The daughter of a shlucha (Chabad emissary), Bluma Rivkin married Rabbi Zelig Rivkin in 1972 and traveled to New Orleans with him in 1975 to open a Chabad House for university students. Over the years, as students settled and began to raise families of their own, Rivkin helped create institutions to support the multigenerational community, from an uptown mikveh to a new day school, Torah Academy, which opened in 1994. During the storm, she evacuated with her family to Houston, where she found homes for displaced families, then returned to New Orleans, where she helped rebuild and reopen the Chabad House, the mikveh, and the school, restoring the community she had helped create.

To view Bluma Rivkin's full interview, please visit the Internet Archive.