JCoSS friends win interfaith youth competition exploring pandemic experience
Miriam Burns and Scarlett Hershcorn, both 11, won the younger age category for their ‘Little Local Book Hub’ entry for the Faiths United competition
Jewish youngsters were among the winners of this year’s Faiths United youth competition after being asked to show how their community had been brought together by the coronavirus pandemic.
Friends Miriam Burns and Scarlett Hershcorn, both 11, start at JCoSS this month having won the younger age category for their ‘Little Local Book Hub’ entry, while Esti Elijah, 17, was runner-up in the older age bracket.
They were among the winners in the ‘Connected Communities’ competition, sponsored by Jewish News, after a judging panel led by some of Britain’s foremost educators assessed the entries.
The girls’ efforts were recognised at a virtual awards event featuring Faith Minister Lord Greenhalgh last week, after entrants aged 7-18 submitted their responses to the question: “How has the COVID-19 crisis brought your community together?”.
The idea for the book hub came about during lockdown when Scarlett’s mum Monique put some second-hand books outside her Stanmore home in north-west London for others to take, since book shops, schools and libraries were closed and people told to stay inside had time on their hands to read.
Miriam’s mum Sarah quickly followed suit in Edgware and their friend Tonie Jascourt helped with the online messaging. The girls helped organise the open idea sites, run from the front gardens of volunteers, and the idea quickly took off.
“Dozens more volunteers joined in over the next few months and the project spread as far as Ipswich, Gloucester and Cornwall, plus a second Hub in a different part of Edgware, run by Natasha Wise,” said Miriam’s mum Sarah.
“The response from local communities has been incredible,” said Monique. “People say it really kept them going when the world was shut down.”
The competition submissions, which came in various forms, including video, drawing, photos, poem, and prose, were judged by Dame Helen Hyde and Sir Antony Seldon, among others, with partners including the i Newspaper and the Eden Project as well as Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh media outlets.
The initiative was a project of Faiths United, a coalition of faith leaders and activists responding to the pandemic, which was set up in March of this year. It is chaired by Jewish philanthropist and interfaith champion Maurice Ostro.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
