One year ago, much of the Northeast went dark in a violent rush of wind, and the water started to rise. One week after Sandy hit, I wrote about how I spent the days immediately following the storm, eating frozen Rosh Hashanah honey cake and surrounding myself with candles and flashlights. At the time it…
It’s been a year since the ferocious winds and voluminous rain of Hurricane Sandy left parts of the East Coast crippled and gasping for breath. The dead have been buried, the flood waters have receeded, most public services have been restored and the nation’s attention has drifted away. But look closely: The signs of destruction…
On a recent Friday afternoon in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach, groups of teenage girls headed toward the ocean as shirtless men on boardwalk benches sent occasional catcalls their way and children walked by licking ice cream cones. For much of this seaside neighborhood of Russian immigrants, the rites of summer appear unchanged nine months after Hurricane…
Hoping to revive a bill that would permit aid to synagogues damaged by Hurricane Sandy, two U.S. senators have introduced a new measure that seeks to alleviate concerns from FEMA and civil liberties groups over separation of church and state issues. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) put forward a new bill that limits…
Six months after Hurricane Sandy damaged at least 72 synagogues in New York and New Jersey, only two report having been approved for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a Forward spot survey indicates. The need for such aid does not appear to have abated. Though many congregations have cleaned the debris and are…
Since the Forward last weighed in on the contentious issue of whether federal money should go directly to houses of worship damaged by Hurricane Sandy, several things have happened. The House of Representatives handily passed an amendment that would classify synagogues, churches, etc., as private not-for-profit institutions eligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management…
The Anti-Defamation League will not oppose a bill that would provide federal relief aid for houses of worship, after originally opposing the idea. The ADL had stated in January that, “a taxpayer should not have to fund a religion or a religious institution with which he or she disagrees.” In an update their remarks in…
When Congress lingered in approving additional federal funding for communities affected by superstorm Sandy, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, forcefully criticized the delay. But when the House of Representatives voted recently to allow houses of worship to apply for federal aid after natural disasters, Nadler vehemently opposed the move. Nadler said he sympathized…
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