What’s Right with the World – Eden Berke

Today,  I chose to work with young kids as I always love working with toddlers, and I’m comfortable I leading programming for them because I lead Shabbat services for children 5 and under at my synagogue back home. Overall, I enjoyed the experience because I am constantly amazed by young children’s intelligence and abilities, and because of how much I love inspiring young people and helping impact their lives while they’re still young and developing.

Children are symbols of innocence, and it was important for me to be surrounded by that today because for the past couple of days we have been constantly exposed to what’s wrong with the world; such as homelessness, mistreating the environment, and the present ignorance towards and ostracizing of the LGBTQ+ community (specifically in Jewish communities). However, today, working with the happy and pure children, I was reminded of the good in humankind and that there is so much happiness in society, despite the plethora of struggles society does face on a daily basis. Ultimately, what I will take from what I experienced today is a sense of relief from the burden I have been feeling lately as I am becoming more informed of all the problems in society today.

~ Eden is a 12th grader from Chicago, Illinois