The Last Best Place: Chabad Hurricane Relief Update

The Last Best Place: Chabad Hurricane Relief Update
The following message was sent by Rabbi Zippel from Chabad in Salt Lake City. Thought it would be interesting to share....

UPDATE FROM NEW ORLEANS

Torahs Recovered from New Orleans. Over the weekend, a delegation of leadership from the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Jewish communities entered New Orleans, with the aid of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s department, to assess damage to Jewish institutions and to recover Torahs and other items from synagogues. The delegation was able to visit all of the community institutions except Congregation Beth Israel, the modern Orthodox synagogue, located in Lakeview, which remains mostly under water and therefore inaccessible. Most of the Jewish community’s institutions, given their location in the Uptown area, were spared flood or structural damage. The same cannot be said of the Metairie locations we visited. Some synagogues and the Jewish Community Campus have some outer structural damage and first-floor flooding; repairs and renovation will take time, but repairs can be made, and the community’s institutions can be made whole again. Today, most of the Torahs remain in Baton Rouge under the careful eyes of the community, until such time that they will be brought to Houston, and used by the respective synagogues.

CHABAD ASSISTANCE – SPECIFIC INFORMATION

Chabad Providing Relief in Affected Communities. Chabad has brought a team of trained Chevra Kadisha members to the Baton Rouge area. Presently they are identifying Jewish deceased and arranging funerals. If you know of a family or loved one that needs assistance in this area, please call the Baton Rouge Chabad team at 347.414.1911 or 917.723.8650. Chabad is working in conjunction with Rabbi Edgar Gluck, Chaplain for the New York Medical Examiner’s Office and senior personnel from Chesed Shel Emes. The efforts are coordinated with, and have the approval of, Dr. Louis Cataldie, Medical Incident Commander for the State of Louisiana.

Chabad teams are also visiting the Jewish communities in Southern Mississippi. If you know of families or individuals there with special needs, the team can be contacted at 917.873.4549. Kosher MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) are being distributed in both Baton Rouge and Mississippi.

Chabad is offering free emergency travel to Jewish families in need for purposes of family reunification and emergency relocation. Chabad has also arranged with American Express that those paying for travel will get the lowest airline prices available. If you know of a family or individual in need of travel arrangements, please contact Rabbi Yirmi Berkowitz at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, 718.774.4000, yberkowitz@lubavitch.com

Additional information about Chabad’s efforts can be found at www.jewishhurricanerelief.com and www.lubavitch.com.

Mike