Trending in Our Jewish Community

TRENDING IN OUR JEWISH COMMUNITY

April 14, 2023

Shabbat Shalom CT!

As I prepare to leave for Israel, I've been glued to my phone for the latest developments there. For the 14th week in a row and in the middle of the Passover holiday, more than 100,000 Israelis protested in Tel Aviv against the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul plan. Thousands more demonstrated across the country.

Some weeks the crowds have soared to 450,000 -- that's the equivalent of 30 million people marching in an American city.

There have been plenty of theories, opinions and conclusions about the situation, but the undeniable fact is that we are witnessing democracy in action.

In 1970, here in America, 20 million people marched nationwide for Earth Day. The Women's March of 2018 had 5 million people walking in Washington, D.C., and the George Floyd Protest (which led to BLM) had 26 million people marching across the country.

Political protests have become the most visible sign of the struggle and desire for democracy here and in countries around the world. They deserve special notice and support.

So, agree or not agree, Israel is demonstrating democracy at its best.

Am Yisrael Chai. I wish you a safe and peaceful Shabbos.

Carin Savel, CEO

carin@shalomct.org

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AMBUCYCLE UPDATE!

Read the latest on the lifesaving ambucycle that our community purchased and donated to Federation's Afula-Gilboa partnership region last spring.

Dear Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County,

This incident highlights how quickly your ambucycle can bring lifesaving care to a location not on your mobile medic’s usual route, albeit still in his general locale. This incident also testifies to how your support for United Hatzalah is helping raise the lifesaving knowledge of the next generation of Jews.

From Holy Activity to Holy Activity

A couple of weeks ago, your dynamic lifesaving EMT Yosef Ben Gigi was home at his writing desk, carefully crafting a mezuzah scroll, when his concentration was interrupted by the squawking of his communications alert device. Factoring in Yosef's expanded effective lifesaving range on your speedy conveyance, United Hatzalah’s Command and Control center had determined that Yosef could be the first to reach a life-threateningly serious knife attack.

Quickly yet gently, he set down his quill, covered his special ink, and bolted out the door to his -- your -- ambucycle. His son a recently fully-trained EMT, accompanied him.

Adrenaline pumps during these races against death, so Yosef had no time or attention to spare to measure the time that had elapsed between alert and arrival. Long after the fact, based on Dispatch’s detailed log, he saw that it had taken him just shy of three minutes. That was a good thing in this case…

Such a Small Hole

There was only one victim, and there was no mistaking who it was. Blood stained the front of the 24-year-old young man’s shirt, under and around a small-diameter tear in the cloth. Not all knife attacks are stabbings, many are relatively shallow but long cuts. This was a stabbing, and apparently a deep one.

Thankfully, the victim was conscious, but perhaps a bit in shock. Urgently he told the orange-clad, human, swiftly-arriving angel, “My chest hurts. Why can’t I breathe enough?”

The hole in the patient’s shirt was not next to his heart, but what had been the trajectory of the blade inside his body? That would need imaging at a hospital. Your medic’s task became: Keep this victim alive to reach a hospital.

Your EMT Stops the Bleeding

Reaching into his medical pack, Yosef grabbed a pressure bandage, a sterilizing liquid, and gauze. He disinfected the part of the wound he could reach, stopped the bleeding, field-dressed the wound. By the time an ambulance arrived, the patient was already prepped and ready to speed to further intervention.

The connection your community shares with the people of Afula is more than some symbolic lifeline. You are making clear, easy-to-point-to, huge differences in many lives. Each difference is made in those precious few moments of the earlier arrival time that your ambucycle allows.

You make Afula a more blessed, and a safer, place to call home. Your impact is spreading to the next generation of United Hatzalah volunteers as well.

With gratitude,

Aryeh Haffner

United Hatzalah

Thursday, May 11 @ 6:30 PM

Jacky Durrell Pavilion at Penfield Beach

Admission: $118/person

Emerging Leaders (40 and under): $72/person

Guest speaker: inspirational financial guru, Amanda Steinberg

Cocktails for a Cause will benefit Dignity Grows, a project to erase Period Poverty in our community.

Join us to pack Dignity Grows totes, filled with menstrual hygiene products for individuals in need.

Join us for a special Cocktails Dignity Grows pack!

COCKTAILS FOR A CAUSE - REGISTER!

More than 4,000 years ago our ancestors hastily mixed together flour and water as they baked for their lives.

We needed something to sustain us but, as we know, were racing against Pharaoh changing his mind about letting us go. Pharaoh did change his mind but not before we quickly baked our unleavened bread and hit the road.

Merkaz’s class “Science and the Jewish Experience” took a look at how we ended up with matzo instead of the bread we would have preferred. Led by faculty member Noah Gordon, the students combined warm water, yeast, and a bit of sugar in an empty bottle before topping it with a balloon. Together they watched as slowly, very slowly, the balloons started to inflate atop their bottles.

As the yeast feeds on the sugar, it produces carbon dioxide. With nowhere else to go, the gas slowly starts to fill the balloon. In baking bread, a similar chemical process takes place when the dough is set aside to rise. The carbon dioxide from the yeast creates thousands of little balloon-like bubbles throughout the dough.

Through this experiment, this group of teens now understand not only that the bread didn’t rise (giving us matzo) but they know WHY the Israelites had crackers and not bread for their journey through the desert.

This is what Merkaz is all about – connecting the lives of our teens with the history, wisdom, and teachings of our people.

Interested in Merkaz? Contact Seth or Sophie.

The Jewish Changemakers Fellowship engages young Jewish adults in a 6-week online leadership experience designed to expand their network and provide a clear path to making a difference in their community.

Applications are now available!

APPLY HERE

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Are you interested in helping to preserve the stories of Holocaust survivors? Are you a survivor or adult child of a survivor who is interested in telling your story?

We need volunteers to help sort letters, catalogue photos and upload testimonials from local Holocaust survivors. We need general office help with creating databases, filing and fielding calls.

Are you interested in writing or telling a your story?

The story of your parents?

You will work with Federation staff and other volunteers to help archive these important documents -- and have an opportunity to protect the legacies of our survivors and their descendants.

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE HRC VOLUNTEERS