Congregation Beth Israel (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Encyclopedia
Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox
synagogue
located in Louisiana
. Founded in 1903 or 1904, though tracing its roots back to 1857, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region. Originally located on Carondelet Street in New Orleans' Central City
, it constructed and moved to a building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans
in 1971.
At one time the largest Orthodox congregation in the Southern United States
, its membership was over 500 families in the 1960s, but fell to under 200 by 2005. That year its Canal Boulevard building was severely flooded by the 2005 New Orleans levee failure disaster during Hurricane Katrina
. Despite attempts to save them, all seven of its Torah
scrolls were destroyed, as were over 3,000 prayer-books. The building suffered further flooding damage caused by the theft of copper air-conditioning tubing in 2007.
In the wake of Katrina another 50 member families left New Orleans, including the rabbi
's. The congregation began sharing space with Gates of Prayer, a Reform
synagogue in Metairie
, a suburb of New Orleans. By 2009, the congregation had purchased land from Gates of Prayer, and intended to build a new synagogue next to it.
, the congregation is still sharing space in Gates of Prayer's building. The rabbi is Uri Topolsky.
an Jews, generally "structured along nationalistic lines". These included a synagogue of Galitzianer Jews (Chevra Thilim), and two of Lithuanian Jews
, (one—Chevra Mikve Israel—following the non-Hassidic liturgy, the other—Anshe Sfard
—following the Hassidic liturgy
). In 1857, a congregation consisting primarily of Prussian
Jews from Posen
organized as Tememe Derech, "The Right Way". As they followed the Polish
rite, they were known as "The Polish Congregation".
Tememe Derech built a synagogue in the 500 block of Carondelet Street in the Central City
section of New Orleans in 1867. It was the sole Orthodox congregation to construct its own building; only a minority of New Orleans' Jews were Orthodox, and other congregations rented space or met in members' homes. Tememe Derech's membership, however, never exceeded 50, and in 1903 or 1904 the synagogue disbanded, and merged with a number of other small Orthodox congregations and a burial society
to form Beth Israel. Services were initially held in rented quarters in the same 500 block of Carondelet Street.
In 1905, Beth Israel purchased the home of New Orleans' former mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare
at 1610 Carondelet Street. Funds for the new acquisition came from both the Orthodox and Reform
communities of New Orleans. After remodeling the building, the congregation began holding services there, in time for the 1906 High Holy Days
. Membership grew quickly; by 1910 Beth Israel was the second-largest Jewish congregation in the city, with 180 member families, and by 1914 that number had grown to 250 families. By 1918, however, membership had fallen to 175 families. That year the synagogues income was $6,000 (today $).
Moses Hyman Goldberg was the congregation's first rabbi, but within a year he moved to Chevra Thilim. Goldberg served as New Orleans' mohel
until his death in 1940.
Beth Israel rebuilt its synagogue at the Carondelet Street location in 1924. The new building was designed by Emil Weil, a noted Southern
architect, particularly of Jewish religious buildings. He designed other New Orleans' synagogues, including the Touro Synagogue and the Anshe Sfard, as well as other non-religious buildings throughout Louisiana. Beth Israel's new Byzantine Revival building, with its seating capacity of 1,200, reflected "the growing economic and social confidence of the membership": it had "beautiful" stained-glass windows, a "magnificent" imported European chandelier, and "hand-carved Stars of David in the ceiling". The building was dedicated on September 12, and a Boston rabbi, Henry Raphael Gold, was a guest speaker. He was so impressed that he stayed on, becoming Beth Israel's rabbi.
In 1926 Beth Israel built the "Menorah Institute" Talmud Torah
building on Euterpe Street, adjoining the Carondelet synagogue. The school, which served as an Orthodox alternative to the existing Communal Hebrew School, comprised a nursery school
, a Hebrew school
, and a Sunday school. The building also housed Beth Israel's offices, and the "Little Shul" ("shul" is the Yiddish
word for synagogue), where services
were held twice a day.
The congregation leased land for burials in the Chevra Thilim Cemetery on Canal Street, a site that had been used by Tememe Derech as early as 1860, and which was shared with several other congregations. In the 1930s Beth Israel purchased its own cemetery on Frenchmen Street.
Uri Miller joined Beth Israel as rabbi in 1935, a post he would hold through the early 1940s. He was president of the Hebrew Theological College Alumni from 1936 to 1938, and of its successor the Rabbinical Council of America
from 1946 to 1948.
