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