Kosher Palate, a kosher restaurant in Dallas, prepares thousands of free hot meals to serve to Orthodox families affected by power outages during Winter Storm Uri, Feb. 17, 2021. (Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Now the community has repurposed the team, consisting of rabbis from each denomination and the CEOs of local Jewish agencies, to take on a very different kind of crisis: the unfolding effects of an unusual winter storm named Uri that has crippled large swaths of Texas and left millions of people without reliable access to heat, electricity or clean water.<\/p>\n
So far, the group has gotten aid to seniors and people without electricity. Synagogues and their congregants are offering shelter to those without power. And the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas partnered with Kosher Palate, a local kosher restaurant, to deliver thousands of meals to Jews without power \u2014 a project the restaurant began on its own and accelerated with the federation\u2019s aid.
Texas is home to around 130,000 Jews, the majority located in the Dallas and Houston areas. The state, and its Jewish population, has experienced no shortage of recent crises. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey decimated the Houston area, flooding thousands of Jewish homes and causing millions of dollars in catastrophic damage to several synagogues and other Jewish institutions. In 2019, a Category 3 tornado struck Dallas, bringing more property damage to Jewish communities. And of course the pandemic has challenged every aspect of Jewish and communal life.<\/p>\n
The toll of the latest disaster \u2014 rare in a state with a generally temperate winter climate \u2014 is still taking shape. As of Thursday morning, nearly 500,000 homes and businesses remained without power, with large swaths of the state\u2019s grid remaining down. Hospitals are running out of water. Some 7 million residents are under a boil-water advisory. At least 30 deaths linked to the storm have been reported. And residents are burning furniture to stay warm, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another storm is on the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty dire in the city right now,\u201d Steve Adler, the Jewish mayor of Austin, the state capital, told a local TV station on Thursday morning as he joined many Texans in asking why the state\u2019s energy grid was not prepared for sub-zero temperatures. \u201cIt\u2019s too much to ask of anybody. People are angry and confused and frustrated, and I am, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many, the anger is being driven by what they perceive as a lackluster response by state leaders. Former governor Rick Perry suggested that Texans would prefer a few days without heat to federal intervention in their power system, and Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Cancun for a planned vacation on Wednesday night in the Mexican resort city. Both are Republicans.<\/p>\n
Jewish communities, like others across the state, are taking steps to address their own needs. In Dallas, one of the region\u2019s two Jewish senior living centers lost both its main power and backup generator, forcing the staff to quickly relocate residents to the area\u2019s other senior center \u2014 fortunately it had spare room, having just recently opened.<\/p>\n
Two Orthodox Jewish-run emergency response units, Hatzalah of Dallas and the newly formed Texas Chaverim, both founded by a local resident, Baruch Shawel, sent out patrols to assist residents with dead car batteries, medical emergencies and other issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty wild out here,\u201d Hannah Lebovits, a professor at the University of Texas-Arlington who lives in an Orthodox community in north Dallas, said of the rolling blackouts, which accompany other problems like loss of heat and water pressure. \u201cThankfully in the Jewish community, very often we quickly create our own mutual aid systems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Lebovits said, \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be Chaverim doing that. It should be the city of Dallas knocking on my door and checking on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Houston, too, Jewish leaders are leaning on coordination groundwork laid long before the unusual cold snap set in. Traumatized by the patchwork Jewish response to Hurricane Harvey\u2019s devastating floods, the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston had convened the Jewish Response and Action Network in early 2020, even before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Harvey, each shul made its own response. They made their own food. It wasn\u2019t coordinated,\u201d said Jackie Fisherman, the network\u2019s director and the Houston federation\u2019s director of government affairs. \u201cWe thought there must be a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week, the Houston federation has taken steps to mitigate the impact of the winter storm on greater Houston\u2019s Jewish community, which numbers around 55,000 and skews older. The group has helped procure fuel for a backup generator at an assisted living facility, been part of the distribution of 10,000 water bottles to the community and assisted a few individuals in need of electricity secure generators from the city \u2014 while continuing to work with local Jewish leaders on an ongoing COVID response plan.<\/p>\n
