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My book Survivors Club ends with Michael Bornstein ( the protagonist) moving to America and having his Bar Mitzvah, which is a solemn ceremony held in the synagogue, usually on Saturday morning, to admit as an adult member of the Jewish community a Jewish boy 13 years old who has successfully completed a prescribed course of study in Judaism.”To this day, that moment when I learned we would be coming to America is among the happiest moments of my life. ON January 31, 1951-six years after I was liberated from Auschwitz, eleven years after I was born into a ghetto-my second life was about to begin.”(pg 296) “It was May 16, 1953, the day of my bar mitzvah- the Jewish ceremony for a thirteen year-old boy marking his passage to adulthood.” (pg 297) Judaism.http://www.dictionary.com/browse/bar-mitzvah?s=t
Survivors Club matters a lot, due to it being one of the few books that detail what it was like in the concentration/death camps during the Holocaust from the point of view of a survivor, which is especially important as there are those out there that are claiming that the Holocaust never happened.The most valuable takeaway from this book is that complacency of oppressive government actions can lead to tragedies such as the Holocaust, which killed millions of people and left most of the survivors homeless and struggling to survive. This is still valuable, as there are still examples of oppressive governments today, some examples would include Syria, Sudan, & Ethiopia.
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I am reading a historical fiction book based on a true story about a boy named Michael Bornstein who was a Polish Jew during WW2 and the Holocaust. I know this was in during WW2 because on page one it states “It was October 1939” while WW2 started on September 1'st 1939, and September is the Month before October. Anyways, the Jews living in Żarki Poland, including the main characters in my book, were hopeful that the Germans would be content in taking over Poland “As it was, though, most Jews of Żarki were hoping that when the bombing stopped and the German forces defeated the small Polish army and took charge, the invaders would peacefully reign over Poland, content to have won new territory for Hitler’s empire” (pg 13-14), but shattering that hope where the events that unfolded after, the German soldiers started attacking and killing them.“One hundred innocent people were killed in Żarki on the first full day after the Germans arrived”(pg 23).The basic events in the book are entirely factual according to the author's “While the underlying events are entirely factual there is some fiction here...”(Preface pg 7-8), such as how at the start of the book (pg 7-10) Michael’s house in Żarki Poland is intruded upon by German soldiers who steal their valuables, which correlates with the confiscation of Jewish property in the Holocaust.”Surely the most comprehensive and clear guide in English to the manifold ways by which the Nazi regime, its agents, and its allies plundered the European Jews.... An admirable overview [and] also a depressing case study in the crushing effects of bureaucratic ingenuity.”
(https://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/academic-publications/full-list-of-academic-publications/robbing-the-jews-the-confiscation-of-jewish-property-in-the-holocaust) A quick summary of my book to keep you updated, and just in case you forgot my book is called Survivors Club. This book is about a Jewish family living in Zarki, Poland during the time of the Holocaust. They live pretty peacefully until one-day German soldiers invade their city and start stealing their valuables and forcing them to work for the German’s. This book details the events that occurred to the family after Germany invades Poland & is based on a true story.
