We were back in New Orleans, 11 years after Hurricane Katrina, and we found ourselves asking one question: How do the people here find the strength to carry on? This time we were in Louisiana to help the devastated community in Baton Rouge. When everything you own is washed away and all of your personal belongings and heirlooms are now history, how do you pick up the pieces and go on with your life?
On earlier trips, we took the teens to visit the gravesite of the seven holy scrolls of Congregation Beth Israel that were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. While there, we looked at the tombstone, which reads, “May the holy scrolls planted here be the seeds of our rebirth.” We discussed with the teens that the wording on the stone is very strange. Where the Torahs are buried, one would imagine that the message would be sad or somber, and yet this message was the exact opposite. The message is clear: When this community hit rock bottom—their shul was demolished, all 3,000 Sifrei Kodesh wiped out and, of course, all of their Torahs destroyed, they did not view it as devastation or as a punishment from God. They viewed this crisis as nothing but a test of their endurance, and they decided that not only would they survive, they would thrive! Eleven years later, a beautiful, new Beit Haknesset and multiple kosher restaurants show that the community did a lot more than survive.
The message we impart to the teens is that they will all experience challenges in life—personally, as a community, and as a nation. When we feel that we are reaching rock bottom, we should think of the Jewish community of New Orleans and of this holy tombstone, and realize that the challenges we face are nothing but a test of our endurance, and we shall not just survive but we shall thrive. Our teenagers today are capable of accomplishing great things! The lessons we have taught, which have been internalized by our teens on our chesed missions, will help them become our future leaders.
As we were going into Rosh Hashanah, we were anxiously awaiting the news of Hurricane Matthew as it was about to batter the southern states. How beautiful and encouraging it was to hear our teens asking what they could do to help. They offered to raise money so we could plan a mission to help those who suffered from the most recent hurricane. We can all be proud that our teens are now viewing “natural disasters” as God-given opportunities to do chesed!
