After Hurricane Harvey, Rice University Preserves Houston’s Jewish Past

Rome’s enclosed Jewish ghetto was built in a flood zone along the Tiber River in the 16th century after Pope Paul IV forced the Jewish community into the worst real estate in town. The community was subject to constant devastation due to flooding until allowed to live outside the ghetto over 300 years later. In Houston, it wasn’t an anti-Semitic pope that caused the Jewish community to build in a flood zone. Rather, according to Dr. Joshua Furman, a professor of Jewish studies at Rice University, it was good schools, attractive housing and proximity to a new mall and the downtown area that brought the bulk of Houston’s Jewish community to flood-prone Meyerland 50 years ago.