Some on the ground in Houston, including representatives of the federation, say many Houston Jews live in areas that have avoided the worst of the outages, although the lack of reliable cellphone service and other communication issues all week has prevented response teams from drawing a clear picture. But challenges still lie ahead, as the Houston area, like much of Texas, has fallen under a boil-water advisory. Many frozen pipes are expected to burst when they thaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraining makes you better, and there\u2019s really no way to train through a disaster until you\u2019ve lived through it,\u201d Fisherman said. Nevertheless, she added, \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to a really boring job in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s Jewish community has also helped the city\u2019s broader response when it comes to the COVID vaccine. Power outages have affected statewide distribution of the vaccine, which needs to be kept at freezing temperatures until it\u2019s ready to be used. In response to a sudden urgent need this week to distribute doses of the vaccine, United Orthodox Synagogues in Houston quickly offered its building as a vaccination center, and successfully orchestrated 350 doses to the community in a manner of hours.<\/p>\n
Amid the challenges of the moment, Jewish life for some Texans has found a way to continue. In Austin, Sam Robinson became a bar mitzvah last weekend.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Shira Wallach’s children thought the Shabbat and yahrzeit candles used to light their home when the power was out meant it was Shabbat. (Courtesy of Wallach)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The family had already made plans to conduct the service over Zoom due to COVID, but found that they still had to scramble last minute to meet the challenges of the moment when their synagogue, Congregation Agudas Achim, lost power and had to contend with an iced-over parking lot that prevented them from even getting close enough to the building to handle the Torahs.<\/p>\n
Instead of reading from three of the congregation\u2019s Torahs from the bimah, as he had been planning to do to correspond with Rosh Chodesh and Shabbat Shekalim, Sam had to perform the service from his house, reading off of photos of the Torah portions his dad had taken on his phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll our plans, we basically had to scrap them and frantically get the house ready,\u201d Sam said. \u201cWe did it on the dining room table. We just shoved everything off it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after Sam\u2019s bar mitzvah, the Robinson household lost power, too. With the sudden drop in temperature, Sam\u2019s mother, Rachel, also found a use for the many hats, scarves and blankets she had taken to knitting in her spare time since the start of COVID. Rachel added that the Robinson family may find themselves dipping into their year-old supply of Passover matzah if they are unable to cook.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly kept us on our toes, tested our resiliency,\u201d Sam\u2019s father, Alex, said. He thanked his congregation for its flexibility in putting on the event.<\/p>\n
Sam said he\u2019s \u201cstill salty about not getting three Torahs,\u201d but he\u2019s happy with how his bar mitzvah went.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow, this week was weird,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Agudas Achim\u2019s leader, Rabbi Neil Blumofe, wrote on Facebook Thursday morning that conditions in Austin remained difficult, even as his own power had returned after more than 50 hours.
In Dallas, Rabbi Shira Wallach of Congregation Shearith Israel, a Conservative synagogue, dug into her supply of Shabbat and yahrzeit candles to keep her family\u2019s household warm when their power went out. She said the couple\u2019s two daughters, aged 1 and 5, instinctively covered their faces, thinking it was time to recite the blessings.<\/p>\n
That moment provided levity during a challenging time \u2014 one that Wallach\u2019s husband and fellow rabbi, Adam Roffman, said was appropriate for this moment on the Jewish calendar. Purim, a festive holiday in which celebrations are supposed to give a sense of topsy-turviness, begins next week \u2014 when the temperature is forecast to climb to a more typical 70 degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere we are in Dallas, Texas,\u201d Roffman said. \u201cThe rest of the country\u2019s laughing at us because we\u2019re the energy producer capital of the country and we have no heat or power. That\u2019s a pretty Purim-type situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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