• Lessons of Hurricane Katrina for American Jews, 2020 Edition
• Karla Goldman (bio)

Fifteen years ago, the world watched the ravaging impact of Hurricane Katrina in stunned horror. Few likely suspected that the unprecedented failure of infrastructure and governmental response seen then, with its stark exposure of the vulnerabilities created by racial inequities, might turn out to be only a mini-dress rehearsal for the crises of 2020.

At this writing, in mid-summer 2020—as the world at large, and the US in particular, deal with the devastating health, economic, social, and political impacts of COVID-19—the stark resonance with Katrina may not be surprising, but it is nonetheless disturbing. As with Katrina, we are seeing the destructiveness of a largely natural phenomenon compounded and exacerbated by an ineffectual and benighted public response. With the rapid stripping away of the thin veneer of economic stability that kept many afloat, we are again seeing the radically disproportionate impact of what should be a shared vulnerability.

We don't seem to have learned much from Katrina. The federal and most state governments appear no better at coordinating an effective response to this large-scale crisis. The vast structural inequalities that left New Orleans' African-American community so vulnerable in 2005 are still very much in place. We are seeing disparate access to basic commodities like health care, education, and public safety for African Americans, Native American, and Latinx populations manifested in widely disproportionate vulnerability to exposure, [End Page 181] hospitalization, and death due to COVID-19. These inequities come unavoidably into view in the midst of catastrophe. In this instance, however, the protests and strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in the wake of the brutal police murder of George Floyd, among others, offer the hope that these lessons may maintain more traction post-pandemic than they did post-Katrina.

Like the rest of the nation, the American Jewish community is struggling with the impact of COVID-19. Many, of course, have found themselves on the frontlines as caregivers and as victims of the virus. At the same time, other kinds of existential questions are also confronting the community. As synagogues and other organizations seek to reconstitute themselves online, many long-standing institutions like Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) and Federations have laid off or furloughed hundreds, likely thousands, of Jewish communal professionals.¹ These developments leave many wondering what a postpandemic Jewish community will look like.

Beyond questions about the viability of long-standing institutions lie more fundamental ones. The American Jewish community, which is seen by both Jews and non-Jews as largely white and affluent, is also casting about for a more capacious group identity that recognizes Jews of Color and others who do not identify with what many consider the normative concerns of the organized Jewish community.²

In this challenging time, the Jewish community enjoys the unusual distinction of being able to look back at its relatively successful response to the crises posed by Katrina 15 years ago. The 85 narrators who contributed to the Katrina's Jewish Voices (KJV) oral history project, undertaken by the Jewish Women's Archive and the Institute for Southern Jewish Life in 2006, provided indelible accounts of their varied experiences of Katrina.³ Their narratives convey the texture of individual ordeals and the workings of an effective community during and after the storm. Today, they also afford insight into how, at a time when so many systems did not work, the Jewish community was able to mount an effective response to the storm. Taken together, the oral histories illustrate how those in the Jewish community drew upon shared resources, historical experience, established networks, and a strong sense of community to assist individuals, sustain institutions, and also attend, in a limited fashion, to the needs of those beyond their own group. Among the many elements of this response that helped people navigate the storm, some of the most crucial were:

1. 1. A systematic effort (amid a general breakdown in telephone networks) to identify community members not accounted for and, perhaps, still in [End Page 182] need of rescue. The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, assisted by Houston's...

• 卡特里娜飓风对美国犹太人的启示，2020年版
• 卡拉·高德曼（生物）

十五年前，全世界都目睹了卡特里娜飓风的恐怖袭击。很少有人会怀疑，当时出现的前所未有的基础设施故障和政府反应，以及对种族不平等造成的脆弱性的严峻暴露，可能只是针对2020年危机的一次小小的彩排。

在撰写本文时，在2020年夏中-整个世界，尤其是美国，应对COVID-19的毁灭性的健康，经济，社会和政治影响-与卡特里娜飓风的强烈反应可能并不令人惊讶，但这仍然令人不安。与卡特里娜飓风一样，我们看到的是一种自然现象的破坏性，而公众的无效回应又使无所畏惧的行为变得更加恶化。随着迅速剥夺了使许多人继续生存的薄薄的经济稳定面，我们再次看到了本应是共同脆弱性的根本不成比例的影响。

我们似乎没有从卡特里娜飓风中学到很多东西。联邦政府和大多数州政府似乎并没有更好地协调对这一大规模危机的有效应对。仍然存在着巨大的结构性不平等现象，这些不平等现象使新奥尔良的非洲裔美国人社区在2005年变得如此脆弱。我们看到非裔美国人，美国原住民和拉丁裔人口在获取保健，教育和公共安全等基本商品方面有不同的机会，这表现为极度容易受到暴露，[End Page 181]因COVID-19而住院和死亡。在灾难中不可避免地会出现这些不平等现象。然而，在这种情况下，在警察惨遭乔治·弗洛伊德（George Floyd）残酷杀害之后出现的抗议活动和“黑人生活问题”运动的加强，使人们希望这些课程在大流行后比在过去传播时能保持更大的吸引力。卡特里娜

像美国其他地区一样，美国犹太人社区也在为COVID-19的影响而苦苦挣扎。当然，许多人已经成为护理人员和病毒受害者，处于前线。同时，社区还面临着其他种类的存在性问题。随着犹太教堂和其他组织寻求在线重建自己的组织，许多长期存在的机构，例如犹太社区中心（JCCs）和联邦，已经裁员或解散了数百名，甚至数千名犹太社区专业人员。¹这些事态发展让许多人感到疑惑的是，大流行后的犹太人社区将是什么样子。

除了有关长期存在的机构的生存能力的问题之外，还有其他一些更根本的问题。犹太人和非犹太人都将美国犹太人社区视为白人和富裕阶层，他们也正在争取建立更大的群体身份，以承认有色犹太人和其他不认同许多人认为的规范性关注点的犹太人。有组织的犹太社区。^2个

在这个充满挑战的时代，犹太人社区享有与众不同的独特之处，那就是能够回顾自己对15年前卡特里娜飓风造成的危机的相对成功的反应。由犹太妇女档案馆和南部犹太人生活研究所于2006年为卡特里娜飓风（KJV）口述历史项目做出贡献的85位叙述者，对他们在卡特里娜飓风中的各种经历提供了不可磨灭的叙述。³他们的叙述传达了暴风雨期间和暴风雨后各个折磨的痕迹以及一个有效社区的运作情况。如今，他们还提供了有关在这么多系统无法正常工作的情况下，犹太社区如何能够有效应对风暴的见解。总之，口述历史说明了犹太社区中的人们如何利用共享的资源，历史经验，已建立的网络以及强烈的社区意识来协助个人，维持机构并以有限的方式满足犹太人的需求。那些超出自己团队的人。在帮助人们渡过难关的许多应对措施中，最关键的是：

1. 1.进行系统性的努力（将电话网络普遍崩溃），以查明没有得到救助的社区成员，也许仍然有需要救助的[End Page 182]。大新奥尔良犹太人联合会在休斯敦州立大学的协助下...