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JEWISH NEWS A PUBLICATION OF THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF JACKSONVILLE JEWISHJACKSONVILLE.ORG | VOL. 32 NO. 8 | MAY 2019
Teen spotlight with Jillian Penson
Remembering the Holocaust
By Etz Chaim
Jillian on her trip to Ireland last June
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Jillian Penson, an 11th grader at Creekside High School, is in the drama club, as well as in the Jewish Student Union where she serves as club Secretary, is the National Association of Students Against Gun Violence’s Social Justice Chair, and is in the National Honor Society. She is also social action chair for JAFTY, the youth group at The Temple. Last summer she was part of the Tikkun Olam Teen Exchange, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville’s Israel Partnership program. Q: What are you most passionate about? A: I am most passionate about the topic of human rights. I believe that everyone should be equal no matter what. As a Jewish girl, I know what hate speech looks like and feels like. People tell you that you are evil because of some part of your life, like your race or religion. It is a horrible feeling to be told this and I don’t think anyone should ever feel this way. I will try my hardest to put an end to all forms of hate speech because no one should ever feel unworthy because of something they See TEEN, p. 9 cannot control.
Etz Chaim Synagogue is honored to host the communitywide Yom Hashoah Holocaust Memorial Event this year. As the years go on and there are fewer Holocaust survivors among the living, it becomes more important than ever to gather and remember the Shoah and all those that perished in the years of unimaginable hell. Our community is honored to host Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, who currently serves as University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future, at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Jacob Schacter is also the the son of Rabbi Herschel Schacter, who was the first American Jewish chaplain to liberate the concentration camps as part of the liberating forces in 1945. Rabbi Herschel Schacter found a young Jew-
ish boy in Buchenwald called Lulek, who asked him, ‘Does the world know what happened to us?’ This boy eventually became the world famous Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who is currently the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. He and a colleague, Rabbi Robert Marcus, helped arrange for their transport to France, as well as to Switzerland, and then to Israel. The convoy, which included Lulek and the teenage Elie Wiesel, was personally overseen by Rabbi Schacter. Rabbi Herschel Schacter passed away in 2013 at the age of 95. We are honored to have his son, Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, come to Jacksonville to speak about his father’s experiences and in his memory. The event will be held Thursday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at Etz Chaim Synagogue, 10167 San Jose Blvd., Jacksonville. For more information, call 904-262-3565.
We are currently in the special time between Passover and Shavuot, when the Jewish people engage in a unique mitzvah called Sefirat HaOmer (counting of the Omer), seven weeks for a total of 49 days. At the end of the seven weeks we celebrate Shavuot, which commemorates the Jewish people receiving the Torah from God at Mt. Sinai. Hebrew for “weeks,” Shavuot falls this year on June 9-10. The counting demonstrates our excited anticipation of receiving the Torah anew each year and is an auspicious time to strive for personal growth – week by week, day by day.
Local burial society lovingly serves the community By Mindy Rubenstein
It’s something most people don’t think about often, or at all – what happens to the body after a person dies, after the soul departs? When a Jewish person passes away, a group of volunteers called a Chevra Kadisha, or holy society, carefully and respectfully prepares the body for burial. This dutiful process, called taharah, purification, involves the ritual cleaning of the deceased body, or met – by women for women and men for men. Since the late 1960s, Jacksonville’s devoted Chevra Kadisha – a community organization whose services are available to everyone – has been quietly and lovingly taking care of people’s loved ones. “These people deserve to go back to the earth with loving hands,” said Ava Axelrod, who has led the local Chevra Kadisha for more than 25 years and volunteered for more people than she can count. “They
deserve to be treated with the utmost kindness. Not all of these people have had an easy life.” She has served victims of the Holocaust, among others, whose stories she may or may not know. Modesty is preserved in the accepted ways of doing this last act before the met begins his or her journey to burial and the eternal. The met is treated with reverence and dignity because the body was the entity that housed the soul for the period that it was on this earth. Volunteers see to it that the bodies are prepared for burial according to Jewish tradition and are protected from desecration, willful or not. The main requirements include showing proper respect, and the ritual cleansing of the body and subsequent dressing for burial. Jewish tradition regards it as a tremendous mitzvah to join a Chevra Kadisha, particularly because so many people are reluctant to do so. They
See BURIAL SOCIETY, p. 12
Speaking openly about mental health can lead to transformation By Mindy Rubenstein
“Real transformation requires real honesty,” says author and activist Bryant McGill. These words were part of Collen Rodriguez’s opening remarks during Jewish Family & Community Services’ annual fundraising event last month. I was fortunate to have attended this powerful program, which drew nearly 300 people from throughout Jacksonville and Northeast Florida. Rodriguez, CEO of JFCS, said, “Tonight we are taking a little bit of a risk…we are daring to talk about a topic that isn’t usually what’s discussed at the cocktail parties we all regularly attend. Some of us might get a little uncomfortable.” Mental health and emotional wellbeing, including issues such as anxiety, depression and addiction, receive limited government funding and are not often discussed openly and honestly. “If we are real as a community, a state, a country, we have to admit that emotional wellbeing has not been a priority,” she said. “Florida allocates the least amount of its annual budget to mental health programs in the country, and Duval County is second to last in mental health funding in the state.” Plus some laws are being changed to even further reduce what’s currently available, including access to preventative care – yet more people lose their lives each year because of mental illness than because of cancer,
See TRANSFORMATION, p. 9