The main topic of this post is genocide, genocide is a term used to describe the act of violence on a specific group of people meant to wipe them out. Did you know that the word genocide was created during WW2? “ In 1944, Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) coined the term "genocide" https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007043 As most know, the Holocaust was an attempt to eliminate all those of Jewish descent from Europe, so it’s classified as a genocide. While nowadays you don’t hear the word being used very often, there are still examples of it. For this post, I will use the genocide in Syria as an example.The Syrian genocide was started when their President Bashar al-Assad, began to attack protesters who were against the Totalitarian ways of their government & started in 2011. ”The Syrian crisis began in early 2011 when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began a brutal crackdown on growing peaceful protests throughout the country.” http://endgenocide.org/conflict-areas/syria/ The Holocaust and Syrian Civil War are both tragic representations of how governments and military forces can use their power to oppress the civilians they're supposed to be protecting. Another thing that correlates between those two tragedies is that they both were spurred by citizens having false trust in a charismatic leader, just goes to show to never trust your governing body too much. And lastly, they both have resulted in the deaths of millions and the creation of millions of refugees. Introduction
Do you know what it feels like to be living on the streets, sleeping in an alleyway, and having looks of disgust shot at you? Homelessness is when someone has inadequate housing or living situations, whether it be living on the streets, staying in a shelter or in any other unstable or non-permanent situation. When a person cannot find a job or a way to earn money to afford housing, they are forced into homeless shelters or to live on the streets. About twenty percent of people in the United States of America currently lack adequate housing.(White 1) When someone is homeless they feel that their life is worthless or they are not cared for. Everyone should care about this issue because one day you could find yourself homeless on the streets. How would you feel about people not caring a drop about you? The reason we chose this issue is that we can empathize for all the homeless people, as we have seen the effects of homelessness on the body and mind. When one of our group members visited Africa he saw kids around the age of five to six walking on the streets and wearing rags giving him the evil eye, showing the resentment and jealousy homeless people hold toward those with stable housing and food supply. Homelessness negatively impacts our society as a whole. Those in poverty have more tendency to commit crimes than others. Taxes have to be raised in order to provide more shelter and food. Hunger negatively affects people's ability to work and overall decreases productivity.The ones most affected from this issue are those that are homeless themselves. Their mental health starts to be affected negatively and many start using drugs. Those who are homeless have many troubles that can be fixed with our help. The Issue Did you know that of the 4,000 homeless people in Wake County, 2,736 of them are Wake County students? (Raleigh Rescue Mission 2018) Homelessness is an issue anyone can face. One moment you could be relaxing in your multi-million dollar house, and the next moment you are on the street corner asking passing cars for spare change. Homelessness has always been an issue and it continue if our community does not change. “Socialists also recognize that poverty under capitalism is largely maintained by a skewed distribution of wealth and services, not by lack of a work ethic.” (Duhalde 2013) While our country’s Capitalist government is amazing in some ways, it also has some flaws like harvesting the issue of homelessness. Most people have never heard of invisible homelessness. Invisible homelessness is when a person doesn’t have a stable home and is crashing at a differents friend’s house every night. Almost 1 in 12 Wake County residents have sheltered someone who might otherwise be homeless. (Raleigh Rescue Mission 2018) If the amount of people that are invisibly homeless were counted in the statistics, there would be a lot more homeless people on record. There are many reasons as to why a person would be homeless. A few of those reasons are:
There are many effects homelessness has on people and especially children. Here are some shocking facts:
Homelessness doesn’t just affect the individual people, but also the community. The effects of homelessness on society can be quite costly, not only in terms of tax dollars spent but on the strain it puts on social agencies, individuals and families. Taxpayer’s hard earned money is used to fund shelters, pay for homeless people’s medical bills, and pay to fund jails where a many homeless people sadly end up. According to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, it would be cheaper to solve the problem of homelessness as opposed to continuing to pay their expenses. The tax dollars could go towards education, infrastructure, and so much more that we could all benefit from. One homeless person costs taxpayers 40,000 dollars a year. (Moorhead 2012). Also, homelessness isn’t a good look for a location trying to