As heavy machinery takes the place of sniffer dogs at crumbled hotels and public buildings across the ruined Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, Jewish communal efforts are picking up the pace in delivering aid to the hundreds of thousands of people left sick, starving and homeless after this month’s devastating earthquake.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief each allotted grants to the Chabad Haiti Relief Fund to underwrite convoys of food, water and medical supplies from Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic.

Will Recant, the assistant executive vice president at the JDC, said that in deciding where to allocate funds earmarked for earthquake relief, the committee looked to several organizations. With memories of the 2004 Asian tsunami still fresh, executives wanted to include the Chabad effort in its distributions.

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“Back then, the Chabad office in Bangkok was one of the first on the ground to provide assistance,” explained Recant. “Similarly, immediately after the disaster in Haiti, we spoke to Rabbi Shimon Pelman in the Dominican Republic to check on the Jewish community on the island.”

After assuring the safety of the handful of Jews who call Haiti home, Pelman, who is based in S. Domingo, continued to make several trips across the border to liaise with relief crews, ascertain specific needs among locals, and hand out food and water.

“The rabbi was able to put together truckloads of supplies for the survivors,” said Recant. “So we decided to fund two truckloads, and the JCDR, a coalition of more than 40 Jewish organizations in North America, decided to fund another convoy.”

In a press release last week, the JCDR emphasized that a Haitian non-governmental organization and United Nations security forces will assist the Chabad House with logistics and distributions in Port-au-Prince. All assistance in the capital will take place exclusively on a humanitarian, non-sectarian basis.

For his part, Pelman – who set up the fund in cooperation with Chabad of Puerto Rico soon after the Jan. 12 earthquake – said that the outpouring of support was crucial to continuing the flow of badly-supply supplies into the disaster zone.

“These organizations recognize the importance of the work,” he said, “and the necessity in keeping the aid coming.”

Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie, a liaison between Chabad-Lubavitch and the Jewish Federations of North America, said that the grants would do a lot of good.

“Chabad’s partnership with the JDC reaches back to the dark days of Communist Russia, when it underwrote our clandestine efforts to strengthen and protect Jewish life behind the Iron Curtain,” said Eliezrie. “We’re proud to continue that historic relationship in providing humanitarian assistance to Haiti.”

Recant, whose organization has a 95-year-history of providing rescue and relief in hotspots throughout the world, characterized the Jewish community’s response in the wake of the earthquake as “immediate.”

“People’s desire to help, to give, to volunteer,” he said, “has been tremendous.”