Posted By James Besser
Rebirth in New Orleans / Steve Lipman in New York
He’s 24 years old, he entered Saturday morning services with the name of Nash, and left with the name Noah. In New Orleans Noah nee Nash is another symbol of a Jewish community rebuilding itself.
On Parshat Noah, when the biblical Torah portion about the ark and 40 days of rain are read in synagogues, Nash showed up for the first time at Congregation Beth Israel, the city’s major Modern Orthodox synagogue.
I was there on assignment last week, chronicling New Orleans Jewry’s attempts to recoup from the losses it sustained in Hurricane Katrina two years ago. The community lost a third of its residents, including many of its prominent members and leaders.
In the last year, hundreds of Jews have settled again in New Orleans, among them rabbis like Uri Topolosky of Beth Israel, and teachers like Nash.
Rabbi Topolosky’s and Nash’s decisions to move to a decimated city are symbols of New Orleans’ potential future. The Jewish community needs leaders. And it needs regular members.
The rabbi has already met scores of Jewish New Orleanians in shul, in his house, in the city’s pair of kosher restaurants. He invites everyone – virtually none of them Orthodox – to his interactive Shabbat services. There is singing, Carlebach style. There are impromptu Torah discussions. There are responsive readings in English. There is an unorthodox tone for an Orthodox synagogue.
So Nash showed up Saturday morning with his girlfriend, also a young idealistic teacher.
Rabbi Topolosky offered him an aliyah. Nash declined. It turned out he had no Jewish education, no bar mitzvah, not even a Hebrew name.
Finally Nash agreed to be called to the Torah. By what name? The rabbi asked for suggestions. “Noah” was the best name offered. The rabbi read the Hebrew name that conferred on Nash the Hebrew name Noah ben Abraham. Haltingly, he read a transliteration of the Hebrew blessings. Everyone broke out in a round of “Simon tov u’mazel tov,” a traditional bar mitzvah song.
“This,” Rabbi Topolosky announced, “was the first bar mitzvah this congregation has had in a long time.”
On Parshat Noah, the Jewish community of New Orleans gained another member.