attract tourists. Tourism increases jobs and the wealth of an area. Another negative effect of homelessness on the community is crime. A fifth of homeless people have committed imprisonable offences like shoplifting. (Ramesh 2010) When people are put in stressful situations they will do anything they have to to get out of it and survive. If this issue is not taken care of, taxes will continue to go up, crime levels won’t go down, and homelessness’ victims will continue to struggle. The Solution Since homelessness is such a big issue in our community, there are a lot of people desperately looking for ways to help the homeless population. Over time, people who were willing to give have come up with various solutions to lessen the burdens placed upon those without a home to live in. While taking the number of homeless people into account, one issue we can all agree on is that the homeless may have a hard time gaining access to food. A lot of these people do not know when their next meal will come. The Raleigh Rescue Mission in particular, is known for giving meals to those in need. Typically, they’ll serve over 140,000 meals per year. A solution to those going hungry, would be making more food available to those who are in need. The Raleigh Rescue Mission is an organization which helps the homeless throughout the city. They provide meals for those who need it, and have helped plenty of people get back on their feet. They happen to offer a selection of volunteer services, one of which directly helps people who need food. They allow you to help prepare 60-65 meals for their overnight emergency shelter, so that shelter guests will have a source of food available to them once they leave the shelter the following morning. By them doing this, they can provide one more meal that may save a life. We still need to help the homeless, because there are still people who are living in poverty, who cannot find an adequate meal, or shelter to stay. These are basic human rights that should be applied to every human being. What can we do to help? Many homeless people in our community do not know where their next meal is coming from. Those in poverty have trouble maintaining a stable food source. The Urban Ministries in Wake County is a non-profit organization that helps provide shelter, food and medicine for those who are less fortunate. Maintaining a healthy nutrition is important and Urban Ministries has a food pantry that can help those in need. They provide food for struggling families to help get them back on their feet. We have the ability to help those within poverty is by hosting a food drive. With the help of Martin’s students donating food over a couple of weeks we can make a difference by filling the food pantry at Urban Ministries. The food drive will start a week before our day of service. Our goal for this project is to collect 400 boxes and cans of food for those in need. This is a measurable goal that we are able figure out. When students enter the school building they can drop off food in the donation pile either outside the front office or student services. Posters will be needed to advertise the food drive Two of our group members are Martin Ambassadors and we can ask this group to help make the posters. We will ask the assistant principals to remind each grade level during lunch to bring in food donations. Large boxes are needed to collect the food in. The cafeteria stores boxes in the kitchen so we will ask the cafeteria ladies if we are able to use them for our food drive. On the day of service those who signed up will sort the food by category such as, dry goods, canned goods, beverages, sauces and spreads. We will do this at Martin in the cafeteria. This space is empty in the morning so it will be available for our use. Everyone who signed up for this project will help deliver the food to Urban Ministries in a bus. Sammy Hobgood, the volunteer coordinator at Urban Ministries, has communicated with one of our group members and discussed the requirements and availability for this project. One chaperone is needed per five people and there can be a little or as many students for participation. He will be at Urban Ministries to provide guidance during the food drop off. A three week notice is necessary for this project in order to prepare. Urban Ministries welcomes us to host a food drive because every little bit counts. We should help our community as much as we can because you never know when you might need help from your community. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”-Margaret Mead Bibliography DeRonja, Emily M. “Food Drive for Urban Ministries.” Message to Sammy Hobgood 26 January 2018 DeRonja, Emily M. “Food Drive for Urban Ministries.” Message to Sammy Hobgood 26 January 2018 DeRonja, Emily M. “Group Volunteer for Martin Middle School.” Message to Sammy Hobgood 25 January 2018 Dr. Schwartzbard, Julie ”factors that affect focus and concentration.” Bettermind. January 31. 2018 <https://www.bettermind.com/articles/factors-that-affect-focus-and-concentration/> Duhalde, David. “Capitalism and Poverty: A Socialists Analysis.” Democratic Socialists of America. 2 June 2006. 26 January 2018 <http://www.dsausa.org/capitalism_and_poverty> Hobgood, Sammy M. “Food Drive for Urban Ministries.” Message to Emily DeRonja 26 January 2018 Hobgood, Sammy M. “Food Drive for Urban Ministries.” Message to Emily DeRonja 26 January 2018 Hobgood, Sammy M. “Food Drive for Urban Ministries.” Message to Emily DeRonja 26 January 2018 “Homelessness.” Raleigh Rescue Mission. 