As antisemitism continues to rise in Montgomery County, JDS has, in collaboration with other organizations, created the Teens Against Antisemitism Fellowship. This fellowship includes both students from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and private schools in the county like JDS who want to learn more about antisemitism.
“I just want to learn as much as I can about this topic so I can educate others about it, and so that I can have a very strong position opposing antisemitism,” fellow and sophomore Gloria Jeruchim said.
JDS received a grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington (JFGW) for a program proposal giving high school students from MCPS and private schools the tools to combat antisemitism. Additionally, the fellowship was created with the Natan Fund, a Jewish organization that funds projects relating to tzedakah, or cheritable giving. Fellows from JDS include sophomores Jeruchim, Sophia Leinwand and Eliana Abrams and freshman Eden Kotok.
“Most of the students are students outside of JDS, so they’re encountering antisemitism in their schools or in other places,” Head of School Rabbi Mitchel Malkus said. “…We are giving them tools and skills and ways of thinking about how they could take action against antisemitism, and to do that in a peer to peer way.”
After recieving the grant, Malkus hired alumna Abby Newburger (‘12) to be the fellowship’s program director. Newburger worked for JFGW as a Youth Leadership Associate, and later with the Greater Washington chapter of Friends of the IDF. Newburger decided to apply for the program director position because she wanted to show Jewish teens that anyone can make a difference no matter how big or small.
“One of the things I want these students to recognize is that leadership comes in many different forms, and making a difference comes in many different forms,” Newburger said. “So you do not have to be the loudest voice at a rally in front of 100,000 people.”
Every Wednesday evening, the fellows gather at the JDS Upper School to learn about topics related to antisemitism and leadership from Newburger and various guest speakers including high school Jewish history teacher Rachel Bergstein. Bergstein taught the general history of antisemitism to the fellows.
During the six week program, which started on March 5, fellows will create project proposals that include ideas on how to combat antisemitism in Montgomery County. Each project is required to contain a social media element to combat antisemitism online.
“We live in a digital age, and we can’t ignore that,” Newburger said. “So it’s an important piece of the puzzle to acknowledge that visibility for projects comes with a technological and social media component as well.”
Each fellow will be paired with a mentor to help them throughout their project. Mentors consist of JDS and MCPS teachers.
Jeruchim’s project will focus on creating an online learning course to educate people about antisemitism and misinformation on social media.
“There’s so much misinformation, and incorrect information and just lies that are spread through social media, and the only way to combat those is to spread the correct information through social media,” Jeruchim said.
After finalizing their project ideas, fellows will apply for grants of up to $500 to support the creation of their project. On May 4, students will culminate the fellowship and present their projects at a public summit.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all comes together because as much as you can plan, you really won’t know how it turns out until it actually happens,” Newburger said. “… I’d love for this to be something that is bigger and better every single year.”
