(Nancy Sinkoff - History/Jewish Studies) A recent article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune sought to shed light on the diversity of New Orleans, and the challenge of returning to normalcy. Entitled, “A Taste of Home,” the article focused on Passover celebrations among Jewish families displaced from their homes, and implicitly highlighted the overlapping experiences of the city’s black and Jewish population.  As the article noted, “Before Hurricane Katrina hit last summer, the city's Jewish community was estimated at 12,000, heavily concentrated in lakefront neighborhoods and Metairie. Both areas flooded, driving tens of thousands of families out of the city. Some are still gone; many of the rest have not yet settled their futures.” (Bruce Nolan, Times Picayune, April 13, 2006)  A topic of longstanding interest for those who work on American Jewish history and Southern Jewish history has been the relationships of Jews and African Americans and others in the city in terms of the “Black-Jewish Alliance.”  But does New Orleans fit or not fit that paradigm (a paradigm which needs to be analyzed carefully in any case)?  Have American historians of the Jews considered it a "Jewish City"? What is the relationship of New Orleans to other port cities (Trieste, Hamburg, Philadelphia) in the early modern/colonial period? Has New Orleans --given the images of Katrina -- now been designated a black city alone; what of its multicultural past?  And to what extent has the discussion surrounding its rebuilding highlighted broader questions of race and ethnicity in urban life?