Coming Home to Katrina: Celebrating the Festival of Hannukah at Spanish Plaza, New Orleans: Part IV

Kindling the Festival Lights of Hannukah in the Wake of Katrina,

Spanish Plaza, New Orleans, Lousiana, December 2005

Photographer, RJ Schwartz, Stamford, CT

After returning from Biloxi, Mississippi, I took a tour of the Lakeview District of New Orleans and witnessed more heartbreaking scenes that reminded me of a wasteland. Traffic lights were not functioning, strip mall shopping centers were boarded up, homes were abandoned with water line marks clearly visible. Signs were posted by the Army Corps of Engineers on condemned property.

Congregation Beth Israel, established in 1903 and once the largest Synagogue in the south and located not far from Lake Ponchartrain presented a frightful sight. 7 Torah scrolls were destroyed by the rising waters of the hurricane as were over 3000 prayer books. The doors to the sanctuary were surprisingly unlocked and I tip-toed in. Though the stain glass windows were intact, the floors were water stained, the pews removed and the holy ark de-sanctified.

Congregation Beth Sholom in the Lakeview District

of New Orleans, December 2005, Photo by RJ Schwartz

One morning, Rabbi Rivkin, the spiritual leader of the Chabad House in New Orleans appeared on a local morning TV show and announced his support of an outdoor community Hannukah lighting event in Spanish Plaza.

LJ Goldstein and I volunteered to remove all the accumulated wax on the huge Menorah that is pictured above. We spent the better part a day with a power sander removing hardened wax from last year's lighting.

Dancing to live klezmer music at Spanish

Plaza, New Orleans, December 2005

That night, LJ and I danced along with hundreds of participants, ate middle eastern foods and were entertained by local klezmer musicians. It was great being part of an enlightening event which uplifted the spirits of all who attended.

In early 2006, the Rabbi's wife sent a kind letter thanking me--meaning primarily my high school students mentioned earlier--for a generous donation to Chabad for the repurchase of valuable school supplies, hebrew books, machbereses (writing books), writing and drawing utensils, paper, etc--all of which had been lost to Katrina.

Part I of this 8th transformative event begins here.