Lessons of Hurricane Katrina for American Jews, 2020 Edition

Lessons of Hurricane Katrina for American Jews, 2020 Edition Karla Goldman (bio) Fifteen years ago, the world watched the ravaging impact of Hurricane Katrina in stunned horror. Few likely suspected that the unprecedented failure of infrastructure and governmental response seen then, with its stark exposure of the vulnerabilities created by racial inequities, might turn out to be only a mini-dress rehearsal for the crises of 2020. At this writing, in mid-summer 2020—as the world at large, and the US in particular, deal with the devastating health, economic, social, and political impacts of COVID-19—the stark resonance with Katrina may not be surprising, but it is nonetheless disturbing. As with Katrina, we are seeing the destructiveness of a largely natural phenomenon compounded and exacerbated by an ineffectual and benighted public response. With the rapid stripping away of the thin veneer of economic stability that kept many afloat, we are again seeing the radically disproportionate impact of what should be a shared vulnerability. We don't seem to have learned much from Katrina. The federal and most state governments appear no better at coordinating an effective response to this large-scale crisis. The vast structural inequalities that left New Orleans' African-American community so vulnerable in 2005 are still very much in place. We are seeing disparate access to basic commodities like health care, education, and public safety for African Americans, Native American, and Latinx populations manifested in widely disproportionate vulnerability to exposure, [End Page 181] hospitalization, and death due to COVID-19. These inequities come unavoidably into view in the midst of catastrophe. In this instance, however, the protests and strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in the wake of the brutal police murder of George Floyd, among others, offer the hope that these lessons may maintain more traction post-pandemic than they did post-Katrina. Like the rest of the nation, the American Jewish community is struggling with the impact of COVID-19. Many, of course, have found themselves on the frontlines as caregivers and as victims of the virus. At the same time, other kinds of existential questions are also confronting the community. As synagogues and other organizations seek to reconstitute themselves online, many long-standing institutions like Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) and Federations have laid off or furloughed hundreds, likely thousands, of Jewish communal professionals.1 These developments leave many wondering what a postpandemic Jewish community will look like. Beyond questions about the viability of long-standing institutions lie more fundamental ones. The American Jewish community, which is seen by both Jews and non-Jews as largely white and affluent, is also casting about for a more capacious group identity that recognizes Jews of Color and others who do not identify with what many consider the normative concerns of the organized Jewish community.2 In this challenging time, the Jewish community enjoys the unusual distinction of being able to look back at its relatively successful response to the crises posed by Katrina 15 years ago. The 85 narrators who contributed to the Katrina's Jewish Voices (KJV) oral history project, undertaken by the Jewish Women's Archive and the Institute for Southern Jewish Life in 2006, provided indelible accounts of their varied experiences of Katrina.3 Their narratives convey the texture of individual ordeals and the workings of an effective community during and after the storm. Today, they also afford insight into how, at a time when so many systems did not work, the Jewish community was able to mount an effective response to the storm. Taken together, the oral histories illustrate how those in the Jewish community drew upon shared resources, historical experience, established networks, and a strong sense of community to assist individuals, sustain institutions, and also attend, in a limited fashion, to the needs of those beyond their own group. Among the many elements of this response that helped people navigate the storm, some of the most crucial were: 1. A systematic effort (amid a general breakdown in telephone networks) to identify community members not accounted for and, perhaps, still in [End Page 182] need of rescue. The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, assisted by Houston's

Geography · Hurricane katrina · Meteorology · Natural disaster · History · Jewish Identity and Society

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