NCJW Palm Beach

INVITATION TO ATTEND OUR INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS AND BOARD AND VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION

Incoming co-Presidents Rona Goldstein and Gail Siegel

NCJW members are invited to be our guest at a Dessert Reception where we will install our incoming Officers and Board Members and we will honor our terrific Section Volunteers.

Wednesday, April 3

2 PM to 3:30 PM

Palm Beach Gardens Marriott Hotel, 4000 RCA Boulevard, Palm Beach Gardens. (I-95 to PGA Blvd. EAST.  Go right for .02 miles, turn right on RCA Blvd, just past the Shell gas station)

Our VOUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD will be presented to Sarajane Feinsilver.

There is no charge, but an RSVP by March 25 is required to Donna Eckstein This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

561-641-6002

NCJW OPENS FIFTH KCC IN TWO YEARS

The Lake Park Elementary School is the fifth public school in Palm Beach County to have a KIDS COMMUNITY CLOSET.  Our other KCC's are in  Benoist, Grove Park, Highland and South Grade Elementary Schools.

Shortly after opening the CLOSET at Lake Park we received a letter from the Parent Liaison at the school, Lisamarie Wear:

Dear NCJW,

This letter is to thank you for selecting our school to participate in your wonderful program!  The KIDS COMMUNITY CLOSET will help fill a great need at our school.  We are a Title One school with 96% of our children receiving free or reduced lunch.  Many of our families are in survival mode and welcome the support.  Your organizations is allowing us to assist our neediest students on a very basic level with huge ramifications.

When students that don't have the basic essentials/uniforms are given what they need it is instrumental in their well-being and success in the school setting.  Instantly, you can see their self-esteem and self confidence increase!  I wish you could see the smiling faces and receive the enthusiastic hugs, from both  the students and parents, when the receive the items you provide.   You have helped us set these students up for success.  We are all extremely grateful. "

 "Every stranger is an enemy." So said Primo Levi in "Survival in Auschwitz."

This quote was read at the Riviera Beach Prep Academy during a discussion on the roots of youth violence by Ms. Toshimi Abe-Janiga, the Holocaust Studies educator from the Riviera Beach Preparatory and Achievement Academy. As the only public alternative high school offering a Holocaust Studies elective, and as a school comprised of predominantly at-risk African American students, Ms. Abe-Janiga was determined to convince her students that this was not necessarily true.

In September of last year, Ms. Abe-Janiga wrote to our Executive Board, asking our assistance in order to help fund the expenses of several students and chaperones for travel to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, as a culminating event to their Holocaust studies program. Ms. Abe-Janiga strongly believes that "students should understand their own cultural identity and their personal responsibility for ending discrimination."

Although requests such as this are out of the purview of our mission, when brought to the Board, the comments were, "If we can change one child's view of anti-semitism, or make one child more aware of the consequences of hate, we must do just that." And so, we underwrote the costs of sending one of the students to Washington, DC.

When informed of our decision, Ms. Abe-Janiga stated that the children couldn't believe that total strangers were willing to do this for them.

We, the women of the Palm Beach Section, believe that "if we save one life, it's as though we've saved the world."

We have received a beautiful thank you letter from the school, which you can read on our website: www.ncjwpalmbeach.org.