A Day of Service

Detroit Jewish News

By Hannah Cohen, 17, Farmington Harrison High School
June 2007

For the last two years, on April 22, Jewish teenagers from around the Country have come together to participate in J-Serve, a national day of volunteering. This year, about 50 teenagers, some from as far away as Indiana, came to volunteer in our Jewish community.

J-Serve is the Jewish component of an annual worldwide day of service for youth. J-Serve, a project of PANIN: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, the Jewish Coalition for Service, and JEXNET: the network for experiential Jewish youth education, awarded special grants to 19 communities including Detroit/Ann Arbor.

The teenagers gathered at the Shul in West Bloomfield to do team-building activities and to hear inspiring words from local attorney, Richard Bernstein.

He explained that after the Nuremberg Trials for Nazi Germany war criminals a study was done to discover how people can allow so much hardship and suffering. Results showed that “man’s inability to empathize with his fellow man is what will and will always give rise to evil,” Bernstein explained, leaving the teenagers with the message that it is their job to help others and to rid the world of evil.

Volunteers had three options. Some teens went to Hadassah House and made Dolls that would be used to comfort sick and injured children in hospitals and to help the medical staff get information or demonstrate treatment in a non-threatening manner. Others went to Meer Jewish Apartments to visit and play games with the residents. A third group made the short trip to Friendship Circle to play with kids in LifeTown.