Spotlight on CLAL

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Hope, Healing And Renewal: The Jewish Community Provides A First-Ever Workshop For Katrina Victims
 

By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs                                          

When tragedy strikes, where do we seek hope, strength and support? How do we cope when our sense of security has been severely shattered? How do our traditions help us to confront adversity and start anew?

On December 12-14, 2005, a unique program will take place in Baton Rouge and New Orleans to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Designed to help people cope with loss and begin to mend, “Out of the Whirlwind: Jewish Possibilities for Acceptance, Hope and Renewal” will offer guidance, solace and insight in the face of despair.

Drawn from Jewish wisdom, the program will use stories, teachings and texts to look at our relationship to God and suffering, how to rebuild on the heels of destruction, and ways of strengthening hope and faith while grappling with pain. Led by Rabbi Irwin Kula, President of CLALThe National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and host of public television’s “Simple Wisdom,” and Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, CLAL’s Director of Organizational Development and a Ph.D. psychologist well-known in the Jewish health and healing movement, it is the first program in which the Jewish community has come together so completely across the many denominations and constituencies to address the difficult issues for victims post-Katrina.

“At some point we realized that the community needed to join together and think about what happened to us and how to move on,” said Donna Sternberg, one of the leaders of the Baton Rouge Jewish community who has helped to organize local relief efforts. “We knew CLAL would be a wonderful resource for this renewal and we recognized that everyone could benefit from its involvement.”

Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Baton Rouge and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, the free program will be held for professionals, interfaith clergy, and lay people. Sessions will take place in a variety of settings, from private homes to local organizations to synagogues to community centers. Issues will include how we deal with vulnerability and honesty as a roadmap to hope. Biblical texts from the Book of Job, the Book of Ruth, and the rabbinic response to the destruction of the temple will be explored as examples of realistically facing and overcoming trauma and tragedy.

“This program was created to help ease the pain and begin the process of renewal,” said Rabbi Kula. “It is never easy to move forward, but our traditions can help us to take the first steps on that difficult road.”

Addressing CLAL’s participation, he continued, “CLAL is always where the important questions are being asked and important events are happening. We bring Jewish wisdom to key challenges, whether they are crises or opportunities. And more often than not, they are the same thing.”

For more information on the program, please contact Rabbi Martha Bergadine at 225-379-7393.
 

 

   



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