USC Students at Beth Shalom

We were joined this past Shabbat by a group of students from the University of Southern California. The group is made up of students from USC Hillel and the USC chapter of the NAACP. They are here on alternate spring break and will be building houses in Baton Rouge with Habitat for Humanity. The group is led by my colleague Rabbi Jonathan Klein.

My family ate dinner with the students at Beth Shalom prior to services. My little boy made himself unofficial Beth Shalom Ambassador and allowed himself to be massively fussed over. The group davened with us and mingled with the chevre at the oneg. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to speak with the students about our experiences during Katrina and Rita and to show them the DVD of hurricane photos and video I made to tell our story.

The students will be in and out of Beth Shalom throughout the week for some of their programs. We are doing everything we can to support their efforts. It was an honor to play host to this group of idealistic young people.