Last February, students from Boshop Sullivan Catholic High school in Virginia were blamed for anti-Semitic chanting and graffiti at a basketball game against Norfolk Academy.
Local Jewish and Catholic leaders have arranged for a Montreal troupe- Young Actors for Young Audiences- to perform a play “No More Raisins, No More Raisins, No More Almonds,” by Batia Bettman about Jewish teens in Nazi ghetto. The religious leaders raised $120,000 to underwrite free student admission.
Sullivan students’ participation is the school’s principals of Price’s incorporation of diversity awareness education into his curriculum after the February event.
“Instead of brushing an incident under the carpet, he said, no – this is a learning moment,” Bettman said from her home in Montreal. “I think he’s a very brave man and true educator, though I’ve never met him.”
Performances were arranged by Communities Against Bigotry, an alliance of Catholic and Jewish leaders who came together after February to find ways to shape teen attitudes about racism and bigotry.
At Sullivan, the play fits into a new diversity curriculum integrated into regular classes, including art and literature.
Since February, Sullivan students also have visited the Virginia Holocaust Museum, taken a workshop taught by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and heard a talk on genocide from an African refugee known as one of the “lost boys” of Sudan.
“Out of an ugly incident has risen a desire by people of goodwill to make sure that necessary steps are taken to ensure young people understand the dangers of what hatred bigotry racism and anti-Semitism can be.”
Date: 19/11/07
