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| The Grosfeld Family ADL National Youth Leadership Mission to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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National Youth Leadership Mission Quotes from 2005 Participants
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The Grosfeld Family ADL National Youth Leadership Mission to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides high school students a unique opportunity to learn about the Holocaust and its moral lessons. Through an intensive three-and-one-half day program, students take a guided tour through the museum, hear first-hand testimonials from Holocaust survivors, and participate in ADL's A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute anti-bias programs - all the while getting to know and bond with their fellow delegates. This journey helps students understand the consequences of prejudice and discrimination, and the price of indifference and inaction in the face of hatred. Students explore concepts of personal responsibility and their role in today's struggles for justice and peace. As the following quotes show, this experience can be profoundly emotional and life-changing.
National Youth Leadership Mission
Quotes from 2005 Participants
“These activities showed me how we were all connected in way or another and had the same ideas on hate, but just never showed it to any extent publicly. It also helped me to understand how hate and prejudice could grow and go even as far as actual crimes that would happen in the name of hatred, the Holocaust being the biggest example.”
Kenan “Kenny” Abbasi, Palm Beach
“‘WOW’ is probably the only thing I can say about my experience in Washington, D.C. I say experience because doing what I did with the ADL is much more than just a field trip, it’s much more than a little tour, and it’s much more than a quick three day seminar.”
Matthew Atkinson-Brazis, San Francisco
“I know it may sound a bit cliché, but if I can just reach one person, just give one person the tools to combat discrimination, just make one person think, my efforts will be justified. I will wait and I will watch and I will work, and I will not give up.”
Meg Brooks, Atlanta
“If I learned anything in this mission, it is that no matter how small the action or how trifle the act may be, everyone can encourage change and it is our responsibility as members of the global community to do so.”
Stefania Di Mauro-Nava, Miami
“I knew that my role in history as it is written could no longer be that of a passive one, but that of an active one.”
Matt Eldrige, Los Angeles
“It gives me a great joy to see people from different backgrounds coming together to celebrate their diversity because I know that this is a huge step of stopping the prejudice and discrimination from happening.”
Mayya Glushankova, New York
“Our society must grow to learn that hate brings nothing but disunity, anger, and grief upon ourselves and the individuals that we impact in our lives. We must learn to trust the power of love in order to create a better world for not only ourselves but also for the future leaders of our world and our society.”
Breanna C. Gray, Washington, D.C.
“I walked through the museum full of the emotions of sadness, confusion, disgust, and most of all anger. How could someone do such terrible things to other human beings, and why had so little been done to stop them? I could not fathom it. I left the museum wanting to ensure that an event like the Holocaust would never happen again.”
Whitney Hancock, Atlanta
“My experience at the ADL Grosfeld Family National Youth Leadership Mission not only altered my perception of historical and modern prejudices but also served as a mold in making me a better person.”
James Jones, New Orleans
“The most surprising thing that I experienced during the NYLM was actually a personal experience. It was the meeting with Nesse Galperin. This meeting was surprising to me because at the Holocaust museum, we picked identification cards that had the story of one Holocaust victim inside of it. The identification card that I chose happened to be Nesse’s. When I realized that it was her, I was surprised because even though I knew that there were Holocaust survivors, the chances of me picking a card with one were slim to none. And the chances of her speaking to us that day were even slimmer. I was so excited. I asked her to sign the identification card for me. She did. It was a historical moment for me and I’ll never forget it.”
Hussein Juerakhan, New York
“The Identification Card given to me at the beginning of the exhibit helped me to see that each of the 6 million people in the holocaust were individual people, which is something hard to fully appreciate after simply hearing about the death toll. Through a combination of visual displays, I not only learned about the facts of the Holocaust, but also gained an understanding of what the victims’ lives were like.”
Matt Lentz, Atlanta
“One of the most profound speakers was Congressman John Lewis. Listening to him made me feel as if I was reliving a major part of American history. Here is a man who stood up for what he believed in. He marched with our country's most influential civil rights leaders, and never stopped believing that he could make a change.”
Lea Levine, Atlanta
“During the sessions, we could discuss the generalities of a situation and then dissect each scenario until it was in its most basic form. At the end of every discussion regarding anti-Semitism, bigotry, and racism, we found nothing but ignorance.”
“The trip to Washington had an effect on me that I never could have predicted. I never considered myself a racist before, but not I know that is not enough. I now have to work to end hatred, and make racism just another term in a history book. Something we study to ensure that it never enters our world again, and people can finally live in peace with who they are, and not be hated because of something they can not change.”
Alex Londen, Arizona
“It is important that we analyze our role in situations in our own lives as bystanders, perpetrators, allies, or victim. We play different roles at different times, but we need to consciously analyze what role we are currently playing and strive to be allies to those that are victimized.”
David Mulcahy, Atlanta
“The ADL Youth Mission changed my life forever. After believing that I knew everything, it really goes to show how much you don’t know, and how much you can learn. I have a new way of looking at things, and more respect for others, and a better attitude at taking things in.”
Julian Picano, San Francisco
“To see such a large group of honestly caring individuals gathered together truly enlightened my personal hope of our generation and revealed to me that there is tremendous potential for our generation to succeed in making a difference in our world.”
Justin Sackett, New Orleans
“Before the trip, I always knew I could make a difference but I guess I didn’t realize it could be so big. All in all, this trip was one of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had. I know what it means to be an agent of change, and I know what I can do to be one.”
Megan Schneider, Arizona
“All in all the ADL Youth Leadership Mission can be summarized as an eye-opening experience that made me realize that the issue of discrimination is not just something heard on the news. By promoting people to broaden their horizons and taking small steps to appreciating others differences, we can all make a difference.”
Barrie Schwartz, Detroit
“My delegations follow up project to the mission really means a lot to me. We will finally be able to show what we learned and get to hopefully make a difference not just in our community but around the state and the country.”
Olivia Weiner, Detroit
“We can make a difference in the world if we only let what we feel and know in our hearts guide us to help others.”
Eugene W. Wood IV, Washington, D.C.
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