To earn his Eagle Scout rank, the highest possible rank in the Boy Scouts of America program, local teen Josh Friedman was tasked with developing, leading and executing a community service project benefitting a religious institution, school, or community. His involvement in the Indianapolis Jewish community inspired him to renovate and beautify the Albert & Sara Reuben Holocaust Memorial Garden, located on the Max & Mae Simon Jewish Community Campus.

The Idea

“In late 2017, I decided I wanted to find an Eagle Scout project to do [that had] a connection to the Jewish community. One day after Sunday school at Beth-El, I walked over to the JCC to see if I could find some ideas, and I decided that the project with the most impact and the one I felt was most needed was cleaning up the Holocaust
memorial,” Josh recalled.

The Project

Josh’s project consisted of several tasks: pressure washing the sidewalk, coating and cleaning the wooden benches, cleaning out the fountain, removing dead plants, planting flowers, and re-lettering the names of the concentration camps on the outside of the fountain. The project took around 200 hours of planning and execution, and on October 6 and 7, 36 people put in over 100 hours of work to help Josh complete the beautification.

The Impact

“One thing I hope results from the beautification of the memorial is people taking more advantage of [it],” Josh said. “I hope that because of my project, people will visit the memorial more and it will be a nicer and more beautiful place for people to use."

Are you looking for a mitzvah project? Contact JFGI at 317-726-5450 or info@jfgi.org to learn what you can do for the Jewish community!

Photo caption: Josh Friedman (second from right) and fellow Boy Scouts in front of the Holocaust memorial