Gainesville Fills 9/11 With Good

Amanda Williamson – Gainesville Sun

Rabbi Berl Goldman and 11 members of the Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student Center stood silent for a moment of reflection Tuesday amid the bustle of the University of Florida’s Turlington Plaza to commemorate 9/11.

Behind them, the signatures of about 213 people pinned to a replica of the Twin Towers promised that many good deeds would be fulfilled.

On the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attack on Tuesday, the Jewish Student Center remembered the lives lost through a Good Deed Mitzvah Marathon on campus — an event designed to give community members of every race, nationality, age and sex the opportunity to do a good deed in memory of 9/11.

“I believe that day, every American was attacked, every good person in the world was attacked. Whether you’re a New Yorker or not, it doesn’t matter,” Goldman, the executive director of the Jewish Student Center, said. “What matters is that we unite in response.”

Goldman estimates that the event has been the inspiration for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of good deeds since the event started in 2003.

The Lubavitch-Chabad student group collected approximately 800 good deeds last year. Every year the group has generated more and more participation, Goldman said.

The deeds range from smiling at strangers who look like they are having a bad day, holding the door for people, playing with local dogs, and donating time and money to the poor or homeless.

This year, Goldman said the group intended to stay in Turlington Plaza until 1,000 people had committed to a good deed for the day.

“If we reach our goal of 1,000 people, we will know this event had a huge impact, and those 1,000 people will hopefully trigger another 1,000 people,” Goldman said.

Channie Goldman, co-director of the Lubavitch-Chabad Student Center, said people — especially those who do not have direct lines to New York — are looking for a way to connect to and be reminded of the anniversary of 9/11.

“Every good deed, or mitzvah, has a positive effect somewhere, somehow,” she said. “At the end of the day, the more good, the less evil there is.”

Cassandra Rene, a fourth-year Family Youth and Community Sciences major, said she would be calling her grandparents for her good deed.

“I feel whatever you do – small or big – will have a positive impact on someone in the long run,” she said.

Sarah Pollack, a senior in anthropology, intends to give tzedakah (give time or money) to the American Jewish World Service.

“I think that the most good you can do for someone is to help someone who has died, because they can never repay you,” she said. “You are doing it without the expectation that they will do something in return.”

The students of the Chabad student group continued to collect signatures as the day wore on, filling the board with good intent.

“What mitzvah are you doing today?” Goldman asked the crowd around him.