Jews for New Orleans

On September 16th, 2009, five days after the eighth anniversary of Nine-Eleven, my nine housemates and I clustered around our basement TV. We were watching Trouble the Water, a documentary about Kimberly Rivers Roberts (rap artist extraordinaire), her husband Scott, and their 9th Ward neighbors. All were trapped in New Orleans during Katrina, and [...]

Last week, we had the great privilege of meeting with Abram Himelstein. Abram is our landlord and, more significantly, a founder of the Neighborhood Story Project. He spoke about working with community members to write books about their neighborhoods. My housemates and I were inspired, energized, insanely jealous. (Many of us strive to be like [...]

On my first exploration of this incredible city, I was immediately taken by the varying shapes, sizes, colors and textures of the homes. I fell in love with the vibrantly colored shotgun houses as we were introduced to the 9th Ward. To me, they represent beacons of passion and audacity, traits they seem [...]

As a native New Yorker, I’ve never really considered living anywhere else besides New York. I love my hometown, and this isn’t an I (heart) New York type of love, but a true dedication and devotion to a place. The grit and grime of the subways, the buildings so tall that only a sliver of [...]

Most of my summer, prior to my arrival in New Orleans, was dominated by that all too familiar feeling of butterflies fluttering around my in my stomach. Upon leaving New York to go to Wisconsin for college, those trusty butterflies were alive and well. Any time I sat at the airport, waiting to embark [...]

Since starting AVODAH, my individual Jewish experience, along with that within the New Orleans Jewish community, has been quite significant and, in some ways, unexpected. Coming into this year, I knew that these topics, explored through the lens of this unique city, would occupy many conversations and ultimately complicate my understanding of who I am as [...]

Local News from New Orleans, Louisiana
Jewish roots tapped in fight for social justice
by Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune
Sunday September 06, 2009, 11:01 PM

From the little office behind Little Zion Baptist Church, David Eber, 24 and a year out of Oregon, works on storm recovery projects among residents of the Lower 9th Ward, distributing [...]