In Memoriam Last Week, 17 People Perished When a Gunman Burst Into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida
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FEBRUARY 22, 2018 – 7 ADAR 5778 JEWISHVOL 42, NO 15 JOURNALJEWISHJOURNAL.ORG In Memoriam Last week, 17 people perished when a gunman burst into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida. Five of the victims were Jewish. This week we remember their lives and families. Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 Jaime Guttenberg, 14 Alyssa Alhadeff told her Jaime Guttenberg was 14, mother that she loved her as and a ninth grade student. she was being dropped off at She loved to dance. Her older the Marjory Stoneman Douglas brother, Jesse, who is also a stu- High School last week. Those dent at the school, survived the were the last words she would shooting. She was the daughter ever say to her mother, Lori of Jennifer and Fred Guttenberg. Alhadeff. Alyssa was killed last Her father wrote on Facebook: week in the mass shooting at “My heart is broken. the school. According to family Yesterday, Jennifer Bloom friends, Alyssa and her family Guttenberg and I lost our baby had moved from New Jersey girl to a violent shooting at her to Florida a few years ago. Her school. We lost our daughter father, Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, is an and my son Jesse Guttenberg internist. Alyssa was on the lost his sister. I am broken as debate team, and played soc- I write this trying to figure out cer for the Parkland Soccer how my family gets through Club. The family attended this. We appreciate all of the Chabad of Parkland. calls and messages and we In an appearance on CNN apologize for not reacting to after the shooting, Lori Alhadeff pleaded for better school security everyone individually. Jen and I and gun control. “You need to help us now, we need security now will be figuring things out today for all these children who have to go to school. We need action,” and so we ask that you respect Lori Alhadeff said. “What if it was your child that was shot three out privacy. We will be getting times in the head, in the heart and the hand?” messages out later regarding Her father, Dr. Ilan Alhadeff, said, “It’s the time to talk about it visitation. Hugs to all and hold today and the next day and the day after until this is resolved.” your children tight.” Meadow Pollack, 18 Alex Schachter, 14 Scott Beigel, 35 Meadow Pollack Alex Schachter Scott Beigel was excited about was 14, and a was a geography graduating from freshman, when teacher at Marjory Marjory Stoneman he was killed Stoneman Douglas Douglas High last week in the High School and School, and planned school mas- also served on the to attend Lynn sacre. His older staff at Starlight University in Boca brother, who was Summer Camp Raton. She was 18 also a student at in Pennsylvania. when she was shot the school, sur- Beigel grew up in and killed last week vived the shoot- Long Island, and inside her school. ing. According was killed after he “Everyone should to his father, unlocked a door know how great she Max Schachter, and tried to hide was,” her cousin, Alex played the students from the Jake Maisner, told trombone in the gunman. A student, the Sun-Sentinel in school’s march- Kelsey Friend, told Florida. “She was a ing band, and his ABC-TV that Beigel beautiful girl, inside favorite song was had saved her life. and out … She was the baby of the family. Everyone Chicago’s “25 or “He unlocked the wanted to protect her … ” 6 to 4.” door and let us in,” A friend, Gii Lovito, posted on Facebook last When Alex was five his mother died. Later, Friend said. “I had thought he was behind me, but he week: “Please say a prayer for the family of an his father, Max Schachter, remarried. The family wasn’t. When he opened the door, he had to re-lock it amazing girl I got to call my best friend growing up attended Congregation Beth Am, a Conservative so we could stay safe, but he didn’t get the chance to. Meadow Pollack ... her life was taken way too soon synagogue in Longwood. Max Schachter told the “He was in the doorway and the door was still open and I have no words to describe how this feels. Rest New York Times that Alex was “a sweetheart of a and the shooter probably didn’t know we were in there In Peace my beautiful angel you are and forever will kid” and “just wanted to do well and make his par- because he was lying on the floor. If the shooter had be loved.” ents happy.” come in the room, I probably wouldn’t be [alive].” Meadow was the daughter of Andrew Pollack and The teen, who was described as confident “He was my hero and he will forever be my hero,” Shara Kaplan. She also leaves her older brothers and kind, loved summer camps, playing Nerf bas- Friend told CNN in a separate interview. “I’ll never for- Huck and Hunter; and grandmother Evelyn Pollack, ketball in his room and collecting Fatheads sports get the actions he took for me and for fellow students all of Parkland. decals. in the classroom.” The Jewish Journal is a nonprofit newspaper supported by generous readers, committed advertisers and charitable organizations. Email [email protected]. 