Jews for New Orleans

by Jenna Pollock
AVODAH New Orleans Corps Member

IS INEQUALITY MAKING US SICK? COMMUNITY PARTNERS PRESENT GROUND-BREAKING DOCUMENTARY

UNNATURAL CAUSES: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? is a groundbreaking new documentary series that crisscrosses the country exploring how the social conditions in which Americans are born, live and work profoundly affect health and longevity, even more than medical care, behaviors and genes. This four-hour television and DVD series challenges fundamental beliefs about what makes Americans healthy - or sick - and offers new remedies for an ailing society.

This FREE series is presented locally by the Tulane Community Health Center at Covenant House and Community Book Center. Each evening features one-hour of the documentary along with a local speaker working on issues such as housing, healthcare, and immigration in New Orleans. Refreshments available.

WHEN: May 29^th, May 30^th, June 5^th, and June 6^th. All events will run from 6-8pm

Friday, May 29^th, 2009 – Race and Health, with speaker Barbara Major Episodes: When the Bough Breaks and Collateral Damage
Saturday, May 30^th, 2009 – Housing and Health, with speaker Kate Scott
Episodes: Place Matters and Not Just a Paycheck
Friday, June 5^th, 2009 – Wealth and Health, with speaker Karen DeSalvo
Episodes: In Sickness and in Wealth
Saturday, June 6^th, 2009 – Immigration and Health, with speakers Narda Hernandez and Kathia Duran
Episodes: Becoming American and Bad Sugar

WHERE:  Community Book Center, 2523 Bayou Road

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This press release is a document I developed in conjunction with Vera Warren-Williams at the Community Book Center, a neighborhood institution for over 25 years. The screening series is a product of our conversations about how to most effectively address community health - collaboration was and is at the top of the list. That Tulane’s Community Health Center at Covenant House is involved speaks to its new commitment to and capacity for community engagement, beyond referrals for clinical appointments. We are participating in health events offering screenings for different churches and community groups more than we ever have before. We are sending our physicians, nurse practitioners, and medical office assistants to community centers and churches to speak about topics such as cancer prevention for women, sexual health for teens, and heart disease and hypertension. Currently we are trying to figure out the best way to balance our resources with our community partner’s needs and interests. In June we are launching a Patient Advisory Council to emphasize communication and collaboration between patients and health center staff. We are also coordinating in exciting ways with other health centers in the city.

In addition, we recognize that even if we could offer the best primary care, that alone does not increase our ability to make people better. Community health is, as the name suggests, much larger than the individual’s symptoms and conditions. To improve community health we must all come together to fight for a clearer understanding of the social factors that influence health. We must address the reality that exercising and eating right will not necessarily reduce your risk of high blood pressure, but being wealthy and white will. What will we do with this knowledge? Hopefully this screening series will start the discussion.

We plan to follow up with additional screenings in various communities around the city. Check out www.unnaturalcauses.org for more information on the documentary, www.tuchc.org for more on the health center, and www.communitybookcenter.com for more on the Community Book Center.

by Rachel Lee
AVODAH New Orleans Corps Member

Writing is so much more than putting a pencil to a piece of paper. This is one of the basic ideas of the Rethink Writers’ Group, which I co-facilitate as part of my AVODAH placement at Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools. When I joined the Writer’s Group, they were in the midst of a number of ongoing projects, such as contributing a column to a community newspaper and developing a graphic novel about their experiences as youth organizers in post-Katrina New Orleans.

When I sat down with Candace Perry, a professional playwright and author who volunteers as a coordinator of the Writers’ Group, we immediately turned to the question of how to present writing as a powerful tool to middle school students who may associate writing with boring classes and tedious standardized tests. We realized that we needed to take writing into the 21st Century. The printed word is no longer the primary means of communicating information. We live in a digital age, where “writing” takes the form of text messages, emails and even YouTube videos.

One of my first projects with the Writers’ Group was creating an entry for a YouTube contest about school cafeterias. The youth watched other videos online for inspiration and then we had a big brainstorm session. We decided to model our project on Will.i.am’s “We are the Ones” video, which was an online sensation during Presidential campaign. We would work in black-and-white with an inspirational chant in the background and Rethinkers speaking directly into the camera about their experiences. We shot the video in one afternoon and then I did the editing in iMovie. Our video, “Real Food Now!”, ended up being a finalist in the YouTube contest and over 1,000 people watched our video. Four Rethinkers went to the Farm-to-Cafeteria conference in Portland, Oregon that sponsored the contest and spoke in front of 600 people about their efforts to get healthy, local food in their cafeterias. We also published a transcript of the video in a community newspaper called The Trumpet.

