Day of Service to highlight Jewish community Katrina-10 commemorations

As the 10th anniversary of the storm approaches, the Jewish community of New Orleans is organizing a service day to commemorate 10 years of rebuilding.

On Aug. 9, a group of volunteers from the Jewish community will participate in TikkuNOLAm, based on the Hebrew phrase for repairing the world.

The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans is coordinating the day with St. Bernard Project, which has built over 600 homes in the area since Katrina. The Project currently has a waiting list of 110 clients, and states there are still 6,000 families that owned homes pre-Katrina who still do not have the resources to rebuild.

The project day will start at 8:30 a.m. and go through 3 p.m. at several houses in Orleans Parish. Breakfast, lunch, water and snacks will be provided.

There is no charge to volunteer, but contributions are welcomed to defray costs to St. Bernard for materials and staffing. It costs the organization roughly $50 per volunteer for insurance and staff oversight support, and it costs roughly $25,000 to remediate the average house.

Donors who give $54 or more will receive a TikkuNOLAm water bottle and T-shirt. Those giving $250 or more will have their name or logo on the items, and those giving $2500 or more will receive prominent placement and be thanked at the launch event the morning of Aug. 9.

All donors will be thanked in the Federation’s 2015-16 Annual Report.

Those who want to volunteer and/or contribute are urged to contact the Federation or register online here. Though the volunteer registration page linked to that site states at the top that they are full for August, the “JewOrleans” group registration is further down the page and is accepting submissions.

On Aug. 30, the weekend of the actual anniversary, a Jewish community commemoration will be held at the Uptown Jewish Community Center at 5 p.m.

Commemorations began on June 16 with “A Celebration of Community and Jewish Women’s Leadership” at Touro Synagogue, a panel discussion of women in the Jewish community, presented by Hadassah, the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Women’s Archives, which recently debuted a new online portal for its collection of Katrina-related materials.