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SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 | The Jewish Home
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kindness, convincing and asking us to do chessed, to involve our families in chessed, and to literally offer a variety of chessed opportunities? Wow, how powerful a message. Wow, how powerful an act. Wow, how proud we are and, yes, how fortunate we are to live in a neighborhood that promotes this. In an era of one obsession after another and one tragic story after the other this organization, Achiezer, is a breath of fresh air and a promise of a prosperous and unified people that we truly can be. Shelly and Zev Friedman
JEWISH CHILDREN SEEK LOVING FOSTER PARENTS
“If there’s room
in your Heart, there’s always space
in your House.”
Myth #1:
Foster Parents are Superhuman Reality:
Foster Parents are ordinary people with extraordinary hearts.
Is there Room in Your Heart?
Get the facts and hear first-hand from foster parents, former foster children & OHEL staff on the transformative experience of foster parenting! www.ohelfamily.org/roominyourheart
Dear Editor, I am writing to share with the community my recent experience with Councilman Donovan Richards and to express my tremendous gratitude to him and his incredibly talented and devoted staff. For 20 years, I have run a summer program in the Far Rockaway area. Finding proper facilities is always difficult, but securing a swimming pool where our children can swim is our greatest obstacle. Pools are very high commodities during the summer. This challenge is compounded by our great emphasis to preserve our values of modesty, compelling us to separate swimming by gender. Locating an available pool large enough to accommodate our number of children with the option of separate swimming is an arduous task. For over 15 years, we had been able to find a near perfect solution to this challenge. Our boys have used the swimming pool at Far Rockaway High as a private rental for typically an hour and a half to 2 hours daily. Even though there were always city swim programs that were also hosted in Far Rockaway High, times were allotted to our group so that we could utilize the pool. This afforded our boys a fantastic opportunity to delight in one of summer’s favorite activities in a manner that did not in any way compromise the standards and values that their families imbued within them. This summer we were faced with an unprecedented threat, as New York City sought to take full control of the pool to be used for a new city program. Every effort I made to help our children proved futile. In desperation, I called the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula (JCCRP), and they reached out to Councilman Richards and his wonderful office staff. Immediately, our request was
greeted with care and concern. Councilman Richards and his staff dedicated themselves to seeking a fair resolution that would be satisfactory to all parties involved. In every phone call to the councilman’s office, I was always treated with respect and understanding, and was continually updated with any relevant developments. My initial anxiety and skepticism gave way to cautious optimism, and ultimately pure admiration as I witnessed their determination and tremendous efforts on our behalf. Not so much to my surprise, I discovered that the royal treatment I received from the councilman and his staff was in no way unique. In sharing my experience with members of my community, I only found uniform sentiments from others who had similar stories echoing extraordinary efforts by the councilman to assist them. May G-d bless the Councilman and his staff with health, strength, and happiness that they may continue to do the exceptional work on behalf of our community. Sincerely, Ben Jacobi Director Camp Machaneh Yisrael Dear Editor, I don’t follow the news much and I really don’t follow sports. But I am appalled every time I see NFL player Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the national anthem because he believes that the United States is unfair to people of color. Is he for real? Kaepernick was born to a white mother whose black father abandoned him before he was born. His mother put him up for adoption and his white adopted parents raised him. Do you think that he would be in the same position he is in now if he was born in Ghana or Nigeria or Iran? Only in a democracy like America can someone rise to certain heights. Ever look at the players on the field during football games? Most of them are black. Perhaps the game is showing racism towards white players – there are so few of them represented. I don’t think the Kaepernick is showing allegiance to people of color. I think he’s an angry man who wants to go against authority by refusing to stand for our nation’s anthem and by wearing socks depicting police officers as pigs. If he really wanted to help black people, he could do it on his own time, with his own thousands of dollars. Merv Colin