This project was the first of what promises to be many videos from the Writers’ Group. We are currently working on a video about how to use the media to get out your message. Ultimately, we will use these videos as a starting point for the graphic novel that we are writing. The book will be an illustrated guide for other young people who want to make a difference in their schools.

You can check out all our videos on YouTube: www.youtube.com/rethinkNOLA

NEW ORLEANS CORPS MEMBERS 2009-2010

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Jordan Aiken, from Pasadena, CA, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in Mass Communications and minored in Global Poverty. Jordan spent a semester in Cape Town, South Africa, where she volunteered with Art Aids Art. She continued to work with the organization after returning to California, by establishing its first university chapter and coordinating fundraisers and workshops.

Jordan will be working as a Shelter Assistant at the New Orleans Women’s Shelter, a facility for women and children in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans that provides temporary emergency shelter and food. The shelter is a family-style transitional women and children’s home with a focus on helping women stabilize, obtain proper medical treatment and other locally available social services to move onto successful independent living.

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Mariel Boyarsky, from New City, NY, graduated from Vassar College, where she majored in Gender Studies and Linguistics. While studying abroad in Haifa, Israel, Mariel worked at a battered women’s shelter and volunteered as an English tutor. She also participated in an AJWS alternative spring break trip to El Salvador, where she helped build houses and develop sustainable farming.

In her position at Interfairth Worker Justice (IWJ), Mariel will work with the faith community to organize support for the protection and expansion of the rights of workers. IWJ’s key programs include faith community outreach, worker rights education, and collaboration with workers directly affected by wage theft, health and safety violations, and other violations of worker rights.

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Mallory Falk grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, and attended Middlebury College, where she majored in English and American Literatures, with a concentration in Creative Writing. Throughout college, Mallory was actively involved in the Page 1 Literacy Project, serving as Assistant Board Chair, and established and led after-school programs in creative writing and playwriting.

At Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools (Rethink), Mallory will work directly with student participants, helping to implement new programs and facilitating current after-school programs. Rethink supports and empowers young people to use their experiences, their voices and their leadership to create positive change in their schools and in their world.

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Rachel Glicksman, from New York, NY, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Hispanic Studies from Vassar College. While in college, Rachel served as Co-Chair of Hunger Action, President of Operation Donation, and Vice President of the Vassar Jewish Union, and founded the campus chapter of Challah for Hunger to raise money for humanitarian causes.

As the Assistant Neighborhood Coordinator at Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative, Rachel will work closely with residents of the Central City neighborhood to identify and implement programs to revitalize the community. Jericho Road supports affordable housing for neighborhood residents by building new construction homes and rehabilitating existing structures.

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Amanda Gross, from Waban, MA, attended Elon University, where she majored in Psychology with a triple-minor in Spanish, International Studies, and Religious Studies. Amanda has travelled extensively in the Americas, studying abroad in Costa Rica and Peru and taking alternative spring break trips to the Domincan Republic and Mexico.

Amanda will be serving as the Intake Coordinator at Rebuilding Together New Orleans, helping homeowners through the application system so they can receive assistance and finally get their homes rebuilt. Amanda will function as the primary point of contact with homeowners and act as an advocate on their behalf, both within the organization and with other agencies citywide.

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Rachel Lewis, from Elkins Park, PA, earned a Bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University, with a major in Sociology and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies.  Rachel served as the Campus Relations Coordinator for Brandeis Hillel and participated in the university’s Interfaith Leadership Development program. She also spent two semesters abroad, studying at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Rachel will be serving as a Client Welfare Specialist at the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD). OPD provides legal services to indigent defendants and client-centered representation that respects the humanity and dignity of those accused of crimes. The Defender Services Program - a division within the office of social workers and client welfare specialists - works in teams with staff attorneys and investigators to address an arrestee’s underlying problems as well as his or her criminal charges.

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Miriam Liebman grew up in Farmington Hills, MI, and attended the University of Michigan, where she earned a degree in Middle East and North African Studies. Miriam spent a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. As the recipient of a fellowship from Abraham’s Vision, she traveled to the Balkans to study comparative conflict analysis with Palestinian and Israeli students. She has also participated in two alternative break service trips to New Orleans.

In her position at the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC), an agency which seeks to eradicate housing discrimination throughout the greater New Orleans area, Miriam will help identify opportunities to instate fair housing practices in the rebuilding process and will work to develop outreach activities to educate the greater New Orleans community about GNOFHAC’s services.

