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Teens on Panim el Panim evacuate Capitol Hill
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By: ELLEN SCHUR BROWN Editor, Family Section
In Washington, D.C., last week, Max Wertheim learned about lobbying, social activism n and the meaning of the phrase "run for your life."
The Cleveland Heights High School student was on a four-day program, Panim el Panim, designed to educate teens about viewing social issues from a Jewish perspective. On the last day of the trip, Wednesday, May 11, he and about ten other students from Congregation Shaarey Tikvah were on a tour of the Capitol when an alarm sounded. A guard told them to walk faster because the building was being evacuated. Max didn't notice anything out of the ordinary until he got outside and had an overview of the whole scene.
"Behind me there was a huge wall of people running towards us," he said. "Down the steps, I could see police in riot gear. There were barricades around the building, and guards were moving them so people could run away from the building. Running down the Capital steps was the scariest moment."
"The hallways were peaceful and tranquil on the way up, but on the way down, alarms were going off," adds Josh Kropko, 17, of Lyndhurst, another student on the Panim tour. "There were uniformed guards in bulletproof armor holding M-16s and shotguns." The Brush High School student described the sounds outside: stampedes of people running, F-16 fighter jets overhead, ambulances, people fainting in the 80-degree heat. The boys were uncharacteristically dressed in suits, the girls in high heels, all ill-suited to running.
Josh also became aware of an eerie silence, like the eye of the hurricane.
"They (the guards) meant business. I thought the building was about to blow up any second," said Rabbi Edward Bernstein, who spurred his group to run almost two miles down New Jersey Avenue to find a subway station.
Using their cell phones, the students heard from their parents, who relayed reports from CNN, that a small plane entered restricted airspace without clearance. The teens snapped digital photos of the chaos, yet in a distinctly un-teen-like fashion, they were genuinely afraid.
"Looking back they'll regard it as an adventure, something we can all kind of chuckle about, but at the time, some kids were very scared," said Bernstein. "They were saying, ‘Rabbi, we've gotta get out of here' and ‘I just want to go home.'"
"We were shaken," admits Josh. "The rabbi said it's an expression of how precious life is, and we were all reflecting about that."
At the time, he recalled, a "Star Trek" episode popped into his head where Klingons say, "Today would be a good day to die." "I was thinking, I've led a happy life." As soon as he could, he called his father to say he was safe.
For Bernstein, and many others, the evacuation proved "an immediate flashback to 9/11." At the time, Bernstein was associate rabbi at Beth El in New Rochelle, a New York suburb, so he took the mobilization effort seriously. "It's best to err on the side of caution," he said.
Larry Weiss of Beachwood chaperoned another group from Shaarey Tikvah, but they had a much more relaxed experience, meeting with Senator Mike DeWine at the time of the alert. The senator told his aides, "Oh, let me just finish answering this question." He chatted with the students a few more minutes, posed for a few more pictures, then leisurely strolled outside. Ignoring the pandemonium of runners and riot gear, he introduced the teens to a group of other senators standing on the Capitol steps and continued schmoozing.
Max and a few of the other "evacuees" retold their experiences on Shabbat morning at Shaarey Tikvah. In a CJN phone interview, Max moved quickly from the dramatic evacuation to the intended purpose of the seminar: meeting leading policy-makers and lobbying for social issues.
He said he considered himself a tolerant person, but the program forced him to confront his prejudices against homeless people.
As part of the program, the group met a man who had a master's degree but found himself with nowhere to live when he lost a job that had also provided him with housing. Another woman became homeless when she left her abusive husband. As a result of the consciousness-raising seminar, Max said he was inspired to organize a local social-action group to investigate solutions to homelessness and other social problems.
In the past two months, more than 100 teens from Cleveland have participated in Panim el Panim (Face to Face), thanks to an anonymous donor who funded the cost of the trips, coordinated by the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland.
Akiva High School, Betar, Beth Israel, The West Temple, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Fuchs Mizrachi, Israel Culture Clubs of Cleveland, Park Synagogue Religious School, and Suburban Temple-Kol Ami all sent groups on the four-day program.
PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, which organizes the program, says the homeless issue has the greatest impact on participants.
In his middle-class suburban world of Beachwood High School, Mark Beytas had never really talked to a homeless person before.
Homeless people aren't necessarily lazy, shiftless or criminal n many are well educated, he learned. "They are just like us, only they have economic problems."
Roma Verzub of Brush High School appreciated the opportunity to help by distributing clothing to the homeless on the streets of Washington, D.C.
"I was really touched by the plight of the homeless people," said Shaker's Katie Mintzer. "They came to the program and spoke about the stereotypes people place on them. This is a big issue in Cleveland, too."
Students also met with lobbyists and took on roles for a congressional simulation exercise.
"We were all assigned different jobs, and I was a member of Congress," said Nehama Rogozen, who belongs to Hathaway Brown's Israel Culture Club and attends Akiva High School. Other students acted as members of the legislative staff. "We decided about closing the ‘gun show loophole,' which allows people to buy guns at shows without background checks," she says.
"The most memorable moment was lobbying Arran Haynes, an aide to Senator George Voinovich," said Ben Sattin of Shaker Heights High School. "We lobbied for studying abroad in Israel for college credit. He was not aware that (some) schools don't transfer credits from Israel to the university. Haynes promised that he would tell Voinovich to put this issue before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
Other groups met with Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Representative Steven LaTourette.
"My most memorable experience was fighting for supporting Israel within the group and educating the other kids who knew nothing about Israel," said Laurel junior Anna Bolman.
"Not only does Panim el Panim help students to relate Judaism to the hot issues of the day, it also helps them realize that their active involvement in social and political issues is a way to affect tikkun olam (repair of the world)," said Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founder and president of PANIM.
"I gained a better understanding and a greater passion for politics," reflected Hallie Brooks of Pepper Pike. "I will now try to play a more active and aware role in my community."
That, in fact, is the goal of this program n to empower teens to lobby for their issues and become more involved in Israeli politics.
While in D.C., the students also explored the U.S. Capitol, toured the monuments, visited The U.S. National Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American History Museum, the American Indian Museum and The George Washington University and Smithsonian museums. They also enjoyed memorable visits to Georgetown, some during spring downpours.
The Cleveland Heights High School student was on a four-day program, Panim el Panim, designed to educate teens about viewing social issues from a Jewish perspective. On the last day of the trip, Wednesday, May 11, he and about ten other students from Congregation Shaarey Tikvah were on a tour of the Capitol when an alarm sounded. A guard told them to walk faster because the building was being evacuated. Max didn't notice anything out of the ordinary until he got outside and had an overview of the whole scene.
"Behind me there was a huge wall of people running towards us," he said. "Down the steps, I could see police in riot gear. There were barricades around the building, and guards were moving them so people could run away from the building. Running down the Capital steps was the scariest moment."
"The hallways were peaceful and tranquil on the way up, but on the way down, alarms were going off," adds Josh Kropko, 17, of Lyndhurst, another student on the Panim tour. "There were uniformed guards in bulletproof armor holding M-16s and shotguns." The Brush High School student described the sounds outside: stampedes of people running, F-16 fighter jets overhead, ambulances, people fainting in the 80-degree heat. The boys were uncharacteristically dressed in suits, the girls in high heels, all ill-suited to running.
Josh also became aware of an eerie silence, like the eye of the hurricane.
"They (the guards) meant business. I thought the building was about to blow up any second," said Rabbi Edward Bernstein, who spurred his group to run almost two miles down New Jersey Avenue to find a subway station.
Using their cell phones, the students heard from their parents, who relayed reports from CNN, that a small plane entered restricted airspace without clearance. The teens snapped digital photos of the chaos, yet in a distinctly un-teen-like fashion, they were genuinely afraid.
"Looking back they'll regard it as an adventure, something we can all kind of chuckle about, but at the time, some kids were very scared," said Bernstein. "They were saying, ‘Rabbi, we've gotta get out of here' and ‘I just want to go home.'"
"We were shaken," admits Josh. "The rabbi said it's an expression of how precious life is, and we were all reflecting about that."
