2008 Woodie Awards
Gulf Coast Jews try to mark high holy days
Rachel Zoll
Associated Press
Issue date: 10/5/05 Section: In The Spirit
Jewish leaders don't know when - if ever - their communities will reunite.
About 10,000 Jews lived in the New Orleans area and Eric Stillman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, has been trying to track them. Working out of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, he has contacted about 1,400 of the 3,600 families who were in his organization's database. Synagogue leaders have started their own online lists, but many families still have not been reached.
"It's hard to predict," said Stillman, who fled New Orleans with his wife and two children. "Some people have said they're not going to come back. ... Some people have already returned."
Those able to get home have found their synagogues with smashed roofs, shattered windows, flooded basements, and mold and mildew growing in sanctuaries. As Katrina battered the region, anxiety spread among Jewish leaders about the Torah scrolls inside the buildings. The scrolls, which Jews believe contain the word of God, are the holiest objects in Judaism.
About a week following the storm, a caravan of Jewish volunteers, accompanied by armed officers from outside New Orleans, went into the city to retrieve the scrolls. Some members of the mission had to swim through floodwater to reach their buildings, but all the Torahs were retrieved intact.
Stillman drove about a dozen of the Torahs to Houston, where they will be used in worship over the next 10 days. Rabbis and cantors from New Orleans-area congregations will be leading some of the services in college auditoriums, churches and other sites around the region.
Betty Zivitz, executive director of Congregation Temple Sinai, a New Orleans Reform synagogue of 850 families, said she was "trying to make as normal a holiday as possible."
Zivitz and her husband spent weeks moving from Jackson, Miss., to Memphis to Mobile, Ala., before returning to their damaged but inhabitable home in Metairie, La. She has been meeting with insurance adjusters about repairs to the synagogue, where the basement was filled with two feet of water and rain damaged the upper floors and ceilings.
Zivitz and her family plan to drive to Baton Rouge for the holiday, where her rabbi and cantor are leading services.
"All of us are somewhat distracted. We're not going into the holiday season as we would have in the normal meditative state," Zivitz said. "I do think when we get there, we're going to realize the importance of this very meaningful break."
About 10,000 Jews lived in the New Orleans area and Eric Stillman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, has been trying to track them. Working out of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, he has contacted about 1,400 of the 3,600 families who were in his organization's database. Synagogue leaders have started their own online lists, but many families still have not been reached.
"It's hard to predict," said Stillman, who fled New Orleans with his wife and two children. "Some people have said they're not going to come back. ... Some people have already returned."
Those able to get home have found their synagogues with smashed roofs, shattered windows, flooded basements, and mold and mildew growing in sanctuaries. As Katrina battered the region, anxiety spread among Jewish leaders about the Torah scrolls inside the buildings. The scrolls, which Jews believe contain the word of God, are the holiest objects in Judaism.
About a week following the storm, a caravan of Jewish volunteers, accompanied by armed officers from outside New Orleans, went into the city to retrieve the scrolls. Some members of the mission had to swim through floodwater to reach their buildings, but all the Torahs were retrieved intact.
Stillman drove about a dozen of the Torahs to Houston, where they will be used in worship over the next 10 days. Rabbis and cantors from New Orleans-area congregations will be leading some of the services in college auditoriums, churches and other sites around the region.
Betty Zivitz, executive director of Congregation Temple Sinai, a New Orleans Reform synagogue of 850 families, said she was "trying to make as normal a holiday as possible."
Zivitz and her husband spent weeks moving from Jackson, Miss., to Memphis to Mobile, Ala., before returning to their damaged but inhabitable home in Metairie, La. She has been meeting with insurance adjusters about repairs to the synagogue, where the basement was filled with two feet of water and rain damaged the upper floors and ceilings.
Zivitz and her family plan to drive to Baton Rouge for the holiday, where her rabbi and cantor are leading services.
"All of us are somewhat distracted. We're not going into the holiday season as we would have in the normal meditative state," Zivitz said. "I do think when we get there, we're going to realize the importance of this very meaningful break."
Be the first to comment on this story