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 The Edlavitch-Tyser Family Relations Forum invites you to join us for Shabbat services at Temple, Friday, February 22, 2008 at 8:00 pm to hear Erin Gruwell, the real life teacher that inspired the 2007 film, Freedom Writers. Ms. Gruwell has earned an award-winning reputation for her steadfast commitment to the future of children and education. Her impact as a change agent runs deep. So deep, in fact, that her story attracted Hollywood’s attention. In January 2007, Paramount Pictures released Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank as Erin. The film is based on The Freedom Writers Diary, the #1 New York Times bestseller that chronicled Erin’s extraordinary journey with 150 high school students.
Nothing could have prepared Erin for her first day of teaching.. A recent college graduate, Erin landed her first job in Room 203 at Wilson High School in Long Beach, only to discover many of her students had been written off by the education system and deemed “unteachable.” As teenagers living in a racially divided urban community, they were already hardened by first-hand exposure to gang violence, juvenile detention, and drugs.
 Enter Erin Gruwell. By fostering an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, she transformed her students’ education, and ultimately their lives. She encouraged them to rethink rigid beliefs about themselves and others, to reconsider daily decisions, and to re-chart their futures. With Erin’s support, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. They dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers”—in homage to civil rights activists The Freedom Riders—and published a book. Inspired by Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic (who lived through war-torn Sarajevo), Erin and her students captured their collective journey in The Freedom Writers Diary—How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.
While Erin has been credited with giving her students a “second chance,” she claims that perhaps it was she  who changed the most during her tenure at Wilson High School. She decided to channel her classroom experiences toward a broader cause, and today her impact as a “teacher” extends well beyond Room 203. She serves as president of the Freedom Writers Foundation, a non-profit organization that improves communities by decreasing high school drop out rates through the replication and enhancement of the Freedom Writers Method. She raises awareness and funds by traveling nationwide to speak inside large corporations, government institutions, and community associations. But Erin’s capacity to convert apathy to action matters most at schools and juvenile halls, where any observer can watch the expressions of troubled teens shift from guarded cynicism to unabashed hopefulness.
Erin is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from California State University, Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.
Ms. Gruwell will be our speaker at a special Shabbat service attended by over 300 youth from the North American Federation of Temple Youth Mid-Atlantic region (NFTY-MAR). This weekend kallah (convention) is being hosted by the Washington Hebrew Congregation Temple Youth Group (WHECTY). Participants will take part in this Shabbat service and spend the following day engaged in social action projects throughout the DC community. The convention theme, Diamond In The Rough, will demonstrate our pride in the District of Columbia while also looking at the challenges this Capital City faces.
The congregation welcomes you, and the teenagers of NFTY-MAR, to worship together and celebrate a special and inspirational Shabbat with Ms. Gruwell
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