Renovating a former crack house or building a park are not in most teenagers’ summer plans. But 17-year-old Leah Ross of Moraga spent the summer in Milwaukee drywalling and digging in the dirt.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” Ross said.
For five to seven hours a day, she helped turn a park into a memorial for those who had died in gang violence. Among other projects, she helped turn a former crack house into a home for members of the Milwaukee community service corps.
Ross had been to Israel the summer before on a confirmation trip — an experience that, she felt, cemented her already strong Jewish identity. She is Hatikvah chairperson for the National Federation of Temple Youth and a member of Temple Isaiah in Moraga.
This summer, “I wanted to do something that helps the world.”
The American Jewish Society for Service gave her a way to make her wish come true. The philanthropic organization sends teenagers to work on service projects all over the country. Locations range from urban areas to Native American reservations; the projects range from working with the disabled to aiding the poor.
The society sent Ross to work with the Milwaukee Community Service Corps.
“It was incredible,” Ross said of her summer experience. “I can appreciate how much I have.”
Working side by side with people from varied backgrounds — including a Vista worker and another who had never graduated from high school — taught her to look at others differently.
“I couldn’t believe how well we got along, weeding this lawn. I learned not to judge people by where they live or by what kind of money standards they have.”
Ross says her desire to heal the world probably comes from her Jewish upbringing. While the physical aspect of this project was a new challenge for the teenager, she’s been doing good works for years with the National Charity League.
Through that organization, she has participated in Loaves and Fishes, a program that feeds homeless people, and Habitat for Humanity.
Her 1996 summer trip to Israel was particularly memorable, she said, because she felt surrounded by fellow Jews.
“On Shabbat all the shops closed early and everyone was going home to celebrate Shabbat.”
Ever since that visit, “I couldn’t imagine marrying someone who isn’t Jewish, who doesn’t understand why I like going to temple.”
Ross has gone through Hebrew school from third grade on with the same group of peers. She says she wishes there were more Jews at Campolindo High School, which she attends.
Looking back over her summer in Milwaukee, she said, “I realized the little things I do are so important.” For example, one day while working in the school’s vegetable garden, she met a Montessori preschooler. The girl declared that she hated vegetables.
“But by the end of the day, she wanted to eat vegetables.”