May 28, 2014
Federation’s Youth Ambassadors Learn About Israel Advocacy, Holocaust Education on Spring Mini-Mission
Just before school let out and summer vacations began, 24 of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Youth Ambassadors gathered together for their spring “mini-mission,” where they learned about the work of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and its partner agencies.
The Youth Ambassador Program teaches important leadership skills while also enabling students to see firsthand how the Annual Federation/UJA Campaign supports a wide variety of vital programs and services throughout the Jewish community. The participants are students from Hebrew Academy (RASG), Jacobson Sinai Academy, Lehrman Community Day School, Scheck Hillel Community School and Temple Beth Am Day School. These students share what they learn about Federation and the Jewish community with their school community throughout the school year, thereby acting as advocates for the Jewish people. They also organize drives, phonathons and fundraising events for Federation.
The Youth Ambassadors’ day began with a Jewish learning experience, reading Deuteronomy 15:11 and Maimonides’ Laws of the Gifts to the Poor 7:13. Both texts ask questions about taking care of the needy and in what priority.
“We talked about the importance of the mitzvah of taking care of your family, your community, your neighbors, strangers and people who live in other countries,” Lehrman Community Day School 5th grader and Youth Ambassador Harrison Lieber said.
The students, along with their parent chaperones and school advisors, discussed what it means to be a Jew and an American, how they each identify themselves, how these questions affect their relationship to Israel and the privilege they have to live in a country and culture where they are free to choose how they answer those questions. This discussion was the perfect segue for their first guest speaker of the day, Israel’s Consul General to Florida and Puerto Rico Chaim Shacham.
Shacham joined the students to discuss the current concerns in Israel, how the Consulate and Embassy system operates and how Federation works with the Consulate to advocate for Israel. He talked about Iran’s nuclear threat, and the partnership between Federation, the State of Florida and Miami-Dade County to participate in economic sanctions against Iran.
Out of this discussion, the Youth Ambassadors decided they wanted to work together with the Consulate and Federation to develop a curriculum and action plan that would enable them and other students to spread the message through their school communities and find ways to let lawmakers know they support Israel.
In the afternoon, the students went to Weinberg Federation Towers, an affordable apartment complex in Miami Beach for seniors, sponsored by Federation. They served lunch and socialized with the residents, and performed a few show tunes!
The students finished their day with a trip to the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens for lunch and a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, where they heard from Alan Hall about his Holocaust survival story. The Youth Ambassadors were riveted by Hall’s story, asking many poignant and sensitive questions. Holocaust educator Joe Unger then took the students on a tour of the Memorial, sharing several moving and tragic stories from the Holocaust.
To learn more about the Federation Youth Ambassadors, contact Laura Guren Rodriguez at [email protected] or 786.866.8680.
