RKYHS students were joined at school recently by their peers from St. Benedicts Prep in Newark. The students meet weekly on Zoom as part of SOAR (Seminar on Antisemitism and Racism). Students from both schools join together to study and discuss the history, commonalities and differences between racial injustice and antisemitism, increasing cultural and racial understanding and awareness, and jointly combatting all forms of hate. As a supplement to their weekly Zoom seminars, the students have opportunities throughout the year for fun and relationship building. The St. Benedicts Prep students took a tour of RKYHS and learned about the holiday of Purim followed by making hamantashen together.

The students in SOAR have been jointly reading and discussing Noa Tishby’s book “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew” that she co-authored with Emmanuel Acho. In her talk when she visited RKYHS, Tishby stressed the importance of the power of relationships which held that much more weight as the St. Benedicts Prep students were able to join RKYHS to hear from Tishby during their visit.