Rabbi Dan Alexander visited TAGS in August, 2025
In September, at the Jewish New Year, he shared his impressions with the members of his congregation in Charlottesville, VA. Here is an excerpt of what he had to say.
Resurrecting the Dead in Nairobi, Kenya
…I want to share a true story, a mythic story, about a tragic death and, as I have come to regard it, the resurrection which has ensued. It begins as a true tale about a young American woman and an older Kenyan woman, kindred spirits despite obvious differences of cultural background, religion, and skin tone.
Edith Murogo was and is the Director of the Centre for Domestic Training and Development in Nairobi, Kenya, which she founded in 2001. Early in her married life and like many middle-class Kenyans, Edith had hired domestic workers for some housekeeping tasks and immediately discovered that the poor girls she hired lacked basic skills for simple chores like cleaning and cooking. They did not know how to operate a vacuum cleaner or an oven, were unfamiliar with every common household appliance, and had no familiarity with electricity or modern plumbing.
Those things which you and I take for granted were absent in the world from which these girls had come, a world where homes were dirt floor shacks with corrugated metal walls, no running water and no electricity. Even more disturbingly, Edith discovered that many of these girls and young women had been trafficked or otherwise physically abused and had no recourse to protection and no concept of the rights they possessed as employees. Similarly, the folks who hired them often disregarded the rights of the girls in their employ.
So, not one to ignore injustice, Edith initiated the Centre for Domestic Training and Development (CDTD), first in her home, and then, as the numbers grew, at a location in an industrial section of Nairobi. The Centre's mission is to provide these young women with hard and soft skills, to give them a chance at gainful employment in fields like homecare, childcare, elder care, hair care, data technology, food preparation, and more.
However, despite Edith's considerable organizational and educational skill and despite her dedication to the cause, she knew the Centre was struggling ... with an inadequate facility, inadequate funds, inadequate political attention to the problem, and with an overwhelmingly large numbers of girls and women in desperate need.
Fast forward to 2006: a smart, energetic, 20-year-old student from American University, Talia Faith Agler, took advantage of its semester abroad program in Nairobi and chose to intern at the CDTD where she and Edith immediately bonded; each recognized in the other a kindred spirit with a mission to improve the world. Talia recognized in Edith a unique force, a gifted entrepreneur committed to rescuing the most vulnerable girls and traumatized young woman and enabling them to have the opportunity to become adults with self-esteem, empowered to pursue lives of joy and purpose. Edith recognized in Talia a rare force, a young, privileged American with a deeply rooted commitment to change the world for the better and the talent and determination to make good on that goal.
Talia and Edith became a team, with Talia using her American connections to raise funds needed to make necessary improvements in the Centre and employing her contagious enthusiasm to encourage her friends to visit the Centre and join in projects of painting or fixing or building, in addition to bringing her own caring attention to the girls then in residence.
Six years later, unspeakable tragedy: on the 26th of January 2012, Talia Faith Agler was struck by a car and fatally injured while jogging along the Mall in Washington DC. She died the next day after five of her organs were harvested to save or improve the lives of five grateful patients.
As it happens, Talia Agler's parents are dear friends and our son, Benjamin, and Talia were also friends. In fact, we received the awful news of the tragic accident in a phone call from Benjamin who received it from a friend who stood at Talia's bedside as organ recipients were being identified. So, we quickly knew of the tragedy and of the overwhelming grief of our friends, theirs and that of Talia's two siblings and her sister-in-law, and her numerous friends, and work colleagues, and that of the unending circumference of friends of friends who became part of the ecology of grief when tragedy strikes. Each and every one contributed to the vast river of tears which has flowed since that awful day when one precious life was snuffed out and, with it, worlds.
But the story of Talia Agler has not concluded with her death. Henceforth, her resurrection, in a mythic manner of speaking. Shortly after the accident, Edith wrote these words to Talia's parents, Rich and Mindy: "I will do everything possible to keep Tali’s candle burning and to let the flames warm needy girls, especially those who have no one else to turn to." And so, she has.
Days later, Edith made a trip to Washington DC to be a featured presenter at two international conferences on women. While in the States, she made a detour to Florida to spend time with Rich and Mindy. While there, she shared the news that the CDTD had recently expanded to include a program with a shelter for the rescue of girls ages 10-18 who had been victimized by trafficking .... and that the board of the Centre had decided to name it the “Talia Agler Girls Shelter.”
