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September 24, 2004/Tishri 9 5765, Vol. 57, No. 4
Ivan shutters synagogues
URIEL HEILMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - When Hurricane Ivan tore through coastal Alabama, Mississippi and western Florida late last week, synagogues in the South that usually are packed for Rosh Hashana were shuttered for the holiday.
The Category 4 hurricane swept through the area, ripping the roofs off of houses, tearing the limbs from trees and causing widespread flooding, devastation and at least 52 deaths.
Still, synagogues in the South seem to have been spared the brunt of Ivan's fury.
Canceled services seemed to be the largest Jewish casualty of the storm. Most synagogues reported little to no structural damage and congregants seemed to have stayed out of harm's way.
"We have a lot to be thankful for," said Rabbi Donald Kunstadt, of Spring Hill Avenue Temple, Ala-bama's oldest synagogue, a Reform congregation founded in Mobile in 1844.
"As far as our members, everyone's healthy and OK. We had no power, but our large stained-glass windows, fortunately, were not damaged," the rabbi told JTA Sept. 20 by telephone.
Outside the immediate path of the storm, which by Sept. 18 had made it to the Northeast in the form of severe thunderstorms, some congregations opened their doors - and offered free seats - to Jews evacuating in the face of the hurricane.
Temple Shalom in La-fayette, La., hosted about 25 people from metropolitan New Orleans fleeing the storm, many of whom had to make last-minute arrange-ments to spend the holiday in congregants' homes. Some barely made it before Rosh Hashana, enduring up to 10 hours of traffic on what normally is a two-hour drive from New Orleans to Lafayette.
"It was nice to be able to provide the service for those evacuees and give them a little comfort from the storm," said Sam Masur, president of the Reform congregation. "All went well."
Despite a curfew in New Orleans on Sept. 15, erev Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Yossie Nemes, of the Chabad Center in Metairie, La., a New Orleans suburb, said he decided to keep his syna-gogue open. Thirteen people showed up for services that night, and about 70 turned out on the first day of Rosh Hashana, significantly fewer than normal.
"It was about half of the usual crowd, but some mem-bers of other synagogues came," Nemes said, including the president of an Orthodox synagogue in town and the immediate past president of a local Conservative synagogue.
"In a way we had a unifying service," he said. "Our cantor didn't make it, but there was definitely high spirits, and people felt fortunate that we were spared. It was a very diverse community. Some-thing good came out of a difficult circumstance for the community."
Making the most of a difficult situation, Kunstadt said his congregation in Mobile cele-brated Rosh Hashana a day late, on Sept. 18.
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