The Anti-Defamation League, Philadelphia, held its 12th annual Youth Leadership Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. More than 500 students and educators from 54 high schools in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware attended the full day conference.

Students only attended morning inter-active anti-bias workshops. Students and their teachers attended lunchtime workshops where they identified one specific problem of non-inclusiveness particular to their school (bullying, racist remarks, discrimination against a particular culture), and outlined a plan to take back to their schools and carry out with other students. Progress reporting back to ADL leaders was part of the process.

Students assembled to hear keynote speaker Charles Middleberg, a French Holocaust survivor who was separated from his parents as a 9-year old child.

"(Charles) story was so powerful and he made me think of how my actions could affect others.”
- Student Attendee

"The conference was very important to me because it made me realize the aspects of my school that could be altered to give me and my fellow students the best high school experience."
- Student Attendee

First photo below: Students listen intently to speaker Charles Middleberg, who recounts his experience as a French Holocaust survivor. Photo courtesy of ADL, Philadelphia

Second photo below: Charles Middleberg and Carole Landis