12 | JANUARY 19 • 2023 

W

hat if we could prevent antisem-
itism before it even begins? 
That’s the goal of Student to 
Student, a program empowering high school 
students to present their experience of 
Judaism to non-Jewish high school students. 
 
Late last year, Fawn Chapel 
and Rabbi Andrew Terkel of Be 
the Narrative, a national non-
profit organization that devel-
ops interactive educational pro-
grams that connect Jewish and 
non-Jewish peers to learn about 
Judaism and dispel stereotypes, 
ran a training session for the Metro Detroit 
team of teens training to be presenters.
Sam Dubin, assistant director/director of 
media relations at the JCRC/AJC, is coordi-
nating the Detroit chapter of the Student to 

Student program. Dubin anticipates that the 
team of local Jewish students will begin pre-
sentations during the coming semester. 
How does the program work?
“Jewish high school students 
of a variety of movements, 
Reform, Conservative and 
Orthodox, go into predom-
inantly non-Jewish schools 
to present to the students on 
Judaism — what their own personal Judaism 
looks like — with the goal of preventing 
antisemitism before it even starts,
” Dubin 
said. “It’s a proactive approach in that way, 
with the thought process of ‘How can you 
hate someone that you know, like and 
respect?’” 
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, executive director 
of the Metro Detroit JCRC/AJC, welcomes 

Student to Student, saying it “fits 
in very well to the vision and 
mission of Jewish Community 
Relations Council/AJC as a 
bridge to the broader communi-
ty … with the benefit of fighting 
antisemitism proactively.
” 

‘TYPICAL
’ JEWISH TEENS

Eight students, two cohorts of four Detroit-
area students each, took part in the training 
session. 
The students were chosen to form a 
diverse group. “What is a typical Jew?” Rabbi 
Lopatin asks. “Well, there is none, so we get 
a little bit of diversity.
” 
For example, Ari Citrin, a 17-year-old 
junior, is one of the few Jewish residential 
students at Cranbrook High School in 

Student 

to

Jewish students share their culture with non-Jewish 
students in first-of-its-kind program in Michigan.

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

Fawn 
Chapel

Sam Dubin

Rabbi Asher 
Lopatin

Sam Dubin, 
center, at the 
national Student 
to Student 
conference