2018. 28 January 2018 <http://www.raleighrescue.org/homelessness/> “How Many People with Serious Mental Illness Are Homeless.” Treatment Advocacy Center. 25 July 2014. 1 January 2018 <http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/fixing-the-system/features-and-news/2596-how-many-people-with-serious-mental-illness-are-homeless> “Impact of homelessness.” Homeless Link. 2018. 24 January 2018. Moorhead, Molly. “HUD secretary says a homeless person costs taxpayers $40,000 a year.” Politifact. 12 March 2012. 26 January 2018 <http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/mar/12/shaun-donovan/hud-secretary-says-homeless-person-costs-taxpayers/> Randeep, Ramesh. “A fifth of all homeless people have commited a crime to get off the streets.” The Guardian. 22 December 2010. 28 January 2018 <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/dec/23/homeless-committing-crimes-for-shelter> Thoeni,Katherine“Homelessness in our community affects us all” Unitedwaymcca. January 31. 2018. <http://www.unitedwaymcca.org/homelessness-our-community-affects-us-all> “Volunteer.” Raleigh Rescue Mission. 2018. 25 January 2018 <http://www.raleighrescue.org/get-involved/volunteer/> “What is the official definition of homelessness.” Nhchc.. January 31. 2018. <https://www.nhchc.org/faq/official-definition-homelessness/> “Why Are People Homeless?.” Salvation Army. 2017. 24 January 2018. <http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/en/Who-We-Are/our-work/Homelessness/Why-are-people-homeless/>Gillian B. White”rural america’s silent housing crisis”theatlantic.com January 31. 2018 <https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/rural-americas-silent-housing-crisis/384885/> Lets get serious for a second. Homelessness is the condition of not having permanent housing.When people cannot find jobs or ways to get money to afford housing they must go to homeless shelters or live on the streets. Being homeless makes you feel like your life has no meaning, like no one cares about you, because they don’t.The reason In which I chose this issue is that I can empathize for all the homeless people as I have been to a homeless shelter beforehand and seen what kind of situation they’re in. Also when I was still in Africa I saw kids around the age of 8-9 walking on the streets homeless and wearing rags giving me the evil eye, which didn't make me feel too good. Homelessness also affects our community negatively. Homeless people tend to commit crimes in order to survive.Taxes would have to be raised to provide them shelter and food, negatively affecting people's incentive to work and overall decreasing productivity.Even if they don't raise taxes they’ll have to spend government money that could be used for scholarship programs or public facilities such as hospitals and spend it on the homeless instead. But of course the ones most affected from this are those that are homeless themselves,It negatively affects their mental health and many start using drugs.They have troubles about having fun and no present day knowledge as they have little to no access to social media such as the news.Essentially homelessness is a problem that not only affects those who are homeless but also us.
It was 5th grade, I was on a field trip to washington D.C. for three days and three nights. The first day was as normal as you could get, we visited a few places, then we had lunch, visited a few more places before we called it a day and checked into a hotel. We spent the rest of the day there. The second day is when things “happened”. The day played out normally, that is until lunch came around. We went to this lit place we had lunch tickets for and found a table next to these really cool dudes and played video games with them for the duration of lunch. Afterwards we checked out a another museum for a few hours subsequently,most of us were tired and decided to go back to the hotel. After I entered the room I thought “why, this would be the perfect time to play some video games!” and I went to find the backpack on my bed but when I checked...It wasn’t there, I searched everywhere around the hotel room as I felt this terrifying feeling of dread as reality just sunk in. I lost my backpack! Now for context's sake, the reason I even cared so much was because this was back when I was still anti-phone and didn’t have one of my own so for the field trip my mother gave me her phone to use in case I got lost or something(which in retrospect wasn’t the best plan as I didn't know any of the phone numbers of the chaperones and although I knew my parents’ phone numbers much help they were going to be 250+ miles away) it was a disaster. I wish I could say i stayed calm and thought about where I could have left it but I didn’t, I totally freaked out and ran a tantrum. After like 40 minutes of insanity I finally calmed down enough to think of where I may have left it, and I finally remembered. I left it at the restaurant as I was in a rush leaving. After telling the adults they told me they were going to go look for it. Morning the next day, They found my backpack and brought it back to me at that moment I felt EXTREMELY happy,the happiest I ever felt in my entire life.The rest of the third day was the same as the first. This relates to my belief because if I hadn’t rushed then I wouldn’t have lost my backpack/sanity.
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