A lover of animals and the natural world, Susan Hess helped the Louisiana SPCA and City Park raise funds and plan their recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina.
Miriam Waltzer, a retired judge who had spent her career working to improve the lives of others, found it difficult to be on the receiving end as a refugee in need of aid.
Roselle Ungar used new technologies to keep her scattered community together during the evacuation, and her wry humor to keep herself sane despite the upheaval.
Sara Stone was ninety years old at the time of Hurricane Katrina, and her experience of the storm was tempered by a lifetime of helping the city weather hard times.
Donna Sternberg, who had helped found the first local Federation in Baton Rouge after the Six Day War, used her fundraising experience to quickly mobilize national aid efforts to save her community after Hurricane Katrina.
As director of New Orleans’s Parks and Parkways Department, Florence Shornstein mobilized the community to replant the lush greenery that helped define the city.
An education reformer who helped spearhead preschool programs for NCJW and United Way, Schenk focused her attention after Katrina on rebuilding schools.
When leadership squabbles threatened to shut down her synagogue after Katrina, Lonnie Zarum Schaffer stepped up and turned the disaster into an opportunity for change and growth.
Bluma Rivkin’s experiences of the devastation of Katrina and the struggles to rebuild were profoundly shaped by her humor, her compassion, and her work as a shlucha (Chabad emissary).
A third-generation New Orleans native and the first female president of Congregation Beth Israel, Jackie Gothard worked tirelessly to restore the synagogue and bring the community back together.
As executive director of the Jewish Family Service, Deena Gerber helped survivors navigate New Orleans’s shattered infrastructure and access social services after the storm.