Sharing the stories of "Katrina's Jewish Voices"
This weekend we lead up to the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans on the morning of August 29th, 2005 killing more than 1,700 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. The media is marking this occasion: The Today Show is live from New Orleans this morning; the Hurricane is a “Times Topic” on nytimes.com; PBS is airing “Storm that Drowned a City.” There is a lot to digest and discuss this year as we consider the storm, the response, and the efforts to rebuild still underway.
Five years ago, watching these events unfold, JWA decided that we had something to offer. JWA had the resources and expertise to capture the story of the Jewish communities of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. We conducted oral history interviews and created an online collection of documents and images from people across the country that were affected by the storm. This project is called “Katrina’s Jewish Voices.”
Today, five years later, there is still much work to be done to revive New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Likewise, JWA’s "Katrina’s Jewish Voices" project is unfinished.
