Katrina’s Jewish Voices

This is a photograph of a painting done by Jennifer Moses, who volunteered in Baton Rouge shelters after Hurricane Katrina. Her work was listening to survivors and comforting them, which she had experience with from working with AIDS patients.

This is a photograph of a painting done by Jennifer Moses, who volunteered in Baton Rouge shelters after Hurricane Katrina. Her work was listening to survivors and comforting them, which she had experience with from working with AIDS patients.

This is a photograph of a painting done by Jennifer Moses, who volunteered in Baton Rouge shelters after Hurricane Katrina. Her work was listening to survivors and comforting them, which she had experience with from working with AIDS patients.

I painted this painting after working in the shelters in Baton Rouge after Hurricane Katrina. It was unbelievable -- people coming in with open sores and wounds, crying, clutching whoever was around (or any other volunteers). One woman cried in my arms, saying, 'You're an angel." And yet my role was very limited in the aftermath of the storm --and my own life wasn't upended by the storm. But I personally couldn't not go there. I could do comfort, because I had done so much AIDS work. All I...

Sermon by Rabbi Robert H. Loewy, of Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie, LA, on March 24, 2006, titled "Taking Stock of Where We Are."