This and That
Issue: 6.10  
November 7, 2005
The New Orleans Jewish Community
I received the following information about the Jewish Community of New Orleans and environs from a member of our Megillah family who failed to sign his or her name to the correspondence.  If you recognize your work please contact me so I can give you appropriate credit for your efforts.

GENERAL INFO

1. Approx. 500,000 people live in the city of New Orleans, and about 800,000 live in the suburbs. The New Orleans area is surrounded by the Mississippi river and Lake Ponchetrain which is about 50 by 25 miles.

2.The Jewish community in greater New Orleans is about 8,000 to 10,000 people.

3.There are 8 synagogues -- 4 are Orthodox, 3 are Reform and one is Conservative.

4.Even though there are four Orthodox synagogues there are only about 25 families which are Shomar Mitzvot of which about 10 each attend one of the two Chabad synagogues. The other two Orthodox synagogues have a small elderly population, of which one only has a part-time rabbi.

5.There are also 2 kosher restaurants, 1 kosher deli with a mini market (though all kosher meat and bread is bought frozen), 2 JCCs, 2 Jewish day schools, a Jewish Family Services, a Hillel, and a Jewish Federation.

6.The Jewish Federation's annual campaign is $3 million; and just under two years ago they built an $11 million dollar facility of which the JFed, JCC and community day school moved into.

7.Chabad is very strong. There are two Chabad Houses, plus they run a day school, the Mikvah and the Louisiana Kashruth Commission.

8.Baton Rouge is about a 75 to 90-minute drive from New Orleans.

WHERE WAS THE FLOODING?

Several areas keep getting mentioned on TV so here is where they are including information about Jewish life in these areas.

1.The "9th Ward" -- This is a short walk from the French Quarter and is where part of the levee of the Mississippi river broke. It is a very poor area with many third generation welfare recipients, and a very dangerous part of the New Orleans with murders every night. This part of town went 20 feet under water and is where most of the dead bodies will come from. For most of these people, living in a shelter/refugee facility will be an improvement over living in the 9th Ward because they'll get three meals a day and medical attention.

2.New Orleans East -- When CNN/FOX, etc. shows flooding to people's rooftops, most of these scenes come from New Orleans East. This part of town is entirely black.

3.Lake View -- This is the outer-parts of the New Haven city limits right next to Lake Ponchetrain and is where the levee to Lake Ponchetrain broke. About 15% of the Jewish community lives in this area but there is only one synagogue. This area flooded about 8 feet. IF any Jews are among the dead they will probably elderly Jews who live in the Lake View area who died of heat exhaustion while waiting to be rescued.

4.Uptown -- This is within the New Orleans city limits, contains historic St. Charles Avenue, and is where 35-40% of the Jewish community lives. Institutionally, there are two large Reform synagogues, a Chabad synagogue, a JCC, and Hillel for Tulane University. Since this area is higher than downtown (this is why it is called "Uptown") it only flooded a couple of feet.

5.Metairie (pronounced "Metairie") -- This is a large suburb in Jefferson Parish, it borders Lake Ponchetrain, and contains about 35-40% of the Jewish community. Institutionally there is a Chabad Center, a Conservative synagogue, a Reform synagogue, a JCC, two day schools, and the Jewish Federation. This area flooded about five feet. I lived in Metairie.

6.Challemette -- East of New Orleans and no Jews -- totally gone. Most of the people who lived there worked in the nearby oil refineries. Challemette is also known as "Cancer Ally" because this zip code has the highest rate of cancer in the USA.

7.Slidell -- 30 minutes east of New Orleans and across the lake, just a few Jews, and totally flooded.

8.Thus, east of New Orleans was hit the worst -- 9th Ward, New Orleans East, Challemette, and Slidell. While West of New Orleans fared better: Uptown, Metairie, Kenner. And as mentioned above, most of the Jewish community is located Uptown and in Metairie.

