The Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and Congregation Gates of Heaven recently launched “Student to Student—Be the Narrative” (STS), a program that engages Jewish high school juniors and seniors and trains them to counter anti-Semitism and demystify Judaism by giving presentations to other students in area high schools. “Participants will break down stereotypes by sharing their Jewish and teen identities with their peers in classes throughout our area,” according to organizers.
Jewish teens involved with the program share details about their Jewish lives and bring props to enhance their presentations, for example, when discussing Shabbat, instead of just describing challah, they pass around challah for the other teens to sample.
“As a peer-to-peer program, “Student to Student” very effectively fights anti-Semitism as well as helps create young Jewish leaders in our community—leaders who will have tools to confront the bigotry they will encounter in college and beyond. In addition, we know that STS strengthens participants’ Jewish identities,” said Arnie Rotenberg, director of congregational Jewish living at Congregation Gates of Heaven.
Rotenberg requests that interested juniors or seniors or those that would like to nominate individuals to join the program send names and phone number to Arnie Rotenberg, [email protected].
“Student to Student” is a national program that was founded by the St. Louis JCRC 31 years ago. Six years ago, the program was expanded to include other U.S. communities and has become an independent, national organization. The program is now in 18 communities.
