Torah scrolls rescued from toxic flood waters

September 14, 2005

In a dramatic rescue operation yesterday that involved a helicopter and inflatable boat, the leader of a Jewish group searching for dead bodies in New Orleans waded through waist-deep toxic floodwaters to save six Torah scrolls from a hurricane-battered synagogue.

“It was quite an experience,” Isaac Leider of the ZAKA Rescue and Recovery Organization told WND, speaking by cell phone from Baton Rouge. “New Orleans is bad now, and I’ve seen so many horrible things. It was uplifting in a way to participate in the mission to save the Torah scrolls, but it’s sad because we found most in unusable conditions.”

ZAKA, based in New York and Israel, is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that ensures proper burial of Jewish bodies. Members regularly arrive after terror attacks in Israel to scrape body parts from blast areas since Jewish tradition requires all flesh be buried. The group participated in missions after the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia.

ZAKA members have been in New Orleans since last week to search for Jewish hurricane victims. They already found four bodies. Fifteen Jews are still listed as missing.

“Operation Torah Scroll” commenced yesterday after it was discovered Congregation Beth Israel, an Orthodox synagogue in New Orleans, was under several feet of water and was in an area that was completely flooded. Torahs were previously removed from nine other New Orleans synagogues by a coalition of Jewish groups, but Leider says the Beth Israel synagogue was the only one inaccessible.

So Leider was brought to the flooded area by a private helicopter that was able to land a few blocks from the synagogue. From there, Leider used an inflatable boat to reach Beth Israel, where he trudged through toxic water to remove the scrolls, including some Torahs over 250 years old.

“On the helicopter, we were able to get an aerial view of the synagogue and we found a place to land,” explains Leider. “The Torah scrolls were brought out, but unfortunately most were ruined and will need to be buried. Some perhaps can be repaired.”

The vest Leider was wearing will be buried as well because a piece of a scroll got stuck to it.

Leider said he burst into tears when he found the Torahs, which he promptly transported to a synagogue in Baton Rouge. He said he will now continue his mission to find Jewish bodies.

The four bodies ZAKA has found so far include two from a New Orleans nursing home.

The group, while focusing on Jewish victims, is also helping others along the way.

Says Leider: “The other day, when we were searching through missing Jews’ apartments, there was a man nearby with an amputated foot. No one was helping him. We brought him immediately for care.”

ZAKA’s New York director, Mattis Meshi-Zahav, conducted search-and-rescue operations in New Orleans until Thursday.

“I came home for a bit, the smell was terrible,” Meshi-Zahav told WND. “The place is completely devastated. And the smell is too much to handle.”