During Miller's tenure the synagogue's neighborhood began to deteriorate. Members started moving uptown, and the congregation embarked on a search for a new location. In 1963 Beth Israel purchased a block of land at 1700 Canal Boulevard at Walker Street in the Lakeview neighborhood
. It moved into its new larger building there in 1971.
From 1914 through World War II
Beth Israel described itself the "largest Orthodox congregation in the South", and in the 1960s it had 500 member families. By 2005, however, that number had been reduced to fewer than 200. Nevertheless, Beth Israel still held services twice a day, the only synagogue in New Orleans to do so.
scrolls. 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 Federal Emergency Management Agency
(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.
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. Lachoff had died just after Katrina, but could not be buried in New Orleans until months later.
In addition to losing all of its Torah scrolls, Beth Israel lost all its furniture, and over 3,000 siddur
s and mahzor
s, and almost all of its members' homes were flooded, forcing them to move. 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. 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. $18,000 was ultimately raised to buy a Torah, which was dedicated in August, 2006, two days before the first anniversary of the hurricane. At that ceremony the National Council of Young Israel also donated 150 new Artscoll mahzors, in time for the High Holy Days.
In the wake of Katrina 50 families that were members of Beth Israel left New Orleans, and gave up membership in the congregation. These included Rabbi Schiff and his family. After the flood Beth Israel's board of directors informed Schiff, who had joined they synagogue in April 2002, that it would not be able to meet its contractual obligations and pay him past December. Schiff and his family had also lost their home and much of their possessions, and had been living in Memphis. Schiff resigned effective November 1, 2005, citing this loss, and the lack of a functioning Jewish Day School in the area for his children.
Soon after the flood, Beth Israel received an offer to temporarily use space from Congregation Gates of Prayer, a Reform
synagogue in Metairie
, a suburb of New Orleans. The congregation began holding weekly services and renting office space there.
In 2006 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. 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.
, Topolsky had previously served as the associate rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
, 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.
To help attract new members, in the summer Topolsky started a recruitment campaign, placing an advertisement in the New York newspaper The Jewish Week
, and re-designing Beth Israel's website. 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
, and by the end of October ten new members had joined. 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.
Topolsky and Gates of Prayer's rabbi Robert Loewy also began learning together on Fridays, and the two congregations started scheduling joint programs. Though these programs were generally secular in nature (e.g. "Israeli film series, Hebrew literacy programs and Jewish history classes"), they also tried to co-ordinate some religious programs to the extent that ritual differences would permit. For example, for the pre-Rosh Hashanah
selichot
service they held a joint concert, then worshiped separately.
Beth Israel started "The Minyan Project" in 2008, an effort to attract 10 (see minyan
) new Orthodox families to New Orleans. The families were given "generous financial assistance", and in return had to "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 move of four new families to the area, New Orleans likely had proportionately the fastest growing Modern Orthodox
community in the United States. In April of that year the Orthodox Union gave the congregation $235,000 towards a new building. At the time, Beth Israel had 80 member families, and 80 "associate member" families (families who belonged to other synagogues as well).
By 2009, the congregation had decided to erect a new synagogue on land it had purchased from Gates of Prayer, part of the lot on which the Gates of Prayer synagogue stood. For the 2009 High Holy Days, Topolsky planned to launch a capital campaign to raise $1 million towards the construction of the building.
, Beth Israel was sharing the Gates of Prayer building at 4000 West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie
. The rabbi was Uri Topolsky.
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law, with the secular, modern world....
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
located in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Founded in 1903 or 1904, though tracing its roots back to 1857, it is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region. Originally located on Carondelet Street in New Orleans' Central City
Central City, New Orleans
Central City is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. It is located at the lower end of Uptown, just above the New Orleans Central Business District, on the "lakeside" of St. Charles Avenue...
, it constructed and moved to a building at 7000 Canal Boulevard in Lakeview, New Orleans
Lakeview, New Orleans
Lakeview is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Lakeview District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Robert E. Lee Boulevard to the north, Orleans Avenue to the east, Florida Boulevard, Canal Boulevard and I-610 to the south and...
in 1971.
At one time the largest Orthodox congregation in the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, its membership was over 500 families in the 1960s, but fell to under 200 by 2005. That year its Canal Boulevard building was severely flooded by the 2005 New Orleans levee failure disaster during Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. Despite attempts to save them, all seven of its Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
scrolls were destroyed, as were over 3,000 prayer-books. The building suffered further flooding damage caused by the theft of copper air-conditioning tubing in 2007.
