On their own, some Jewish students at Marblehead High succeeded in having Jewish American Heritage Month recognized with the goal of educating their peers about what their culture is all about.
The students, junior Jack Conley, 17; twins Maya and Gabby Berman, 16, sophomores; and Delia Heit, 15, also a sophomore, managed to get the month celebrating the American Jewish experience recognized at school in a variety of ways.
They are highlighting prominent Jewish figures during morning announcements and want to get Israeli foods like falafel, dates or hamantaschen served in the cafeteria. They are waiting for approval to hang banners recognizing the month.
The teens approached Principal Michele Carlson with their proposal, with some mentoring from the head of the Beverly-based Lappin Foundation. “The students have done a wonderful job advocating for Jewish American Heritage Month activities,” Carlson said in an email.
Lappin Foundation Executive Director Deborah Coltin said in an email the students did the work of planning and convening meetings with the principal but came up with the idea on their own.
“They wanted this to happen, and they did the hard work to make it happen rather than wait for someone to do it for them. I think it’s an inspirational story for the community. It’s leadership in action,” she said.
The kids took part in the foundation’s Teens Lead program to build their leadership skills, Coltin said. The students are also involved in its Teens Advisory Board, meant to foster the next generation of Jewish leaders.
Conley, whose family belongs to Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott, said they plan to travel to Poland this summer to visit Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps as part of Lappin’s Foundation’s March of the Living Teens program.
Conley said his desire to be a leader stemmed from the Lappin program called TeensFeed, where Jewish teens prepare meals for LifeBridge North Shore.
The students said they also felt like they had to do something after a student drew a swastika in a school bathroom. They said they have also heard inappropriate jokes about Jewish people that have bothered them.
Last fall, the Marblehead Current reported an email sent to parents by Carlson in early October regarding the swastika incident. Carlson’s email said the behavior did not reflect the school’s values and would not be tolerated.
The incident also came up during the ADL New England’s Law and Education Day breakfast in Danvers on May 7, when Executive Director Samantha Joseph noted that “swastika graffiti was drawn at the high school” in Marblehead.
The ADL breakfast was also attended by a contingent of Marblehead educators and students along with Marblehead Police Chief Dennis King.
“I think that maybe if we educated better … that might not have happened,” Heit said of the incident. “And I don’t think it would have happened.”
The students got approval from the history department to have the documentary “Shared Legacies” shown along with its curriculum highlighting the African American and Jewish alliance during the Civil Rights movement. They are also looking to have a documentary by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum called “The Path to Nazi Genocide” shown at the school.
Conley was also inspired by Black History Month at the high school in February that included announcements about important Black figures in history. The students worked with the METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) director at the school on ideas for Jewish American Heritage Month.
“She was a really big advocate for us and really supportive,” Conley said.
Heit, who grew up in an interfaith family with a Jewish father and a Christian mother, attends Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead. “I feel like we don’t get taught enough about Jewish heritage,” she said, “We only really get taught about World War II.”
Gabby Berman said students need to be educated about the Holocaust, “but that’s not all us Jews have to offer because we have so much ruach, like so much spirit, and let’s just show what is awesome about Jewish culture.”
Maya Berman said a lot of antisemitism nowadays is an attempt by some to be funny using dark humor and “pushing the envelope” with little regard to the impact this has on others.
“We are all one race, the human race,” she added, “and if we could really unite and embrace each other’s cultural differences, I think we will be much better off as a society.”
