Posted on 03/29/2016 6:00:17 AM PDT by af_vet_1981
Four days a week, Zippel drives across Utah’s sometimes treacherous terrain, visiting 100 Jewish adolescents. They are 10-18 year olds, each facing their own struggle: drug abuse, violent behaviors or eating disorders.
In 1996, a young rabbi walked onto the grounds of Youthcare, a residential treatment center for troubled teens in Provo, Utah on a mission. He was looking for a certain Akiva Greenfield*, a gangly Israeli teenager. When he finally found him, the smiling rabbi introduced himself.
Rabbi Benny Zippel from Chabad wanted him to know that he had a friend in Utah. “If there is anything I can do for you while you’re in here, please let me know. When they give you the ok, I’d like for you to come visit me for Shabbat.”
(Excerpt) Read more at lubavitch.com ...
Thank you so much for posting this.
Youth struggle anyway.
From Cain on down. Yes.
The entire story is worth a read, and has generally nothing to do with Mormons.
Cool story. Thanks for posting.
I live in a remote part of New Mexico. The other day I saw three Orthodox Jews that looked like this guy getting gasoline.
I was thinking “man these guys are lost.”
Maybe not.
Deport the troubled teen. In fact, a couple of years doing manual labor on a kibbutz might straighten him out.
I read somewhere else that Utah was a favorite destination for troubled youth camps. It is big, broad and relatively uninhabited except in the narrow Wasatch Valley (8 miles or so on each side of I-15 from Provo to Ogden) where 80% of the population reside. Hard labor building trails, roads and campsites in remote areas is an effective cure for substance abusers.
Moving On
After six grueling months in Utah, Akiva returned to Israel, reconnected with his family and his faith, completed his military service in the IDF and got a postgraduate degree. Today, 19 years later, the 35-year-old lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children, with a successful career as a clinical social worker that specializes in adolescents. And he stays in touch with the Zippels, visiting the family periodically.
Jews are everywhere. :)
There’s one thing that’s a little unique, and hopefully it’s changing.
Many of us Jews in our youth were bombarded with Holocaust imagery and teachings. Think about what that does to young, impressionable Jews. Sometimes the signal and the meaning gets twisted into something you cannot imagine, rather than the true message.
Ha. And for clarity, I have zero against Jews.
It was just odd to see 3 dudes, in black suits, in the middle of no where desert (think Roswell and nuclear bomb sites), when it was 110F outside.
We’re not even on a major highway.
I think they were going to Lincoln, NM to see the Billy-the-Kidd stuff.
We like the desert for some strange reason. ;)
Seeking out and helping vulnerable Jewish young people is an outstanding ministry. Best wishes to all the Chabad workers.
Apparently you guys still get lost as Hell in them, too.
We’ve invented GPS since then. Heck a compass would work.
The Sun, even.
I suppose I’ll see those guys again in 39 years.
With the caveat that he works as a volunteer and not as a certified mental health professional, his involvement as a non-professional, he says, works in his favor. “When kids are with me, they make the distinction that they are not in therapy. They are not being analyzed or scrutinized. They are being loved.”
Good article, and an essential outreach.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.