34 | FEBRUARY 4 • 2021 

T

wo personal tragedies 
moved Fred Guttenberg 
into becoming a full-
time issues activist, and he 
describes the transition in his 
book, Find the Helpers: What 9/11 
and Parkland Taught Me About 
Recovery, Purpose, and Hope
(Mango Publishing).
The first tragedy happened in 
2017, when his brother Michael 
succumbed to long-term ill-
ness resulting from service as 
a 9/11 emergency doctor. The 
second tragedy happened four 
months later when his 14-year-
old daughter Jaime was slain as 
a 19-year-old former student 
murdered 14 students and three 
adults at Marjory Stoneman 
Douglas High School in 
Parkland, Fla. 
Guttenberg will discuss the 
book and later experiences during 
the next session of the “Need 
to Read” Zoom programming 
hosted by Rabbi Jennifer Kaluzny 
of Temple Israel. It starts 10 a.m. 
Sunday, Feb. 7, and will explore 
the advice heeded from Rabbi 
Jonathan Kaplan of Florida: 
Move forward from grief without 
feeling pressure to move on.
“The day we planned Jaime’s 
funeral, the funeral director 
handed me a journal and asked if 
I had ever journaled before,
” said 
Guttenberg, who accepted the 
empty book while hearing the 
director’s suggestion that journal-
ing would be good for him. 

“
At some point, in the days 
and weeks following Jaime’s 
funeral, I picked up that journal 
and started writing. In about 
April 2018, I said to my wife, 
‘I want to write a book.
’ After 
journaling, writing was becom-
ing my therapy. It was how I got 
through my day. It was how I got 
things off my chest.
” 
Guttenberg, on the advice of 
a friend reading the first draft 
of the text, realized the theme 
should be based on how people 
lifted him up, and so he empha-
sized the importance of identify-
ing helpers for oneself and being 
a helper for others. 
He established Orange 
Ribbons for Jaime (orange was 
her favorite color) to highlight 
issues that mattered to his 
daughter — programs to com-
bat bullying, assistance for kids 
with special needs, scholarship 
opportunities and an education 
initiative concerning gun vio-
lence and how to deal with it. 
Another entity, more of an 
advocacy entity, is Orange 
Ribbons for Gun Safety.
“I will be forever changed, 
and I will never take for granted 
what our voice in this democ-
racy is,
” said Guttenberg, whose 
efforts include convincing peo-
ple to vote and support gun safe-
ty legislation. “I will never take 
for granted how important it is 
that we work every election to 
make sure as many people vote 

as possible because it matters.
”
Guttenberg, who sold his 
donut franchises while looking 
after his brother, traveled in 2018 
to further his electoral causes. In 
2020, because of the pandemic, 
he communicated digitally.
“
After [my brother’s] passing, 
my intention was to either go 
look for another business or 
find a job,
” he said. “Then my 
daughter was murdered, and 
everything else I could have ever 
thought of doing was stopped. 
“The only thing that mattered 
to me was doing something 
about gun violence. It was doing 
something about the politics of 
gun violence and so my entire 
life since Jaime’s been killed is 
involved in this fight.
”
In 2019, Guttenberg traveled 
to Pittsburgh to meet with fami-
lies affected by another shooting 
rampage, the one at the Tree of 
Life Congregation a year earlier.
“Judaism is a part of my 
life,
” he said. “I was raised in a 
Conservative temple. I am who I 

am because of Judaism, the way 
I was raised, the beliefs that I 
grew up with and the traditions 
that we’ve carried on.
“My belief in a higher power 
[because of my losses] is very 
much on a rocky ground. I’m 
struggling with that. My faith as 
a concept is stronger than ever, 
but it’s in the people around me, 
the people who have shown me 
love, compassion and decency.
”
Guttenberg links the idea of 
helpers to current COVID issues.
“
Always know who your help-
ers are,
” he advised. “When you 
need somebody, they are there. 
If you’re not sure, reach out to a 
place of worship or community 
center. Always, always take the 
chance to be a helper to some-
one else. You may not realize it, 
but they need you.
“I hope when people read my 
book, they take on this notion of 
helpers. It is how we’re going to 
… move forward through this 
whole COVID experience. We’re 
going to do it together.
” 

Temple Israel hosts author 
and father of Parkland school 
mass-murder victim.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Moving Forward 
After Tragedy

COURTESY OF FRED GUTTENBERG

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

DETAILS
Zoom in to Fred 
Guttenberg 10 
a.m. Sunday, Feb. 
7. To register for 
the free event, go 
to temple-
israel.org/event/
NeedToRead. For 
questions, contact 
lkaplan@
temple-israel.org.

Fred Guttenberg and 

his late daughter, 

Jaime.

am because of Judaism, the way 

