Child actor asks you to ‘C the Difference’

Cory Nichols, 14, has raised over $13,000 and delivered 5,000 pounds of food through his not-for-profit organization

By Suzanne Kurtz Sloan For The Times of Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — After seeing the documentary “Hard Times: Lost on Long Island,” Cory Nichols enlisted his rabbi to find a way to use his upcoming bar mitzvah project to make a difference for struggling families in his Oceanside, N.Y., community.
Nichols contacted a local food pantry housed inside a neighboring church to see what it needed most.

He set a goal of raising $1,200 to stock the pantry’s shelves with $100 a month in food staples like peanut butter and jelly, tuna fish, pancake mix and cereal.

“I couldn’t believe that 150 families in my community use the food pantry,” said Nichols, now 14 and a ninth-grader at Oceanside High School on Long Island, as well as an actor who has appeared in several films. “There are probably kids at my lunch table eating food from the pantry. It made me want to do all that I could do to help.”

After a successful fundraising campaign in its first year, Nichols soon started the nonprofit “C the Difference: Cory Cares,” and in a little over two years has raised over $13,000 and delivered 5,000 pounds of food.

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New York Teens Teach a Lesson in Helping Terror Victims

Moshe Phillips and  Benyamin Korn for the algemeiner.com

They don’t have plush offices or secretaries or gala dinners, but a group of 15 year-olds on Long Island are providing an inspiring model of leadership for the rest of the American Jewish community.
Tenth graders at the Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence, New York, recently initiated an online crowd sourcing campaign, which has raised an astonishing $2.4-million for the families of the four American-Israeli rabbis, and the Druze police officer, who were murdered in a Jerusalem synagogue last month.

We were all horrified and saddened by the news of the Har Nof massacre. But most people quickly returned to their usual daily affairs. The grim reality of what the widows and orphans will endure for the rest of their lives didn’t attract much attention.

When the Rambam students heard about the massacre, they asked: What can we do? And then they did something – something that will make a real difference in the lives of the victims’ families. They can’t bring back the innocents who were massacred by Palestinian terrorists. But they can ease the pain of their widows and orphans, just a little.

Once the crowd-sourcing campaign began gathering momentum, the Orthodox Union recognized the importance of the students’ effort and began assisting it. Hopefully other Jewish organizations will do likewise.

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The Three Most Important Questions You Can Ask Your Teenager

by Michael Mulligan, Head of School, The Thacher School for The Huffington Post

According to the social scientists, the last of the millennials are now gracing our high school campuses. The Pew Research Center report on this cohort describes them as "confident, connected, and open to change." I agree. Technology is their metier. They embrace diversity like no generation before them. They seek to serve the dispossessed and the disadvantaged. They work to find green solutions to the environmental mess we have bequeathed them. In this regard, they are focussed and unrelenting: a good thing for all of us.

Beneath their energy and commitment to building a better world, though, is stretched, for too many, a fragile membrane that is easily punctured. We have raised a generation that is plagued with insecurity, anxiety and despair.

Former Yale Professor William Deresiewicz, in his fascinating and controversial book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life writes this of the millennials:

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Teens & Screens Part 3: Who Sees What Online

By Sue Scheff for The Canteen on MyJewishLearning.com


The following is the third in a three-part series on how to help safely navigate the world of social media with your kids from Sue Scheff, a mother, author, parent advocate, and expert in internet safety education.

Summer camp is not only a time to meet new friends and people, your children will have memories and experiences for a lifetime.  Many will want to capture them in photos and videos – especially in today’s digital world.

Sharing your summer experiences with friends and family is expected, however when it comes to the World Wide Web, precautions need to be taken.

Over-sharing is a common mistake that many people of all ages make on social media.

Prior to posting videos, talk to your child about things they need to consider before posting each photo and video:

•     Setting-up a private group for their camp group viewing only
•     Double checking their privacy settings
•     Thinking about who is in the photos/videos?  Will they mind their picture on a social media site?
•     Sharing selectively
•     Creating an online photo album entitled 2015 summer camp

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Teens & Screens Part 2: Cyberbullying

By Sue Scheff for The Canteen on MyJewishLearning.com

The following is the second in a three-part series on how to help safely navigate the world of social media with your kids from Sue Scheff, a mother, author, parent advocate, and expert in internet safety education.

Cyberbullying is a concern for all parents.  We can’t be with our children 24/7 and the fact is our kids spend more time in cyberspace than they do with us. The most common form of cyberbullying among tweens and teens happens with cell phones. We need to equip them with the knowledge to handle cyberbullies and prevent them from becoming victims.

Since your child either just came home or will be coming home from camp soon, let’s be sure they are well-prepared to know how report online abuse and, most importantly, know they can come to you if they witness it or are a victim of cyberbullying.

Going back to the study of Teens and Screens that I referenced in my last post, in 2014 cyberbullying tripled.  24% of tweens and teens lack knowledge on what to do in the event they witness online abuse or are a victim of it.

According to Cyberbullying Statistics for 2014, 52% of teens report having been a victim of cyberbullying. Sadly, only 33% of those victims have reported bullying to parents or another adult.  A recent European study showed that over half of teens view some level of cyberbullying as a normal part of online life. By having open and frequent face-to-face chats with your child about digital citizenship, hopefully we can eliminate this opinion of cyberbullying.

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