2 THE JEWISH JOURNAL – JEWISHJOURNAL.ORG – FEBRUARY 22, 2018 Michelson to receive National Jewish Book Award By Penny Schwartz R. Michelson Galleries in he realized it didn’t easily trans- on exhibits of Nimoy’s photo- JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT Northampton, represents the late into a children’s book. graphs. Nimoy became a men- artist’s work, along with many For one thing, Ben-Yehuda tor to Michelson and over many Fifteen years may be a long other prominent children’s illus- used his son to advance his decades, the two became close time for a spark of an idea to trators. own vision, Michelson said. friends. blossom into a children’s book. “I knew Karla’s illustra- He wasn’t well-liked and some At the Star Trek convention, But for Northampton writer tions would make the story,” even thought he was crazy, Michelson met a father and Richard Michelson, the timing Michelson said in a phone Michelson discovered. He put his young son who was being proved just right. interview with the Journal, add- the idea aside. taught to speak in Klingon – On March 6, Michelson, ing that the colorful, fun illus- The unlikely “aha” moment the fully constructed imaginary a one-time poet laureate of trations ground a story that can arrived many years and many Vulcan-culture language cre- Northampton and multi-award be hard for younger children to children’s books later, at a Star ated for Star Trek. winning author of some 20 grasp. Trek convention in New York “The kid wasn’t speaking children’s books – including Michelson first heard of Ben- City. Michelson was soaking up English,” Michelson recalled. many on Jewish subjects – will Yehuda more than 15 years ago the Trekkie culture for his book, He asked the father if his son receive the coveted National from his friend Neil Waldman, “Fascinating,” about the life of was the first native Klingon- Jewish Book Award in the cat- an artist and children’s book Leonard Nimoy, the Boston- speaker in the US. egory of children’s literature writer and illustrator for whom born Jewish actor-director who “Just like that, boom, this for “The Language of Angels: the book is dedicated. They rose to fame and cult-status story came flooding back. At the A Story About the Reinvention playing the Vulcan scientist Mr. moment I knew my way in,” to of Hebrew,” illustrated by Karla Richard Michelson Spock in the Star Trek television the Ben-Yehuda story, by tell- Gudeon, published last year by and film series. ing it from the point of view of Watertown-based Charlesbridge The young Ben-Zion is “Kids think of Michelson features Nimoy’s the young son, Michelson said. Publishing. shunned by the local kids who language as given fine art photography at his gal- From that point, the writing The award was given by the speak Yiddish and the many from on high.” lery, and the two collaborated flowed. Jewish Book Council. The book other languages common in It was made easier knowing is based on the life of Eliezer pre-state Israel. Over time, – Richard Michelson that Ben-Yehuda’s son, Ben- Ben-Yehuda, the father of mod- father and son join forces in Zion, had formed a strong rela- ern Hebrew. inventing new Hebrew words tionship with his father and The story opens in the that Ben-Zion teaches his peers. were deep in conversation wrote a biography about him. late 1880s, in what was then Under Michelson’s masterful about Yiddish, the subject of In an afterword, readers learn Palestine and is told through the pen and his signature simple their 2002 children’s book, “Too more about the real lives of both eyes of Ben-Zion, the son of the prose, young readers discover Young for Yiddish.” Waldman, Ben-Yehuda and Ben-Zion, who eccentric character who insists how Ben-Yehuda, who wrote the who had considered writing a changed his name to Itamar that the young Ben-Zion learn first Hebrew dictionary, invent- book on Ben-Yehuda, gifted the Ben-Avi, and became a champi- only Hebrew, the ancient lan- ed modern Hebrew words for story idea to Michelson. on of the international language guage that, at the time, was con- ice-cream (glida) and bicycle As a lover of words and lan- of Esperanto.