About the deceased, we Jews pronounce the words Zichrona or Zichrono Livracha - May her or his memory be a blessing. Edith, Rich, and Mindy have chosen to activate the concept of transforming the memory of Talia Agler into blessing by engaging in the work which had engaged her. Since 2012, the Aglers have visited the shelter and the vocational Centre numerous times, and, in the manner of their daughter, have educated scores and scores of friends and other potential donors to share their enthusiasm and to extend the reach of their support. And since 2023, the Aglers have brought groups of friends and others with them to Kenya to visit the institutions Edith founded. Dela and I were fortunate to have made the trip a few weeks ago.
Words fail me here. They do not adequately convey the extent to which I observed and felt the spirit of Talia Agler during the visit by our group of seventeen to the Shelter and to the Training Centre. I did not sense her spirit so much in the two physical places, nor even in the bust of Talia which occupies a holy setting at the shelter which bears her name. Nor did I quite feel it among the awards decorating the office walls, awards deservedly won by Edith and her staff for all that they have achieved in their work of rescue. I will try to illustrate where and how I experienced Talia's living spirit.
When our group arrived and entered the gate of TAGS and alighted from the bus, we encountered the fifty or so girls in shining white t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "My Voice My Story," words intended to express the goal of personal empowerment at the heart of these institutions. The girls had smiles on their faces which became beaming as the music started and they began to sing and dance ... and then - much to my horror - draw us, white Americans, mostly in the senior category, into their dancing celebration of our arrival.
A bit later in the visit, I had the opportunity to chat with a girl of about 12 or 13. When I asked her about her goals, she described her intention to become a lawyer and to establish another shelter for girls and young woman, just like Mama Edith had done. As Edith had been a role model for her, she wanted to serve as a role model for others. Another girl told me of her plans to become a nurse. Another intends to become a physician. After learning that I lived in Charlottesville, home of UVA, another inquired about the possibility of pursuing her studies in the US. I wish I could have responded with more positive encouragement.
To be honest, not all the girls were smiling. Not all exuded joy and the confidence necessary to engage visiting guests, much less articulate an aspiration for a thriving and meaningful personal future. I was told that those who looked dazed and confused were recent arrivals, not yet acculturated to the spirit of TAGS, not yet having absorbed the positive uplifting support they will receive as they continue their residency, not yet confident in themselves, not yet able to transcend the adversity of their immediate past and the trauma still harbored within them.
The girls refer to one another as sisters and, at least in our presence, they treated each other, including those with special needs, with patience, with kindness, and with respect. They appear to have acquired well-honed skills at conflict resolution, an obvious necessity given the modest quarters in which they live twelve to a room in bunk beds which barely fit into the space. The girls do not have a lot, but they quickly, easily, and sincerely express appreciation for that which they do have. They appear to genuinely appreciate that, unlike before they were rescued, they now have a safe environment in which they are free to imagine a future they might actually attain.
My description does not adequately capture the feeling I had of Talia Agler's exuberant spirit permeating the spirit of the girls and the staff who care for, counsel, and instruct them. The girls refer to themselves as “Tali's” and they know who Talia Agler was. Edith herself says: I do not refer to Talia as past or deceased because to me she is alive and very much present. During our visit, that too is how I felt.
So now, when I pronounce the traditional words praising the One who brings the dead back to life, the words associated in the rabbinic imagination with the bodily revival of Isaac on Mt. Moriah, I will have in mind new dimensions of the myth of resurrection. Not only might I imagination Isaac revived, not only might I bless the revival of an interrupted friendship now renewed, or a new day in which to make something of this precious life, but I have vivid pictures of a remarkable young woman who died much too young but whose spirit very much lives in the spirit of numerous girls who now have a chance to thrive in their lives.
Blessed are You, Eternal One, Sovereign of the Universe. You make possible the resurrection of the dead. You enable us to keep alive the spirit of those no longer among us. Although we miss them, although we long for their physical embrace, we are yet grateful for their spirit which endures, their light which still shines, their flame which yet burns, and which death cannot defeat.
And let us say, "amen."