Synagogue faces uncertain new year
Rosh Hashanah ceremony to reflect on lessons from storm’s damage to temple
From their makeshift temple, a phalanx of displaced Jews will at sunset Thursday march toward their tormentor. The hundreds-strong crowd will cast challah bread and their sins into the slow-moving body that robbed them of their homes and security.
There, on the bank of the Brays Bayou, the teary-eyed faithful from the waterdamaged United Orthodox Synagogues will reflect on the lessons of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and, now, Harvey.
The tashlich ceremony, as it’s called, symbolizes the cleansing of the spirit during Rosh Hashanah, marking the Jewish Year 5778 that started Wednesday at sunset. The ritual has taken on new meaning after Hurricane Harvey.
“It’s going to be a little interesting this year, considering what’s happened in our community and our relationship with the bayou,” said Amy Goldstein. “It’s particularly profound because of everything that happened.”
The bayou sits only a few hundred feet from the Greenwillow Street synagogue, which during Harvey flooded with roughly 6 feet of water. Classrooms,
prayer rooms, libraries and kitchens were destroyed, as were hundreds of ritual items and holy texts.
Most of the Orthodox congregation’s 300 or so members live within walking distance of the temple so they can get there on foot during Sabbath, when driving is banned. Many lost their homes to floods. Many are still displaced.
But the congregation, like several other synagogues impacted by Harvey, is making do. The temple may be empty, but the faith of its close-knit congregation still bustles in the elevated hall a few doors down, where Rosh Hashanah services are being held this year.
On Wednesday, a line of picnic tables was topped with defrosting free meals from a Dallas kosher service. The room’s back wall was lined with thousands of prayer books donated from around the world ahead of Judaism’s most important holidays — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. And construction workers used an electric drill to fashion guardrails onto the elevated, temporary bema from which Rabbi Barry Gelman will deliver his holiday homilies.
Gelman said his sermon will be simple this year: “We’re going to think about what we’ve learned from our homelessness, and about not succumbing to quick and easy solutions.”
It’s a fitting message for his still-shaken congregants, many of whom are working to get flood assistance or, in Goldstein’s case, cooking their traditional Rosh Hashanah feast in the garage apartment lent by a friend.
The synagogue has flooded three times in as many years, each of which were just before major holidays. But no amount of planning could have prepared them for Harvey.
“It’s definitely been a long road,” said Jeff Klein, the synagogue’s executive director.
“Some are still in a stage of disbelief,” he said of his community. “It’s almost like when someone passes away.”
More members have been pouring into the synagogue in recent days, he said, having finally found time now that they’ve gutted their homes or moved from hotels.
He said he hopes the holidays will take some of the destruction off their minds. But these are days meant for contemplation.
“How can you not talk about it?” asked Goldstein.
It’s still unknown what, exactly, will happen to much of the building. But many are fearing for the worst.
“It’s not fair,” said Shoshana Levy, a 64-year-old member who’s attended the synagogue since 1985. “We don’t want to move from here.”
The uncertainty is unnerving, Levy said. But she also said she’s been reminded in recent weeks of the resilience of her faith and community.
“Some people would complain,” she said. “But I have a religious background. I believe in God. It just keeps you going — this community keeps you going.”
What happens to that community now? It’s a question that will no doubt be pondered in the coming days and weeks.
“It’s particularly poignant,” Goldstein said of the storm’s timing. “It’s during a time of introspection and preparation for communal judgment.”
“I haven’t cried yet,” she said Wednesday as her eyes welled up a bit.
“I’ve been kind of holding it in, but I’m going to have a good cry sometime this week.”