Ilana Lerman’s resume reads like a “Who’s Who” entry even though she’s only a senior in high school.
Born into a family whose underlying values include social action and restorative justice, she is already active in various groups that confront racism, sexism, and nationalism.
After her freshman year at Nicolet High School, she was selected to attend Camp Anytown, a week-long intense diversity camp. The next year, she was chosen to participate in The Other America Tour, a group directed by teens for teens designed to increase social awareness, responsibility and activism between oppressors and the oppressed. Lerman designs activities and facilitates discussions for the group, which is sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, Urban Underground and the Milwaukee Public Museum.
In addition, she is the director of its follow-up program, TA:CC — Teen Activists: Coalition for Change, an outgrowth of the America tour intended to allow the participants to stay connected. Further, she served as a facilitator among Jewish, Muslim and Catholic teens in Milwaukee in an Interfaith Youth Forum sponsored by the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee. For her efforts, she received its Youth Leadership Award.
With these laurels in her pocket, she was awarded the Desmond Tutu Emerging Leader Award and was one of ten high school students, including Jana Loeb, who had the opportunity to meet with the Archbishop on his visit to Milwaukee last February.
In a telephone interview, Lerman, 18, told The Chronicle, “I think Camp Anytown proved to be a life changing experience for me because we delved into uncomfortable issues that separate our society. And, it was the first time that I was in the minority — the only Jew and one of only a few suburban teens in the group.”
Listening is key
Her experience meeting Tutu pushed Lerman in new directions. “Meeting the Archbishop motivated me to branch out in the Milwaukee community and share my resources,” she said. “Meeting a Nobel Peace Prize winner was an incredible experience.”
And, just recently, she received another honor to add to the list. The Gamaliel Chair for Peace and Justice, an interfaith program sponsored by the Lutheran Campus Ministry on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, announced its Fall 2003 recipients — a group of young adults from the Milwaukee area including Lerman. She is one of four individuals plus a group of youth who were selected based on their “commitment and action on behalf of building a more peaceful and just community.”
The chair was established in 1982 to inspire students, educators, faith leaders and community activists to shape the future of peace and reconciliation. During the next four weeks, until Nov. 16, the teens will address forums, classes, community groups and religious gatherings to share their experience and vision for building a community of non-violence and reconciliation.
Lerman said, “I feel that as a Gamaliel chair, I have the opportunity to help our society break down prejudices and barriers. If, by sharing my resources and experiences, I can open the eyes of other local teens to a new way of thinking, I will have made a difference.”
As she wrote in her application for the chair, “In the year before I leave this city for college, I need to find the outlet in which I can pour myself back into the giver’s hands. [Receiving the Gamaliel Chair] is the outlet I had been waiting for.”
Lerman said that listening is her vision for Milwaukee. “If people just sit down together and listen, I think we will get results…. Besides listening, I feel there is another more direct action to take to achieve a non-violent vision. This is through restorative justice — a belief in the victim’s reconciliation and justice for the offender. When a victim has the opportunity to speak and the offender the chance to listen, the possibility of forgiveness is real. My passion is to pass this process of social healing on to others.”
She credits these programs with bolstering her ability to communicate with people, developing leadership skills and becoming more self-confident.
Still able to find time for more activities, she has been involved in Nicolet’s theater department for four years; is a member of its Gay Straight Alliance; and is active at Congregation Shir Hadash, where she participates in MICAH, Milwaukee Innercity Congregations Allied for Hope.
“I feel Israel, social action and spirituality are a perfect balance as these elements are the core of my Jewish identity,” she reflected.
The daughter of Sharon and David Lerman of Glendale, she hopes to attend an urban university on a politically active campus. She’d like to major in sociology and/or education.
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