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This summer, Miami Palmetto High School senior Griffin Jacobs spent six weeks in Israel attending the Alexander Muss High School in Israel. The program teaches Jewish teens about the 4,000 years of the history of Israel and Judaism.
Jacobs says it was a great experience.
“I enjoyed bonding with new people,” he says. “It was people who made the trip for me. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
While he enjoyed meeting new people from all over Florida, New York, Georgia and Alabama, he also enjoyed the field trips. He says he liked seeing the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
“One fun one (trip), we went on a water hike underground. The water was up to everyone’s knees,” he says.
The hike took 30-40 minutes and the students needed to wear water shoes.
“It started off, they let us have flashlights. There was a portion where they made us turn off the flashlights and it was pitch black. We followed the person in front of us.”
Jacobs says the underground passaged was utilized by a general during battle to take back the city.
At home, Jacobs has been involved in a program called Blessings in a Backpack since eighth grade. It was his bar mitzvah project so he spent that year raising money for the program.
“Another Blessing in a Backpack closed and they gave us donations and Whole Foods donated money,” he says.
In ninth and tenth grade, he would pack up bags of food and deliver them for needy students at Howard Drive Elementary and Palmetto High School.
He and his brother would make enough bags for 12 elementary students and eight high school students; a total of 20 bags a week. He would take the bags to the front office and the administration would distribute them.
“I don’t know which kids get them,” he says.
Each bag contained two entrée meals, two snack meals and 2 fruit substances, such as applesauce or fruit bars.
He would have continued last year but COVID made things difficult. However, he would drop off bags with snacks every few months or so.
“COVID impacted a lot,” he says. “I couldn’t go in every week and donate food. I emailed the principal, ‘If you need anything, let me know and I’ll bring it to the school’. So, there would be instances where I’d drop things off at the school.”
Jacobs has already contacted the appropriate school officials about re-starting the program now that everyone is back to school in person. He hopes to be able to return to the full program.
He chose Blessings in a Backpack because he was allergic to foods at a young age.
“It made it difficult to find things to eat,” he says.
That made him sympathetic to people who don’t get enough to eat.
If he can’t re-start Blessings in a Backpack, he will look for another community service program to participate in, possibly volunteering at Friendship Circle.
Jacobs also does history bowl. In the past, his team would go to different schools for the competitions. His sophomore year the Palmetto team qualified for the national competition but they weren’t able to go because of COVID.
He also plans to participate in the Jewish Student Union and hopes to join the Chess Club.
As for college, Jacobs says he’s pretty deep into the application process. He’s applying to the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Florida, the University of Maryland, Vanderbilt and the University of Texas at Austin. He plans to major in business.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
