BLEWS exchange program builds bridges

This week 21 BT tenth graders met with over twenty tenth grade students from St. Francis Academy, an African-American parochial school in located on Baltimore’s eastside, as part of the high school’s on-going participation in BLEWS. BLEWS is a non-profit organization that tries to foster greater understanding between Jews and African-Americans.

The students spent the morning at BT teaching each other about the holidays of Chanukkah and Kwanzaa. Beth Tfiloh students put on a skit to teach the St. Francis Academy students about the Maccabaes, brought in a menorah for them to see and played dreidel with them using chocolate gelt. The two schools also baked Chanukah cookies together.

The tenth grade BLEWS program continues later in the school year with the two school groups jointly visiting the Reginald Lewis Museum, the Holocaust Memorial in downtown Baltimore and the Maryland Jewish Museum. Mr. David Green serves as Beth Tfiloh faculty advisor to the BLEWS program.

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