In the wake of Katrina another 50 member families left New Orleans, including the rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
's. The congregation began sharing space with Gates of Prayer, a Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
synagogue in Metairie
Metairie, Louisiana
Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
, a suburb of New Orleans. By 2009, the congregation had purchased land from Gates of Prayer, and intended to build a new synagogue next to it.
, the congregation is still sharing space in Gates of Prayer's building. The rabbi is Uri Topolsky.
History
Beth Israel is the oldest Orthodox congregation in the New Orleans region, and its most prominent. Though it was founded as early as 1903, it traces its roots back to much older synagogues. In the mid-19th century New Orleans had a number of small Orthodox congregations of Eastern EuropeEastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an Jews, generally "structured along nationalistic lines". These included a synagogue of Galitzianer Jews (Chevra Thilim), and two of Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian Jews
Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...
, (one—Chevra Mikve Israel—following the non-Hassidic liturgy, the other—Anshe Sfard
Anshe Sfard
Anshe Sfard is a synagogue in the Garden District neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana.The congregation was founded by Hasidic Jews from Lithuania. The congregation today is Modern Orthodox. It is located in the historic building at 2230 Carondelet Street...
—following the Hassidic liturgy
Nusach Sefard
Nusach Sefard is the name for various forms of the Jewish siddur, designed to reconcile Ashkenazi customs with the kabbalistic customs of the Ari. To this end it has incorporated the wording of Nusach Edot Mizrach, the prayer book of Sefardi Jews, into certain prayers...
). In 1857, a congregation consisting primarily of Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
Jews from Posen
Province of Posen
The Province of Posen was a province of Prussia from 1848–1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. The area was about 29,000 km2....
organized as Tememe Derech, "The Right Way". As they followed the Polish
History of the Jews in Poland
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
rite, they were known as "The Polish Congregation".
Tememe Derech built a synagogue in the 500 block of Carondelet Street in the Central City
Central City, New Orleans
Central City is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. It is located at the lower end of Uptown, just above the New Orleans Central Business District, on the "lakeside" of St. Charles Avenue...
section of New Orleans in 1867. It was the sole Orthodox congregation to construct its own building; only a minority of New Orleans' Jews were Orthodox, and other congregations rented space or met in members' homes. Tememe Derech's membership, however, never exceeded 50, and in 1903 or 1904 the synagogue disbanded, and merged with a number of other small Orthodox congregations and a burial society
Burial society
A burial society is a form of friendly society. These groups historically existed in England, and constituted for the purpose of providing by voluntary subscriptions, for insuring money to be paid on the death of a member, or for the funeral expenses of the husband, wife or child of a member, or of...
to form Beth Israel. Services were initially held in rented quarters in the same 500 block of Carondelet Street.
In 1905, Beth Israel purchased the home of New Orleans' former mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare
Joseph A. Shakspeare
Joseph Ansoetegui Shakspeare was mayor of New Orleans from 1880 - 1882 and again from 1888 to 1892.-Early life and political career:...
at 1610 Carondelet Street. Funds for the new acquisition came from both the Orthodox and Reform
Reform Judaism (North America)
Reform Judaism is the largest denomination of American Jews today. With an estimated 1.5 million members, it also accounts for the largest number of Jews affiliated with Progressive Judaism worldwide.- Reform Jewish theology :Rabbi W...
communities of New Orleans. After remodeling the building, the congregation began holding services there, in time for the 1906 High Holy Days
High Holy Days
The High Holidays or High Holy Days, in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim , may mean:#strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ;...
. Membership grew quickly; by 1910 Beth Israel was the second-largest Jewish congregation in the city, with 180 member families, and by 1914 that number had grown to 250 families. By 1918, however, membership had fallen to 175 families. That year the synagogues income was $6,000 (today $).
Moses Hyman Goldberg was the congregation's first rabbi, but within a year he moved to Chevra Thilim. Goldberg served as New Orleans' mohel
Mohel
A mohel is a Jewish person trained in the practice of brit milah "covenant of circumcision."-Etymology of the Hebrew and Aramaic term:...
until his death in 1940.
Beth Israel rebuilt its synagogue at the Carondelet Street location in 1924. The new building was designed by Emil Weil, a noted Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
architect, particularly of Jewish religious buildings. He designed other New Orleans' synagogues, including the Touro Synagogue and the Anshe Sfard, as well as other non-religious buildings throughout Louisiana. Beth Israel's new Byzantine Revival building, with its seating capacity of 1,200, reflected "the growing economic and social confidence of the membership": it had "beautiful" stained-glass windows, a "magnificent" imported European chandelier, and "hand-carved Stars of David in the ceiling". The building was dedicated on September 12, and a Boston rabbi, Henry Raphael Gold, was a guest speaker. He was so impressed that he stayed on, becoming Beth Israel's rabbi.
