Alan Krilov

A Call from Katrina

Stranded on the rooftop of his neighbor’s home with Hurricane Katrina’s wrathful waters still climbing higher, Alan Krilov was exhausted. His cell phone didn’t have much juice left. But he had to make the call.

“Alex, you have to pray for me,” he said. “I’ve lost everything.” And then the line went dead.

Two-and-a-half years before, Alan, a native of New Orleans, began exploring the mysteries of Jewish life with Alex Ganz of Scranton, Pennsylvania. As participants in Partners in Torah’s telephone study program, their rambling conversations navigated them through many a text and from there into the very meaning of the cycle of Jewish life and more. Their weekly calls often stretched past the hour-long learning commitment. Unbelievably, they’d never yet met in the flesh — but a beautiful friendship grew nonetheless. No one dreamed that this friendship would be tested by the storm of the century. No one dreamed it would bring them closer together, either.

When Alan didn’t call his Partner back, Alex’s worries mounted. The horrific plight of New Orleans residents unfolded and Alex didn’t stray far from his phone. “All I could do was wait and pray,” says Alex. Then he recalled that Alan had mentioned a brother living in New York. Alex searched the web for Krilov phone listings, and turned up a handful of unrelated, non-English-speaking Krilovs. Except one: There was a woman in the Bronx who referred Alex to a Krilov with relatives down south. In the meantime, Alan’s efforts to stay alive landed him in the home of a stranger who was riding out the storm with bottles of Jack Daniels. Then a rescue by boat docked Alex in a school soon overtaken by a gang of knife-wielding looters. “I cannot begin to tell you how horrible the human element was… I said ‘Shema,’” Alex recalls. By this point deeply concerned about Alan’s welfare, Alex pursued the Bronx woman’s Krilov connection and finally found his TelePartner’s mother. Hopes soared. But not for long. She had not heard from Alan. He was still missing.

It was two long weeks before Alan hitchhiked his way to Hammond, Louisiana, charged his phone, and called Alex. Soon after, relief turned to exuberance when the two Partners finally met – Alan spent a Shabbat weekend with Alex and his family. Alan brought along the new tefillin he had received from his rabbi, Zelig Rivkin. Alex and his sons-in-law helped Alan adjust the tefillin to fit. The tefillin were wrapped around Alan’s arm – and Alan himself was wrapped in the warm embrace of his Partner’s family.

Meeting his TelePartner for the first time, alive and well after having gone through so much, is something Alex says he will not soon forget. The added privilege of helping Alan perform the mitzvah of tefillin was a sort of physical manifestation of their bond as two Jews from far apart who nonetheless came together to be involved in Jewish learning. For Alan, too, the experience was extremely meaningful, and he is deeply grateful for having met Alex at last.