CHABAD

Three of the four Chabad rabbis decided to stay to be immediately available to help right after the hurricane. A few Jewish tourists got stranded because the airport closed two days before the hurricane and all the rent-a-cars were sold out. Therefore, they called Chabad for help and stayed with the Nemes family during the hurricane. After the hurricane two of the Chabad rabbis, which were the ones who were in Uptown, left after the hurricane and headed to Houston which is where a large percentage of the New Orleans Jewish population fled to before the hurricane. The other Chabad rabbi, Rabbi Nemes, who was in the suburb of Metairie, was stuck in his house after the hurricane because there was about five feet of flooding, including the first floor of his house was flooded. 13 people in all stayed on the 2nd floor of the Nemes house through the hurricane and then for two days without electricity (ie: no a/c) until the water was pumped out of that section of Metairie and people were able to leave. Prior to leaving Rabbi Nemes checked on fellow Jews who had stayed and gave food and water to some of his elderly neighbors. Rabbi Nemes wrote an account of the above which is the feature story on Chabad.org this week. The Nemes' are good friends of ours and we lived just down the street. (We finally sold our house about two months ago.)

MY FRIENDS

1. On the website of Chabad of Louisiana they have been keeping a list of everyone who has called in letting them know they are safe. From this list and various emails, everyone I know has checked in except for one couple.

2. Everyone I know, except for the Chabad rabbis, fled before the hurricane. Houston and Memphis (both normally about a 5.5-hour drive from New Orleans) were the cities most people initially went to, and from there made their way to parents/in-laws/siblings all over the USA. I know of three families from the shul I attended who have pooled together and are renting a house until they can go back to the New Orleans area.

3. A couple whom we are really good friends with is staying near Baton Rouge. Since the state now contains people from the city of New Orleans (who are homeless and desperate) and there have been several reports of car-jackings, etc., she bought a gun. She is a nurse and her husband is a doctor.

MEMPHIS

You may recall that this past Rosh Hashanah (2004) a hurricane was headed towards New Orleans and my family and I left. We tried to get to St. Louis, but with the traffic it took two days just to get to Memphis. About an hour out of Memphis, which was also about three hours before Rosh Hashanah, we called some friends in St. Louis who called some of their friends in Memphis and found us a place to stay. The hospitality of the Memphis Jewish community was great. We actually tied up Simi (our dog) in the backyard but after the second day someone volunteered to let Simi stay in their house. That hurricane ended up making a sharp 80-degree turn just hours before entering Louisiana and hit Alabama.

MY ANALYSIS

I think that the people from the city of New Orleans are going to have a difficult time getting their life back together because their houses were completely flooded (and are still flooded a week later), and will require much long-term help from the government and other agencies with temp housing, jobs, etc. Many of them may go from third generation welfare recipients to permanent refugees.

The Jewish community, however, I think will rebound but will be a little smaller (and a little older). I say this because Uptown and Metairie, which combined entail about 75% of the Jewish population and also almost all of the Jewish institutions, only received a few feet of flooding. Thus, total rebuilding of houses and institutions is probably not necessary. Also, most of the general population and the Jews in New Orleans are 3rd generation New Orleanians, and are very "patriotic" about New Orleans. Most Jews also are in family businesses which do not depend upon the segment of the local population which are most effected by this hurricane. Also, both the Jewish Federation and Chabad are very competent and with financial support so the institutional structures will rebound.

Many of those few who are not rooted in New Orleans, however, I think will decide not to come back because they could be a doctor, etc. anywhere and might be fed up with all the hurricanes and would not want to go through something of this magnitude again.

How long it takes to get one's house cleaned up and business up and running I do not know. It will be difficult and a challenge.

A problem with the New Orleans Jewish community is that there is a high rate of assimilation and intermarriage, and the less and less of the younger generation is choosing to return to New Orleans after college. Part of this has to do with the negative economy. For example, over the past 15 years all the oil companies have transferred their HQ's to Texas and no national companies have their HQ in New Orleans. Thus the Jewish community is getting smaller and smaller and also older and older. Now with this latest hurricane, it will be smaller and older, but there will be a Jewish community.

IN CONCLUSION

Financial assistance will be needed to help everyone in the short term to support their families until they get back on their feet in New Orleans which will probably take most six months or more. And, additional long-term financial assistance will be need to support the elderly Jewish population.

As you may be aware, probably every Jewish organization now has a disaster relief fund for the gulf states. I do not know how each organization intends to use the money it collects (i.e.: the percentage that goes to helping just Jews vs. helping everyone; the percentage that goes to infrastructure rebuilding vs. financial assistance; etc.), but I encourage you to give to the disaster relief fund of one or more of these organizations.

   
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