My heart is broken.
Yesterday, I was installed as the next President of ECE-RJ. In a zoom room, filled with colleagues, friends and family, I was truly overwhelmed and feeling so much gratitude and love.... and then the call ended, I turned my phone back on and it was like all the air left the room.
Ten days after a horrific shooting in a grocery store in Buffalo, NY, 19 children and 2 adults were killed in their classrooms in their elementary school in Uvalde, TX. 19 second, third and fourth graders, 1 teacher and 1 school employee (the news as of now).
It is enough.
As a Director of a school, I can’t help but going to a dark place – what if…
My social media news feed is flooded with “thoughts and prayers” – and we need time for that. But, we also need to take action.
Over the next weeks and months, you’ll hear a lot about what I hope to accomplish in my presidency, about the goals that the board has set for ECE-RJ, and the impact it will have on the world of Early Childhood Jewish Education; but for now, we have some serious work to do.
In my first act as President, ECE-RJ will be making a donation to Everytown for Gun Safety on behalf of our entire organization. We invite you to join us in doing this - every $1 makes a difference in their ability to advocate and fight.
In the meantime, though, we also need to make space to heal and to process and so I invite you to join me on zoom on Friday afternoon at 3pm ET/ 2pm CT/ 12pm PT. We will have a moment of silence and say the Mourners' Kaddish for the victims of this heinous event and then we will just have space for us to talk and to support one another. Please register for the zoom HERE.
We are including below some links to resources that may be useful in your own communities – both in terms of helping parents and educators to support the children that they care for and in terms of advocacy and education. It is by no means an exhaustive list and I encourage each of you to share out the resources and organizations that are doing this important work – please use our FB page and the forum as a platform to help us all take action.
We are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are we free to desist from it (Pirkei Avot 2:21)
I am thinking of each and every one of you and of the families in Uvalde.
Lisa Samick
Incoming President of ECE-RJ
Supporting young children through tragedy:
Child Mind Institute – Helping Children Cope with Frightening News
Today Show: An Age by Age Guide to talk about shootings
Fred Rogers: Helping Children with Tragic Events in the News
National Child Traumatic Stress Network – Helping Children with Traumatic Grief
Advocacy/Education:
Religious Action Center: Gun Violence Prevention
