After waking up much earlier than anyone should have to on spring break, we headed first to the Jewish Museum of Florida. We learned a lot about the history of Jews in Florida and how they had such a great impact on shaping Florida’s history and making Miami one of the most populated Jewish areas in the world. After touring the museum we met with a local Jewish woman who, along with her husband, founded a Kosher food bank that has grown to feed hundreds of families in the area. Her speech about how just one person can make such a huge difference was really inspiring and made us all really excited to start our community service. For the rest of the afternoon we volunteered with Lotus, a woman’s shelter. The shelter places an emphasis on teaching the women to be independent once they leave the shelter by helping them with their resumes, helping them to find job interviews, and teaching them basic skills such as cooking. Just seeing how much of an impact the shelter had on these women, many of them with young children, and hearing about the 2 month waiting list just to be able to live there, really made us appreciate our own homes as well as all the opportunities that we have that these woman may never get to experience. After dinner we went to the Jewish Federation of Greater Miami where we met Hillel groups from other universities that are in Miami doing community service over spring break. A panel of exceptional leaders talked to us about the importance of community service and how what we are doing has such an impact. One woman just got back from volunteering in Haiti two weeks ago and her stories of hope in such a devastated country were really touching. Today was just the beginning of our weeklong act of community service and already we can see the impact we are going to have on people’s lives.
Liana Farb
Amy Prager
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