Katrina's Jewish Voices
Katrina’s Jewish Voices is a project of the Jewish Women's Archive in collaboration with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Launched in August 2006, almost a year after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the project collected oral histories and digital artifacts to create the most comprehensive record of the Jewish community’s experiences of Katrina in existence.
The 85 oral history interviews draw on the personal experiences of American Jews whose lives were touched by one of the most devastating humanitarian and natural disasters in American history. Collectively, the interviews reveal the values underlying American Jewish life at the turn of the 21st century, the fragility of our sense of security and well-being, and the connectedness of our lives – across boundaries of race, religion, and culture, as well as geographic distance and generational divides. From the struggles of individuals in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Jewish communities to rebuild their lives and the efforts of people across the country to provide support and relief, Katrina’s Jewish Voices provides eloquent and intimate testimony to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of community in the face of daunting challenges.
