Tzedakah translates as lifestyle for Berkeley teen

Emma Mayerson has founded two community service programs, established a board for teens and philanthropic pursuits, served as an administrative volunteer, literacy tutor and advisory board member, and educates b'nai mitzvah students on the rewards of tzedakah.

She's also barely old enough to drive.

Last month Mayerson, a 16-year-old sophomore at Berkeley High School, received a Youth Leadership Award from the Youth Leadership Institute in San Francisco for her involvement in the Bay Area Jewish Coalition for Literacy, which has chapters at the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay building as well as in San Francisco and the Peninsula.

Shirley Feldman, the East Bay director of JCL, which works to strengthen literacy in public elementary schools and after-school program, nominated Mayerson for the award. "She has a unique ability to motivate others because a lot of what she does comes from her heart," says Feldman.

Mayerson's family has always valued community service. Her mother, Arlene, is a disability rights lawyer and her father, Allan, works with at-risk youth. "It's always been around me in a very serious way," Mayerson says.

Mayerson began volunteering for JCL as a seventh-grader at Tehiyah Day School in El Cerrito. "I've always loved kids and loved reading. I wanted to share that joy with others."

She teamed with a kindergartner at Emerson Elementary School in Oakland and found tremendous gratification in the 5-year-old's progress. The following summer Mayerson tutored students at the South Berkeley YMCA. When the summer school program ended she created Bridge From the Pen, a pen-pal program for her classmates at Tehiyah and the second- through fourth-graders at the YMCA.

Feldman lauds Mayerson's ability to inspire others, saying, "Emma is continually trying to find new ways to better herself and her community."

The sophomore recently initiated Generations, an intergenerational program through the JCL that matches elderly reading tutors with elementary school students. Since the fall residents from the East Bay's Rossmoor community and members of the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center senior group have traveled to Cambridge Elementary School in Concord to tutor students in reading and writing. Volunteers commit to an entire school year, working one-on-one with the same child for at least one hour a week.

Mayerson modeled Generations after a program in Cincinnati, where Jewish seniors volunteer with students at a Jewish day school to bridge the gap between generations. The Cincinnati program is funded by an initiative of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, named for her grandparents.

The teenager is close to her grandfather who passed down his love of education to her. She cites him as a tremendous inspiration and influence, and instilled in her "the power of learning.

"I think part of the reason I love reading to children is that whenever I'd come to visit him he'd sit me on his lap and read to me," she says. She believes most young people could benefit from spending time with mentors and older people. "We have so much to learn from elders."

She actively promotes community service to her age group and younger children. On Sundays she volunteers as a teaching assistant for the Seventh Grade Fund at Lafayette's Temple Isaiah and educates bar and bat mitzvah students in the importance of tzedakah.

Several months ago she launched the Jewish Youth Foundation Teen Board as a vehicle for "teen empowerment and learning how to do philanthropy." Twenty Bay Area teenagers sit on the board, learning how to work with money and become philanthropists.

Despite her busy schedule Mayerson finds time to indulge her other passion — dancing. She takes an Afro-Haitian dance class at school and is a member of Berkeley High's Hip Hop Dance Troupe.




The Bay Area Jewish Coalition for Literacy, affiliated with the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy, has three chapters and a Web site: www.jclread.org. To volunteer in the East Bay, call (510) 839-2900, ext. 272. In San Francisco, call (415) 977-7414. On the Peninsula, call (650) 940-1229.