The antisemitic intimidation that arose at universities across America last year has inspired an initiative to empower and educate Jewish high-schoolers.
In reaction to the spate of antisemitism that has proliferated on college campuses throughout North America in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, Sinai Temple in Los Angeles has just launched the Beren Scholars Program.
Nearly two dozen juniors or seniors are expected to participate in monthly academic seminars followed by real-world experiences. The program started in September and is slated to run through the spring, with hopes that it can expand nationally in the fall of 2025 by partnering with other synagogues.
The goal is to teach students the roots of antisemitism and how to identify its manifestations. On the docket are lessons on social-media advocacy, and defining individual rights and violations of those rights.
Notable figures speaking at sessions will include Sarah Idan, 2017 Miss Iraq and an Israeli Peace Ambassador; and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Rabbi Erez Sherman at Sinai Temple is leading the new program, which includes a Shabbat dinner at the University of California, Los Angeles; an interfaith dialogue during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend; and a trip to the state capital of Sacramento to learn how to lobby legislators.
“I want them to realize that when they share their story, people are going to respect them more than if they hide that story,” he told JNS.
The Robert M. Beren Family Foundation is funding the program.
Julie Platt, chair of the board of trustees for Jewish Federations of North America, stated in a release: “We hope their lives will be filled with proper intention to spread light unto the communities in which they will join. In a world where Jews are thinking to retreat, our Beren scholars will not hide. Instead, they will stand tall, speak out and create a world of empathetic, intellectual, strong, joyful Jewish leaders.”
