High school students at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Washington, D.C., are gaining cross-cultural ethnic and religious experiences because of a partnership between the school and Bishop McNamara High School, a Holy Cross Catholic school in Forestville, Maryland, with more than 95% minority enrollment, according to U.S. News & World Report.
On April 10, a delegation of students and faculty from the schools participated in a field trip where they visited museums, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C., and had plans to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The delegations also took time to talk about what they learned over lunch in between museum visits.
The partnership began more than two years ago when a common donor named Alan Meltzer introduced Rabbi Mitchell Malkus and John Barnhardt, the respective heads of JDS and BMHS.
“I went to visit him [Barnhardt] at his school and got to know their school a little bit and got to know him,” Malkus said. “When I was walking in, they have the entranceway there, with their mission statement and their values. I was reading them, and I was, like, this is exactly like when you walk into JDS that you see our mission and our core values … the core of the messages were very similar, so I felt comfortable right away.”
After getting more familiar with each other, the two started a program where they exchanged high school students and faculty, with participating members spending time at the other school and being in their counterparts’ shoes.
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his is the second year for the program, and they’re encouraging more people to attend, with some even going twice. That exchange is supplemented by the field trip, leading to friendships forming between participants.
“We were able to connect and see so much likeness in each other. At the end of the day, we are teenagers, but we listen to the same music, we like the same clothes, we watch the same TV shows,” said Khadijatou Beverly-Diallo, a student in Bishop McNamara’s class of 2025 who attended the field trip and exchange program at JDS.
Beverly-Diallo added that it was an enriching experience to get outside of the “bubble” that students can often find themselves within, saying that before the program, she had never really met a Jewish person.
“This partnership has allowed me to gain friends and people who I now follow on social media and text and talk to about their experiences. I can say I have Jewish friends now, and that’s something that I wasn’t able to do before — and that’s something that people on campus can now say. I know about Jewish history, I know about Jewish people,” Beverly-Diallo said.
Another piece of the program that increases the learning experience is that everything is in person and there’s a human connection. That makes it makes it easier to tie into what’s being taught.
“It wouldn’t have been as helpful if I was just hearing things about Catholic people. Being able to actually go to a Catholic school with Catholic students and talk to them and talk to the administrators and talk to the teachers and to see what’s different and what’s similar was the best thing we got to experience,” said participant Zev Mendelson, an 11th grader at JDS.
The idea of learning outside of the classroom from primary cultural sources is something that both Malkus and Barnhardt were thrilled about being able to give their students and faculty.
And with how well things have gone over the past two years, it’s an effort that Malkus said he’s hoping to expand upon in the coming years.
“We want to make sure that the faculty exchanges continue and then, as I mentioned, we want to involve the parent communities in the conversation. There are so few places where there’s a trusting environment where people from different ethnic groups can come together to talk about issues and problems in our society but also get to know each other in a really deep way,” Malkus said.
He added that while nothing is concrete, he will look into the possibility of finding partners for similar programs with younger students.
There has been widespread support for the partnership across the administration, parents, students and teachers as something that can help everyone do better in their jobs and as people.
“Human connection really facilitates understanding and understanding and empathy and people,” said Lisa Vardi, the high school principal at JDS. “We just want to develop kind and caring students that go out and change the world. And Bishop McNamara wants the same. The human connection is what is most important, and it takes time to build that.”