Jacobs Ladder closes up shop

After about six weeks, the Jacobs Ladder relief project in Utica, Miss., has closed up shop.

The project was housed in a warehouse in Utica and was the idea of Jonathan Cohen, director of the Union of Reform Judaism’s Henry S. Jacobs Camp. Congregations across the country wanted to send supplies following Hurricane Katrina, so Cohen arranged for the warehouse to be used as a staging area for collection and distribution, along with redirecting donations directly to social service agencies throughout the region.

Over 100 volunteers worked at the warehouse, and were housed at the camp. While initial estimates were that perhaps 750,000 pounds of supplies would pass through the warehouse, the final total was over 3 million pounds.

The project concentrated on smaller, “forgotten” communities that did not see national relief efforts on the ground in their areas.

The URJ stated that while the project is no longer accepting donations, interested donors should contact their local Jewish Federations or Jewish Family Services to determine needs for relief supplies.