Jews for New Orleans

How I Met Ruth

Dec 23rd, 2009 by Michal Boyarsky | 0

When I spent the night with Ruth, I didn’t even know what her last name was. I didn’t know how old she was, or whether she’d had children, or what her line of work had been.

I met Ruth at a funeral home in Metairie. It was raining and cold when I slid out of the cab, slammed the door shut behind me, and ran with bent head toward the back entrance of the funeral home. I punched in the code and pushed my way in through the unassuming white door. A woman named Sandy from the local Conservative synagogue was there to greet me and show me the way to Ruth, the deceased woman with whom I would be spending the night–I on the couch, she in a plain wooden coffin.

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Filed under: Uncategorized |

Pam Dashiell: a leader, an inspiration, a friend

Dec 14th, 2009 by deber | 4

It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this blog post about my boss, friend and mentor Pam Dashiell. Pam passed away on the first of the month leaving not only the Lower 9^th Ward community, but the New Orleans and national community in shock. Many people have written about Pam’s passing, from Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, former Mayor Marc Morial, to friends and neighbors and people from as far away as Kazakhstan.

David (center) with Pam and Mack McClendon, of the Lower 9th Ward Village.

I will always cherish my time with Pam. She hired me at the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development without knowing me, welcomed me with hugs, trusted me with important tasks, encouraged me to go above and beyond, and most of all, she was my friend.

Pam had the greatest smile and laugh. Her laugh was heartier than Santa Claus.

My favorite story of Pam is one that I believe is really indicative of the kind of person that she was: In the early 90’s Pam was attending Mardi Gras with her daughter, and even though she was on crutches at the time, she was not going to miss the Zulu parade.

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Learning and Unlearning Breishit (Genesis)

Dec 11th, 2009 by Rachel Lewis | 2

A few months ago, one of my roommates and I began learning Sefer Brieshit (Genesis) together. Every week, we read a portion of the text in English and discuss our thoughts on the topics and stories at hand. Our chevruta allows me the opportunity to be in a consistent conversation with the Torah and continue unraveling new layers of old, complex and influential narratives. My fantastic and insightful study partner, Jordan, is not too familiar with the bible and therefore is meeting the text with fresh eyes. As a result, what often happens is she will viscerally react to the text and I will add in commentary and understandings I have been exposed to within various Jewish institutions that relate to the particular narrative. I often forget to let her respond first and therefore divulge pre-formed ideas on what the text means. In many of those instances, the understandings that I share fail to align with Jordan’s reading of the same passage. These moments of disparity have opened me up to many new questions regarding the actual content of this sacred text, the value attached to it and its cultural significance.

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563). Image from Wiki Commons.

An example of one of these disparities arose when we read and discussed the Migdal Bavel (Tower of Babel) story. I, and perhaps you, have learned (over an over again) that the reason why God mixed up the languages of all the people on Earth was because they were attempting to build a huge structure for the purpose of conquering heaven. As Jordan pointed out to me, that reason is not present anywhere in the plain text; rather that explanation was developed later on by commentators. This dimension of the story embedded in its widespread telling seems to justify God’s actions. But what if the builders’ motives had nothing to do with waging a war on heaven? What if they simply were an efficient, united group of people whose abilities left little need to put all of their faith in God? Then some might say that the problem perhaps may lie more in God’s actions of separation and destruction rather than the actions of the builders. Yet to others, that may be a dangerous message, one that paints a negative image of God. And maybe that is why we receive a more simplified version of the story that stands upon an idea developed outside of the text.

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Filed under: Uncategorized |

“Not Only for Ourselves”

Dec 11th, 2009 by jlichtman | 0

Last week the Forward ran an editorial on Jewish service entitled “Not Only for Ourselves“. The editorial discusses the need for high quality service programs that meet the needs of the people receiving the service, while educating volunteers on the root causes of domestic and global issues. It also raises some questions around how service programs are being used as a tool to build Jewish identity. According to the editorial:

“It is difficult to criticize these well-intentioned behaviors. All of us who have ever dragged our children to food warehouses and soup kitchens, park clean-ups and nursing home visits, try to model a kind of citizenship that is essential to maintaining American civic life. More and more, service activities are also regarded as a powerful tool to shore up Jewish identity and values, especially for a generation accustomed to bar mitzvah projects, high school service programs and the kavod they receive for trying to do good in the world.

