Youth from Congregation Rodeph Sholom and the All Stars Project exchange dance steps.

The All Stars Project has recently launched a number of groundbreaking initiatives designed to reach out to the Jewish community and promote understanding and harmony between Black and Jewish youth in New York City and northern New Jersey.

These initiatives were made public at the All Stars Project’s Lincoln Center gala on March 31.  At the gala, Howard Teich, Esq. — past vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and former co-chair of Jewish Heritage New York — received the first annual Bridge Building Award from the All Stars Project for his tireless efforts to build understanding between the Black and Jewish communities, including most recently, his leadership in bringing together the All Stars and significant Jewish institutions in the New York Metropolitan area. Currently, Mr. Teich serves on the Advisory Board of the New York Board of Rabbis and co-chairs the NYC Jewish History and Heritage Map Project.

The Bridge Building Award was presented to Mr. Teich by Black and Jewish youth from Project Kavod (a Hebrew word meaning “honor”). Project Kavod, which brings African-American youth, primarily from Newark, and Jewish-American youth from the surrounding suburbs together every week for dialogues, performances, and trips to cultural sites, was launched last year between New Jersey All Stars and New Jersey’s MetroWest Jewish Community Council.

Close on the heels of the All Stars gala, on April 8 Dan Friedman, artistic director of Youth Onstage!, led a performance workshop involving eight African-American and Latino youth from the All Stars, 10 visiting Israeli teenagers from Jerusalem, and some 20 members of Congregation Rodeph Sholom’s after-school religious high school.  With nearly 2,000 members, Rodeph Sholom, which was founded on the Lower East Side in 1842, is now the largest reform synagogue on the Upper West Side.  The Israeli youth were in New York as part of Rodeph Sholom’s Partnership 2000 program, which is sponsored by UJA-Federation. 

The young people played theatrical improv games together and created a series of “radio talk shows,” in which the different groups of youth interviewed one another about life in their respective communities. The workshop was followed by a buffet dinner at which the three groups of young people had informal discussions, taught each other dance steps, took photos and exchanged email addresses. 

Two days later, Pamela Lewis, the All Stars’ director of youth programs, and Kirsten Fulda, manager of the Development School for Youth, accompanied eight other All Stars youth on a “Meeting Hate with Humanity: Life During the Holocaust” tour at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at 36 Battery Place. The tour was organized by Maureen Keren, the museum’s manager of education services. The Black, Latino and Asian immigrant youth from the All Stars had strong emotional responses to what they saw and heard about the atrocities of the Holocaust. One young woman shared how struck she was by the stories of how the Jews in the ghettos struggled to remain hopeful and create whatever was possible with what they had. The museum provided the All Stars youth with student access passes to return whenever they wanted; all indicated that they would be returning and bringing friends with them.