Bradley Handwerger
Many thought I was crazy - I did, after all, decide to move without a job to a city that a hurricane ravaged nearly two year prior. But that's why I was moving, to help the city continue its recovery. It needed my money and care and willingness to work. I needed its food, its people and its style of life.
Within two weeks, I was employed and glad I made the move. And then I became involved in the newcomer's program. The rabbi and Temple Sinai
welcomed me with open arms, as did the members of the congregation I met. While I'm not as involved as I could be, the temple and the Jewish Federation make it entirely possible to throw yourself into full involvement in Jewish affairs within the city.
Sure, the money helps. But what I love about this city - and surely what you'll come to love - are the people, the culture, the lifestyle and general spirit of the city. The Jewish community is only a small, but entire pleasant, slice of the joy that is New Orleans.
Robbie Herzig
New Orleans is a very Jewish place! I think one of the reasons that I've always loved this city is because I felt like I belonged in the community well before I ever physically moved here. And I think I felt like I belonged because one of the things that makes New Orleans so unique among its American counterparts is its emphasis on traditions. This, of course, is also very Jewish to me. Both New Orleans and Jews use our traditions with food and meals to build our community around the table. From Seders to Mardi Gras, we use our traditions to create a sense of continuity, family and belonging.
Billy Tiep
New Orleans is a special place where you can be Jewish, surrounded by many other Jews and people of other faiths. Together we are striving to make New Orleans an amazing home for everyone!
The people of New Orleans have been so welcoming and wonderful from the day we moved here. It is easy to see why people have loved this city for so long: the
Elizabeth Townsend-Gard
Though Elizabeth Townsend-Gard and her husband are both academics who not only had to negotiate a tremendously tight job market but also find a city where they could both get college teaching posts, New Orleans was their #1 choice, and it has not disappointed them.
They moved to New Orleans in July 2007; Elizabeth now teaches intellectual property and copyright law at Tulane Law School, Ron is in the English Department at UNO, and their four-year-old daughter is happily ensconced at the JCC Nursery School.
Elizabeth’s postings to her blog on the Tulane Law school web site from July 2007 reflect the mixture of excitement and trepidation she felt about coming to post-Katrina New Orleans: “When the job offer came, I was thrilled; Tulane was everything I could wish a school to be. But then, of course, questions arose: was New Orleans safe to bring my family?”
After emailing many New Orleanians, she received reassuring reports and the Townsend-Gards moved here.
Just two months later, after a dinner with the dean for the new faculty, Elizabeth wrote, “Over and over, as the new arrivals chatted, we all expressed our complete amazement—that the law school and the broader city have gone far beyond our expectations. No one told us how lovely it would be to live in this community—we have all been invited in with open arms—thanked by strangers for living here. We are surrounded by beauty, kindness, good food, and all kinds of culture.”
Elizabeth’s more recent postings continue to reflect her enthusiasm for her new home town. And she has only good things to say about the Jewish Federation’s Newcomer Program: “It really has made us feel welcome, to feel part of the Jewish community here.”
“We continue to be amazed by our life in New Orleans.”
Ian Riekes
Although he moved here from Los Angeles for an 18-month contractual position, Ian Riekes Trivers has every hope of making his stay in New Orleans a long one.
“I am in the redevelopment field and where else in the country is there so much opportunity to do great things. Where else could I put my skills to work so well; New Orleans presents a great career opportunity,” says Ian.
As a fellow at the Rockefeller Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence, Ian is a Program Manager of the Gulf Coast Revitalization Program of the AFL-CIO Investment Trust. True to its socially responsible investment aims, the AFL-CIO is committed to investing $750 million of its pension funds in construction, job creation, and economic development along the Gulf Coast.
And Ian is playing a pivotal role in guiding that investment; already funds have been used to create job training programs and build manufacturing plants. Major development projects are in the works.
But life in New Orleans for Ian is not all work. Living in the Marigny, he is at the heart of the music scene. He loves the city’s beautiful architecture and threw himself into his first Mardi Gras, parading with the Krewe of St. Anne through the French Quarter.
And he is optimistic about the city’s future. “It’s all about building confidence and now that the first major redevelopment projects are underway, their success will encourage other new developments,” notes Ian.
“I have a growing sense that things are really starting to happen here.”