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February 18, 2005/Adar 1 9 5765, Volume 57, No. 25
ADL award-winner addresses board
STEPHANIE N. HENSCHEL
Staff Writer
It seemed like just another board meeting for the Anti-Defamation League: Board members and guests gathered in the banquet room at Avanti in Phoenix, chatting among each other while waiting for the meeting to be called to order.
But one thing was different - a 16-year-old girl was among the group, talking and laughing like they were old friends.
And, in a way, they were.
That 16-year-old girl was Lisa Wolf, one of 11 Sugihara Scholars named by the national branch of ADL. Honored because of her work at ADL's National Youth Leadership Mission in Washington, D.C., in October, she recently returned from Japan - an all-expenses paid trip from the ADL and given to five Sugihara winners from around the nation - and was present at the meeting to discuss the details of her journey.
Introduced by Paul Wieser, Arizona ADL director of education - "I have the best job in the ADL because I get to deal with kids like this," he says - Wolf began her presentation by greeting guests in Japanese.
Wolf, a Catholic and student at Seton Catholic High School, told of her excitement and shock upon discovering she was a winner of the Sugihara Award, named after Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania during World War II who was personally responsible for saving thousands of Jews. Going to Japan was a bit daunting at first, she says.
"I'm kind of a small-school, small-town kind of girl," she says. "And Japan is this huge world."
Despite her "small-town" status, getting to learn about a new culture was exciting.
She talked glowingly about her host family, the Nakas, who had two children and two cats.
But what Wolf was even more interested to learn was that, even though an ocean separates the countries, the people are the same. One thing that solidified this thought was when her host "sister," Moyuri, 18, got in a fight with her mother because her skirt was too short.
"In the end, we were just the same type of people wanting the same types of things," she says.
Wolf says she felt her work with ADL has really changed her life.
"I've never been a racist, or excluded anyone. I just don't think that's right," she says. "But being with ADL has really opened my mind."
Her experience taught her a valuable lesson.
"Try everything," Wolf says. "Make sure you've experienced everything before making a final decision."
The high school junior wants to continue working with ADL and hopes to one day have a career in social justice. And, from the sound of it, ADL would be happy to have her.
"We're not done with her," says Wieser. "She's going to have a long history with us."
Contact the writer here
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