Sandy, Schechter and Students

Jeremy

From the Upper West Side, without any communications with the rest of the city or the internet, we would have no idea that Sandy had been such a disaster. Round here, it was windy, it was stormy, and it was rainy. And some trees fell down. But we've all seen the pictures of devastation Downtown.

Looking out my apartment window, I watched the lights in New Jersey go out—they were only turned back on a week later, or so. We've heard horror stories of Long Island, particularly Long Beach and Rockaway where whole streets were destroyed, army personnel are guarding the streets and giving out aid, and they might not get power back for six months.

Miri

But there's something amazing about New York city's reactions.

Before moving from New Haven to New York I really thought that 'New-Yorkerness' was grossly exaggerated. But, as it turns out, New Yorkers are incredibly resilient. Much of the city went back to work whilst the bottom third of the island was without power or water. People walked through streets with no traffic lights (or 'stop lights') to shower at offices above 40th Street as though it were just another item on a long to-do list. And the snow storm just over a week after Sandy hardly phased anyone. What still troubles and confuses me is the question of how to characterise the reaction of this city to the hurricane. On the one hand New Yorkers came together  in extraordinary ways; volunteering, donating food, blankets, money and even blood.

Jeremy

Yes, in fact the city had so many volunteers, whenever I tried to sign up, they told me they didn't need me!

Miri

And yet there was a prominent streak of rugged individualism in the face of adversity. The argument I heard many times, that every organisation should 'get back to its own work' as fast as possible, now means that, on the Upper West Side, there are no remnants of Sandy.

Jeremy

Talking about getting back to work, surviving hurricanes is not all that we've been doing recently.

I've been going to Queens on more or less every other Thursday night. Part of our programme at Hadar involves going out and teaching in college Hillels (that's "university Jewish societies" in English) or perhaps other one-off sessions in living rooms. I've been shidduched with Queens College—student population: 16 000, Jewish student population: 4 000, Orthodox Jewish student population: 1 000—which means there are 3 000 Jewish students at Queens college that do not self-define as Orthodox. The problem: only the Orthodox are ever seen at Hillel events.

There's a small group of committed non-Orthodox Jews with a lot of interest in thinking about Judaism and Jewish identity, and my job there is to run a few sessions every few weeks to precisely that end. We've been exploring this first in an introduction into the nature of "truth", followed by three sections: God, Torah and Israel (because I always like to talk about the easy questions).

Miri

As an Education Fellow at Hadar, I have been teaching at the Solomon Schechter School of Bergen County. Twice a week I leave Talmud class 5 minutes early, grab lunch in tupperware to go and make the half an hour journey to Schecheter Bergen County with Sarah, the other education fellow assigned to this school. We teach different 'Middle School' classes (11-14 year olds) chumash, navi, mishna and gemara (or the Old Testament, the Prophets, Code of Jewish Law, and Talmud).  

Though it feels as though we're still only beginning the year, I have already learnt so much both about teaching, and about the texts themselves. Most importantly for me, teaching has upped the stakes of my own learning in a way I would not have thought possible two months ago. It has been amazing to first understand challenging concepts in the Talmud, and then successfully explain them to sassy teenagers in a way that (if only for a moment) gets them really excited about these texts! These moments have been some of my most rewarding ones at Hadar.

Jeremy

That's true for me too: I've really learnt a lot putting my programmes together, thinking about how best to phrase and frame what it is that I want to say. In fact I was looking forward to a shabbaton at Queens College this weekend for some more intensive versions of the same experience.

Now Queens College campus was unscathed by Sandy, but much of Queens was not. In fact, the area on campus in which the shabbaton was supposed to happen has become a shelter for people in south Queens whose houses were destroyed by fire and water. They've been collecting food (like challah and wine for shabbat) and getting the students to volunteer for whatever needs doing. 

  

Miri

I have to say, the community organising I've witnessed in the past two weeks has been phenomenal. From rabbis and pastors, to die-hard 'Occupy' organisers (who set up the astonishingly successful 'Occupy Sandy'), the people involved have all be inspirational. I wonder how similarly our community would respond at home? Though much of Manhattan has returned to 'normal', large swathes of suburbia surrounding Manhattan is still without power, and recognising that contrast is somewhat unnerving.

Jeremy

Agreed. It's humbling to think of what's going on within an hour's subway ride from my warm apartment.