But elevating Jewish identity to a goal of such efforts undermines their very purpose. “Service programs that exist and are being created will be successful if, first and foremost, they are about service to others and not about strengthening ourselves,” said Ruth Messinger, who as president of American Jewish World Service is considered a doyenne of well-run service programs. She said this in a recent talk at the opening of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York University, and her important remarks deserve a greater audience.”

Unfortunately, the editorial misquoted AVODAH Executive Director David Rosenn regarding service programs’ Jewish outcomes:

“Service has to be about making change in communities, not about making changes in me,” noted David Rosenn, executive director of Avodah, another well-regarded service program. “The last thing we want the Jewish community to do is use communities in distress as a vehicle to build identity.”

This week David’s effort at clarifying his position is published in the Forward:

The Forward editorial “Not Only for Ourselves” raised important issues about the community’s increasing investment in Jewish frameworks for service. These endeavors can’t be viewed as just another effective vehicle for Jewish identity building. They must first and foremost be about the Jewish community making real contributions to repairing the world.

Having said that, it’s simply wrong to think that people who engage in something as challenging and profound as authentic service will not come away shaped by their experience, and I regret that the editorial may have left some readers with the mistaken impression that I believe service shouldn’t be about shaping who we are as individuals and as a people. Quite the opposite.

Jewish frameworks for service are important precisely because they reject the idea that service is exclusively to the benefit of any one group of people. A commitment to serve, especially on a communal level, ought to make a difference not only in the world, but also in the community that undertakes it. For how can we ever sustain the efforts required to achieve justice if we do not learn how to see seeking justice as a part of who we are?

Rabbi David Rosenn

Executive Director

AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps

New York, N.Y.

I encourage everyone to read the original article.

Filed under: Uncategorized |

Tina’s Thoughts on Engaged Listening

Dec 1st, 2009 by Rachel Lee | 1

(This fabulous post is by Corps Member Tina Wexler)

A large component of activism and social engagement is engaged listening, and conversation, with those we agree AND disagree with.

I know it sounds obvious, but in my time down here and at my work at Resurrection After Exoneration, I’ve come to realize that this seemingly obvious ideal is hard to live by on a day to day basis.

"The Talmud, the body of text on which most of modern Jewish laws and values are based, is a record of rabbinic discussions and arguments"

For example, I pore over case files at work displaying blatant miscarriages of justice on the part of District attorneys and police detectives. I listen to extremely eloquent, wise and traumatized men tell me stories of such. So on some days, I find myself leaning towards a general distrust of the criminal justice system, and those who work within it on “the other side”. This is reinforced when I discuss the lessons I learn with those on “the other side” and they assume my entire work consists of putting criminals back on the streets of New Orleans, and Louisiana. As my housemates and I continue to witness and discuss the massive flaws in the social systems we must work within, as we see them abuse and misuse our clients that we have all come to care deeply about, it’s hard not to become more polar, to feel antagonistic to this “system”, to hate it in its entirety.

But then, I speak to my friend who is a police officer, who reminds me in his person and his attitudes that many cops (though he also acknowledges the flaws in many) simply seek to protect and serve justice. What of the district attorney who sees his mission of social justice as protecting society from criminals that harm innocents? What about the exoneree who, after being wrongly imprisoned for 18 years for the murder of his wife, still believes we have one of the best justice systems in the world?

I remember discussing with one or two of my housemates our sheer frustration with people who cling fastidiously to polarizing ideals and seek to turn everything into a dichotomy. And I notice (and am guilty of it myself) that this is much more noticeable in people who disagree with me. Fewer people notice this quality in those they agree with.
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Experiencing Simultaneity

Nov 19th, 2009 by Jordan Aiken | 0

Over the past few weeks I’ve felt excited, nervous, joyous, scared, passionate, confused, ambitious, courageous… sometimes all in the same day and sometimes all in the same hour! It’s such an incredible city with so much to explore and so much that prompts self-exploration. I am tested daily on how I react to different situations, which I think is an incredible opportunity.

