Bikkurim: An Incubator for New Jewish Ideas is an entrepreneurial organization that supports, develops and promotes new ideas in the Jewish community in North America. It has provided seed money and support to a range of groups, including those that encourage Jewish stewardship of the environment, promote Jewish heritage, produce Jewish music and engage in cross-cultural […]

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history and director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (William Morrow, 2006), which tells the story of the great storm through the eyes of its survivors and examines the failures […]

The American Red Cross is teaming with African American religious and civic groups to train volunteers who will be ready to help when future disasters occur. The Red Cross has sent trainers to work with groups from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the NAACP.

National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster helps voluntary organizations work together to train and plan for disaster response. NVOAD, based in Alexandria, Virginia, also helps build connections between the voluntary groups and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Brenda Muñiz is author of the report “In the Eye of the Storm: How the Government and Private Response to Hurricane Katrina Failed Latinos,” completed for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. It was issued in February 2006.

America’s Second Harvest is a network of more than 200 food banks and food-rescue groups coordinated by Craig Nemitz. By the end of November 2005, America’s Second Harvest, based in Chicago, had sent more than 1,900 truckloads carrying close to 59 million pounds of food to survivors of Katrina and Rita.

Read a report called “Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences,” posted on the website of the Social Science Research Council. It examines issues of race and racism revealed by Katrina, and contains the links to writings on the hurricane by more than 35 academics.

Read a June 2, 2006, National Public Radio article about a surge in immigrant day workers helping with the demolition and rebuilding work in New Orleans. These immigrants – undocumented or contract workers – often lack decent housing and food.

Read a June 26, 2006, story from WLOX television about how First Baptist Church of Pass Christian, Miss., is managing to hold Vacation Bible School this summer in a trailer with help from a Baptist church in Florida.