Lynne Azarchi
Jewish Educator

A) What qualities make the nominee deserving of the Z3 Bridge Builder Award?

Through her passion, professional and volunteer achievements during four decades, Lynne Azarchi has demonstrated her leadership in developing unity and understanding among a divided Jewish community by identifying what unites us and creating programs that bring diverse Jews together as a community.
With her devotion to repair the world and Jewish togetherness, Tikkun Olam has been Lynne’s mantra since her Bat Mitzvah. Inspired by Emma Lazarus, her Bat Mitzvah speech highlighted Lazarus’s empathy for Jewish immigrants and giving back to any Jewish immigrant, culminating in her world-famous poem. Lynne’s B.S. degree in archeology, augmented by a dig in Tel Sheva, Israel, enriched her sense of Jewish identity early.

As divided as Jewish communities are today, there are three areas that can and will bring Jewish people together: 1) antisemitism and other bias 2) Holocaust education and 3) helping Jewish youth built their Jewish identity and pride by exploring their Jewish heritage and genealogy. Lynne has been doing this work for years and is the processing of launching new initiatives right now.

1. Antisemitism and other bias
   As you know, because of the war in Israel/Gaza, anti-Semitism is growing exponentially and our youth are suffering. Both Jewish kids and adults are unpracticed, unprepared and suffering stress, trauma and anxiety.
   Before the War, in late 2021, Lynne was asked to conduct a listening session for the Greater Princeton Jewish community by her local Federation’s JCRC. What she heard was that antisemitic incidents were increasing in her area, Jewish youth were suffering shame and trauma, and parents and educators did not know what to do. She immediately called Harlene Galen, because the two of them knew what to do, based on two decades of teaching evidence-based strategies at Kidsbridge Youth Center—Lynne as the Executive Director and Harlene as the volunteer chairperson of the Education Committee. They needed to modify the strategies and write a guide to fill this gap for our Jewish families.

   Expanding past antisemitism, the Guidebook encourages pushback against all bias, including Islamophobia, AAPI Hate, and bias toward any minority or perceived difference.

   In March 2024 our “Countering Antisemitism & Hate, A How-To Guide for Youth (8-18), Family & Educators” was published. In May 2024 we were selected to be in the 2024-25 Jewish Book Council JBC Cohort and our Jewish Guidebook is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Independent bookstores.

   Regardless of their opposing views within the Jewish community, parents, grandparents and teachers of Jewish children can choose from easy-to-do and safe activities and easy-to-understand information. In the guidebook are tools to:
   
   -Form a T.E.A.M. with your family to effectively support and protect each other.

   –Foster Jewish identity and pride – the foundation for youth to “stand up and speak out” -
   -Understand and unleash the power of practice to create more prepared youth --Teach youth the best online strategies to counter hate, tropes & cyberbullying

   -Model courage and resilience in your home or classroom

   -Recognize a safety issue and understand why it is incumbent for us to speak up

   -Link to effective resources – books, websites and organizations

   -Make this journey with youth interactive, fun and engaging
   
   Supplementing the Guidebook is the website: jewishupstanders.org Plans for teachers’ lesson plans for the guidebook are in the preparation stage as are our instructional videos.
   Now Lynne’s goal is to expand the series and write Countering Bias Family Guidebooks for Latina, Moslem, Hindu and Chinese families

2. Holocaust education
   Lynne has served on the Mercer County Holocaust Commission for eight years, volunteering to create programs in AAPI, anti-bias, LGBTQ, Native American history and helps to build the library. The Mercer County Holocaust Center is located on the campus of Mercer County Community College. (By the way, the Kidsbridge Youth Center, is recognized by NJ State as a Holocaust Learning Center.)
   Lynne is the lead for a new Holocaust related project. “Here There Are Blueberries” is a new Pulitzer-Prize nominated play about a mysterious photo album and what it reveals about the perpetrators of the Holocaust and our own humanity. The play is being presented by the prestigious regional McCarter Theater in New Jersey.
   Lynne was asked by the local Federation to create an educator panel program open to all educators in Mercer County. There Jewish and non-Jewish educators will explore in small group discussions prejudice, discrimination and hate -what unites and divides us. The icing on the cake is that the teacher takes what they learned back into the classrooms. Lynne is very excited to bring this project together in late January or early February.

3. Building Jewish identity and pride for youth --Greater Trenton Jewish Cemeteries project GTJCP– Jews can come together to build Jewish identity and youth, especially for their children and grandchildren.

   First, some background. Lynne was invited by the American Jewish Committee on a mission to Poland in 2015 and got to visit Auschwitz. There she learned how many members of her family were murdered. Her epiphany to honor her ancestors was to discover her roots and genealogy. She created a new education project for GTJCP – that fifth and sixth graders from local schuls travel by bus to the Jewish cemetery and reenact their ancestors i.e. grandparents, great grandparents and great great grandparents. Most importantly, Jewish youth can ask their relatives questions while they are still alive.

   Lynne’s first cousin reenacts their grandmother who came from Ukraine at 18 years old, penniless, with no family and no English. The program is called Jewish Roots --to encourage local Jewish youth to bring the history of Jewish life in Mercer County alive by creating living memorials to those buried in our cemeteries. Students honor our Jewish ancestors, including those who left their homes to escape persecution, ‘pogroms’ and poverty in search of a better life, by telling their stories.

   Lynne is proud of this program and this November will be part of a special events team to honor three Jewish community members who donate to the Greater Trenton Jewish Cemetery Project. https://gtjcp.org/

B) In what ways has the nominee demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to their work in bridging divides?

