SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2011 | WWW. LUBAVITCH . COM
YOUTH AT RISK
RECOVERING LIVES, AND JUDAISM: CHABAD IN UTAH REACHES OUT TO TROUBLED TEENS viding the area’s Jewish population a host of Jewish educational and social programs at the hat’s how alan rubenstein describes the Chabad center, including Hebrew school, weekly lead up to his decision to send his son to classes and holiday programming. There are apdiscovery academy, a residential treatment proximately 5,000 Jewish people in Utah. center (rTC) for troubled teens in Provo, Jason Peloso, 23, met rabbi Zippel at his Utah. alma mater -- Telos rTC in orem UT. rabbi daniel rubenstein had severe behavioral Zippel became integral to his success in the prochallenges. His teachers had long despaired of gram. He began wrapping tefillin every day, “bekeeping him in check, and his parents were at cause it became a therapeutic ritual.” wits’ end. so at age seventeen, daniel was sent “There were many therapists at the school, but off to a camp in switzerland that catered to rabbi was different,” says Peloso, a business other teens like him. major living in Fairlawn, NJ. “He brought so “soon after daniel began camp in switzermuch meaning into my life without forcing anyland, we got a message on our phone one satthing on me, so that motivated me to look forurday night that daniel was already on a plane ward to his visits and get through the semester.” back to america and would be arriving increasingly, disconnected Jewish students shortly,” says alan rubenstien, an accountant. who have encountered rabbi Zippel are discernbut at discovery academy, a boarding ing a winning combination: Jewish involvement school that spares no expense for parents who as a significant component of their rehabilitation “ There were many therapists at the shell out a small fortune in a last ditch effort at rTC. at times, even this rigorous program to redirect their teens, there was a piece missschool, but Rabbi was different. he “feels like a temporary fix. There’s no guarantee ing from the program. While daniel found brought so much meaning into my life that you won’t relapse somewhere down the himself in a setting where love, care, and thertrack,” explains adam Finkel, whose parent’s without forcing anything on me, so that apeutic rehabilitation were physically manifest, sent him from home in New York to island motivated me to look forward to his Jewish ideals and faith were nonexistent. view rTC in syracuse, UT when he was fifteen. enter rabbi benny Zippel, Chabad reprevisits and get through the semester.” To reach their goals, it is essential for students sentative in Utah since 1992, together with his “to know that they aren’t in this alone, that G-d wife, sharonne. For the past nineteen years, he has not forgotten about them,” says Tami Harris, has reached out to hundreds of teens in various a chaplain at Heritage schools. in 2010, Harris assisted Zippel in his efforts to kosher residential treatment centers through Project H.e.a.r.T (Hebrew education for atthe kitchens at her school, creating more Jewish infrastructure at rTCs in Utah. risk Teens). Zippel hits the road at least four days a week to visit rTC’s across the state, rabbi Zippel dreams of the ultimate care for these teens: he hopes to found a resififty-two weeks a year. dential treatment center that would rival other rTCs in quality standards geared specifi“rabbi Zippel reminded me that i’m a Jew, which is easy to forget, living with noncally to Jewish teenagers. With today’s challenges for Jewish youth, “such a center,” he Jews,” says daniel who went on to study in Yeshiva in israel for six years. Today, he’s a believes, “is desperately needed.” proud husband and father. When lynn rubenstein recalls the turbulence of her son’s formative years, she wishes For teens on the road to recovery, rabbi Zippel offers something different. after meetthat this had been an option. ing with them at rTCs, the rabbi invites them to spend shabbos and Jewish holidays at “There is definitely a need for this. Parents who are going through what i went through Chabad. and when students’ parents come to visit Utah and join them at Chabad, says would feel so much better about sending their child to a school with other Jewish chilZippel, “their biggest joy is to share what they’ve learned with their parents.” dren,” she says. The only Chabad representative in Utah, rabbi Zippel balances a tight schedule, pro*Several names have been changed upon request “We were past Plan Z.”
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NEW ANTI-BULLYING PROGRAM ANNOUNCED AT fRIendShIP CIRCLe COnfeRenCe
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new anti-bullying program named defeat The label (dTl), recently announced at the annual Friendship Circle conference in West bloomfield, Mi will empower teens to stand up to bullying and social labeling. The initiative was launched by bassie shemtov, Co-director of the Meer Family Friendship Circle. To date, 1,300 teenagers around the world have signed up at defeat The label.com where they record the results of weekly missions, to do one specific act of good for a friend. “We have many volunteers at Friendship Circle who give special needs kids unconditional love and respect for who they are, not how they look,” says shemtov. but socially, things weren’t adding up: “They go to school the next day and the eye-rolling, name-calling and bullying continues.” shemtov took her idea to fifteen local schools, where she presented a curriculum of classes on anti-bullying themes and an
array of hands-on and interactive activities. students hung up posters that said “Nerd,” and “dork,” under images of kids with glasses followed by the motto, defeat The label, sending a clear message of acceptance of all people despite outward appearances. Four public schools accepted the pitch for a pilot program with 100 students (at each school), who will enroll in an eightsession course over the course of the coming school year. bradley scheck, student activities director at Walled lake Western High school says this program sets itself apart with a “focus on being proactive and changing kids’ views of others, unlike reactive programs that deal with bullying problems only after the fact.” “defeat The label is more than just anti-bullying,” explains scheck, who will coordinate the program. “it’s about getting kids to understand that people are more alike than unalike, about general accept-
ance of every person.” in Farmington Hills, Mi, twelve yearold blair bean works to promote defeat The label at her school. For years, she’s been the victim of bullying, but today her leadership role in this program has brightened her life considerably, says her mother, stacey. a social worker who is employed in schools, stacey has found that her daughter’s “involvement in this program has strengthened her,” and is grateful, especially because she’s found that children today are “much meaner” than they were when she
was a schooler. “it used to be that generally the person being bullied was a special-ed child, or someone who had an obvious difficulty, but today it seems that anyone can be bullied because of appearances or behavior.” rabbi bentzion Groner, director of Friendship Circle international is currently working to determine how other Friendship Circles could successfully implement this program. defeat The label will be available for adaptation by other Friendship Circles around the world by the end of 2012, he says.
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