the Jews

The Jewish students that are here are very different from the Christian groups that have been coming. For one thing, their religious services (held in our "circus" tent) are a lot more raucous with a lot more clapping and loud singing in a foreign language. The Presbyterian staff aren't used to that, and they watched the first Hillel group's services in wide-eyed shock.

Shower time is different for the Jewish students, too: The showers for the volunteers are in an improvised wooden enclosure, but basically outside. We post hours for women, and hours for men, to use the showers. Hillel groups ignore these rules and gather together - men and women - in their towels in front of the showers, which happen to be in front of the church. I can't imagine what the Mississippi folk must be thinking as they drive down the road and see a bunch of half-naked Jews gathered outside a church throwing a football and brushing their teeth. (What's the Southern equivalent of "oy gevalt"?)

I went with the students this week on a tour of some Jewish points of interest in New Orleans. We visited a synagogue in Lakeview that had eight feet of water inside after the storm. You could see the waterline on all the interior walls that were left standing, but above were beautiful stained glass windows fully intact. The Torah and all the religious texts were reduced to sludge by the water, and the few remaining members of the congregation had to bury them in a Jewish cemetery, according to custom.

In the history lecture we got along with the tour, we found out that the French, the Spanish and the Americans had all tried to pass laws keeping the Jews out of New Orleans, but they all found it unenforceable because the trade and skills the Jews brought were essential to the economic livelihood of the city. (A similar thing happened in La Jolla fifty years ago when they tried to ban Jews from owning property - then along came UCSD and the need for professors.)