On October 21-23, our Beth Israel Youth Group co-hosted the NFTY Regional Fall Retreat (known as a “Kallah”) along with Suburban Temple Kol Ami and Tifereth Israel.  It was the largest regional event in recent memory, with 200 high school students and 25 advisers from Youth Groups in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Canada.  Two of our Beth Israel students have shared their thoughts on the event from different perspectives.  For 8th grader Kathryn Fleisher, this was her first event, and for senior Zack Roth it will be one of his last.  Please link to view their thoughts.  Student Kallah Perspective, Edna House, and Lakeside Men’s Emergency Shelter

Reminder there is Cosmic Bowling for the High School students:   8pm to midnight.

The Maurice Saltzman Youth Grant Program of the Jewish Federation was established in Spring 1998 by Shirley Saltzman and her family.  The program perpetuates the goals of the late Maurice Saltzman, a past president of the Jewish Federation, who cared deeply about educating the next generation of Jewish community leadership.

The 2012 Saltzman Youth Panel consists of 40 area high school juniors and seniors who were selected through youth group advisor, rabbi and religious school director nominations as well as from at-large applications.  Working together, panel members will make important decisions as to how to spend $50,000 to improve the Jewish and general communities.  The panel brings together Jewish students of different backgrounds to learn about the philanthropic process, responding to community needs and most importantly, tzedakah.

Mazal Tov to our future community leaders!

By Lauren Pankiw

It was not the first time we had heard of Project Save nor was it the first time many of us had volunteered there, but nevertheless, the experience was unique: On Sunday October 2, the high school class of Beth Israel, The West Temple went to Project Save to help serve food to the homeless. I woke up at the crack of dawn and arrived at the Catholic Worker Storefront building in Cleveland at 7:30 am to rendezvous with the rest of my class. There, we waited with anticipation to help the founder and director, Carl Cook. Before that started, Carl roused us with his narrative of the plight of homelessness in Cleveland. We all huddled around Carl eagerly as he began speaking about the plight of the homeless. It was not a new story to me, but it was just as stirring all the same:

Folks don’t realize that there are many paths to homelessness in Cleveland. Of course, many of the men and women had succumbed to their pre-existing drug and alcohol problems and thus doomed themselves to end up on the streets. Many others had suffered a simple but devastating fate such as losing a job that tipped the scale in favor of misfortune. A select few had even willingly chosen a life on the streets, but these conditions are rare. I could tell that Carl was intimately familiar with all of these cases. He was a sincere and potent speaker, whose quiet air of confidence and purpose was tempered by an endearing humbleness that made everyone want to stand just a little closer to him. It didn’t occur to me that his likable personality had roots in a harrowing past—Carl himself was once homeless. He was raised in a privileged family, with successful parents who instilled the value of hard work in their children. However, despite these advantageous circumstances, Carl was sabotaged by his alcoholism, which first manifested before he had reached even the age of ten. But having overcome his own addiction, Carl decided to do something to help other people in his former same position and started Project Save.

Project Save has served over 10,000 families by serving breakfast on Sunday mornings.  All the food is dependent on private donations and fundraising events. The Center also helps people with other basic needs like getting them birth certificates so they can apply for jobs and other services.   I had never thought about these basic things because I had taken them for granted.  Luckily for the homeless of Cleveland, Carl Cook does not. In addition to running Project Save, he also founded an organization called the Metanoia Project which provides care and serves food to homeless people who are afraid to come to shelters for any variety of reasons.

SATURDAY MAY 14

Please join our High School class as they present a unique worship service that they have created themselves.

9:30 — Coffee & Bagels & Shmooze (oh my!)

9:45 — Lessons with the Rabbi

10:45 — Worship Service led by the High School

Noon — Pot luck lunch