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Passover on the Gulf Coast
Jackie Gothard, center, and Lee Kansas, right, shed tears during a ceremony in which Jewish texts damaged by Hurricane Katrina were buried. More than 30 student volunteers from across the nation helped clean hurricane-damaged synagogues and rescue sacred texts.
(By Ted Jackson -- Religion News Service)
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At Shir Chadash, a conservative synagogue in Metairie, La., just outside New Orleans, traditions will continue. The synagogue was flooded with 12 to 16 inches of water, but repairs are underway. There are no pews in the sanctuary, and the floors in the social hall are cement.
Nonetheless, they will have a second-night Seder and Passover services. They hope to collect donations to underwrite the cost of the dinner so they can invite aid workers in the area to attend for free.
Two Reform congregations in the New Orleans area are further along in their repair process and will also host Seders. But they too have been affected by Katrina.
Before the hurricane, Touro synagogue counted more than 600 families as members, and 50 to 70 percent of them are back, but some, including one-third of the staff, suffered catastrophic damage to their homes.
This year, Seder tickets have been reduced to $10 a member, thanks to underwriting. They also have funds available to help congregants replace Seder pieces like plates and matzoh covers that may have been lost in the storm.
At Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie, underwriting has also reduced the cost of a Seder ticket to $10. The synagogue got 3 1/2 feet of water in the sanctuary. More than $1 million in repairs are almost complete.
Although about 75 percent of its 480 families are back in the area, about half of them are living in less than ideal conditions. Some are in trailers or living on only the second floor of their houses.
Because congregations and congregants are financially strained, the New York-based Union for Reform Judaism has established a fund called SOS New Orleans: Supporting Our Synagogues, to help pay operating expenses for the four Reform synagogues in the New Orleans area. So far, more than $615,000 has been raised.
"We're on our way back to the Promised Land," said Rabbi Robert Loewy of Gates of Prayer. "The Promised Land is wholeness. Redemption is the goal of Passover, not in the ultimate end of days sense, but rather in the sense of wholeness and freedom and coming together."
