| Page 2 of 2 < |
Jewish Evacuees Strive for Ritual
Ze'ev Rosenzweig arrives at his rented McLean townhouse with flowers, leeks and a kiss for his wife, Nitsa, as preparations for a Rosh Hashanah meal are underway. Vania Depaoli, who is not Jewish, but who also evacuated New Orleans, works on red peppers.
(Photos By Katherine Frey For The Washington Post)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"If you don't know someone, you know his aunt or his cousin or something," said Leon Rittenberg III, whose family has been in Louisiana since 1840. He is now in Houston, along with what the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans estimates is half of the city's Jewish population.
Fear of losing that continuity is among the main anxieties that Jewish leaders have as the high holidays begin. What if people don't come back?
For now, it is the rhythm of this holiest of periods that is thrown off. Traditions such as eating apples and honey for a sweet new year will remain somewhat the same. Others will not, such as the tashlich service, in which Jews throw bread crumbs into a body of moving water to symbolize the desire to let go of sins and be forgiven by God. Some Gulf Coast Jews talked wistfully about going to the banks of the Mississippi River for tashlich every Rosh Hashanah, others to Lake Pontchartrain.
Nitsa Rosenzweig is originally from Israel but has spent the past decade with her husband and two children in New Orleans. After fleeing Katrina, Rosenzweig yesterday was trying to re-create a tradition at the townhouse her family is renting in McLean, cooking some traditional Israeli high holiday dishes whose Hebrew names are similar to the words for some ancient holiday wishes.
She rattled them off: "I am preparing spinach, which means, 'We are wishing our enemies are decimated,' and sweet beets, which means 'May our enemies be removed.'
"The word for sweet carrots means, 'May our merits be increased.' "
Many displaced Jews said they have been lifted by the realization of the gifts they do have, everything from being alive to the generosity of strangers to the chance to simply go to synagogue on the high holidays.
Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah in Glover Park in Northwest Washington said he was thinking about the connection between people displaced by Katrina and the section of the Torah that is read at this time of year by Jews around the world -- a section about Abraham. Zemel plans to talk to congregants this week about how God told Abraham to leave his home and to expect wonderful things. Instead, Abraham immediately encountered a famine.
"We know hope," he said of the Jewish people. "We have known the darkest places of human history and we as a people have triumphed." He then quoted a legend about a famous Ukrainian temple with a sign that read: "Jews don't despair."