At the time, he recalled, a "Star Trek" episode popped into his head where Klingons say, "Today would be a good day to die." "I was thinking, I've led a happy life." As soon as he could, he called his father to say he was safe.
For Bernstein, and many others, the evacuation proved "an immediate flashback to 9/11." At the time, Bernstein was associate rabbi at Beth El in New Rochelle, a New York suburb, so he took the mobilization effort seriously. "It's best to err on the side of caution," he said.
Larry Weiss of Beachwood chaperoned another group from Shaarey Tikvah, but they had a much more relaxed experience, meeting with Senator Mike DeWine at the time of the alert. The senator told his aides, "Oh, let me just finish answering this question." He chatted with the students a few more minutes, posed for a few more pictures, then leisurely strolled outside. Ignoring the pandemonium of runners and riot gear, he introduced the teens to a group of other senators standing on the Capitol steps and continued schmoozing.
Max and a few of the other "evacuees" retold their experiences on Shabbat morning at Shaarey Tikvah. In a CJN phone interview, Max moved quickly from the dramatic evacuation to the intended purpose of the seminar: meeting leading policy-makers and lobbying for social issues.
He said he considered himself a tolerant person, but the program forced him to confront his prejudices against homeless people.
As part of the program, the group met a man who had a master's degree but found himself with nowhere to live when he lost a job that had also provided him with housing. Another woman became homeless when she left her abusive husband. As a result of the consciousness-raising seminar, Max said he was inspired to organize a local social-action group to investigate solutions to homelessness and other social problems.
In the past two months, more than 100 teens from Cleveland have participated in Panim el Panim (Face to Face), thanks to an anonymous donor who funded the cost of the trips, coordinated by the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland.
Akiva High School, Betar, Beth Israel, The West Temple, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Fuchs Mizrachi, Israel Culture Clubs of Cleveland, Park Synagogue Religious School, and Suburban Temple-Kol Ami all sent groups on the four-day program.
PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, which organizes the program, says the homeless issue has the greatest impact on participants.
In his middle-class suburban world of Beachwood High School, Mark Beytas had never really talked to a homeless person before.
Homeless people aren't necessarily lazy, shiftless or criminal n many are well educated, he learned. "They are just like us, only they have economic problems."
Roma Verzub of Brush High School appreciated the opportunity to help by distributing clothing to the homeless on the streets of Washington, D.C.
"I was really touched by the plight of the homeless people," said Shaker's Katie Mintzer. "They came to the program and spoke about the stereotypes people place on them. This is a big issue in Cleveland, too."
Students also met with lobbyists and took on roles for a congressional simulation exercise.
"We were all assigned different jobs, and I was a member of Congress," said Nehama Rogozen, who belongs to Hathaway Brown's Israel Culture Club and attends Akiva High School. Other students acted as members of the legislative staff. "We decided about closing the ‘gun show loophole,' which allows people to buy guns at shows without background checks," she says.
"The most memorable moment was lobbying Arran Haynes, an aide to Senator George Voinovich," said Ben Sattin of Shaker Heights High School. "We lobbied for studying abroad in Israel for college credit. He was not aware that (some) schools don't transfer credits from Israel to the university. Haynes promised that he would tell Voinovich to put this issue before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
Other groups met with Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Representative Steven LaTourette.
"My most memorable experience was fighting for supporting Israel within the group and educating the other kids who knew nothing about Israel," said Laurel junior Anna Bolman.
"Not only does Panim el Panim help students to relate Judaism to the hot issues of the day, it also helps them realize that their active involvement in social and political issues is a way to affect tikkun olam (repair of the world)," said Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founder and president of PANIM.
"I gained a better understanding and a greater passion for politics," reflected Hallie Brooks of Pepper Pike. "I will now try to play a more active and aware role in my community."
That, in fact, is the goal of this program n to empower teens to lobby for their issues and become more involved in Israeli politics.
While in D.C., the students also explored the U.S. Capitol, toured the monuments, visited The U.S. National Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American History Museum, the American Indian Museum and The George Washington University and Smithsonian museums. They also enjoyed memorable visits to Georgetown, some during spring downpours.
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