NEW YORK -- When Danny Rebuck heard that Hurricane Katrina had become a
Category 5 storm, he got on his bicycle, pedaled 25 miles to the New
Orleans airport and took one of the last flights out before the city was
hit.
On Tuesday, Rebuck, 36, was boarding a plane in very different
circumstances, joining about 250 others on a special flight from John F.
Kennedy International Airport for Jews moving to Israel, or making aliyah.
Rebuck, a Londoner who had been living in New Orleans for about eight
years, returned to the swamped city about 10 days after the storm. The
soccer fields where he had worked as a coach were devastated, and many of
the children he had taught had not returned to the city. A tree had fallen
on his home, he said, and he spent about two weeks without electricity or
sanitation.
He said he had thought about moving to Israel for some time but the
hurricane gave him the "nudge" he needed to go through with it.
"It makes you open your eyes," Rebuck said by telephone from the
airport Tuesday evening.
Rebuck, who left New Orleans with just his sneakers, a pair of shorts
and some T-shirts in a backpack, said he also was traveling light to
Israel and planned to begin his life there in Raanana.
The 8:30 p.m. flight to Israel was sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh, an
organization that gives North American Jews moving there financial
assistance and help getting homes and jobs.
The 4-year-old group has organized 15 flights to Israel, including
seven this year, spokesman Charley Levine said. More than 7,000 people
have moved to Israel with help from the organization, he said, and 99
percent have remained there.
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On the Net: Nefesh B'Nefesh: http://www.nbn.org.il/
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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