new orleans (jta) | Jewish groups saved Torahs from the New Orleans area that were endangered by Hurricane Katrina. Some 25 scrolls were rescued by a makeshift coalition of representatives from the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, national leadership from the Reform movement, rabbis from Baton Rouge and New Orleans and local law-enforcement officials.
“Among the 25 we saved were also a few that were rescued from the Holocaust, and here they’ve survived a second horrific disaster,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Reform movement’s Washington-based Religious Action Center. Chabad officials rescued at least 15 scrolls. “It is a bittersweet occasion,” said Rabbi Zelig Rivkin, the executive director of Chabad Lubavitch of Louisiana.
“Hurricane Katrina has destroyed our homes, synagogues and our city but has not destroyed our community.”