CAMP & EDUCATION
Lasting impression St. Louis rabbis discuss finding their calling while attending summer camp. PAGE 15
A N O N P R O FIT, IN D EP EN D EN T N E W S S O U R CE TO I N F O R M , I N S P I R E , E D U C AT E A N D CO N N E C T T H E S T. LO U I S J E W I S H CO M M U N IT Y.
S T L J E W I S H L I G H T.O R G
17 S H ’ VAT, 5 78 2
JA N . 19, 202 2
Going nationwide
A new nonprofit is working to spread JCRC’s Student to Student program across the country BY ELLEN FUTTERMAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
T
he Student to Student program, founded 30 years ago by the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, is going national. It will be headquartered in St. Louis, under the auspices of a new nonprofit, Student to Student Inc. “Given the bigotry, hate and antisemitism that is out there, we felt strongly that we needed to expand the reach of Student to Student nationwide,” said Joe Pereles, a former board chair of the JCRC who co-founded the nationwide spinoff organization. “We know the program really works and makes a difference in breaking down barriers and stereotypes,” added John Kalishman, also a former board chair of the JCRC and the other co-founder. Student to Student (STS), which first began here in 1992, sends Jewish high school juniors and seniors in the St. Louis area to schools in the region where most teens
2022-01-19 page 01.indd 1
otherwise have little contact with the Jewish community. By listening to their Jewish peers from the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements as well as the unaffiliated — and asking them questions about their Jewish identity and practices — students unfamiliar with Judaism can learn firsthand about the religion, which can help to dispel stereotypes and breakdown prejudice. “We know how potent these peer-to-peer interactions are — in some cases students are meeting a Jewish person for the first time,” said Pereles. “Over the years we’ve heard from teachers and students about how this exposure has changed attitudes, helped to battle hatred and increase understanding about people whose only difference is the religion they follow.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these presentations, which can run from 45 to 90 minutes, have been virtual rather than in-person. Questions run the gamut. Some students have asked, “How do you go about choosing the branch of Judaism you belong to?” while others have voiced curiosity about keeping kosher: “What do
VO L . 75 N O. 2
ABOVE: In a 2017 file photo, David Feit Mann, then a sophomore at Yeshiva Kadmiah High School, closed a Student to Student presentation for an AP English class at Affton High School by explaining how a ram’s horn is used in Judaism. PHOTO: ERIC BERGER
you mean you can’t eat shrimp or lobster?” Kalishman said what convinced him of the importance and value in expanding the program were his children. All three had participated in STS during their high school years. He says the impact it had of them was profound. “For me, seeing my kids really embrace this program and own it and how seriously they took their involvement and how it made them so much more confident in speaking up about Judaism, was really gratifying,” he said. “I believe that for each of them, Student to Student is really an anchor of their Jewish identity.”
Humble beginnings and enormous growth In 1992, the program was launched with roughly six student presenters and a handful of schools, recalled Batya Abramson-Goldstein, who began Student to Student at the JCRC here and later served as the agency’s executive director until she retired in 2015. Today, Student to Student in St. Louis involves roughly 120 Jewish area teens and reaches at least 4,000 non-Jewish teens each year, explained Rori Picker Neiss, executive director of the St. Louis JCRC. According to independent surveys over the past few See STUDENT TO STUDENT on page 7
1/18/22 5:31 PM
