Sixteen-year-old Simon Mirkes from Farmington Hills, Mich., was on a summer camp trip in the Alaskan wilderness when he collapsed and died this week near Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. With help from Chabad-Lubavitch of Alaska, his fellow campers and their families back home have been trying to cope with the tragedy.
Having assisted groups from the Tamarack Camp and other summer camps for decades, Rabbi Yosef Greenberg and Esther Greenberg, co-directors of Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska, worked with the Mirkes family in Detroit and a funeral home in Alaska to coordinate the boy’s return home. They provided the shocked campers with food, lodging and comfort after they traveled three hours by bus to the state capital of Anchorage. When the campers arrived, they were met with a warm meal and social workers from the Jewish community who spoke with them until late into the night.
Rabbi Greenberg and associate Rabbi Levi Glitsenstein conducted a service for the teens in memory of Simon. Girls lit candles and boys put on tefillin. “We all said Kaddish for him,” Greenberg told Chabad.org. “They were all talking about him, it was very hard. We were there until 1:30 in the morning and the kids went to sleep.” The campers stayed on the Chabad’s campus overnight and by Tuesday afternoon, more Tamarack camp staff, along with a social worker, had arrived to take them home.
Rabbi Greenberg arranged a funeral procession from the local synagogue to the airport, where members of the local Jewish community were joined on Zoom by the Mirkes family and members of Detroit’s Jewish community.
“The Jewish community was with him until they took him to the plane,” the rabbi said.
Expressions of Support and Gratitude
In Michigan, parents, rabbis and community leaders exchanged messages of support and appreciation. "Our community is incredibly grateful for the warm and caring hospitality Chabad offered, an act of chesed [‘kindness’], which made all the difference to the campers and staff during an extraordinarily difficult and painful time,” wrote Steven Ingber, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. “Rabbi Greenberg and his staff were absolutely wonderful and provided great comfort not only to the trip participants, but to their families and loved ones as well. We are so thankful.”
The Mirkes family thanked the camp staff and first responders, noting that “in a world where kindness can seem lacking, we have witnessed an outpouring of love and support.” They noted that “we now know from personal experience the power of the Jewish Community. Our family would like to thank The Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska, co-led by Rabbi Yosef and Esty Greenberg, who went to great lengths to care for Simon and ensure halacha was followed.”
“Our Jewish community has truly fulfilled the mitzvah of chesed shel emet—true kindness,” the family concluded. “The care that was given to to our Simon and our family has been extraordinary. We know we are not meant to thank you, but we need to tell you we are comforted and embraced by our beloved community.”
In Alaska, Greenberg spoke of Chabad’s responsibility to Jews wherever they may be. “Chabad today is literally a home for every Jew, wherever he finds himself, in any situation,” says Greenberg, adding that the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—had always championed the idea that Jews should feel like one people, one nation, and should all be there for each other. “The Rebbe created a network of emissaries in the world that are now in every city, in every town. No matter how far you’ll be, there’ll be an emissary there to help you.”
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