There are only a handful of Jews in the Stafford Creek Correctional Center. They say a general lack of understanding about their faith is stressful. So is what feels like constant Christian proselytizing by fellow inmates and the occasional corrections officer.
But they say that even the neo-Nazis who roam the prison aren’t as obnoxious as the day-to-day indignities they face for wearing yarmulkes, or having to explain why pork pepperoni is not kosher.
Corrections Department Chaplain Gary Friedman in Olympia acknowledged that being estranged from the faith community is hard on Jewish inmates. “They build prisons (in rural areas)” where there aren’t many Jews, Friedman said. He estimated that 95 percent of the Washington State Jewish community — indeed, most of the “minority faiths,” like Islam and Buddhism — is on the I-5 corridor.
Which is why the Aleph Institute, a non-profit organization based in Miami, sent rabbinical students Mendel Sossonko, 23, and Berel Zaklikofsky, 24, across the Western states to visit prisons, including Stafford Creek. The mission is to connect Jewish inmates with their communities.
“We’re here to spend good Jewish quality time,” Zaklikofsky said Tuesday.
As Sossonko would tell the 10 or so inmates who dropped into the class at various times, “When one Jew meets another Jew, it is a happy thing. It’s a good day.”
That morning the rabbinical students had been at the Women’s Correctional Center at Purdy near Gig Harbor, where they had two inmate visitors, both of whom were unaware of the existence of the other Jewish inmate.
“We are here to hook it up,” Sossonko said, the English slang tinted with the young Hasid’s accent.
http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2007/07/11/local_news/01news.txt
Topic: Rabbinical students visit prison (Read 1746 times)