"…[J]ust as noteworthy from a Jewish perspective is that the organization hosting them, The Bridge, is closely associated with the Jewish community. Founded by Mark Meyer Appel, a prominent Orthodox activist, the center is aimed at bringing together members of different racial, religious and ethnic groups in Midwood, where it’s based, and other parts of Brooklyn.…"
Above: Mark Meyer Appel
The Jewish Week reports:
…As New Yorkers mourned two fallen police officers ambushed Saturday as they sat in their patrol car in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and as tensions escalated between police unions and city officials, a 12-year veteran of the police force and four local teens sat around a table in another section of Brooklyn Monday night and drew pictures.
Officer Mathew Pierre and the four children — Emily, two Anthonys and Soshil — also viewed artwork by Israeli children, toured a replica of an Israeli bomb shelter and discussed what it means for them to feel angry or happy, emotions they depicted in their drawings.
One of the youngsters, 18-year-old Anthony, said it was a “shame” that children in southern Israel “have to live through” the trauma of rocket fire, while Pierre, 42, likened the experience to what urban police officers face every day.
The Israeli kids and cops begin each day without “knowing whether it might be your last,” said Pierre, a native of Haiti whose younger brother, also a policeman, serves in the same precinct as one of the murdered officers, Rafael Ramos. “A week earlier, he was sitting in the very same patrol car in the very same location.”
Pierre and the four children are all involved in the New York Police Department’s Law Enforcement Explorers, a program aimed at building trust between the NYPD and members of the community, and the bonds they’ve created offer a counterpoint to the troubles around them.
But just as noteworthy from a Jewish perspective is that the organization hosting them, The Bridge, is closely associated with the Jewish community. Founded by Mark Meyer Appel, a prominent Orthodox activist, the center is aimed at bringing together members of different racial, religious and ethnic groups in Midwood, where it’s based, and other parts of Brooklyn.
Moreover, the workshop in which the officer and teens participated is designed by Artists 4 Israel, a group that sends art therapists to Israel to work with children traumatized by rocket attacks. The group is now planning to conduct similar workshops in local schools to help inner-city children cope with the trauma in their lives, said Michelle Rousseau Laytner, an art therapist who has partnered with the program.…