The Cleveland Hillel Helps Rebuild                                            

By Jordan Leventhal 

For the past two and a half years, I’ve been hearing about New Orleans and how the residents are still struggling to get back to normal. I have volunteered with the Red Cross, but had not been sent down to help. So when the Cleveland Hillel gave its members the chance to fly down and assist people who needed our help, I jumped at the opportunity. The more I learned about the program, the better it sounded. My flight arrangements and accommodations would be taken care of - all I needed to provide were work clothes and a good attitude. I could do that!

We had several orientation meetings in Cleveland before we left that covered the basics: what to expect, what to bring with us, and what we would be doing, while also providing time to meet the other people in our group. Although only four students from Cleveland were participating, we would be joining over 120 other college students when we arrived in New Orleans.

Even with the orientations, however, upon landing and boarding the busses to our campsite it was still a shock to see the devastation that remained. The ride was quiet as we observed, mostly speechless. I didn’t understand how anyone could be living in houses that surely would have been condemned, had they been anywhere else. Those houses made my work seem even more important. But we’d need to wait until the next morning to get started. Sunday night we relaxed around the camp site, doing the icebreakers that no one likes, but that help everyone get acquainted.

I met students from Brandeis, SUNY, Goucher, John Hopkins, NYU, Townson, and the Universities of Delaware, Kansas, and Rhode Island. It seemed that everyone had a different reason to be on the trip - a different reason for wanting to help out. But no matter the reason, we were all there to accomplish the same end goal – to make someone’s life better. Sacrificing one week of spring break seemed a small price to pay if it meant someone’s life would be better forever.

Throughout the week we worked hard. The Hillel members split up onto six different work sites throughout New Orleans. We worked in “rough” neighborhoods, because that’s where the work needed to be done. While some groups worked on siding, my group painted. Indoors, outdoors, trim, and everything in between. If it needed paint, we painted.

When the work ended in the afternoon, the fun began in the evening. Five out of seven nights we had camp fires, complete with guitars and sing-alongs. We also heard speakers, including one from the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The Times-Picayune is New Orleans’ newspaper. As a testament to the city’s strength, they printed a paper every single day, without skipping an issue. Although they only printed three copies for about a week immediately after the hurricane, they can still say they printed a copy every single day.

Management’s resolve to continue producing a newspaper is an icon that describes the strength of the citizens of New Orleans. Similar to the Energizer Bunny, they just keep on going. I’m honored I was able to help, even if only in a small way, with the rebuilding of a city and the rebuilding of lives. My thanks to Cleveland Hillel and its supporters for making this trip possible.