Teens discuss antisemitism and create community at pop-up program
'If we don’t tell our story, who will tell it'
Local teens created community by swapping stories about antisemitism. Seated inside Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Aaron Court, nearly a dozen Jewish students from several institutions, including Commonwealth Charter Academy, The Ellis School, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, North Allegheny Senior High School and Pittsburgh Allderdice High School, described efforts to boost Jewish morale despite countless pressures.
The April 3 event, which was organized by Ellis12th grader Ella Greenfield and supported by StandWithUs and Classrooms Without Borders, offered teens a forum for discussing antagonistic online posts, social isolation and lack of educator support.
But more than providing adolescents a place to voice frustration, the program’s objective was to build a network and foster pride, Greenfield told the Chronicle.
“I think in some cases, it might be hard for people who don’t have such a strong Jewish community in their neighborhoods or in their schools to do that,” she said. “By bringing them here, they can.”
Greenfield worked with fellow StandWithUs student leader Zev Loring and StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic Region High School Manager Michelle Waksman to craft the program. Apart from seating students around a table for informal dialogue, Greenfield posed a series of questions and asked that responses be written on sticky notes and placed across the room.
Beneath a large piece of paper, hung in one corner of Aaron Court, was a prompt asking whether students have seen or experienced more antisemitism “in school or out.”
Responses on the Post-it notes ranged. One read, “Outside. Mainly through graffiti and online posts.” Another stated, “Out, because I go to a Jewish school. Mainly on social media and vandalism…my house got vandalized.” At the bottom of the sheet was one note reading, “In school, because outside social media, the main comments I’ve gotten are by my classmates. At school with no other Jews, I literally stand out.”
“The arc of the story is that we are a people of hope,” Dan Marcus, Hillel JUC executive director and CEO, told the students.
Invited by Greenfield, Marcus spoke to participants about the importance of “finding a place in college where you fit in.”
There’s no doubt challenges exist, Marcus said, but he implored the students to remember that “we are the people of hope.”
That message, Waksman said, rested at the heart of the gathering, which wasn’t just about bringing local Jewish students together but also a means for teens to find a “connection in their experiences and also feeling connected to Jewish pride and joy.”
Speaking with participants before the program’s close, Julie Paris, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic regional director, raised a question.
“If we don’t tell our story, who will tell it?” Paris asked the students. “It’s a big lift, but that’s what we’re here for.”
Rabbi Meir Tabak, city director of Pittsburgh NCSY, attended the program and praised its organizers.
“A lot of teens in Pittsburgh seem to be very over — or kind of bombarded with — the whole topic of antisemitism and Israel,” he said. “They’re just very done with it, and there needs to be a way where we can make this a conversation that they want to have. This was a very good way. We need to get more kids coming to events like this.”
Loring, a 12th grader at Commonwealth Charter Academy and a Kenneth Leventhal High School Intern with StandWithUs, paused from speaking with a fellow teen to describe the program’s value.
“I think that the most important thing to find is community,” he told the Chronicle. “I think that when you’re alone and by yourself, it hurts you a little bit and it’s hard on you. But if you find your community and you find people to help, then people can help you get through what you’re going through, and then it makes it a lot easier.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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