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Gillian Locascio, from Tacoma, WA, earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Emory University. A semester abroad in Panama inspired Gillian to work with an Engineers Without Borders program there, as well as to earn sponsorship for her thesis research on indigenous home gardens. While in college, Gillian helped plan an environmental seminar series and served as President of the Culinary Club.

Gillian will serve as the Community Coordinator at the Tulane University Community Health Center at Covenant House, where she will manage outreach efforts to improve the value of the clinic for the community.  The Health Center was established in the days following Hurricane Katrina and provides continuous high-quality, holistic, accessible, community-centric care.

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Laura Taishoff, from Katonah, NY, studied English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She studied abroad in both Mexico and Italy, and participated in a Birthright trip to Israel with the campus Hillel. As an Honors Fellow, Laura mentored incoming freshmen on issues of civil rights and social injustice. She also served as co-captain of the women’s lacrosse club and co-editor of The Voice, a student-run Jewish cultural magazine, and also worked as a conversational English tutor.

At Roots of Music, Laura will work extensively with children, parents, and their communities to organize events and develop assistance plans to address their needs. Founded by ReBirth Brass Band member Derrick Tabb, Roots of Music is a free after school and summer music education program for 9-14 year olds. The program provides musical instruction and academic tutoring.

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Tina Wexler, from Scarsdale, NY, studied Religion at Barnard College at Columbia University, where she minored in Anthropology and completed coursework for the Pre-Health track. Tina has worked as a research assistant at both St. Barnabas Hospital’s Department of Pediatrics and Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, and volunteered at a neonatal clinic in Bucharest, Romania, and served as a Columbia University EMT.

As the Exoneree Advocate at Resurrection After Exoneration, Tina will work closely with project founder John Thompson, himself an exoneree, to help other exonerees with housing needs, health and medical care, education, work training, financial planning, life skills, and legal matters.

Volunteers Diane Dileo and Marie Brousseau prepare for the Donald Link presentation at the food stage at Jazz Fest. At left is Kay Roussell, the stage manager for the Food Heritage Stage and the Cajun Cabin for the past 12 years. (Photo by Kathy Anderson / The Times-Picayune)

Every year, Jazz Fest depends on volunteers to help make the festival happen. And every year, volunteers swarm in, benefitting from free entrance to the festival as a perk for donating their time and energy.

A recent article in the Times-Picayune highlights the seasoned volunteers, who come back year after year to work with local chefs at the food tents. Of course, there are always new volunteers in the bunch. This year, AVODAH Corps member Meredith Grabek was among the food volunteers interviewed in the newspaper article:

Although there is a core group of volunteers, there also are newcomers. “We have several new ones this year, ” Roussell said. “Two are young women who came to New Orleans to work, one with Rebuilding New Orleans and another one with another group. And we had Americorps volunteers right after the storm.

“Some people go all around the country and volunteer at festivals, because it’s a good way to get to know local people, ” Roussell said. “We have had a woman at the Cajun Cabin the last couple of days who’s from San Francisco.”

This year, Meredith Grabek of Avodah, the Jewish service corps, checked in with Roussell on the first day of the festival.

“I’m living on a stipend, and I wanted to come to Jazz Fest, ” she said. “It’s been a great experience so far.”

posted by AVODAH Corps member David Eber

I have been really interested lately in the Somali pirate incident. The news media is all abuzz about the pirates, but of course they are focusing on the wrong issues again.

Most of the coverage dehumanizes the pirates, and turns them into bloodthirsty criminals. While taking hostages, stealing, killing aren’t things that I condone, the fishermen of Somalia have been reduced to nothing, and driven to desperation. This article in Time Magazine does a good job of explaining the circumstances that drove Somali men to piracy.

A shrimp boat in Bayou Lafourche, Leeville, LA (Shreveport Times). Coastal fishermen in Louisiana struggle with environmental devastation similar to conditions that have driven Somali fishermen to piracy.

I also have been thinking of Louisiana’s fishermen and women. There are some remarkable similarities between them and the Somali fishermen. They both have had their coasts pillaged. Somalia’s coasts were pillaged by illegal fishing boats, while Louisiana’s coast has been pillaged in a different sense by the oil and gas industries. This pillaging has severely affected fishermen in both countries. Somali’s were driven off by larger nations stealing their natural resources without paying a fair price. The oil and gas industry has also destroyed Louisiana’s coast, and they too aren’t paying a fair price.

Both of the pillagings have resulted in substantial job loss for the fishing industries of the respective countries.

