KATRINA'S JEWISH VOICES
Hurricane Katrina Digital Collection & Oral History Project
Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs

WHAT IS KATRINA'S JEWISH VOICES?

Katrina's Jewish Voices—a project spearheaded by the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) and in collaboration with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) focuses on preserving the Jewish experience of Hurricane Katrina.

WHAT WILL IT INCLUDE?

• Online Collection of Digital Artifacts
  
  JWA is working with the Center for History and New Media to create an interactive website for Katrina's Jewish Voices where people will be able to contribute to a virtual archive. This will provide Jews from New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and elsewhere around the country an oppor-tunity to document how they experienced and responded to this crisis. JWA has already received a number of emails and digital images and is working with Jewish organizations to solicit additional digital artifacts such as emails, photos, essays, sermons, web pages, blogs, news clippings, and audio and video recordings. These "collaborating institutions" will play a key role in getting the word out about Katrina's Jewish Voices and letting people know when and how they can contribute to the collection.
• Oral Histories
  
  The Jewish Women's Archive is partnering with the Institute of Southern Jewish Life to conduct 75-100 in-depth oral history interviews with members of the Jewish communities of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. This will enable a wide cross-section of the Jewish community to serve as "historic witnesses" to a watershed event in its (and our) communal history. These interviews will be permanently housed at ISJL and made available on the JWA website at jwa.org.

WHO IS IT FOR?

The Katrina's Jewish Voices collections will serve as a vital resource for historians of the American Jewish experience, as well as for scholars, researchers, and others interested in exploring the ways that individuals and commu-nities responded to this vast humanitarian crisis. It will also provide an unprecedented opportunity for members of the American Jewish community to participate in a virtual community of communal interest and concern.

WHY IS KATRINA'S JEWISH VOICES IMPORTANT?

• To keep the story of Katrina's impact on the New Orleans and Gulf Coast Jewish communities alive while the rebuilding process unfolds.
• To ensure that the experiences and reflections of those who were directly affected become part of the narrative of the American Jewish experience.
• To make the Jewish response to Katrina part of the larger American understanding of this catastrophic event.

HOW CAN THE PUBLIC PARTICIPATE?

Information will soon be available at jwa.org about how the public can contribute their own memories and digital artifacts to Katrina's Jewish Voices or browse the online collection.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

For Media Inquiries, please contact us