The New Orleans Diaspora
The former residents of the Jewish community of New Orleans have found that Hurricane Katrina has brought them closer together than they ever could have expected prior to the storm slamming into the Gulf Coast.
The outpouring of love and concern from fellow Jews has been especially noted in the Texas community of Houston, now home to an estimated half of the dispersed. Nearby Baton Rouge, now bears distinction as the largest city in Louisiana, and many Jewish community members have elected to stay there if for no other reason than its proximity to the Crescent City.
Some families have also opted to move to the larger communities of Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, and New York, but they are statistically a small number. Smaller Jewish enclaves like those in Jackson, Mississippi; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama have burgeoned to the bursting point in an attempt to shelter hapless Jewish families along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans who have lost everything except their need for Jewish community.
The Jewish Federation of Houston has become the interim home to the uprooted Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. Executive Director Eric Stillwell and his entire staff, including Community Relations Director Adam Bronstone and Assistant to the Executive Director Roselle Middleberg Ungar have labored to bring everyone together and to keep them informed. This has been accomplished through traditional land telephone lines, but has been supplemented by more modern conveyances such as the Internet, e-mail, and cell phones, whose service is still sporadic nearly three weeks after being broadsided by the costliest storm to ever hit the United States.
Although a Google Group created to keep the community informed failed due to mass e-mailings that clogged members? e-mail boxes, they have generated great success in several other areas. A community ?safe list? has been created and distributed on their web site and efforts that have been instigated at their behest have resulted in several missing Jews being rescued by authorities.
Aside from coordinating benefits needed by displaced New Orleanian Jews, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has also sponsored a panel discussion on property insurance, providing insurance adjusters to talk to those who have lost their homes and businesses.
Like Houston, Atlanta has also become a refuge of choice for transplanted New Orleanians too. Many parents have opted to place their children in more highly accredited Atlanta-area schools to ensure a more stable academic environment and afford them better college preparation.
More religious observant Jews have had to look elsewhere than the strictly Reform territory in Baton Rouge in order to find kosher food and daily minyans, for example. Aside from Houston, the Memphis area with its large, established Orthodox community has drawn a smaller group of fellow observant Jews to it like moths to a flame. Rabbi Yisroel Shiff of Congregation Beth Israel has moved his wife and family to a new home there with the help of Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Kolsky, who housed them for over a week.
As reported last week, Congregation Beth Israel suffered the greatest damage to its structure located in the formerly picturesque Lakeview area of the city. High water and sludge filled with debris from the storm still surrounds the building, resulting from the break in the levee at the nearby 17th Street Canal.
Speaking from Dallas, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sol Gothard, husband of Congregation President Jackie Gothard, said he thinks that the structure ? is under twelve feet of water.? The fear remains that all of their torahs may have been lost in the cataclysm.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn of Temple Sinai reported that his St. Charles Avenue sanctuary suffered very little damage. ?It looks almost perfect,? he said from his temporary home in Atlanta. ?If we had electricity, we could have High Holiday services there tomorrow.?
However, electricity may not be forthcoming for some time. ?We are going to be conducting holiday services at Temple B?nai in Baton Rouge,? he continued. From Houston to Atlanta and Beyond: Dispersed Are Welcomed The former residents of the Jewish community of New Orleans have found that Hurricane Katrina has brought them closer together than they ever could have expected prior to the storm slamming into the Gulf Coast.
The outpouring of love and concern from fellow Jews has been especially noted in the Texas community of Houston, now home to an estimated half of the dispersed. Nearby Baton Rouge, now bears distinction as the largest city in Louisiana, and many Jewish community members have elected to stay there if for no other reason than its proximity to the Crescent City.
Some families have also opted to move to the larger communities of Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, and New York, but they are statistically a small number. Smaller Jewish enclaves like those in Jackson, Mississippi; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama have burgeoned to the bursting point in an attempt to shelter hapless Jewish families along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans who have lost everything except their need for Jewish community.
The Jewish Federation of Houston has become the interim home to the uprooted Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. Executive Director Eric Stillwell and his entire staff, including Community Relations Director Adam Bronstone and Assistant to the Executive Director Roselle Middleberg Ungar have labored to bring everyone together and to keep them informed. This has been accomplished through traditional land telephone lines, but has been supplemented by more modern conveyances such as the Internet, e-mail, and cell phones, whose service is still sporadic nearly three weeks after being broadsided by the costliest storm to ever hit the United States.
