Jews in the D

T

hree young speakers 
presented their stories 
of resilience at the 
third annual Teen Shabbat 
Dinner on Friday, Nov. 22, at 
Friendship Circle. About 200 
teenagers heard from Emily 
Coon, Mandi Fealks and 
Brandon Klein.
Coon, 16, spoke about 
developing depression after 
losing her sister to suicide.
“Her laugh was contagious. 
It could make anyone happy 
even on their worst day,” Coon 
said of her sister who was 18 
years older. She passed when 
Coon was 5 years old. When 
she was 6, Coon was diag-
nosed with depression.
“Losing someone you love is 
the feeling of not being able to 
breathe,” she said. “The worst 
part is losing someone who 
didn’
t want to stay.”
When she was 9 years old, 
Coon’
s struggle with mental 
health turned into a physi-
cal battle. She experienced 
extreme pain in her legs with 
no known cause. After a few 
weeks, she lost the ability to 
walk. 
“I could barely stand or take 
more than two steps without 
my legs turning to Jello and 
collapsing beneath me,” Coon 
said.
It took months of hospital 
visits and countless tests, but a 
doctor finally diagnosed Coon 
with conversion disorder, a 
condition of paralysis or other 
neurological symptoms that 
cannot be explained by medi-
cal evaluation. This is usually 
brought on by mental illness.
Coon said it only took one 
night of happiness to get her 
walking again. When she went 
to a concert with her mom, 
she entered the venue in a 
wheelchair and left on her 

own two feet. 
She was improving, but 
she started to harm herself in 
2014. With support from her 
best friend and family mem-
bers, Coon spent five days in a 
mental hospital in 2016.
“I felt refreshed and ready to 
continue fighting the battle in 
my mind because life really is 
worth living,” she said. “I am 
here for a reason.”
Fealks, 16, opened up about 
her cousin Allison who com-
mitted suicide in the summer 
of 2018. Fealks was away at 
summer camp, so she never 
got to say goodbye. 
“What if I had texted her? 
What if she knew I was there 

for her? What if she knew I 
was struggling, too?” Fealks 
said. “I have always struggled 
with anxiety and depres-
sion, but after that summer, 
my depression episodes got 
worse.”
She struggled through 
the school year with lit-
tle improvement until she 
returned to camp in 2019. 
Her friends and counselors 
encouraged her to write a 
letter to Allison, tie it to a bal-
loon and let it go. 
“I will move forward, and 
I will go on with my life,” 
Fealks said in the last line of 
the letter.
Klein, 26, explained how 

he uses meditation and jour-
naling to live with obses-
sive-compulsive disorder. The 
Jewish News featured Klein 
when he left the University 
of Michigan to create the 
WiseMindGentleSoul medita-
tion center. 
“In my mind, I would get 
running, running, running 
thoughts. Obsessive thoughts,” 
he said. “By tapping into 
my breath, by noticing my 
thoughts, by not pushing them 
away but not diving in, I felt 
better.”
Klein had little success 
with therapy and medication. 
Luckily, he discovered medi-
tation when he was 20 years 
old. He said he found a way 
to handle his mind, but his 
struggles didn’
t go away.
“This is not the end of the 
story because I’
m still living 
it,” Klein said. “Suffering is 
inherent to human existence. 
We’
re all suffering. One way 
you can suffer less is to shine 
light on the darkness.”
Two professional football 
players, Miles Killebrew and 
Trevor Bates, spoke at last 
year’
s Teen Shabbat Dinner. 
The teens were excited but, 
ultimately, they preferred 
hearing from their peers, said 
Yarden Blumstein, teen direc-
tor at Friendship Circle.
“Teens want a setting they 
created that’
s theirs,” he added. 
“It’
s a story-sharing platform 
to show strength and hope. 
They can open these dia-
logues.”
Audience member Lindsay 
Zousmer, 15, was moved by 
the speakers.
“The way they explained their 
stories was so raw and real,
” she 
said. “Never be afraid to share 
your story. You never know the 
impact it will have.
” 

Lexi Finkelstein and Inez Mundrine arrange flowers for the tables.

18 | DECEMBER 12 • 2019 

Shabbat Dinner

Teens share personal stories of mental 
illness and resilience.

JENNA ANDERSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

EILEEN PLUNKETT

