It’s rare for a small passion project to take off internationally, but Sophie Libin and Micah Frydberg, both CJA 2024 Grade 9 alumni, have made it a reality. Through their work on L’dor V’dor: The Fourth Generation, the two focused on reshaping Holocaust education to make it easier for teenagers to engage with and understand, rather than simply memorize. They currently live in Calgary but have bigger plans to take their work beyond Canada, including speaking at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
For Sophie and Micah, that passion and respect for their culture were nurtured in one important place – the CJA. The school was fundamental in helping Sophie and Micah cultivate an understanding of Jewish tradition, history, and community. They share how the unique experience of the CJA must not be taken for granted. “It’s easy [to think] the grass is always greener,” Sophie says, and Micah adds, “You have to sometimes reflect on what [the CJA] gave to you in the moment.”
Sophie has a special memory of leading the Passover Seder as a Grade 9 student, describing it as “a rite of passage and you look up to for the entire time you’re a student at CJA.” From a young age, she saw how interconnected the school was and how important it was to be involved in the community.
For Micah, his strongest memory is the sense of brotherhood he found playing soccer with the older kids and how “it felt like a coming-of-age moment; I felt like I was becoming part of the greater Jewish community.” He continues, “It opened my eyes to the rest of the school and made me feel more involved with the community itself.”
Along with those memories, the values Sophie and Micah learned at the CJA have stayed with them. Resilience, critical thinking, and community are just some of the values that Sophie and Micah have learned and lived through after graduating. “It’s such a big part of Jewish history that we are a resilient people,” Sophie explains and continues, “that Jewish resilience [taught at the CJA] applies to your own life.” Their reflections show how their CJA education helped shape not only their understanding of Judaism, but also their sense of Jewish identity and community.
Sophie and Micah have always been involved in their community. BBYO has been a big part of both their lives, though each has been involved in different ways. Micah was recently elected as the 67th Regional Segan, and feels he can give back to the Jewish community, stating: “I try to give people the same prosperity that I have reaped from so that [the Jewish community] can have the same experience.”
Sophie, on the other hand, was previously on the BBYO board and credits the CJA with connecting her with many people who eventually led her to join BBYO. Although she began speaking at events because her mom was heavily involved, she and Micah soon saw an opportunity to do more with the knowledge and resources they had been given.
That opportunity came through BBYO’s International Leadership Network and The Fourth Generation. “It just kind of spiralled from there,” says Sophie. Through the project, Sophie and Micah identified a gap in how teens engaged with Holocaust education. Instead of simply memorizing history, they want to help young people explore “what [the Holocaust] means to [an individual Jewish person], instead of it being something that only reaches them,” as Micah states.
For Sophie and Micah, the project is an opportunity to help other Jewish youth connect with Holocaust history in a way that feels personal and connects them to their own family l. By doing so, they carry forward the values and what they learned from the CJA, now helping others connect with their history in a way that matters.