My personal hurricane relief

I've been worried about an old friend of mine. He and his wife are both rabbis, and they moved to New Orleans to head the Conservative synogogue there. After Katrina hit, I didn't hear from him, which is unusual. When they narrowly missed being at Hebrew Union College when it was targeted for violence, he made sure to send out a mass email. Not this time.

However, I just heard on NPR that he is well and in Houston with the majority of his congregation. I also found this open letter online:

A huge thank you to all of you who have called, and emailed in support and with offers of help for my family and my community. It's great to know how much everyone cares about hesed. My synagogue has opened up a "Shir Chadash Katrina Fund" For those interested in contributing, I will pass on the address to mail checks to when I have it. I apologize if I cannot thank all of you for your support individually, but know that my kehillah and I truly appreciate it.

Luckily, it seems that the roof of Shir Chadash is intact and there were only a few inches of water taken in. No doubt there will be many expenses, but thank God our building is quite reparable. Many of my congregants have lost their homes. Our home sustained maybe a foot of water and undoubtedly a lot is damaged, but we are still luckier than many.

Thanks and Shabbat Shalom

Shir Chadash Katrina Fund
c/o Bank One
2800 Post Oak Blvd.
Houston, TX 77056