What happens when two UJA-supported community centers bring together Black and Jewish teens with the goal of not only helping them understand each other, but also better understanding themselves?

Connections. Real talk. And growth.

For 16 teens — eight from Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in northwestern Bronx and eight from the Riverdale Y (most of them students at SAR Academy, a modern Orthodox day school) — the Youth Building Bridges program they took part in this year was an eye-opening experience. They learned to explore the world beyond their day-to-day “bubbles” and meet peers whose lives, on the surface, appeared much unlike their own.

Meetings alternated locations each week, so everyone had a turn on their home turf. Led by Mosholu Montefiore’s Shonte Armstrong and Riverdale Y’s Rabbi Scott Kalmikoff, the program blended formal discussions on topics such as the difference between race, ethnicity, culture, and religion with casual activities like shooting baskets.

Building relationships is the first step, explains Scott, and only after that can discussions about deeper, more complicated issues take place. “There needs to be trust and positive vibes. People have to feel good about each other.” To accomplish this, the group’s sessions always involved a shared meal, followed by social interactions.

With the increase of antisemitism and hate of all kinds, UJA invested in this pilot program to build relationships across lines of difference. Funding is in place for the 2025-2026 school year as well.

The cultural exchange is “designed to help them understand each other, but also think about who they are as individuals and explore their own identities,” says Melanie Schneider, a senior planning executive in the Jewish Life department at UJA. “These groups are very siloed, very isolated. They don't really have an opportunity to interact outside of this program.”

An important goal, adds Scott, is to have kids learn about others without feeling “other” themselves.

The teens enrolled in the voluntary program for similar reasons. Those from the Mosholu cohort, says Shonte, were all interested in learning about another group of people, while a motivation for the Jewish students was to expose themselves to people who led different lives than they did.

Before this program, says Mosholu participant Kaylin, 19, “the only person I knew that was Jewish was a teacher. I knew what a bar mitzvah was, but not much past that.”

SAR student Kira, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, had similar limited exposure to Black culture, but as someone from another often misunderstood and marginalized group, she knew it was important to learn — and share — more. “As Jews we really need to stand up and show the world who we are. With any community, it’s very important to build these bridges. It’s always going to be a struggle, and that’s why we have to make it less hard.”

The ultimate goal, Scott explains, is to have the teens build relationships with each other outside the program, “to feel comfortable, for example, just picking up their phones and texting each other.”

Some members of the group have expressed interest in being involved in the program in the future, and Scott and Shonte are considering what roles alumni can play.

Melanie adds, “To hear that these teens who grew up so isolated are so interested in learning about each other and themselves, so much so that they actually want to imagine continuing this process and also gaining facilitation skills, is incredible.”

“A lot of programs that do cross-cultural work focus on adults,” says Shonte. “Teens have the ability to articulate a lot of different things we don’t get to see because they’re not often asked their opinion. We’re giving them a voice on how to build these relationships. We have an opportunity to change perspectives.”