Lynne recognized early that empathy is the foundation for bridging divides. Unless you can ‘walk in others shoes’ and be an active listener, you can not bridge a divide. Over fifteen years in the little spare time she had, she researched empathy and kept copious notes. In 2020 her book, The Empathy Advantage: Coaching Children to be Kind, Respectful and Successful was published and has recently come out in paperback.

Azarchi shows that empathy CAN be taught. In 2021, the Kidsbridge Youth Center merged with Children’s Home Society of New Jersey. Lynne is their Empathy Director whose empathy circle presentations are requested by businesses. She conducts empathy circles for CHS’s front line workers i.e. social workers and adoption coordinators.

Lynne dedicated two decades of her life to founding and building Kidsbridge for students, parents and educators. Starting in 2002, Lynne served as the Executive Director of Kidsbridge Youth Center in New Jersey. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to fostering bullying prevention, religious diversity, empathy, anti-bias, anti-racism and empowerment (Upstander) skills for students and to teaching educators and parents how to support this learning.

I, Harlene Lichter Galen, Ed. D., the nominator, can vouch for Kidsbridge’ s evidence-based strategies because I served as the pro-bono chairperson of its Education Committee for 16 years. In total more than 35,000 elementary and middle school students have experienced Kidsbridge evidence-based programs. A percentage of Kidsbridge’ s interactive and immersive activities for both youth and adults are effective in the diversified Jewish community, a discovery which Lynne and I can attest to.

The Kidsbridge philosophy that Lynne developed twenty years ago, is a long-term strategy. IF we can educate more kids and imbue them with kindness, respect and inclusion, that is the best way to see results in ten to 20 years. In other words, to be serious about bridging divides, we must educate our children now.

Urgently, we must start in preschool as Kidsbridge does. Do you know when bias and bullying start? When kids are three years old! Lynne, Harlene and Kidsbridge facilitators are doing the work at Kidsbridge which reduces bias, stereotypes and tropes for the whole community.

Interfaith organizations are another passion of Lynne’s to cross the bridges that divide us.
Together – an interfaith organization that Lynne co-founded five years ago. https://peacecoalition.org/together Under the umbrella of Coalition of Peace Action, here is our mission:
We embrace diversity, within our shared humanity, to create peace in our homes and local communities.

TOGETHER’s mission is to lift up, honor, celebrate and educate people about the differences and shared values of a pluralistic community. We promote acceptance, knowledge, trust and mutual respect. We seek to create a more inclusive and just society that values the traditions of all faiths, cultures, races and ethnicities.

Although our goals are not limited by geographic boundaries, we primarily focus our events and actions within the greater Mercer County area in the state of New Jersey.

As a TOGETHER program, Lynne is presenting anti-bias meetings across the State, starting October 1 in the West Windsor Public Library. She presents a PowerPoint, then the group breaks into small group circles for processing and action ideas.

COALITION OF NATIVES AND ALLIES (CNA) https://www.coalitionofnativesandallies.org/
Cultivating Unity to End Racism
Speaking of unity, Lynne is a co-founder of the Coalition of Natives and Allies --three Native sisters (Cherokee/Choctaw, Sisseton Lakota and Mohawk), one Quaker and Lynne – a Jewess. When Lynne learned how traumatized and invisible naigve women are in this country, Lynne had to jump in and help her sisters. The coalition’s mission is: .
CNA is a cross-cultural collaboration of Native Americans and allies who value cultural diversity and respect for all peoples.
Through education and advocacy, CNA aspires to teach the truth about Native American histories, modern day Native issues and bring awareness to the trauma caused by negative and archaic stereotypes used for sports mascots. By highlighting the bias and prejudice these stereotypes cause, CNA strives to end the harmful use of Native American misrepresentation in schools.

Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom (SOSS)- https://sosspeace.org/lynne-azarchi/
I am a new Board member of SOSS. I believe in developing relationships with my Muslim sisters to foster dialogue, understanding and empathy. While this is currently extremely challenging and sometimes each word must be chosen carefully, the organization’s mission is ‘Building relationships, transforming communities’.
SOSS embraces the power of Muslim and Jewish sisterhood to spark social change. I am directing Membership and on the Fundraising Committee. I have met fabulous women and love ‘building bridges’.

C) How has the nominee's work impacted the Jewish community and beyond?

Lynne has contributed her skills and time to serve on six Jewish boards. Currently she is a Board member of American Jewish Committee-- AJC New Jersey, AJC Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, Jewish Community Center JCC -of Princeton Mercer Bucks, JCRC of Jewish Federation Princeton Mercer Bucks, Greater Trenton Jewish Cemeteries Project, and Mercer County Holocaust/Genocide Commission. Yes, that’s six Jewish Boards!

Lynne is on these boards to make an impact – if she can’t make a contribution, she resigns from the Board. She is a doer, a fixer and a problem-solver.
The value that fellow volunteers place on Lynne’s contributions is evident in awards she has received including: the Merrye Shavel Hudis Pearl Award from the Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks, the Princeton YWCA’S Tribute to Women award and the American Conference on Diversity Award – Princeton Chapter.

For our new antisemitism guidebook, Lynne and I are presenting webinars on pushing back against antisemitism safely. On the JBC circuit, Lynne is traveling to Florida, NY and Connecticut on a book tour to encourage Jewish families to establish Jewish identity and pride and prepare our children for all bias BEFORE they go to college.

Summary

When the Jewish community needs something done, they call Lynne. Her joie de vivre is accomplishing strategic initiatives that create understanding, empathy, respect and kindness for all kids, all adults and all communities; she is a Bridge Builder.