terrific religious school, but West End Temple is also home to Brownies, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, JCCRP Youth Basketball clinics, Kinder-Jocks Sports^TM soccer clinics, Lego Camp, Tot Drop-In Center, and a children’s art program.

It is urgent that we help these children who have lost so much return to a sense of the familiar, to reunite them with the teachers and classes and programs that they love. 

As a first step we want to reopen our Educational wing, and we need your help to do so. While we were lucky to have some flood insurance it's very clear that it will not cover a great portion of the destruction caused by Sandy.

Your donation will not only help restore a venerable community institution, but will also mean so much to the daily lives of the young children of the neighborhood. With the educational wing reopened, they can begin to regain a sense that their world, turned upside down by Sandy, is returning to “normal.” They need to be able to come together with their friends, in their community, to learn and to play.