Although a Google Group created to keep the community informed failed due to mass e-mailings that clogged members? e-mail boxes, they have generated great success in several other areas. A community ?safe list? has been created and distributed on their web site and efforts that have been instigated at their behest have resulted in several missing Jews being rescued by authorities.
Aside from coordinating benefits needed by displaced New Orleanian Jews, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has also sponsored a panel discussion on property insurance, providing insurance adjusters to talk to those who have lost their homes and businesses.
Like Houston, Atlanta has also become a refuge of choice for transplanted New Orleanians too. Many parents have opted to place their children in more highly accredited Atlanta-area schools to ensure a more stable academic environment and afford them better college preparation.
More religious observant Jews have had to look elsewhere than the strictly Reform territory in Baton Rouge in order to find kosher food and daily minyans, for example. Aside from Houston, the Memphis area with its large, established Orthodox community has drawn a smaller group of fellow observant Jews to it like moths to a flame. Rabbi Yisroel Shiff of Congregation Beth Israel has moved his wife and family to a new home there with the help of Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Kolsky, who housed them for over a week.
As reported last week, Congregation Beth Israel suffered the greatest damage to its structure located in the formerly picturesque Lakeview area of the city. High water and sludge filled with debris from the storm still surrounds the building, resulting from the break in the levee at the nearby 17th Street Canal.
Speaking from Dallas, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sol Gothard, husband of Congregation President Jackie Gothard, said he thinks that the structure ? is under twelve feet of water.? The fear remains that all of their torahs may have been lost in the cataclysm.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn of Temple Sinai reported that his St. Charles Avenue sanctuary suffered very little damage. ?It looks almost perfect,? he said from his temporary home in Atlanta. ?If we had electricity, we could have High Holiday services there tomorrow.?
However, electricity may not be forthcoming for some time. ?We are going to be conducting holiday services at Temple B?nai in Baton Rouge,? he continued.
The outpouring of love and concern from fellow Jews has been especially noted in the Texas community of Houston, now home to an estimated half of the dispersed. Nearby Baton Rouge, now bears distinction as the largest city in Louisiana, and many Jewish community members have elected to stay there if for no other reason than its proximity to the Crescent City.
Some families have also opted to move to the larger communities of Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, and New York, but they are statistically a small number. Smaller Jewish enclaves like those in Jackson, Mississippi; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama have burgeoned to the bursting point in an attempt to shelter hapless Jewish families along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans who have lost everything except their need for Jewish community.
The Jewish Federation of Houston has become the interim home to the uprooted Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. Executive Director Eric Stillwell and his entire staff, including Community Relations Director Adam Bronstone and Assistant to the Executive Director Roselle Middleberg Ungar have labored to bring everyone together and to keep them informed. This has been accomplished through traditional land telephone lines, but has been supplemented by more modern conveyances such as the Internet, e-mail, and cell phones, whose service is still sporadic nearly three weeks after being broadsided by the costliest storm to ever hit the United States.
Although a Google Group created to keep the community informed failed due to mass e-mailings that clogged members? e-mail boxes, they have generated great success in several other areas. A community ?safe list? has been created and distributed on their web site and efforts that have been instigated at their behest have resulted in several missing Jews being rescued by authorities.
Aside from coordinating benefits needed by displaced New Orleanian Jews, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has also sponsored a panel discussion on property insurance, providing insurance adjusters to talk to those who have lost their homes and businesses.
Like Houston, Atlanta has also become a refuge of choice for transplanted New Orleanians too. Many parents have opted to place their children in more highly accredited Atlanta-area schools to ensure a more stable academic environment and afford them better college preparation.
More religious observant Jews have had to look elsewhere than the strictly Reform territory in Baton Rouge in order to find kosher food and daily minyans, for example. Aside from Houston, the Memphis area with its large, established Orthodox community has drawn a smaller group of fellow observant Jews to it like moths to a flame. Rabbi Yisroel Shiff of Congregation Beth Israel has moved his wife and family to a new home there with the help of Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Kolsky, who housed them for over a week.
