NEW ORLEANS — In late December, 35 members of the Union of Reform Judaism’s Adult Mitzvah Corps engaged in a week of social action, study, and worship in regions recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Ranging in age from the late teens to the 50s, and including several parents with their children, the participants paid $500 apiece plus travel expenses to “repair the world” — or at least his storm-ravaged corner of it.

Under the leadership of Rabbi Joel Soffin, the former spiritual leader of Temple Shalom in Succasunna, the corps is in its sixth year.

Members are “not just fixing houses but bringing hope to people,” Soffin said.

Before spending each day applying sheetrock, installing windows and doors, and spackling and painting the home of Brenda Williams, who worked alongside them, the volunteers attended services at a local Reform synagogue. Each night they engaged in text study relating to tikun olam, repair of the world.

“At the beginning of the week, not many of the volunteers would have said that they were doing sheetrocking because that was God’s command,” Soffin said. “But after attending services and doing Torah study, many have the feeling that they are now doing God’s work.”

The Mitzvah Corps’ enthusiasm has been shared by thousands of Jewish volunteers of all ages who have helped rebuild New Orleans over the past year and will continue to do so in coming months.

Hillel, the national organization for Jewish campus life, has brought nearly 2,000 Jewish college students from universities across the United States and Canada. Nechama: Jewish Response to Disaster, a Minneapolis-based group, brought 200 volunteers during the winter holiday season after bringing hundreds last summer. The JCC Association has an ongoing commitment to rebuild New Orleans since Katrina hit in August 2005. And many families have come on their own.

Echoing the slogan of the Zionist pioneers who created the State of Israel — livnot v’lehibanot, to build and to be built — these volunteers are not just helping transform New Orleans, but say they’ve been transformed themselves.

For the Krivitzky family — Jerry and Trudi and their children, Stephanie and Aaron, members of Temple Shalom — the Mitzvah Corps experience was quite different from their usual family vacation in Florida.

“There are only so many beaches and pina coladas you can take,” said Jerry, who described himself as a “recovering lawyer.”

Turning serious, he explained why the family chose to spend its vacation fixing up Williams’ home: “Because we can. And because we can, we should.”

Stuart and Shirley Bauer, also members of Temple Shalom, have participated in each of the six “builds” done by the Adult Mitzvah Corps.

“When you do one of these builds, it keeps you going all year,” Stuart Bauer said. “Once you have done one, it’s in your blood, and there is nothing like the feeling you have after the week is done.”

Many of the corps members share the Bauers’ enthusiasm and return year after year.

The volunteer work also has had a positive effect on interfaith relations. One illustration is in the experience of Nechama.

In its home-gutting efforts, Nechama has partnered with Operation Blessing, a relief group founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, the evangelical Christian leader. Nechama volunteers stay at the Operation Blessing camp outside New Orleans and were able to kasher its kitchen. When they arrived for their December deployment, they found Hanukka decorations hung around the dining hall — even on the big Christmas tree there.

Now that home-gutting needs in the Jewish community have mostly been met, Nechama is primarily helping non-Jews, many of whom had very little contact with Jewish people before.

“We are making many friends for the Jewish community with our efforts,” said Jon Weiss, Nechama’s executive director.