Today I received this beautiful sentiment from N’awlins native Keith Ural and wanted to share it:
I write this out of a sense of my own feelings to some of you that know me and know that I am from a city that is under a great deal of stress right now.
If you’ve ever seen the movie or the play A Streetcar Named Desire, you might recognize that Blanche DuBois is the city of New Orleans itself. The city is a fading southern belle, a little loose, and now totally dependent on the kindness of strangers.
It is truly one of the great cities and the melting pot that gave America so many aspects of its culture. I hope those of you that can, will give to the Red Cross. I can’t be so brutal as Stanley Kowalski as to let her descend into madness.
Or, if you want to do something that would help her and is almost as good as a tax deduction, visit her when she is well at the first opportunity. Give yourself a week there and ask me about her. I’ll do my best to tell you where to get the best possible experience.
You’d be hard-pressed to find any more loveliness within the rest of the chaos and filth. Thanks, Keith, for this image of a brutally bruised flower that G*d willing, will bloom again.
Wow. I would be there helping if I could.
My second home is near Baton Rouge. If anyone knows Rabbi Barry Weinstein at Bnai Israel in BR. please contact him to see if you can help. Knowing Barry as I do he has probably already in New Orleans trying to help. There is/was a large amount of Jews in NO. At the present they are in dire need of water, food, clothing, and blood. Plz contact Ur local Red Cross to see about donating any and all items. Also if you can get thru this is the phone number to Bnai Israel
225-343-0111. Electricity and telephone service is sporadic. Thank you, Michael (Pelinke) Gold