In 1926 Beth Israel built the "Menorah Institute" Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
building on Euterpe Street, adjoining the Carondelet synagogue. The school, which served as an Orthodox alternative to the existing Communal Hebrew School, comprised a nursery school
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
, a Hebrew school
Hebrew school
Hebrew school can be either the Jewish equivalent of Sunday school - an educational regimen separate from secular education, focusing on topics of Jewish history and learning the Hebrew language, or a primary, secondary or college level educational institution where some or all of the classes are...
, and a Sunday school. The building also housed Beth Israel's offices, and the "Little Shul" ("shul" is the Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
word for synagogue), where services
Jewish services
Jewish prayer are the prayer recitations that form part of the observance of Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book....
were held twice a day.
The congregation leased land for burials in the Chevra Thilim Cemetery on Canal Street, a site that had been used by Tememe Derech as early as 1860, and which was shared with several other congregations. In the 1930s Beth Israel purchased its own cemetery on Frenchmen Street.
Uri Miller joined Beth Israel as rabbi in 1935, a post he would hold through the early 1940s. He was president of the Hebrew Theological College Alumni from 1936 to 1938, and of its successor the Rabbinical Council of America
Rabbinical Council of America
The Rabbinical Council of America is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union, or OU...
from 1946 to 1948.
During Miller's tenure the synagogue's neighborhood began to deteriorate. Members started moving uptown, and the congregation embarked on a search for a new location. In 1963 Beth Israel purchased a block of land at 1700 Canal Boulevard at Walker Street in the Lakeview neighborhood
Lakeview, New Orleans
Lakeview is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Lakeview District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are: Robert E. Lee Boulevard to the north, Orleans Avenue to the east, Florida Boulevard, Canal Boulevard and I-610 to the south and...
. It moved into its new larger building there in 1971.
From 1914 through World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Beth Israel described itself the "largest Orthodox congregation in the South", and in the 1960s it had 500 member families. By 2005, however, that number had been reduced to fewer than 200. Nevertheless, Beth Israel still held services twice a day, the only synagogue in New Orleans to do so.
Hurricane Katrina and aftermath
As a result of the Federal levee failure disaster, the congregation's building at 7000 Canal Boulevard filled with at least ten feet of water, and Beth Israel garnered national attention after attempts were made to save its TorahTorah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
scrolls. Beth Israel's rabbi, Yisroel Shiff, who had evacuated to Tennessee before Katrina hit, contacted Rabbi Isaac Leider, who had worked on ZAKA
ZAKA
ZAKA , is a series of voluntary community emergency response teams in Israel, each operating in a police district . These organizations are officially recognized by the government...
search-and-rescue teams in Israel for five years. After contacting federal officials and the Louisiana National Guard
Louisiana National Guard
The Louisiana National Guard consists of the:*Louisiana Army National Guard** includes the U.S. 256th Infantry Brigade*Louisiana Air National Guard-External links:*** compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History...
, Leider hired a helicopter to fly him to within a mile of Beth Israel, met with the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
(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.
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
Gabbai
A Gabbai is a person who assists in the running of a synagogue and ensures that the needs are met, for example the Jewish prayer services run smoothly, or an assistant to a rabbi...
Meyer Lachoff. Lachoff had died just after Katrina, but could not be buried in New Orleans until months later.
In addition to losing all of its Torah scrolls, Beth Israel lost all its furniture, and over 3,000 siddur
Siddur
A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as it is known today has developed...
s and mahzor
Mahzor
The mahzor is the prayer book used by Jews on the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews also make use of specialized mahzorim on the three "pilgrimage festivals" of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot...
s, and almost all of its members' homes were flooded, forcing them to move. The congregation did, however, receive assistance in replacing some of its assets; the Orthodox Union
Orthodox Union
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America , more popularly known as the Orthodox Union , is one of the oldest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. It is best known for its kosher food preparation supervision service...
immediately sent Beth Israel 50 ArtScroll
ArtScroll
ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York...
siddurs, and Brith Shalom Beth Israel Congregation of Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, and Congregation Shaare Zedek Sons of Abraham of Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
each donated Torahs. Hayley Fields, a 14-year-old from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, heard of Beth Israel's difficult circumstances, and with the support of her mother, spearheaded a fund-raising drive, selling 3,500 watches. $18,000 was ultimately raised to buy a Torah, which was dedicated in August, 2006, two days before the first anniversary of the hurricane. At that ceremony the National Council of Young Israel also donated 150 new Artscoll mahzors, in time for the High Holy Days.
