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