MIAMI –Â Rabbi Mark Rosenberg is a seasoned police chaplain with the Miami Dade, Florida Highway Patrol, and previously, the New York City police departments. He lives minutes away from the Champlain Towers in Surfside.Â
On the morning of June 24, 2021, he was notified of an emergency at the beachfront rental and arrived at what was a chaotic scene. He notified the Surfside mayor’s workplace and different police chaplains virtually instantly. The darkish scene was surreal and but considerably acquainted.
“The silence. The smell. It was déjà vu- it was like 9/11 all over again,” he recollects.
He went into motion serving to folks that had survived- the folks on the streets who had ran out and left every thing behind. He remembers that first few hours.
“There were people showing up and we (chaplains) are standing there with a yellow pad taking names, duplicate names, people with nicknames- it was chaos.”
As the solar rose it introduced the actuality of the degree of devastation.
“I have been involved in a lot of trauma situations, plane crashes, this was different. This was people having a hopeless look in their eyes at the same time they were looking for any type of confidence for anything,” he stated.
Fellow MDPD chaplain, Rabbi Yossi Harlig, who heads the Chabad of Kendall & Pinecrest, arrived a couple of hours after Rabbi Rosenberg. This is the first time he has encountered something in any respect of this magnitude, and he’ll always remember it.
“Just hugging them [the families] and holding their hands, realizing that they are beyond shocked and panicked. Knowing their loved one is trapped- at that moment they thought they were just trapped in the building- not realizing what the inevitable is going to turn out so those were the first hour for me being on the site,” Rabbi Harlig recalled.
The two educated volunteers remained on website for each victims and first responders. They acted as liaisons between detectives and determined households as the days went on. They provided assist on many ranges. They recall how effectively they labored with the MDPD and Miami Dade Fire Rescue personnel, that the coordination turned important, for all who have been tackling an insurmountable job.
“We were there with the families, then ten minutes later we would speak to homicide or fire rescue who would just break down – who simply couldn’t handle what they were doing,” Rabbi Rosenberg stated.
Looking again a 12 months later now, after they get requested ‘what did you say to the households?’ The reply comes from having been educated to cope with trauma. You do not say a lot, it’s much less about the phrases and extra about the presence. Saying the mistaken factor can do extra injury.
“Our job is not to defend God. Our job is to be there with the people and hold their hand and look at them in the eye and say we are here with you,” stated Rabbi Harlig.
From the rescue mission shift to restoration, and every painstaking day thereafter, they received to know every one who was awaiting news of a cherished one’s restoration. It was private, as Rabbi Rosenberg shared, all of them knew him by title too, and relied on the chaplains in the most intense time in their lives.
“Imagine every day imagine them chasing you down the hallway asking ‘do you know if they searched the section?, do you know if the building was searched here? are you going there? could you check when you take a look?’, the hope, the way people relied on us, it gets to you, it gets to you.”
They have been with them till they may give every household much-needed closure. It was the ache that gave them the energy to remain sturdy day-after-day.
From different folks – they gave us the strength- we weren’t in a position to cease. When you could have a mom telling you at the starting “I have my 21 year old daughter that came here from out of the country for just one day’… the same mother 30 days later when I did the notification-she said ‘thank you for giving me the best news a mother can receive’ – that’s what gave us strength when the worst news becomes the best news,” Rabbi Rosenberg remembered.
The rabbis role was essential for a largely Jewish inhabitants.
“The families are depending on us. We had to educate the first responders how you deal with Jewish bodies, because they wanted the families to get the comfort to know they were do everything according to the Jewish tradition,” stated Rabbi Harlig.
Yet, even with tragedy throughout, not each single reminiscence is a painful one, Rabbi Harlig shared.
“When the President of the United States walked in and the first lady, the Governor, the mayor the senators, were all there in the room around 300- 400 people you didn’t see then Republican or Democrats, president or governor …it was all one family all wanting the same thing, all caring about the same thing, and feeling the pain in the room.”
Even a educated skilled, this was a frightening mission. They stated to maintain it collectively meant being delicate -not emotional. Professionals name it being on ‘pink alert.’
“It’s such a heightened moment you just shut your emotions down and just work work work,” stated Rabbi Harlig, recalling how arduous it was to do something apart from be the chaplain for these folks. Rabbi Rosenberg stated it was arduous to eat, to sleep, to place the total factor apart. He says he is aware of how he received by it.
“Just doing what we got to do. The strength comes from God, from up above.”
Rabbi Rosenberg and Harlig have stayed in contact with a lot of the households, they’re nonetheless engaged on returning spiritual objects that have been recovered to the households. And there may be some good news on what got here out of this tragedy in the role of police chaplains, we are going to share that story partly 2 of this particular Miami Proud on June 23, 2022.