The non-economic costs can also be felt. Destruction of the natural environments has been a huge factor in the death of fishing in both countries, (there are economic costs associated with this as well, but losing a natural environment is sad for other reasons too). In the case of Somalia, Illegal dumping of toxic nuclear waste has caused death to many of the water’s fish and health problems for its people. In Louisiana, the oil and gas industries have destroyed the coast and in turn have destroyed an ecosystem that was essential for protecting fish, and protecting the city of New Orleans, and now they don’t want to pay the cost. The cost to fix the coast and the cost to all the industries (particularly fishing) that have been destroyed as a result of their pillaging range in the billions. It is no wonder they avoid paying. In the case of the Somali fishermen, people are profiting enormously off of the fish that they catch in their waters and saving billions by illegally dumping waste as opposed to properly disposing of it. Therefore, these nations fight hard against the citizens of Somalia who have been forced towards piracy as a means to reclaim their natural resources.

I won’t get into some of the wrongs committed by the fishing industry in terms of their practices, but this is important to hold them accountable as well. However, many honest workers are put out of the job due to problems caused by those who make huge profits on our land while they simultaneously destroy it, and deny that they are doing it! As the Gulf Restoration Network says, “Shell: Hear the music, and fix the coast you broke!” Sponsoring Jazz Fest won’t make up for the wrongs you have committed against the people of Louisiana and the entire United States.

Unfortunately for Somalia they have even less chance of combating the evils that are being perpetrated against their fishermen and their country. The international focus in on fighting “terrorist pirates,” (you can smell a movie in the works) is completely ‘wrongheaded.’ The focus should be on righting the wrongs committed against the people of Somalia and finding a way to restore the fishing industry so that people aren’t reduced to piracy. Instead, we are busy condemning the people of Somalia as bloodthirsty pirates, and we all squirm with delight while we think about high seas adventure. Unfortunately, this isn’t Hollywood and the consequences for the people of Somalia are real.

How long will it be until New Orleans fishermen and women start hijacking oil tankers? I hope soon.

AVODAH Corps member Meredith Grabek was recently featured on New Orleans news station WWLTV in a segment called “Quiet Heroes”. The segment aired on April 14, 2009.

Visit the site, r-a-e.org, to learn more about the organization, and to watch videos of exonerees telling their stories.

A group shot of the Harvard students riding the streetcar during their alternative spring break trip to New Orleans.

During their spring break, these Harvard students had the opportunity to shadow physicians at a handful of local clinics. They learned about the major changes the New Orleans healthcare system has undergone since the destruction of Charity Hospital during Katrina.

Here is what one student learned about the situation from Tulane’s Dean of the School of Medicine:

Immediately after touring the simulations center, we had dinner with the Dean of the Tulane School of Medicine, Benjamin Sachs, as well as the Vice Dean and Executive Director of TUCHC. We found that the catastrophic flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina decimated the health care infrastructure of the city, completely ravaging Charity Hospital - the hospital for low-income patients. The model for TUCHC arose from the destruction, when Tulane physicians practiced in tents, shelters, police precincts, and mobile vans to deliver care to citizens in need.

Sachs recalled how this model of decentralized care expanded greatly in the years following Katrina and opened our eyes to the strengths of such a system. He said that currently, only five hospitals exist in New Orleans. Each hospital struggles with with an aging MD population and low physician incomes. Furthermore, all are losing money. In contrast, neighborhood clinics are not only more cost-effective, but also provide more holistic, personal, and accessible care for the homeless, uninsured, and chronically ill. We saw the power of neighborhood clinics while volunteering today and are excited about what we will learn tomorrow.

Over the course of the week here, students got first-hand experiences in low-income clinics that serve the city. This student’s description of the failings of the system really highlight the injustice towards those not fortunate enough to have health insurance:

I had just finished shadowing two medical school students, who attended to a male in his 30s who presented with a reducible femoral hernia. As the med students reported their assessment and treatment plan to Dr. Mioses, I was dismayed to hear that in his current condition, the patient could never be treated in New Orleans. The only health center for those who couldn’t afford health insurance - Charity Hospital - was severely damaged and shuttered due to Katrina. The few other hospitals in the city were backlogged with too many patients and not enough beds to fix reducible hernias. Only when the hernia becomes irreducible and strangulated, with its blood supply cut off, can that patient be treated.

Dr. Miones told me that he was fighting to get Charity Hospital reopened. He believed that NOLA’s hospitals were insufficient. I agree.

While I was impressed with the ability of Fleur de Vie and the other community health clinics we visited this week to provide holistic and long-term primary care, health education services, and mental health screenings to its patients, this experience taught me that NOLA’s broken health care system leaves much to be desired.

The poor deserve better.

Read more about the group’s visit to New Orleans, and the students’ experiences in local clinics by visiting their blog site.