In the wake of Katrina 50 families that were members of Beth Israel left New Orleans, and gave up membership in the congregation. These included Rabbi Schiff and his family. After the flood Beth Israel's board of directors informed Schiff, who had joined they synagogue in April 2002, that it would not be able to meet its contractual obligations and pay him past December. Schiff and his family had also lost their home and much of their possessions, and had been living in Memphis. Schiff resigned effective November 1, 2005, citing this loss, and the lack of a functioning Jewish Day School in the area for his children.
Soon after the flood, Beth Israel received an offer to temporarily use space from Congregation Gates of Prayer, a Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
synagogue in Metairie
Metairie, Louisiana
Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
, a suburb of New Orleans. The congregation began holding weekly services and renting office space there.
In 2006 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. 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.
Recent events
In 2007, the congregation began some joint programming with Anshe Sefard, New Orlean's only other remaining Orthodox synagogue, and in the summer hired Uri Topolsky as its new rabbi. A graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei TorahYeshivat Chovevei Torah
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School is a "Modern Open Orthodox" yeshiva founded in 1999 by Rabbi Avi Weiss.Currently located in Riverdale, New York, it seeks to "recruit, professionally train, and place rabbis" who will promote its founder's philosophy...
, Topolsky had previously served as the associate rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
Hebrew Institute of Riverdale
Hebrew Institute of Riverdale is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Riverdale, Bronx neighborhood of New York City. Rabbi Avi Weiss has led the congregation since 1973....
, and had been one of 21 rabbis arrested at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
during an April 2007 sit-in
Sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
demanding that Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
be expelled from the U.N.
To help attract new members, in the summer Topolsky started a recruitment campaign, placing an advertisement in the New York newspaper The Jewish Week
The Jewish Week
The Jewish Week is an independent weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of the metropolitan New York City area. The Jewish Week covers news relating to the Jewish community in NYC and has world-wide distribution.-Editorial staff:...
, and re-designing Beth Israel's website. 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
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
Nachman of Breslov
Nachman of Breslov
Nachman of Breslov , also known as Reb Nachman of Bratslav, Reb Nachman Breslover , Nachman from Uman , was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement....
, and by the end of October ten new members had joined. 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.
Topolsky and Gates of Prayer's rabbi Robert Loewy also began learning together on Fridays, and the two congregations started scheduling joint programs. Though these programs were generally secular in nature (e.g. "Israeli film series, Hebrew literacy programs and Jewish history classes"), they also tried to co-ordinate some religious programs to the extent that ritual differences would permit. For example, for the pre-Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah , , is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im which occur in the autumn...
selichot
Selichot
Selichot or slichot are Jewish penitential poems and prayers, especially those said in the period leading up to the High Holidays, and on Fast Days...
service they held a joint concert, then worshiped separately.
Beth Israel started "The Minyan Project" in 2008, an effort to attract 10 (see minyan
Minyan
A minyan in Judaism refers to the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. According to many non-Orthodox streams of Judaism adult females count in the minyan....
) new Orthodox families to New Orleans. The families were given "generous financial assistance", and in return had to "commit to providing community service, from maintaining the eruv
Eruv
An Eruv is a ritual enclosure around most Orthodox Jewish and Conservative Jewish homes or communities. In such communities, an Eruv is seen to enable the carrying of objects out of doors on the Jewish Sabbath that would otherwise be forbidden by Torah law...
enclosure that's due to be completed within the month to assisting in kosher supervision at a local supermarket." According to Topolsky, with the move of four new families to the area, New Orleans likely had proportionately the fastest growing Modern Orthodox
Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law, with the secular, modern world....
community in the United States. In April of that year the Orthodox Union gave the congregation $235,000 towards a new building. At the time, Beth Israel had 80 member families, and 80 "associate member" families (families who belonged to other synagogues as well).
By 2009, the congregation had decided to erect a new synagogue on land it had purchased from Gates of Prayer, part of the lot on which the Gates of Prayer synagogue stood. For the 2009 High Holy Days, Topolsky planned to launch a capital campaign to raise $1 million towards the construction of the building.
, Beth Israel was sharing the Gates of Prayer building at 4000 West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie
Metairie, Louisiana
Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...
. The rabbi was Uri Topolsky.