How Can the World Community Ensure ‘Never Again’?: An Evening With Holocaust Survivor Irving Roth
recipients: Jennifer Rodgers, Dominion High School, Sterling, Virginia
date: 2019

As part of the Loudoun International Youth Leadership Summit, Dominion High School invited Irving Roth to come speak to the roughly 400 people in the community. Dominion High School students in the Global Ambassadors Club, Jewish Student Union, Muslim Student Association, and German Club (with adult support) took leadership roles in planning and facilitating the event. This evening event was held in conjunction with the local interfaith group Loudoun Interfaith Bridges, Beth Chaverim Reform Congregation and Grace Covenant Church, and was open to the wider community, engaging the international delegates at all eight of the participating high schools, their host families, and the local interfaith community. This event served as an opportunity to explore human rights issues as part of the ten-day Loudoun International Youth Leadership (LIYLS). 

 

The LIYLS 2019 theme was “Mind of a Nation. Spirit of the World.” Discussions, activities, and speakers focused on examining how personal identity shapes our world view, how communities form collective identities, and how the world community can work together to solve the most pressing issues we face in the 21st century. Utilizing resources from Peace First, a global non-profit, summit delegates and Loudoun students developed action plans to implement change in their own communities. Student action plans focused on a wide range of issues, ranging from the environment to LGBTQ rights to more equitable access to education. “An Evening with Irving Roth” was the first time in the eight years of the program that they hosted an evening event open to members of the local interfaith community. They look forward to making this component an annual event.