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If One Is Good...

Katrina Memories

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The Jewish Women's Archive has launched a
major documentary project to preserve the Jewish
experience of Hurricane Katrina, from those who
were victims in New Orleans to those across the
country who rushed to help in the aftermath.
Jewish men
and women
may contribute
stories and
photographs
to the Katrina's
Jewish Voices
project at
katrina.jwa.org .
Visitors to the
site can browse
the collection,
whose items
are tagged by
their contribu-
tors with search
terms to make
them easier to
sift through.
Zaka volunteer Isaac Leider
The Jewish
of Monsey, N.Y., and another
Women's
volunteer rescue Torahs from
Archive is seek- Beth Israel Congregation in
ing additional
New Orleans last August.
vignettes and
reminiscences.
Documents such as e-mail describing search,
evacuation, resettlement and rebuilding efforts;
High Holiday and Shabbat sermons; and blogs
and other Web pages are important parts of the
historical record that the archive wants to pre-
serve.
"We're thrilled the Web site is now live said
Jayne K. Guberman, the project director and
director of oral history for the archive." We
encourage everyone to search their computers for
materials they think may be of interest. We can
accept any digital file, or people can type in their
story directly."
The archive, which has collected material
online for a decade, established a relationship
with New Orleans' Jewish community last year
before the storm when it honored five Jewish
leaders as "Women Who Dared."
The archive is working with the Goldring/
Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
in Jackson, Miss., on an oral history component
of the Katrina project. Oral historian Rosalind
Hinton will conduct digital video interviews with
100 members of the affected Jewish communities.
To nominate someone to be interviewed, go to
katrina.jwa.org .
"The Jewish community's response to this cata-
strophic event has been one of extraordinary pro-
portions:' said Gail Twersky Reimer, the archive's
executive director. "Katrina's Jewish Voices will
ensure this history is part of the unfolding story
of America and American Jewry."

ouble, double, toil and trouble.
Fire burn and cauldron
bubble."
Lest these words from Shakespeare's
Macbeth lead you to think that I am
writing a diatribe on covens, let me
assure you that it is the double idea that
caught my fancy.
Our language employs so many uses
of the word "double" that it could have
us seeing double. Double vision
is something you want to look out for;
and if you suspect a concussion or just
need your eyes checked, don't ignore this
condition.
If your eyes are OK, then head to a
movie house and take in a double
feature. Hah! Gotcha! Those have not
been around for ages. After the movie,
treat yourself to a double-dip ice cream
cone. Interesting that the latter is a good
thing, but eating a dip at a party and
encountering someone who double
dips is not.
If you have some change left after the
expensive movie, you might want to try

a casino and bet double or nothing;
culinary skills
don't let it worry you that that is usu-
might be a
ally a sucker's bet and you will not get a
double-edged
double-digit income this way Also
sword; you may
note that it is not only in card games that
get stuck with all
Sy Manello
someone can be double dealing; avoid
the cooking if you
Editorial Assistant
such deceitful folks. They are trying to
are really good.
double cross you.
If minor
Get decked out in your best double-
repairs are needed for something around
breasted jacket, ignore your double
the house, try double-faced tape (does
chin (it was that ice cream that did it),
duct tape come that way?) but do not get
double-time it to your best girl's home
it from someone who is double faced;
and get ready for a double date. A ride
it might not stick at all.
on a double-decker bus would be fun
When making conversation, do not get
or take in a double header at the ball
carried away with the double enten-
park; you may even get to see a double
dre; it can work to your disadvantage;
play. If you decide to go for basketball
some could be offended; some could
instead, be on the lookout for a player
be left out. Also, be sure to avoid the
who double dribbles; it's a non-no. You double negative in your speech; you
could even take some pictures to remem- can't hardly make no good impression
ber the occasion and not worry about
that way.
double exposures since everyone has
Well, just remember to double up on
a digital camera now, don't they?
everything and you will double your
• If you go to make dinner and use
pleasure and double your fun — or
a double boiler, don't let it boil out.
so the chewing gum people would lead
Trying to impress someone with your
us to believe.

Abba Eban Stamp

The Devil Made Me Do It?

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion called statesman and dip-
lomat Abba Eban "the voice of Israel."
The South African-born, England-educated Israeli
became the State's first representative to the United Nations
and simultaneously served as Israel's ambassador to the
United States. He led the
government's political and
diplomatic activity on the
eve of the Six-Day War of
June 1967. He also fought
for the wording of Security
Council Resolution 242,
which stipulated no with-
drawal without peace and
became a cornerstone in
the peace process between
Israel and the Arabs.
As foreign minister,
he headed the Israeli
delegation to the Geneva
Abba Eban stamp
Conference in December
1973, for what was, in effect, the first peace conference.
The first U.S. aid to Israel was secured during his tenure
and Israel Bonds were established. He also spurred establish-
ment of the American Israel Political Action Committee.
Eban was an author and eloquent speaker, considered one
of the 10 best orators in the world.
Now the late great statesman is being honored with an
Israeli stamp issued this month featuring his likeness in a
painting by Amnon David Ar.

How truly free is our free will?
This ethical question pits Jewish
and secular thinkers against each
other and goes to the essence of
Jewish thought.
Irt the Jewish tradition, human
beings are created in the image of
God with an unrepressed ability
to make free-will moral choices
— and to be held accountable for
Rabbi Akiva Tatz
them.
But the current trend in secular
society is to view a person's moral actions from the completely
opposite point of view, said Rabbi Akiva Tatz, a Torah scholar,
surgeon and medical ethicist who visited Detroit last week.
Rabbi Tatz delivered five lecthres as the fourth annual
Mary Einstein Shapero Memorial Scholar In Residence for
the educational outreach group Ohr Somayach. Mrs. Shapero,
known for her Jewish and social activism, was the wife of
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Walter Shapero and the mother of Ohr
Somayach's executive director, Rabbi David Shapero.
"The Western thinking now is that you really are not free;
you only manifest outputs to all your inputs ... psychological,
sociological, cultural, biological, genetic or biochemical," said
Rabbi Tatz.
"The secular world teaches that when a man fails morally,
he says,`I couldn't help it."'
In stressing the concept of free will, Judaism holds people
morally accountable for their actions, the rabbi said.

— David Sachs, senior copy editor

14

September 21 2006

— Michael Jacobs, Atlanta Jewish Times