Jordan updating the Community Events board at the New Orleans Women's Shelter

My experience at the women’s shelter has been so many things. I love it here! I am the Employment Program Coordinator and have been leading group and individual workshops on resume writing, collecting lists of transferable skills, cover letter writing, mock interviews and job search strategies. It’s been an amazing opportunity to get to know the residents and some of their stories, motivations and hurdles. This shelter is a transitional shelter, so there is no cap on how long residents can stay. There are fewer than 20 residents, which poses obvious conflict for me. I field about 25 calls a day from women and girls seeking immediate shelter and I have to refer them to other shelters or complete screening forms to add them to the waitlist. I constantly struggle with the pros and cons of different types of shelters. Is it best to have an overnight shelter that sleeps 150 people so that fewer people are sleeping under freeways at night? Or is it better to have a transitional shelter that creates a space for women to empower themselves through case management, employment programs, and parenting classes so that they can live outside of the shelter sustainably? A few weeks ago I attended a Domestic Violence conference and in one of the workshops we watched a documentary on women who have been incarcerated and are on life sentence for killing abusive partners in self defense. One woman explained how she was asked, “why didn’t you just leave?” She explained how she had filed over 45 police reports, but all the cops were friends with her husband; she called the one shelter in the area, but they were full; she had nowhere to go. When she tried to leave, she ended up sleeping in her car with her children and then returning back to the house. This made me livid and sad that I could be one of those people on the other line at a shelter telling a person there was no room.

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Filed under: Uncategorized |

The Interpreter

Nov 18th, 2009 by Gillian Locascio | 0

For the last four years, most of my food advocacy has been on a college campus. I worked in my community. I had a stake in the aesthetics, the educational priorities, the social and environmental footprint, and, of course, the food itself. No one questioned if I had a right to be there, voicing my opinions and fighting for my views.

Then I graduated, moved to a new town, and began to work as a community outreach coordinator for a community health clinic. Community outreach coordinator. I remember trying on the title, wondering, What does that even mean? I imagined myself as a sort of translator, making sure that people involved at every level of the clinic could actually have their voices heard. It made a pretty picture in my mind. Translators, though, cannot add their own ideas and opinions. As part of a progressive clinic, whose patients also suffer at higher levels than average of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, how could I work to advocate for better access to safe, healthy, but still convenient foods? What if the people I was “translating” or “interpreting” for had other priorities? Suddenly, I was struggling with my role, my place as an advocate in a neighborhood that was not mine.

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Filed under: Tulane University Community Health Center at Covenant House, Uncategorized | Tags: cross-cultural communication, public health, undoing racism

The Emergence of the NOLA Minyan

Nov 18th, 2009 by Rachel Lewis | 1

I am excited to report that on a recent Friday evening, we held the first meeting of the NOLA minyan, an egalitarian, independent Kabbalat Shabbat service and potluck dinner that will be happening on a monthly basis. This event was the brainchild of a young group of us “imported do-gooders” (AVODAH and beyond) who have detected a need in our Uptown neighborhood for a prayer experience that lays somewhere on the Jewish spectrum in between a reform temple and Chabad, since currently those are our sole local options. While there are two wonderful synagogues with fantastic leadership in Metairie, a nearby suburb, many of us have been seeking a traditional Jewish space sensitive to the needs of a wide range of people that does not separate us from where and with whom we live. This minyan is our opportunity to bring that space to life and to try and build a fantastic, unique community around it.

