Over the past couple of weeks, I like most others have been inundated with images and information about the recent earthquake in Haiti. Catastrophic natural disasters of this nature, though rife with suffering and anguish, seem to always present the opportunity for instances of heroism and sacrifice. One such story to come out of Haiti is that of the Israeli relief efforts taking place there, as well as the domestic response within Israel.

I first came upon this story when I saw a clip of Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC’s chief medical editor, on the Rachel Maddow Show, which airs on MSNBC. After discussing the utterly devastating situation in Haiti and saying, “It‘s going to be days I think before we start to see the centralized push globally,” she notes how the Israelis are the “exception to the rule.” In her words, “We watched as their 747 landed at the airport and they unloaded MASH units complete with everything -- ORs with teams, equipment, just as you would expect the Israelis to do. They came here complete, ready, fortified, and able to work.”

For a country that is under constant scrutiny for human rights violations, Israel certainly is doing more then its share to aid those in need in Haiti. Working for 38 continuous hours, the Israelis were able to pull eight college-age students from their collapsed university building, set up a field hospital in an area now nicknamed “Little Israel,” and joined “local physicians at the site of the collapsed central hospital where thousands of wounded were seeking help.”

Additionally, in order to help maintain order, Israel responded to the U.N.’s plea for police delegations to be sent to Haiti. Speaking of the conditions on the ground, Mati Goldstein, head of the ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation, writes, "Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It’s just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust -- thousands of bodies everywhere."

On a domestic level, Israelis are also taking action. This past Tuesday, all of Israel’s middle- and high-school students took part in a mandatory “special online lesson about the Haiti earthquake.” For a country half a world away, Israel has contributed significantly to the relief efforts in Haiti. Little has been made of their assistance in the media, but I imagine it has not gotten past the Haitians.

I’d like to leave you with a little bit of a story I read. I believe it evokes an image that all Jews have come to be familiar with: the worn, yet triumphant Israeli soldier, standing on rubble, praying. It goes as such: “Amid the stench and chaos, the ZAKA delegation took time out to recite Shabbat prayers. In a surreal sight, the ultra-orthodox Jewish men stood wrapped in prayer shawls on the collapsed buildings. Locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed facing Jerusalem. When they finished praying, the Haitians crowded around the delegation, kissing their prayer shawls.”