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Monday, April 03, 2006

High School Students From Across US Launch Projects to Make a Difference in Their Communities

Seventy-five high school students from across the country recently attended a groundbreaking conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on, Community: Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood? The three-day leadership conference was a combination of discussion groups and activism training program that addressed the challenges of boundaries and gave the students tools to develop their own framework for a better understanding of their own communities.

“Our goal is to challenge young people to develop solid, well thought out opinions about difficult issues,” said Judy Goldgrab, director of the Eimatai Leadership Project under the auspices of Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future.

Some of the challenging topics that were addressed included, “How do young people define their community? How do Orthodox Jews relate to non-Orthodox Jews, converts or interfaith families?”

As part of the conference, each school develops a program to implement in their school and/or community. Two Eimatai advisors serve as mentors for each school and guide them through the needs assessment for their project.

Each of the nine participating schools returned home armed with plans to make a difference in their communities. The Ramaz Upper School created project Food for Friends, which aims to help Israeli families with Shabbat meals. Students from Yavneh Academy of Dallas, TX decided to adopt a public school in south Dallas to create interactions with students, mentoring and encouraging dialogue to deflate racial tensions.

http://spider.mc.yu.edu/news/articles/article.cfm?id=101152

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