On February 27, the Westboro Baptist Church protested in front of Shalhevet High School in an effort to spread hate and preach anti-Semitism.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a hate group based in Topeka, Kansas and unaffiliated with any other Baptist church.

Their efforts were fruitless, though, as they screamed and sang at an empty building while students from Shalhevet, de Toledo, Milken, and YULA Girls gathered for an alternative program that preached unity in the face of adversity, helping the community, and learning.

While the church members sang hurtful and despicable parodies of popular songs, the students sang prayers and demonstrated that we, the Jewish people, stand together.

Students gathered at Temple Beth Jacob and began the day with a ruach-filled Shacharit. Cory Blumstein, a student who is not particularly fond of prayer said, “Today was a different kind of experience. When we all got together and prayed, there was a special kind of energy that filled the room, because, while we couldn’t directly counter protest, we could show our pride in being Jewish in that unified setting.”

After Shacharit, everyone had breakfast and sat down to learn about mishloach manot. Mishloach manot is the commandment on Purim to send gifts of food to friends to ensure that everyone will have enough food for a Purim feast.

In keeping with a theme of communal unity, students then engaged in gemilut chasadim, or “acts of loving-kindness.” They packed Shabbat kits for patients at Cedars Sinai and wrote letters to veterans.

Afterwards students made signs and had their own 30-minute march to Shalhevet. The march was a large show of Jewish pride with students singing Jewish songs all the way to Shalhevet.

This significance of this confluence of Jewish children should not be lost on older generations. It represents a unified front for the future of the Jewish people in America. Shalhevet and Yula are Orthodox Jewish schools while de Toledo and Milken are pluralistic Jewish schools.

The fact that all of these schools were able to put aside differences and come together shows that a concerted effort to shun the Jewish people will not be tolerated and that the overall Jewish community is evolving and that we are able to come together when it matters most.