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Hurricane Katrina: 2nd anniversary no homecoming
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By ALAN SMASON, Special to the CJN
After living as a displaced person for more than a year-and-a-half in Cleveland, I returned in April to the New Orleans home I had left behind in August 2005, just three days before Hurricane Katrina ripped through the city.
Though it may be hard to believe, electrical and other repairs to my house have still not been completed. Waiting for contractors, plumbers and electricians to finish promised work is something most returning residents like myself have experienced to one degree or another. In almost every neighborhood, piles of sheet rock, building materials, and assorted debris still litter the sidewalks. Construction is a way of life here.
While no longer as widespread in my neighborhood, FEMA trailers are still quite visible in dozens of others. Aside from the city of New Orleans, several other local governments are pondering what to do with the large tracts of public land now housing trailer parks filled with those still waiting for the federal and state-administered funds to rebuild their homes and lives.
The trauma of dealing with the aftermath of the flooding, the inability of government to respond quickly to the needs of the populace, and the loss of a perceived quality of life has put a major strain on family life in the Big Easy. According to experts, the suffering locals are experiencing is analogous to that described by soldiers in the field under battle conditions.
Dr. Orit Nuttman-Shwartz, head of the social work department at Sapir College in Israel near Sderot, met several times recently with Tulane University sociology faculty and students to lecture on the similarities between daily shellings of Kassam missiles near her university to that of trying to survive in a post-Katrina environment.
Life in Jewish New Orleans as it existed before the hurricane is, as Margaret Mitchell famously observed, “gone with the wind.” With one exception - Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel, all synagogues and temples have reopened in their former locations, but all have lost membership.
Beth Israel, the victim of at least ten feet of flooding, has relocated to a small chapel housed in the rear of Congregation Gates of Prayer (Reform). The loss and subsequent burial of seven Torah scrolls and thousands of prayer books and religious artifacts has been slightly offset by donations of three used Torah scrolls from congregations in California and New Jersey and a number of prayer books from the Orthodox Union.
Today, the former site of Beth Israel in the Lakeview section of the city stands silent in a virtual ghost town. Shuttered with a “For Sale” sign directly in front of its giant menorah, it has recently experienced an ignoble second flood.
Seeking to pirate the copper tubing in the massive air-conditioning system that survived the storm on the second floor, thieves broke into the shuttered synagogue in early July and, using crude manual tools, proceeded to eviscerate the unit, breaking a water main in the process. The resultant torrent from the second floor took an estimated three days to fill the downstairs with another three to four feet of water before it was finally discovered. Cleanup crews spent nearly four days pumping water out of the sanctuary again.
“It’s very discouraging, and it’s just sad that people are doing this,” says congregation president Jackie Gothard. “The main thing I am telling myself is that we lost everything in the flooding that came from Katrina. There was nothing really more that we could lose.”
Insurance coverage will protect the synagogue from another huge cleanup bill. But because the new flooding damaged areas already cleaned and rehabilitated, Gothard fears that the final sale of the building will be set back. “Now we have to start all the cleaning over again,” she acknowledges.
The brightest spot for the 103-year-old synagogue is the recent hiring of a new rabbi, 28-year-old Uri Topolosky. “Rav Uri,” as he prefers to be called, was so impressed with the prospect of resettling the Modern Orthodox community in New Orleans that he took out ads in New York newspapers calling for others in the area to join with him, his wife and two young sons.
After barely two weeks on the job, Topolosky hosted several of his fellow graduates of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah at a conference held on Aug. 12 at Gates of Prayer Synagogue. He gave everyone a tour of the devastated Beth Israel synagogue as well as the surrounding Lakeview area, where an estimated 75% of the population has yet to return.
Meanwhile, communities on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain have seen a marked increase in population, as significant numbers of former residents of St Bernard Parish have resettled there.
Rabbi Julie Koz-low, the area’s first full-time female pulpit rabbi, assumed her duties as spiritual leader of the Northshore Jewish Congregation on July 1. Kozlow, 50, was ordained in July following ten years of intensive study in California.
She feels the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina has brought the community closer to reality and has gleaned for them an understanding of the capricious nature of life.
“It gives you a great appreciation for basic, basic things,” she notes. “That makes you more spiritually receptive; it makes you look at life differently.” From this, Kozlow contends, comes an opportunity to really create community and appreciate the blessings we have.
With at least 30% of the Jewish population unable or unwilling to return, every Jewish institution has been affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, which briefly relocated to Houston after the storm, returned with a challenge no other Jewish Federation had ever faced before: attempt to reach those community members who were displaced across the nation and to serve those who returned.
With only 7,000 community members left of an estimated pre-storm 10,000, the Federation has been forced to think of creative ways to lure new families to the Crescent City. Emergency subsidies to the federation from national sources will expire soon. That means locals will have to shoulder the remainder of the recovery effort themselves. Executive director Michael Weil, who took over the top federation spot last October, has spearheaded an ambitious, multiple-tiered strategic and marketing plan for Jewish New Orleans. Weil has worked as an economist and strategic planner in Israel for most of his career, specializing in renewal and urban planning.
