“Welcome to America. Welcome to Immigration and Naturalization,” a young man said with disdain. “Why are you coming to America? To do drugs?”
In this shocking way, about 175 Jewish teens from five Midwestern states learned something of what it can be like to be an Hispanic American.
The teens were members of the North American Federation for Temple Youth attending the Northern Region Spring Conclave, “Ending Bigotry: Hope for the 21st Century,” held here April 26-29.
As part of the conclave, they participated last Friday at Congregation Shalom in an innovative program created by a group of NFTY teenagers designed to teach about bigotry toward different groups of people.
After breaking up into assigned groups, the students visited synagogue classrooms, where they focused on an ethnic minority or other historically discriminated-against segment of society.
As the students queued to enter the Hispanic room, for example, moderators began barking nasty comments and questions at them.
Every time a participant attempted to answer a questions, the moderators would repeat, “What? What? Can’t you learn English?”
After the encounter, the participants were asked questions such as: “What do you think most Hispanics do for a living? Where do they live?” The students then discussed stereotypes about Hispanics and some of the difficulties many Hispanics face in this country.
Jacob Forstein from Sioux Falls, S.D., said he worked with a lot of Mexicans and that “many of them are poor…. I guess America is overwhelming for new immigrants.”
Anti-Semitism rare
In the Jewish room, moderated by Shalom’s Assistant Rabbi Shari Heinrich, the teens were asked if they had ever encountered anti-Semitism.
Forstein said he once opened his locker to find it vandalized with Nazi symbols, but the other students said they had only encountered ignorance about Judaism and Jews, not hostility.
Not all of the rooms emphasized religious, racial or ethnic minorities. The gender room and special needs room focused on challenges faced by women and people with mental and physical disabilities.
In the gender room, the moderator read aloud a list of male-chauvinist “rules” for women, which Milwaukee resident Sarah Katz said she found “absolutely disgusting.”
The group also discussed the “Barbie Doll” image of feminine beauty and all agreed that many stereotypes about women still existed.
Before moving to another room, the moderator read the poem “Women of Valor” from the book of Proverbs to show that the traditional Jewish role of women was not that of shy, quiet individuals but rather of vital members of the family unit and equal partners with spouses.
In the special needs room, some participants had their hands tightly bound in ace bandages and were asked to perform mundane tasks, like opening doors or putting on a sweatshirt. Other participants tried to write their names while blindfolded.
Following the program, Katz said, “I don’t know if I learned [about bigotry] as much as I realized that discrimination and stereotypes” are very prevalent in society.
Asked if there were any similarities regarding prejudice against different types of people, participants said that ignorance seemed to be the underlining reason for social inequities in society.
Forstein said he thought “bigotry will always be in the human race. You can’t erase it, but you can make it better.”
He said the program had added importance for him because he comes from a small town where sensitivity to minorities is sometimes lacking.
Nina Petersen-Perlman of Duluth said she learned to think about other people besides Jews and to view bigotry through other people’s eyes.
Michal Berkson, president of Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun’s teenage youth group, and Rebecca Wolfson, president of Shalom Federation for Temple Youth at Congregation Shalom, co-authored the program.
Berkson said she was pleased with the program and was “glad people were involved and talked about” the issues.
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