"The loss is very personal and very profound. My family members have lost their homes," said Rabbi Allan Lehmann, a native of New Orleans. For Lehmann, the Jewish chaplain on campus, the people whose lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina are not just images on a television screen, hundreds of miles away. Lehmann's father lost his home in the flooding and was evacuated to Houston, where he is currently staying. "My 80-year-old father is a refugee for the second time in his life now," he said. His 95-year-old cousin, a resident in a New Orleans nursing home, passed away after being placed on a bus to evacuate the city. The parents of his brother's ex-wife, whom Lehmann said his family was close to, were in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans during the immediate aftermath of the hurricane but eventually got on a bus for four days, finally reaching St. Petersburg, Fla.

While his other relatives are spread out, they are fortunately safe. Lehmann's aunt is staying at his house, another aunt and uncle are staying in Austin, Texas and a handful of other relatives are in Jackson, Miss.

"As a rabbi and as a Jew," he said, "concepts of exile and dispersion are very much a part of my cultural vocabulary." Being uprooted is an experience that Lehmann said he has understood for years, having come from immigrant grandparents and parents who fled Germany during WWII.

Though Lehmann said he is far from finished with crying, he is doing what he can on campus to support the community.

In an effort to help his fellow New Orleans natives at Brandeis feel less alone during this time, Lehmann invited the several students and faculty members over to his house during Labor Day weekend. He said he served "hurricanes, a great New Orleans drink" to the 21 and over guests.

Lehmann is speaking at the community-wide teach-in about Katrina on Sept. 26. "I don't feel that I have any great political wisdom about this," he said. "Just a personal connection."

He hopes during the rebuilding of his hometown in the coming weeks and months, the city does not lose its rich and vibrant culture that Lehmann said he treasures. "I have visions of corporations coming in and turning it into a theme park with New Orleans-style restaurants, jazz clubs and venues," he said.

"There was something unique about New Orleans," Lehmann said, "with its rich gumbo of so many different cultures, languages, races and ethnicities."

While sharing his concerns and personal losses, Lehmann reiterated that he feels extremely lucky right now. He calls the hurricane a "mythic loss" for him, while for the thousands of others who died or were trapped in the city, the losses are much more real.

His family was planning to get together in New Orleans over Thanksgiving to celebrate his father's 80th birthday. Now the family reunion will be here, he said.

"You feel kind of helpless and powerless at a time like this," he said. "It's therapeutic to be able to tell the story.