In a nationwide appeal to attract Jewish pioneers to repopulate the community, major financial incentives have been put into place. For those Jewish families moving to the city, three to five years of low-interest or no-interest home or business loans of up to $15,000 are available.
Moving grants of $2,500 per family have been put into place. The costs of joining area synagogues and the local JCC have been heavily discounted, and tuitions waivers of up to $8,000 per year for the area’s two struggling Jewish day schools have also been established.
Naomi Chase, who served as family educator and curriculum specialist at Cleveland’s Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple for 25 years and most recently was director of Shabbaton, the alternative family religious school at The Temple-Tifereth Israel, moved to New Orleans in late July. She is working as education director of the Shir Chadash Conservative Synagogue religious school and as a school instructor at the New Orleans Jewish Day School.
Weil, Chase and Topolosky all agree that the indomitable spirit of what was once the largest Jewish community in the South and the courage of its citizens to return to normalcy was a major factor in their deciding to relocate in New Orleans.
“The spirit of the people I am dealing with is so high,” confides Chase. “Everybody is showing extraordinary perseverance and a willingness to invest, to experiment, and to pilot something new and hope for the best.”
On a sad note, some things in New Orleans have not changed since I went away. The crime rate, and in particular the murder rate, has climbed back to unacceptably high levels, with drug activity blamed for the huge spike.
But corruption, which seems to go hand-in-glove with New Orleans and Louisiana politics, has garnered the most headlines. Recently, Congressman William Jefferson of the New Orleans First District and members of his immediate family were indicted by federal authorities on a host of charges involving kickback schemes and payoffs.
The biggest shocker in local politics came just two weeks ago. Oliver Thomas, the senior member and current vice-president of New Orleans City Council, also admitted to wrongdoing. Thomas is one of the city’s most recognizable figures and, following Hurricane Katrina, was considered one of its most impassioned speakers. He spoke in Cleveland in March 2006, seeking assistance for New Orleans at a forum on urban renewal at the Maxine Goodman Levin School at Cleveland State University.
Thomas was indicted by federal authorities on charges that he demanded payments of $19,000 from a City Hall vendor in exchange for influence peddling. He awaits sentencing in early November.
Arnie Fielkow, president of the council (and also a member of the New Orleans Jewish community), announced that a special election would be held to replace Thomas in October.
Far beyond its meager numbers, the Jewish community of New Orleans continues to lead, educate and hope.
As New Orleans editor of the Deep South Jewish Voice, the official independent publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, I, too, hope to be a part of this tremendous rebuilding effort. We are all working toward reaching pre-Katrina levels of practice and faith. As for hurricane season, we are also holding our collective breath.
Though it may be hard to believe, electrical and other repairs to my house have still not been completed. Waiting for contractors, plumbers and electricians to finish promised work is something most returning residents like myself have experienced to one degree or another. In almost every neighborhood, piles of sheet rock, building materials, and assorted debris still litter the sidewalks. Construction is a way of life here.
While no longer as widespread in my neighborhood, FEMA trailers are still quite visible in dozens of others. Aside from the city of New Orleans, several other local governments are pondering what to do with the large tracts of public land now housing trailer parks filled with those still waiting for the federal and state-administered funds to rebuild their homes and lives.
The trauma of dealing with the aftermath of the flooding, the inability of government to respond quickly to the needs of the populace, and the loss of a perceived quality of life has put a major strain on family life in the Big Easy. According to experts, the suffering locals are experiencing is analogous to that described by soldiers in the field under battle conditions.
Dr. Orit Nuttman-Shwartz, head of the social work department at Sapir College in Israel near Sderot, met several times recently with Tulane University sociology faculty and students to lecture on the similarities between daily shellings of Kassam missiles near her university to that of trying to survive in a post-Katrina environment.
Life in Jewish New Orleans as it existed before the hurricane is, as Margaret Mitchell famously observed, “gone with the wind.” With one exception - Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel, all synagogues and temples have reopened in their former locations, but all have lost membership.
Beth Israel, the victim of at least ten feet of flooding, has relocated to a small chapel housed in the rear of Congregation Gates of Prayer (Reform). The loss and subsequent burial of seven Torah scrolls and thousands of prayer books and religious artifacts has been slightly offset by donations of three used Torah scrolls from congregations in California and New Jersey and a number of prayer books from the Orthodox Union.
Today, the former site of Beth Israel in the Lakeview section of the city stands silent in a virtual ghost town. Shuttered with a “For Sale” sign directly in front of its giant menorah, it has recently experienced an ignoble second flood.
Seeking to pirate the copper tubing in the massive air-conditioning system that survived the storm on the second floor, thieves broke into the shuttered synagogue in early July and, using crude manual tools, proceeded to eviscerate the unit, breaking a water main in the process. The resultant torrent from the second floor took an estimated three days to fill the downstairs with another three to four feet of water before it was finally discovered. Cleanup crews spent nearly four days pumping water out of the sanctuary again.
