ADL Arizona SOCIAL ACTIVISM
Announces Moral Courage Essay Contest Winners
O
n the heels of an alarming spike of antisemitic incidents across the state, three Arizona high schoolers were awarded for their touching essays inspired by Holocaust survivor testimonies. Arizona high school students have been awarded scholarships in the annual Herb Goldberg Moral Courage Essay Contest. The contest, open to all Arizona high school students, is a project of ADL’s No Place for Hate® program, which works with educators and students
across the country to promote respectful, inclusive, and equitable school environments where all students can thrive. This year, participants were asked to read Holocaust survivors’ testimonies and explain why learning about the Holocaust has helped them respond to antisemitism and hate in their school and community with moral courage. Additionally, students were asked to identify attributes and skills needed to exemplify moral courage and effect change. “Moral courage is about action
FIRST PLACE MATTHEW MALEDON, a junior at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix for his essay, Moral Courage in Holocaust Education.
My name is Matthew Maledon, and I was born in Scottsdale, Arizona. I am the youngest sibling to 4 brothers and a sister. Currently, I attend 11th grade at a Jesuit high school in Phoenix called Brophy College Preparatory, where I dedicate my time towards not only a rigorous workload, but also towards playing for our varsity baseball team. Some of the greatest joys in my life, however, come from music; whether it be from playing guitar or piano, or from hearing the blaring
– it means doing the right thing even when one is afraid of the consequences,” Tammy Gillies, Regional Director of ADL Arizona says. “These impressive young students have demonstrated that kind of courage just by taking up their pens to share their own perspectives of what a Holocaust survivor’s testimony means for combatting today’s antisemitism, which unfortunately is on the rise in Arizona and across the country, as we saw in our Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents.”
speakers of my old record player, there is always a rewarding element that I get from music. Although I cannot yet say I have any plans set in stone following high school, I know I will make the most of the college I ultimately attend — taking charge of new opportunities while also pursuing the passions in which I am currently involved. I decided to enter this contest mainly because of an experience I am so grateful to have had several years ago, in which I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and was thoroughly moved by my exposure to the atrocities of this period in time — something none of my school textbooks had really done justice in presenting. With my essay, I wanted to offer the importance of classroom education in these historical events — events that should never be forgotten and should call upon each coming generation to hold onto.
The Goldberg Family Foundation, which held the competition, is dedicated to promoting positive change in people’s lives and helping to build and enhance the communities in which they live. Registration is still open. To learn more about No Place for Hate® go to: https://arizona.adl.org/no-place-for-hate/ 42
MAY/JUNE 2022 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE
