metro Teen bridges the diversity gap between Jews Christians, Muslims. Youth Awards NCJW annual program honors teens leaders with scholarships. T he National Council of Jewish Women, Greater Detroit Sectiori has awarded 10 Youth Awards to students who graduated from high school last spring. Joshua Morof, 18, of Bloomfield Hills, was named the first-place winner and received $2,500. Josh is a graduate of Andover High School and is attending the University of Michigan. Applicants were judged on their leadership positions and other involvement in the Jewish and/or secular community and on an essay on the topic: What experience or person has had the greatest impact on your Jewish identity? Josh's essay was titled "My Jewish Identity Looked at Face to Faith." Aleza Lichterman received the $1,500 second-place award. Two runner-up awards in the amount of $500 each were given to Rachel Berlin and Molly Rott. Six $250 honorable men- tion awards were won by Polina Fradkin, Emily Goodman, Anna Rubin, Jonathan Schiff, Lexie Sittsamer and Ari Weil. The awards were presented at NCJW's annual Jewish Youth Awards ceremony in May. Judging this year's awards were Randi Berris, Lenny Hutton, M.D., Sarah LoPatin and Andy Meisner. Sponsorship and funding of the program is provided by Dina and the late Herman Brodsky and Esther and the late Nathan Katz. The youth awards program was co-chaired this year by Julie Silberg and Barrie Frankel. ❑ Jewish Youth Award winners with donors Dina Brodsky and Esther Katz (left to right): Rachel Berlin, Emily Goodman, Aleza Lichterman, Polina Fradkin, Jonathan Schiff, Joshua Morof, Molly Rott, Anna Rubin, Lexie Sittsamer and Ari Weil. Winning Essay `My Jewish Identity Looked at Face to Faith' Joshua Morof ust one year ago, I could not honestly say that I had more than one or two non-Jewish friends. I did not even recognize the importance of diversity. However, when I was assigned to a table in ceram- ics class during junior year with one Christian, one Muslim and no other Jewish students, everything changed. When we sculpted heads, Tahas taught us that Muslims are not allowed to draw or sculpt the human body. Nate taught us about Christianity through a poem he etched on the side of his project. I spent an entire class period teaching them about the Hebrew alpha- bet when I made a mezuzah. As I read the letters aloud, Tahas excitedly told me how similar they are to those of the Arabic alphabet and, for the first time, our similarities began to outweigh our differences. As our friendships blossomed, I realized that my school and community were just as divided as my ceramics class had been. I had always known that the Christian students congregated 22 October 4 = 2012 114 by the benches in the school's main hallway, the Muslims in the library and the Jews in front of the staircase, but it had never bothered me as it did now. I needed to step up and take action, because if I did not, who would and when? These questions inspired me to create Face to Faith, an interfaith program that brought together Jewish, Christian and Muslim teens from all over Metro Detroit. Religious leaders and teen represen- tatives from each faith helped me to create Face to Faith. During our meet- ings, we discussed topics ranging from how to get teens to attend and how to ensure interaction, to how to show the similarities between the faiths. Three months later, almost 100 Jewish, Muslim and Christian teens filled the Jewish Community Center. Everyone received a colored wristband, which matched the color of a table. Earlier in the year, when I had served on a different interfaith panel, the Jewish and Chaldean students auto- matically sat on different sides of the room; the wrist bands we passed out prevented that from happening. We spoke for almost an hour, the religious leaders about their religions and the teens about our experiences; we then gave the participants an oppor- tunity to discuss the importance of diversity and the struggles that come along with it. Afterward, everyone went downstairs to the Teen Center. As I followed a few minutes later, I expected everyone to be playing foosball and air hockey, or to be watching a movie. Instead, they were talking. The barriers that had separated all of us, the same barriers that took an entire semester of ceramics class to break down, had crumbled in just hours. As Face to Faith came to a close and everyone was sharing phone numbers, email addresses and Facebook informa- tion, all 100 participants made it clear that we needed more events in the future. I had successfully taken my passion from ceramics class and turned it into this amazing organization that would bring together hundreds of teens again the following year for events at a local church, mosque, synagogue and school. More importantly, I had embarked on a journey that would impact my Jewish identity unlike any experience that I have ever had before. Through Face to Faith, I have learned about other religions, made new Jewish and non- Jewish friends, and have become an overall better person. Ironically, however, the greatest impact that Face to Faith has had on me has been on my JeWish identity. I have learned about myself as a Jew and my role as a leader in the Jewish communi- ty. I have taken actions to educate Jewish and non-Jewish teens alike in this com- munity, and I have worked throughout this year to break down the boundaries separating our teens in hopes of building community and inspiring other teens to find their identities. Joshua Morof, 18, of Bloomfield Hills is a freshman at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.