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Congregation Beth Israel (New Orleans)

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For other synagogues named "Beth Israel", see Beth Israel
Beth Israel
Religion
AffiliationOrthodox Judaism
LeadershipRabbi: Uri Topolsky[1]
StatusActive/Destroyed
Location
LocationMetairie, Louisiana/
New Orleans, Louisiana,
 United States
Website
http://www.bethisraelnola.com/

Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox synagogue located in Louisiana. Founded in 1904, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region.[2]

Its building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans was severely flooded by Hurricane Katrina and a subsequent theft.[3] Despite attempts to save them,[4] all seven of its Torah scrolls were destroyed.[5] The congregation is currently in temporary quarters at 4000 West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans.[6]

As of 2009, its rabbi was Uri Topolsky.[1]

History

Founded in 1904, Beth Israel is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region,[2] and its most prominent.[7] In the 1960s it had 500 member families: by 2005, however, that number had been reduced to fewer than 200.[2]

Hurricane Katrina and aftermath

As a result of Katrina the congregation's building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans filled with at least ten feet of water, and Beth Israel garnered national attention after attempts were made to save its Torah scrolls.[2] Beth Israel's rabbi, Yisroel Shiff, who had evacuated to Tennessee before Katrina hit, contacted Rabbi Isaac Leider, who had worked on ZAKA search-and-rescue teams in Israel for five years. After contacting federal officials and the Louisiana National Guard, Leider hired a helicopter to fly him to within a mile of Beth Israel, met with the FEMA search-and-rescue team appointed to retrieve the scrolls. The group used rubber rafts to reach Beth Israel and enter it, where Leider waded in to the sanctuary and rescued the Torah scrolls and their silver ornaments.[4]

Despite Leider's efforts, all seven Torah scrolls were unsalvageable, and had to be buried. They had initially been buried in her backyard by Rebecca Heggelund, Beth Israel's non-Jewish secretary, who first received them after their rescue, and were subsequently re-buried next to the grave of Beth Israel's gabbai Meyer Lachoff.[5] Lachoff had died just prior to Katrina,[8] but could not be buried in New Orleans until months later.[5]

In addition to losing all of its Torah scrolls, Beth Israel lost all its furniture, and over 3,000 siddurs and mahzors, and almost all of its members' homes were flooded, forcing them to move.[9] The congregation did, however, receive assistance in replacing some of its assets; the Orthodox Union immediately sent Beth Israel 50 ArtScroll siddurs, and Brith Shalom Beth Israel Congregation of Charleston, South Carolina, and Congregation Shaare Zedek Sons of Abraham of Providence, Rhode Island each donated Torahs.[5] Hayley Fields, a 14-year-old from Los Angeles, heard of Beth Israel's difficult circumstances, and with the support of her mother, spearheaded a fund-raising drive, selling 3,500 watches. Others joined the effort, and ultimately $15,000 was raised to buy a Torah, which was dedicated in August, 2006, two days before the first anniversary of the hurricane.[10] At that ceremony the National Council of Young Israel also donated 150 new Artscoll mahzors, in time for the High holidays.[9]

In the wake of Katrina another 50 member families left New Orleans and the congregation,[2] and it was unclear if Beth Israel, which had already been in difficult financial shape, would be allowed, or have the means, to re-build its synagogue.[11] The building suffered further flood damage in July 2007 when thieves stole the copper tubing for the main air-conditioning system. They broke the water main, and water from the second floor flooded the building for three days, to a depth of three to four feet, before it was discovered. The property was put up for sale.[3]

Recent events

In 2007, the congregation began some joint programming with Anshe Sefard, another small Orthodox synagogue in New Orleans,[12] and in the summer hired Uri Topolsky as its new rabbi.[13] Topolsky had previously served as the associate rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale,[14] and had been one of 21 rabbis arrested at the United Nations during an April 2007 sit-in demanding that Iran be expelled from the U.N.[15]

To help attract new members, in the summer Topolsky started a recruitment campaign, placing an advertisement in New York's The Jewish Week newspaper,[13] and re-designing Beth Israel's website.[7] The campaign's tagline was "If you believe in the ability to destroy, you can believe in the ability to rebuild", a saying of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov,[14] and by the end of October ten new members had joined.[16] However, while all New Orleans synagogues lost membership after Katrina, as of 2007, Beth Israel was the only New Orleans synagogue that had not re-opened in its former location.[3]

In 2008 the congregation started "The Minyan Project", an effort to attract 10 (see minyan) new Orthodox families to New Orleans. The families are given "generous financial assistance", and in return must "commit to providing community service, from maintaining the eruv enclosure that's due to be completed within the month to assisting in kosher supervision at a local supermarket." According to Topolsky, with the recent move of four new families to the area, New Orleans likely had proportionately the fastest growing Mordern Orthodox community in the United States.[17]

Beth Israel is currently in temporary quarters at 4000 West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans,[6] space loaned to it by Congregation Gates of Prayer, a Reform synagogue.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Our New Rabbinic Family, Synagogue website. Accessed July 25, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e Greenberg (2007).
  3. ^ a b c Smason (2007).
  4. ^ a b Moore (2005).
  5. ^ a b c d "At Burial of Destroyed Torah Scrolls in New Orleans, OU Delivers Words of Comfort And Hears Gratitude for its Post-Katrina Role", Orthodox Union, Department of Public Relations, March 21, 2006.
  6. ^ a b Synagogue website. Accessed July 25, 2008.
  7. ^ a b Nolan (September 13, 2007).
  8. ^ Lipman (2005).
  9. ^ a b Okun (2006).
  10. ^ Simmons (2006).
  11. ^ Luxner (2006).
  12. ^ a b Nolan (March 25, 2007).
  13. ^ a b Fausset (2007).
  14. ^ a b Naron Chalew (2007).
  15. ^ Traiman (2007).
  16. ^ Pfeffer (2007).
  17. ^ Naron Chalew (2008).

References

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