Rockville Centre's future leaders visit Washington

Rabbi Marc Gruber and the Hebrew High School students from Central Synagogue recently attended the L’Taken Social Justice Seminar in partnership with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C.

Committed to making a difference, the students, who range from freshman to seniors, have continued their Jewish education. They joined approximately 2,000 high school students from across the country who come together each year to participate in the seminar. It is there that they share views on topics of social justice with decision-makers on Capital Hill.  

In D.C., they toured the National Portrait Gallery, the Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials, the Holocaust Museum, the Pentagon, Georgetown, Capital Hill and the Senate and House buildings.

Designed to expose students to a variety of issues, explore public policy and the Jewish values surrounding these issues, the L’Taken program also teaches the skills of an effective advocate.

The students prepared presentations and were given the opportunity to lobby on behalf of a topic that they felt passionate about. Central’s students met with a staff member of Sen. Charles Schumer and a staff member of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy — along with McCarthy herself. She devoted approximately one hour of her time to listening to the students.

Adam Moss, Emily Schnee and Hannah Slavin discussed comprehensive sexual education in schools. They were promoting the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act with the goal of seeing it become law.

Emily Umansky, Laura Stern and Gillian Geffen spoke about the creation of Genocide Prevention legislation, citing the genocide taking place in Darfur and how the Holocaust affects the Jewish people. Gillian shared a personal story of a friend affected by the genocide in Bosnia. These students mentioned the Presidential Study Directive 10, an executive order given by President Barack Obama on the importance of preventing and responding to genocide.  

Lauren Schwartz, Alex Horowitz and Ben Richman focused their attention on economic justice and specifically, unemployment insurance. Evan Chernack and Joseph Rachmuth worked as a team to talk about immigration rights.

The students incorporated quotes from Jewish literature to provide a Jewish perspective on the issues they discussed. Training to be leaders and advocates for causes that touch all of our lives, the students found that lobbying a member of Congress is a unique experience that very few Americans take advantage of. Ultimately these students and other involved citizens can make a significant impact on the course of legislation.