( - promoted by Jeremy Burton)
By Miriam Liebman, JFSJ Service Learning Program Leader Just over a year ago, I fell in love with New Orleans because, despite all of its tragedies, New Orleans has joy and pride like no other city I’ve been to. Last weekend, November 5-9, the General Assembly (GA), a conference of thousands of North American Jews, gathered in New Orleans. The Jewish Roundtable, in which Jewish Funds For Justice is a key player, helped organize the GA’s Day of Service. After spending a number of hours clearing yards in the Lower 9th Ward, I was charged with the responsibility of leading a bus consisting of mostly Hillel students on a service learning experience.
Back on the bus, the first text we read was one each of us has heard hundreds of times: the story of the burning bush. It is not until Moses is faced with this miraculous scene and told by an angel to look at the bush that he realizes God’s presence. I once heard a story of a philosopher in Germany after the Holocaust who rode a train and watched fellow passengers. Everyone was looking forward, no one was looking out the windows. Whether the lesson of the burning bush is truly to teach us of God’s presence, we will of course never know. But like both God’s presence and the passengers on the German train, we shield ourselves from inequities in our own neighborhoods. It takes more strength to look out the window and act than it does to stare straight ahead.
While clearing lots, I had a conversation with a young rabbinical student from Yeshiva University. Why, he inquired, was it necessary to bring 600 Jews to clear lots with the local organization, Beacon of Hope, when the Jewish community could have simply donated money to the organization to purchase equipment that would have completed twice what we did in half the time. I hold no ultimate answers, but I strongly believe that it is equally as important for people to look out the window and understand inequalities that exist in our country as it is to put in both the time and money to repair them.
The GA’s day of service touched only the surface of inequalities in New Orleans pre- and post-dating Katrina. After serving for a few hours, students were tired and satisfied with the afternoon commitment they had put in. The main focus of participants was not on studying and discussing the text and the service work, but rather on making their way to the hotel for whatever lay ahead of them that evening. Yet, while I continue to struggle with much of what the Jewish community rallies around, I am both proud and inspired by the accomplishments of the Roundtable and enthused by the incredible commitment of the greater Jewish community to serve New Orleans, a city I care deeply about. |