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The Great Pumpkin Parade

Nov 10th, 2009 by Rachel Glicksman | 1

For the past two months, the organization I work with, Jericho Road, has been hosting “Community Dinners” for members of the neighborhood to come together, share a meal, receive some sort of training and discuss events going on in the neighborhood. During our dinner in September one resident stood up and shared his dream for a Halloween event in our neighborhood. He called it “Trunk or Treat” and described how in a previous neighborhood he had lived in, residents would deck out their cars with Halloween decorations and load up their trunks with candy. Last year he took some kids from the neighborhood to trick or treat in the Garden District, a far wealthier community only a few blocks away, and lamented the fact that little trick or treating took place in Central City. However, with only a month to go, a full time job, and little funding for this project, he felt that planning a Trunk or Treat wasn’t a feasible idea, for this year at least. I sat there and nodded my head, I figured that we’d do something next year, when there was a neighborhood association or something to sponsor it, I figured we’d stick to small dinners for now.

Rachel Glicksman (far right) helped to plan a "Trunk-or-Treat" event in Central City

But the other residents didn’t agree with our assessments of the situation, and were enthusiastic about providing a safe environment for trick or treating. Two residents volunteered to participate, and when the local church got wind of this, they donated their space, recruited volunteers and solicited donations from their members. Instead of a “Trick or Trunk,” we put together “The Great Pumpkin Parade” – a Halloween carnival set up at stations throughout the neighborhood, culminating at the church grounds with food, prizes and even more games. I still wasn’t sure it could succeed, even up until last Saturday morning, I was unsure if our work would pay off. Well, nearly a month after that idea was initiated, I’m glad to say that we did it. This Halloween, volunteers donned bright orange shirts, residents opened their homes to trick or treaters, and children in costumes from Tinker Bell to the Batman to bloody vampires filled the streets.

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Filed under: Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative |

It’s nice to be happy: Second lining

Oct 30th, 2009 by Gillian Locascio | 0

We’d walked maybe a couple of miles under the ever-thickening gray clouds, bouncing slightly to the barely audible rhythm of the brass band that drifted from somewhere out in front of us and trying desperately to stay ahead of the mounted police or, better said, their horses—the horses that, unsympathetic to the slow pace of the throngs, plodded tirelessly on our heels and breathed puffs of hot air down our necks.

“Ice cold water, ice cold beer, only a dollar!” sang out vendors as they passed out drinks from their truckbeds to outstretched hands, and others wheeled their wares right along with the rest of the walkers. Never too old for a good time, even some of the ancient twisted oaks were decked out with shiny loops of beads. Onlookers leaned against the bright pink walls of iconic Esplanade Pharmacy or lounged on cement porches watching the goings-on in the busy street.

I had followed parades before, treading tirelessly behind elementary school bands as they marched down a rural road for the better part of a day, little girls twirling their batons and bigger boys striking their drums to celebrate Independence Day. I usually found it an exhausting responsibility. Here, though, I was determined to enjoy myself. I stepped in time to the music, bopping slightly like every good former-member of an a capella group. I looked eagerly around, soaking in the novelty of this hodge-podge of people who seemed to be from all walks of life: the members of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club, hosts of the second line and men of the hour, in their pink or green flowered suits with their colorful feather-tufted umbrellas; the girls in skinny jeans and bedazzled shirts with neon sneakers; the free-spirits in earth tones, sandals, and jauntily cocked straw hats; the men in ragged T-shirts and worn jeans. Some older men free-styled through the line, stepping low and leaning out, smiling quietly to themselves. They seemed to be somewhere far, far away. I longed to join them, but something, a wall of self-consciousness, of not quite being “in,” held me back.

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Filed under: Uncategorized |

Jews for New Orleans

Sharing a meal

Purim Masks

Planting trees in Central City

Celebrating Chanukah

Learning about Bayou Bienvenue

Highlighting the Jewish Community's Involvement in Rebuilding New Orleans

How I Met Ruth

Pam Dashiell: a leader, an inspiration, a friend

Learning and Unlearning Breishit (Genesis)

“Not Only for Ourselves”

Tina’s Thoughts on Engaged Listening

Experiencing Simultaneity

The Interpreter

The Emergence of the NOLA Minyan

The Great Pumpkin Parade

It’s nice to be happy: Second lining

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