Red-faced and hands clenched, seventh-grader “Joel” sat directly facing Boys Town Jerusalem Junior High Principal Rabbi Yehudah Rosencrantz. “Do you understand that absences are not allowed, here or in any school?” the principal asked firmly. “You must come to class.” Pulling himself ramrod straight, Joel began to speak, yet collapsed in tears. “What do you want from my life?” he sobbed. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Joel’s father left after being called up for IDF Reserves
“Realistically, Joel should have been the last student to reach such despair,” Rabbi Rosencrantz admits. “He comes from a normative home where both parents are employed, educated, and devoted to their children. Yet Joel and his family are now emotional casualties of the war.”
Joel’s father was called up to his IDF Reserves unit at the start of the war, the principal explains. “He spent months in combat, battling to survive dangerous, bloody clashes with enemy forces. When he finally returned home, Joel’s dad’s agonizing emotional trauma became paralyzing. Too tortured to function, he could not return to work, nor communicate with his family. One morning, he simply walked out the door to wander the world.”
Joel and his family need help
The moment Rabbi Rosencrantz became aware of Joel’s situation, he mobilized BTJ’s social workers, faculty, and rabbis to rally to the young boy’s aid. The school immediately waived tuition payments and fees for after-school activities, offering food and assistance to the now-struggling family. His teachers maintain close contact with his mother in the daunting challenge to meet Joel’s emotional and academic needs. Looming ahead is Joel’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah. “Whether or not his father is there, Joel’s BTJ family will be closely at his side,” Rabbi Rosencrantz assures.