GATES MILLS, Ohio — At Gilmour Academy, a Catholic school founded in 1946 in Gates Mills, signs and symbols of Christ and the Catholic faith are apparent throughout the school’s campus. From the on-campus chapel where students meet every morning, to theology class, to crosses and depictions of Jesus in art and on the walls, the school’s Catholic roots are present.
While the majority of students at the school are Catholic, Chief Mission Integration Officer Whitney Daly said the school’s core values of inclusiveness and hospitality, among others, make it a place where people are welcome to be “their authentic selves.”
“Our founder also called us to cross borders of every sort and to learn from and with people, not just to, you know, recognize differences, but to really become communal, become a community with people who have different experiences than our own,” Daly said. “We do have a number of students who are not Catholic, they come from all different faith traditions. And within the classroom, they're invited to share their own experiences, to make connections to their own faith, to help our Catholic students understand how their experiences can help each of us grow.”
So when Daly heard about the creation of a Jewish Heritage Club at the Catholic school, she wasn’t surprised.
“In a world where there's so much polarization and so much division, it's really important for us here to foster authentic dialogue and to help people understand that we all have human dignity and we all have something to share, and we're our best when we are able to learn from and with one another,” she said.
About a year and a half ago, seniors Miles Greenwald, Eli Swirsky, and Brennan Friedman came up with the idea for the club, all inspired by their Jewish faith, and were driven to share some of their culture and traditional practices with their peers.
“We have two reasons for this, one is anti-Semitism is on the rise, and our goal is just to spread awareness, and we do this through our club by doing activities,” Friedman said. “And number two is a lot of our friends don't really know what the Jewish faith is like, so our goal is just to teach them what it’s like to be a Jewish kid in Cleveland or just in our school.”
With the idea in mind, Friedman approached teacher and coach Jeff Klein, also of Jewish faith, and shared the group’s desire to start a Jewish Heritage Club.
“And I said, ‘are you serious? What do you really want to be?’ I said, ‘We're a Catholic school, you want to do this?’” Klein remembers asking. “And he says, ‘yeah.’ And so at first, I didn't know how serious they were.”
Klein quickly learned the trio was serious, and remembers how 52 students packed his psychics' classroom for the first club meeting. Klein, now the club’s advisor, said the club does service and education. For example, Klein said they’ve done service at the Kosher Food Bank, raised money through latke sales, and have taken trips to the Maltz Museum and local temples.
“They'll put a PowerPoint together and do a little education about maybe what's the difference between Hanukkah and Christmas, or what's it like to be celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and why are they important,” Klein said.
Swirksy said the club has received support from fellow students, who have consistently attended meetings and supported their efforts.
“It's just been awesome to, you know, educate our friends on how we've been raised and just give them a bit of a different perspective for what life is like for somebody of Jewish faith,” Swirsky said.
For Passover, the club hosted a seder dinner, educating students on what the meal represents, and the significance of the holiday, walking through each step of the meal. Future club president Carter Richmond has parents who are of both Catholic and Jewish faiths, and said he can relate to both, and hopes to help his peers experience something new.
“Them coming to Jewish Heritage Club, it’s a way to teach them about another big religion in the world,” Richmond said. “And it's kind of exciting to see them grow in their understanding of the Jewish faith.”
While the founders of the Jewish Heritage Club are proud in sharing their faith with their peers, Friedman remembers the transition to coming to a Catholic school as someone of Jewish faith as a new experience.
“When I first got here, it was definitely a little uncomfortable going to mass or doing some of the prayers, but over time, I definitely really started to enjoy learning about my friends’ faith, and kind of like I wanted to do the same with my faith, teaching them what it's about to be Jewish,” Friedman said.
Klein said experiencing other faiths can be a way to examine our own beliefs.
“It's important when you have a mirror to look at yourself and what you believe,” he said. “And so I tell the kids all the time, it's important to understand other faiths so that you can actually understand your faith in a deeper perspective.”
“I didn't know too much about the Catholic faith before I came here,” said Swirsky. “But through theology class and mass and retreats, we've done, it's been pretty cool to get a different perspective of how religion works for other people and it kind of opened up my world a little bit that, you know, there's different ways that people live and I just think it's been really cool to get that perspective in my life.”
The founders are hoping their club helps lend that same perspective and eye-opening education to their peers.
“It's been fun to educate, you know, it's been really cool to open up somebody's world,” Swirsky said.
“I think it's important to always keep learning and continuing to learn about other people and what they believe in,” said Greenwald. “And I think our club just represents that as a whole.”
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EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above previously aired on 3News on April 2, 2023.