24 | MAY 21 • 2020 

J

oel Marwil, 73, of 
Farmington is the recipient 
of the 2019 B’
nai B’
rith 
International (BBI) President’
s 
Award for his efforts in distrib-
uting the win-
ning books from 
the Diverse Minds
Writing Challenge
to Detroit-area 
preschools and 
elementary 
schools. The 
organization has 
been champion-
ing human rights 
since its inception in 1843. 
The national BBI Diverse 
Minds Writing Challenge com-
petition asks high school 
students to write and illustrate 
a children’
s book for elemen-
tary-aged students “that tell 
a story of tolerance, diversity 
or inclusion.” Contest winners 
in each city/region receive a 
$5,000 college scholarship and 
have their books published.
BBI Great Lakes Region 

president Lila Zorn of 
Farmington Hills accept-
ed the award on Marwil’
s 
behalf during a ceremony in 
Washington, D.C., this past 
November. “Joel is the con-
summate volunteer who cares 
about people,” Zorn said. “He 
took on the book distribution 
because he so strongly believes 
that a positive message of 
diversity be taught to our 
young children.” 
“
As satisfying as it is to 
receive the award,” said Joel, 
“I’
m just happy to be able to 
give back to the community. 
That’
s the real meaning behind 
it.” He plans on distributing 
more books and making him-
self available to read at schools 
once normal sessions resume. 
Since 2006 B’
nai B’
rith said 
it “has published 41 original 
children’
s books, some in two 
different languages (English 
and Spanish), awarded more 
than $337,000 in college schol-
arships and grants, and donat-

ed more than 45,000 books 
to public schools, libraries, 
and community organizations 
across the country.” You’
d be 
hard pressed to distinguish the 
books of these high school-
ers from their professional 
counterparts both in form and 
function. 
Joel has a long history with 
B’
nai B’
rith. He’
s been a mem-
ber since 1972, ascending to 
trustee and president of the 
Tucker-Grant Lodge. He is a 
vice president of the execu-
tive board of the Great Lakes 
Region.

WITNESS TO INJUSTICE
When he was just 11, Joel 
became acutely aware of the 
impact that inclusion, or lack 
thereof, could have on an 
impressionable young mind. 
He remembers clearly the 
day in the summer of 1957 
he and his 12-year-old friend 
Sidney spent an afternoon at 
the beach in Cape May, New 

Jersey. If not for segregat-
ed beaches, they may have 
enjoyed the afternoon togeth-
er.
Joel is the Detroit grandson 
of Aaron and Fera Zavelle, 
his mother Lenore’
s parents, 
who owned a prominent 
Philadelphia bookstore. Sidney 
was the son of Bill Harper, a 
longtime black employee of 
the Zavelles. 
The Zavelles’
 relation-
ship with Bill and his family 
extended past the confines of 
their bookstore and their skin 
color. On this particular week-
end in 1957, they welcomed 
the Harpers into their Cape 
May summer home. However, 
when the families left the front 
porch, Jim Crow laws prohib-
ited them from enjoying the 
same beach.
Joel couldn’
t fully compre-
hend why he and Sidney had 
to go their separate ways that 
day. “I was confused at first,” 
he said. “It didn’
t sound fair 
that one person had to go 
someplace else because of the 
color of their skin…. I kept 
silent. I didn’
t know what to 
say. I was getting an educa-
tion.” Words escaped him, but 
not the feeling it left with him. 
Seven years later, during 
another summer excursion to 
the East Coast, Joel and Sidney 
again arrived together at a 
beach in Atlantic City, only 
this time they did not part 
ways. Together, they were the 
beneficiaries of change that 
came with the passage of the 
landmark Civil Rights Act of 
1964 that year.
Joel still feels the joy of that 
new experience at the beach. 
“It was a wonderful thing that 
happened, a gift to humanity,” 
he said. 
The witnessing of an injus-
tice in 1957 and the righting of 
a wrong in 1964 are moments 
in time that Joel says “stayed 
with me the rest of my life” 
and profoundly impacted him 
personally and professionally.

Alan 
Muskovitz
Contributing 
Writer

Jews in the D

Joel Marwil is all about inclusion.
Diversity Champion

Lila Zorn, president 
of B’
nai B’
rith Great 
Lakes Region, 
presents the B’
nai 
B’
rith International 
President’
s Award to 
Joel Marwil.

ALAN MUSKOVITZ