As reported last week, Congregation Beth Israel suffered the greatest damage to its structure located in the formerly picturesque Lakeview area of the city. High water and sludge filled with debris from the storm still surrounds the building, resulting from the break in the levee at the nearby 17th Street Canal.
Speaking from Dallas, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sol Gothard, husband of Congregation President Jackie Gothard, said he thinks that the structure ? is under twelve feet of water.? The fear remains that all of their torahs may have been lost in the cataclysm.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn of Temple Sinai reported that his St. Charles Avenue sanctuary suffered very little damage. ?It looks almost perfect,? he said from his temporary home in Atlanta. ?If we had electricity, we could have High Holiday services there tomorrow.?
However, electricity may not be forthcoming for some time. ?We are going to be conducting holiday services at Temple B?nai in Baton Rouge,? he continued. From Houston to Atlanta and Beyond: Dispersed Are Welcomed The former residents of the Jewish community of New Orleans have found that Hurricane Katrina has brought them closer together than they ever could have expected prior to the storm slamming into the Gulf Coast.
The outpouring of love and concern from fellow Jews has been especially noted in the Texas community of Houston, now home to an estimated half of the dispersed. Nearby Baton Rouge, now bears distinction as the largest city in Louisiana, and many Jewish community members have elected to stay there if for no other reason than its proximity to the Crescent City.
Some families have also opted to move to the larger communities of Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, and New York, but they are statistically a small number. Smaller Jewish enclaves like those in Jackson, Mississippi; Lafayette, Louisiana; and Birmingham, Alabama have burgeoned to the bursting point in an attempt to shelter hapless Jewish families along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans who have lost everything except their need for Jewish community.
The Jewish Federation of Houston has become the interim home to the uprooted Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. Executive Director Eric Stillwell and his entire staff, including Community Relations Director Adam Bronstone and Assistant to the Executive Director Roselle Middleberg Ungar have labored to bring everyone together and to keep them informed. This has been accomplished through traditional land telephone lines, but has been supplemented by more modern conveyances such as the Internet, e-mail, and cell phones, whose service is still sporadic nearly three weeks after being broadsided by the costliest storm to ever hit the United States.
Although a Google Group created to keep the community informed failed due to mass e-mailings that clogged members? e-mail boxes, they have generated great success in several other areas. A community ?safe list? has been created and distributed on their web site and efforts that have been instigated at their behest have resulted in several missing Jews being rescued by authorities.
Aside from coordinating benefits needed by displaced New Orleanian Jews, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has also sponsored a panel discussion on property insurance, providing insurance adjusters to talk to those who have lost their homes and businesses.
Like Houston, Atlanta has also become a refuge of choice for transplanted New Orleanians too. Many parents have opted to place their children in more highly accredited Atlanta-area schools to ensure a more stable academic environment and afford them better college preparation.
More religious observant Jews have had to look elsewhere than the strictly Reform territory in Baton Rouge in order to find kosher food and daily minyans, for example. Aside from Houston, the Memphis area with its large, established Orthodox community has drawn a smaller group of fellow observant Jews to it like moths to a flame. Rabbi Yisroel Shiff of Congregation Beth Israel has moved his wife and family to a new home there with the help of Rabbi Yitzhak Dovid Kolsky, who housed them for over a week.
As reported last week, Congregation Beth Israel suffered the greatest damage to its structure located in the formerly picturesque Lakeview area of the city. High water and sludge filled with debris from the storm still surrounds the building, resulting from the break in the levee at the nearby 17th Street Canal.
Speaking from Dallas, Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sol Gothard, husband of Congregation President Jackie Gothard, said he thinks that the structure ? is under twelve feet of water.? The fear remains that all of their torahs may have been lost in the cataclysm.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Ed Paul Cohn of Temple Sinai reported that his St. Charles Avenue sanctuary suffered very little damage. ?It looks almost perfect,? he said from his temporary home in Atlanta. ?If we had electricity, we could have High Holiday services there tomorrow.?
However, electricity may not be forthcoming for some time. ?We are going to be conducting holiday services at Temple B?nai in Baton Rouge,? he continued.
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