Thursday, February 15, 2018

Jamie Guttenberg Slaughtered in Florida School Massacre ... 4 Jewish Students among the Victims


Jamie Guttenberg A”H has been identified as a victim in the massacare at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
Her parents are Fred and Jennifer Guttenberg.
Their son Jesse, also a student at the school, thankfully made it home.
Another Jewish victim was being treated at a local hospital.
Ben Wikander was shot three times and was undergoing surgery at Broward North.
Ben Wikander
Among the 17 victims are 4 Jewish students.
They have been identified to YWN as:
Medow Pollack 18
Alyssa Alhadeff 14
Jamie Guttenberg 14
Alex Schachter (Teen Student)
A former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Florida high schoolWednesday, killing at least 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets in the nation’s deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The shooter, who was equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades, set off a fire alarm to draw students out of classrooms shortly before the day ended at one of the state’s largest schools, officials said.
Authorities offered no immediate details on the 19-year-old suspect or any possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has about 3,000 students.
Students who knew the shooter, identified as Nikolas Cruz, described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him, particularly after the fight that led to his expulsion.
Sources confirm that a few hundred Jewish teenagers attend this school. At least one Jewish student is missing. Please say Tehillim for Rochel bas Leah. As of this posting, her parents have still not located her.
“It was a wrenching scene,” Rabbi Mendy Gutnick, youth director at Chabad of Parkland, told Chabad.org. “Parents were gathered outside while their children were still inside of the school, and they had no way to save them.”
“Together with Rabbi Shuey Biston, I rushed to the school to give support to anyone we could. The school is at least 40% Jewish, so we know many of the students and their parents,” he continued. “We went from parent to parent and tried to offer as much comfort as possible, and helped them recite Psalms, praying for the students and faculty in the school. ”
The rabbi said he is coordinating with his fellow Chabad rabbis from nearby Coral Springs, home of many of the students, to hold an evening of prayer, consolation and memorial later this week.

8 comments:

AishKodesh said...

B"H

Oy, what a tragedy. About the goyim in it too.

H said...

Heartbreaking. BDE

Anonymous said...

Lubavitch capitalizing once again.

Leiby said...

L'maan Hashem, take away their guns! How many more victims will it take till America decides to become a civilized country with gun control measures in place??

Lewis Peter said...

Anonymous.You area a lowly piece of....
Chabad saves 1000s of yidden every year. They deserve our support and admiration.

Anonymous said...

A Jewish Teacher was also killed while saving students. His name was Scott Beigel

Chafraud-Depravitch said...

Lewis Peter said...

"Anonymous.You area a lowly piece of....
Chabad saves 1000s of yidden every year. They deserve our support and admiration. "


Anonymous at 11:27 AM is correct. Chabad knows how to work disaster PR and this situation is no different. It's one thing to do the right thing (with humility and sincerity). It's another to do it while grandstanding and tooting one's own horn. Honestly - and sadly - Chabad's most useful place was likely not AT the site of the horror, but dealing with the aftermath. It's not very likely that "saying tehillim" during the (secular) school evacuation was a high priority. Their most useful place is possibly helping some families make funeral arrangements, deal with the pain as reality sets in for survivors/family, or offer some kind of support during their healing process. Those are all good things Chabad could do that don't offer media self-promotion opportunities.

And I don't know that they save "1000s of yidden every year" as you claim. How exactly do they do that? And don't cite Lubavitchers helping Lubavitchers. Many of us are well aware how territorial they are; very generous among their own, less so for helping non-Lubavitch outsiders.

It's especially unfortunate that I've seen some shluchim take advantage of vulnerable people in their times of loss and grief. Let's just hope these shluchim in FL aren't like that.

Can Chabad do the right thing when needed? Sure. Can they do it without their brand of "hey, look, we're doing the right thing" self-promotion which is so familiar when they show up for tragedies and disasters?

Did other religion's clergy do similar grandstanding? I looked for stories of priests or ministers there, but found none. I only turned up this story of Chabad grabbing more media coverage the next day.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/parkland/florida-school-shooting/fl-school-shooting-parkland-douglas-medical-examiner-s-office-20180215-story.html
Reaching out to the families affiliated with them (and others) is a beautiful thing. The PR grab while families are experiencing the worst of horrors is repellent.

AishKodesh said...

B"H

Shalom Aleichem everyone: Today I spoke to a big Posek about being on this blog, and he basically told me to stop coming here.

So I guess I'll real quickly wish everyone here fairwell, and please, please, be careful what you say and how you act. I must. We all must.

I probably will miss you guys a bit, and I would really love if you could keep in contact, either on my blog or via email at aishkodesh611@gmail.com.

Anyway, I wish you all and your families wonderful lives full of Avodas Hashem and Simcha, which go hand in hand, and a great Rosh Chodesh, Shabbos, Adar, Purim, etc.! Mi shenichnisu b'Adar marbin b'Simcha!

Kol Tuv, my dear friends!

Refoel Berel Hakatan