The Lessons of New Orleans…Applied to the Crisis in Haiti
Dearest Friends,
This Friday morning, I head down to New Orleans to spend a beautiful Shabbat with Rabbi Uri Topolosky and his small but spirited Jewish community in Metarie.
My NOLA Shabbaton will constitute the fourth visit I have made to the region in the past half year as part of my awareness-raising campaign GO YOU FORTH. As I prepare for the Shabbaton, I look forward to davening, singing and learning with Reb Uri and to spending a warm Shabbat with his wife Dahlia and their children, in addition to the members of their kehillah.
Each time I arrive in New Orleans, I am struck by the need to keep focused on the mitzvah of completely restoring the great city of New Orleans because if you stay in the restored French Quarter or the Garden District or other rebuilt areas, it is easy to miss the ongoing devastation.
Four and a half years after Katrina, it is a daunting yet important task to remind people that in the great city of New Orleans, homes still need to be rebuilt. That the food banks have to be kept stocked because people have no money as a result of the national recession.
And that helping people in need is not charity but justice – tzedeka, which comes from the word for justice – tzedek.
When I started GO YOU FORTH last year, it was to keep the consciousness of remembering to respond alive, because it is human nature to forget that others are suffering beyond the initial stage when a breaking news story captures the headlines.
The outpouring of support for the victims of Haiti’s recent hurricane has warmed my heart. From every corner of the world, aid has poured in. Last night, I performed at an Martin Luther King, Jr event that raised funds for Haiti and New Orleans and on Thursday, January 28th, I will be taking the stage with my band and my beautiful choir – The Green Pastures Baptist Choir – to participate in a Jewish community night of music for Haiti at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. If you are in NYC, I hope you will come…or donate to the relief effort through the American Jewish World Service.
And if there is any lesson from my work in New Orleans that I can bring to the current humanitarian crisis in Haiti it is the following:
That the need for help and support lasts long after the crisis departs from the front pages and television broadcasts. The need to respond continues far after the camera crews pack up and go home. The disaster becomes a prolonged agony for the victims but the rest of the world tends to move on, for it is human nature to forget and move on…unless you are in the epicenter of the crisis yourself.
So, my friends, I ask you to adopt a consciousness of caring now and in the future. Remember that human beings in Haiti are enduring a living Hell. Recall the tragedy of the still-homeless of New Orleans.
Join me in my GO YOU FORTH campaign, donate to relief efforts for Haiti through the American Jewish World Service (hyperlink) or the organization of your choice and help alleviate human suffering because that is what it means to be human.
All my love,
Neshama
Dearest Friends,
This Friday morning, I head down to New Orleans to spend a beautiful Shabbat with Rabbi Uri Topolosky and his small but spirited Jewish community in Metarie.
My NOLA Shabbaton will constitute the fourth visit I have made to the region in the past half year as part of my awareness-raising campaign GO YOU FORTH. As I prepare for the Shabbaton, I look forward to davening, singing and learning with Reb Uri and to spending a warm Shabbat with his wife Dahlia and their children, in addition to the members of their kehillah.
Each time I arrive in New Orleans, I am struck by the need to keep focused on the mitzvah of completely restoring the great city of New Orleans because if you stay in the restored French Quarter or the Garden District or other rebuilt areas, it is easy to miss the ongoing devastation.
Four and a half years after Katrina, it is a daunting yet important task to remind people that in the great city of New Orleans, homes still need to be rebuilt. That the food banks have to be kept stocked because people have no money as a result of the national recession.
And that helping people in need is not charity but justice – tzedeka, which comes from the word for justice – tzedek.
When I started GO YOU FORTH last year, it was to keep the consciousness of remembering to respond alive, because it is human nature to forget that others are suffering beyond the initial stage when a breaking news story captures the headlines.
The outpouring of support for the victims of Haiti’s recent hurricane has warmed my heart. From every corner of the world, aid has poured in. Last night, I performed at an Martin Luther King, Jr event that raised funds for Haiti and New Orleans and on Thursday, January 28th, I will be taking the stage with my band and my beautiful choir – The Green Pastures Baptist Choir – to participate in a Jewish community night of music for Haiti at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. If you are in NYC, I hope you will come…or donate to the relief effort through the American Jewish World Service.
And if there is any lesson from my work in New Orleans that I can bring to the current humanitarian crisis in Haiti it is the following:
That the need for help and support lasts long after the crisis departs from the front pages and television broadcasts. The need to respond continues far after the camera crews pack up and go home. The disaster becomes a prolonged agony for the victims but the rest of the world tends to move on, for it is human nature to forget and move on…unless you are in the epicenter of the crisis yourself.
So, my friends, I ask you to adopt a consciousness of caring now and in the future. Remember that human beings in Haiti are enduring a living Hell. Recall the tragedy of the still-homeless of New Orleans.
Join me in my GO YOU FORTH campaign, donate to relief efforts for Haiti through the American Jewish World Service (hyperlink) or the organization of your choice and help alleviate human suffering because that is what it means to be human.
All my love,
Neshama
http://www.sojournrecords.com/index/page/id/2
GO YOU FORTH
http://www.stbernardproject.org/v158/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=382&Itemid
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