“It’s very discouraging, and it’s just sad that people are doing this,” says congregation president Jackie Gothard. “The main thing I am telling myself is that we lost everything in the flooding that came from Katrina. There was nothing really more that we could lose.”
Insurance coverage will protect the synagogue from another huge cleanup bill. But because the new flooding damaged areas already cleaned and rehabilitated, Gothard fears that the final sale of the building will be set back. “Now we have to start all the cleaning over again,” she acknowledges.
The brightest spot for the 103-year-old synagogue is the recent hiring of a new rabbi, 28-year-old Uri Topolosky. “Rav Uri,” as he prefers to be called, was so impressed with the prospect of resettling the Modern Orthodox community in New Orleans that he took out ads in New York newspapers calling for others in the area to join with him, his wife and two young sons.
After barely two weeks on the job, Topolosky hosted several of his fellow graduates of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah at a conference held on Aug. 12 at Gates of Prayer Synagogue. He gave everyone a tour of the devastated Beth Israel synagogue as well as the surrounding Lakeview area, where an estimated 75% of the population has yet to return.
Meanwhile, communities on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain have seen a marked increase in population, as significant numbers of former residents of St Bernard Parish have resettled there.
Rabbi Julie Koz-low, the area’s first full-time female pulpit rabbi, assumed her duties as spiritual leader of the Northshore Jewish Congregation on July 1. Kozlow, 50, was ordained in July following ten years of intensive study in California.
She feels the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina has brought the community closer to reality and has gleaned for them an understanding of the capricious nature of life.
“It gives you a great appreciation for basic, basic things,” she notes. “That makes you more spiritually receptive; it makes you look at life differently.” From this, Kozlow contends, comes an opportunity to really create community and appreciate the blessings we have.
With at least 30% of the Jewish population unable or unwilling to return, every Jewish institution has been affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, which briefly relocated to Houston after the storm, returned with a challenge no other Jewish Federation had ever faced before: attempt to reach those community members who were displaced across the nation and to serve those who returned.
With only 7,000 community members left of an estimated pre-storm 10,000, the Federation has been forced to think of creative ways to lure new families to the Crescent City. Emergency subsidies to the federation from national sources will expire soon. That means locals will have to shoulder the remainder of the recovery effort themselves. Executive director Michael Weil, who took over the top federation spot last October, has spearheaded an ambitious, multiple-tiered strategic and marketing plan for Jewish New Orleans. Weil has worked as an economist and strategic planner in Israel for most of his career, specializing in renewal and urban planning.
In a nationwide appeal to attract Jewish pioneers to repopulate the community, major financial incentives have been put into place. For those Jewish families moving to the city, three to five years of low-interest or no-interest home or business loans of up to $15,000 are available.
Moving grants of $2,500 per family have been put into place. The costs of joining area synagogues and the local JCC have been heavily discounted, and tuitions waivers of up to $8,000 per year for the area’s two struggling Jewish day schools have also been established.
Naomi Chase, who served as family educator and curriculum specialist at Cleveland’s Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple for 25 years and most recently was director of Shabbaton, the alternative family religious school at The Temple-Tifereth Israel, moved to New Orleans in late July. She is working as education director of the Shir Chadash Conservative Synagogue religious school and as a school instructor at the New Orleans Jewish Day School.
Weil, Chase and Topolosky all agree that the indomitable spirit of what was once the largest Jewish community in the South and the courage of its citizens to return to normalcy was a major factor in their deciding to relocate in New Orleans.
“The spirit of the people I am dealing with is so high,” confides Chase. “Everybody is showing extraordinary perseverance and a willingness to invest, to experiment, and to pilot something new and hope for the best.”
On a sad note, some things in New Orleans have not changed since I went away. The crime rate, and in particular the murder rate, has climbed back to unacceptably high levels, with drug activity blamed for the huge spike.
But corruption, which seems to go hand-in-glove with New Orleans and Louisiana politics, has garnered the most headlines. Recently, Congressman William Jefferson of the New Orleans First District and members of his immediate family were indicted by federal authorities on a host of charges involving kickback schemes and payoffs.
The biggest shocker in local politics came just two weeks ago. Oliver Thomas, the senior member and current vice-president of New Orleans City Council, also admitted to wrongdoing. Thomas is one of the city’s most recognizable figures and, following Hurricane Katrina, was considered one of its most impassioned speakers. He spoke in Cleveland in March 2006, seeking assistance for New Orleans at a forum on urban renewal at the Maxine Goodman Levin School at Cleveland State University.
Thomas was indicted by federal authorities on charges that he demanded payments of $19,000 from a City Hall vendor in exchange for influence peddling. He awaits sentencing in early November.
Arnie Fielkow, president of the council (and also a member of the New Orleans Jewish community), announced that a special election would be held to replace Thomas in October.
Far beyond its meager numbers, the Jewish community of New Orleans continues to lead, educate and hope.
As New Orleans editor of the Deep South Jewish Voice, the official independent publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, I, too, hope to be a part of this tremendous rebuilding effort. We are all working toward reaching pre-Katrina levels of practice and faith. As for hurricane season, we are also holding our collective breath.
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