Florida Rabbi Recalls Slain Teens From His Bar Mitzvah Class
Students being led out of Stoneman Douglas High School Wednesday after a gunman killed 17 people in and outside of the building. Image by Getty
By Ari Feldman February 15, 2018
Two of the students killed at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are Jewish and were in one rabbi’s bar mitzvah tutoring classes less than two years ago.
Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan, of Temple Beth Chai, said that he tutored Jamie Gutenberg, 17, one of the victims named by a local ABC affiliate, had her bar in August 2016. She was in his class along with another student who Kaplan declined to name because the name has not been reported by authorities yet.
The ABC station reported that Jaime’s brother Jesse made it home safely from the shooting, which left 17 people dead. JTA has reported that one local rabbi, Bradd Boxman of Kol Tikvah, said he knew of four Jewish students killed.
Kaplan declined to comment, saying only that he is now heading to the Guttenberg household to make funeral arrangements. In Jewish tradition, bodies are laid to rest as soon as possible after death, and are required to be “guarded” by community members until the funeral.
Temple Beth Chai is a small community, and its offices are run out of Kaplan’s home. They have Shabbat services in a local middle school, and host their High Holiday services in Stoneman Douglas’ auditorium.
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
