c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Shakespeare had it right: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.”

In the past year, there have been “battalions” of natural “sorrows” including tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, mudslides, floods, wildfires, coal mine disasters and hurricanes.

We always have choices when confronting such “sorrows.” Will we use the experiences for spiritual enrichment or for personal embitterment, for service to others or for selfish solitude?

There is also another challenge when facing destructive “sorrows.” It is the urge “to move on,” to get the troubles behind us. Nowhere is this more true than in New Orleans, a city that for the last four months has suffered catastrophic “sorrows” following Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans’ 200,000 destroyed homes, darkened streets that are still without electric power and safe drinking water, and sickening high water marks on damaged buildings all speak to Katrina’s “sorrows.” The fear is that most of America will forget the Crescent City and “move on.”

Fortunately, America’s religious communities have not forgotten and will not forget New Orleans. In some ways, it’s often easier for such institutions to respond to disasters than it is for the governments that are too often plagued by political considerations and partisan strife.

It is not that religious leaders are more caring than elected officials. It is, rather, that compassion, not elections, determines and defines religion’s responses.

Immediately following Katrina, the American Jewish Committee raised more than $1 million for hurricane relief, and in late December I was privileged to participate in aiding four unique and needy New Orleans institutions.

I visited New Orleans with David Harris, the AJC’s executive director, and Brian Siegal of the AJC’s interreligious affairs department to present $575,000 to a Roman Catholic church, two synagogues and a black university _ all of them severely damaged. The remainder of the AJC relief fund will soon be distributed to other worthy recipients.

Monsignor Ralph Carroll of St. Clement of Rome Church thanked the AJC for its contribution: “I feel that the effort … to reach across religious lines … as you reached out to your own Congregation Gates of Prayer (and Congregation Beth Israel), was a very outstanding example of your living your faith to the fullest.

“As our parishioners heard of this news on the radio, they were very excited and have expressed their gratitude for your gift. … Your grant will greatly impact the reconstruction of our parish, bringing even closer ties between Congregation Gates of Prayer and St. Clement of Rome.” The two synagogues and church each received $125,000.

Gates of Prayer and St. Clement of Rome are located near a canal that overflowed during Katrina, causing enormous damage to classrooms, sanctuaries and the other physical facilities vital to synagogue and church life. The church and synagogue are “twin” congregations representing models of positive Christian-Jewish relations and authentic grass-roots interrreligious cooperation.

Dillard University, a prestigious New Orleans black institution, received $200,000 to assist in rebuilding the school’s destroyed technological information center. Many of the university’s buildings were underwater for several weeks, causing immense damage to the library, basketball court, student union, bookstore, computers, classrooms, dorms, labs, faculty offices and administrative facilities. Even though a massive cleanup is under way, Dillard’s campus is not ready for use, but the university is about to resume classes in the New Orleans Hilton hotel.

Dillard has a rich history of black-Jewish relations, including local rabbis serving as faculty members. In accepting the AJC contribution, university officials stressed those ties and looked forward to increased cooperation between our two communities.

The Mishnah, one of Judaism’s most important texts, teaches that the world rests on three things: study of the Bible, worship of God, and deeds of loving-kindness and compassion. With such a charge, it is no surprise that religious communities have responded to New Orleans’ agony.

Our challenge now is to ensure that America does not forget those sorrows and the city that continues to grapple with them.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/PH END RNS

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