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2 Jewish teens harness the power of their peers to address social problems — and spark a movement
In mid-2021, as the COVID pandemic raged, high school student Lily Messing noticed that the social ills plaguing her native Tucson, Arizona — including domestic violence, drug abuse and homelessness — all seemed to be getting worse.
Meanwhile, Jake Hammerman, a teenager in Lafayette, California, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay area, saw firsthand how the pandemic exacerbated the challenges facing homebound seniors, many of whom were isolated to begin with.
Determined to do something to help, the two Jewish teens put their respective skills to use: Lily as a grassroots organizer, Jake as a tennis instructor.
Lily, 17, established 100+ Teens Who Care, a nonprofit network of “giving circles” comprised of like-minded high school students who collectively select and donate to a specific local charity. Her first chapter, in Tucson, started out with 100 members and now boasts at least 220 teens. While Lily’s project began in Arizona, her impact has expanded across the United States and internationally, with 23 chapters now operating in places ranging from Idaho to Islamabad, Pakistan.
“I began the organization because I felt like teens really wanted to make a difference but lacked the coordination and opportunity to do so,” Lily said. “I wanted to give them an outlet to make meaningful change in our community.”
Jake, 18, launched Impactful Tennis in May 2020 to fund a local Meals on Wheels chapter. Under the program, volunteers offered children tennis lessons and asked that in lieu of payment parents donate the fees to that charity. Since its founding, Impactful Tennis volunteers have given over 900 tennis lessons to some 400 students, generating $39,000 in donations — not only meals for the elderly, but also for companionship and mental health services.
“My project started from my passion for tennis and also from what I was seeing on the news,” Jake said. “My grandparents suffer from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The pandemic definitely aggravated the impact of these diseases, so I really wanted to help seniors during this time of need.”
In early August, the two extraordinary Jewish teens — along with 13 others from across the United States — were honored at a ceremony in San Francisco by the Helen Diller Family Foundation, which awarded each of the 15 teens a $36,000 prize in recognition of their outstanding work innovating and leading change in their communities and around the world.
Jake Hammerman of Lafayette, Calif., came up with a way to use tennis lessons to help fund a local Meals on Wheels chapter that worked with homebound seniors. (Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards)
The Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, whose name is Hebrew for “repairing the world,” are given annually.
Among this year’s awardees: New Jersey resident Aron Goodman, who uses TikTok to fight antisemitism by sharing first-person video interviews with his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor; Meaza Light-Orr of Los Angeles, who spearheaded a $120,000 project to fund a primary school in her birth village of Kololo, Ethiopia; and Steven Hoffen, whose nonprofit boosts food security by installing and maintaining hydroponic gardens both in Israel and his native New York City.
Since its inception in 2007, the foundation’s Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards — established by Bay Area philanthropist Helen Diller — have given away nearly $7 million to 189 recipients. The awardees use the funds to help further their projects or contribute toward their education.
“Young people are striving to solve critical challenges in their communities with creativity, hard work, resourcefulness, and a commitment to tikkun olam,” said Phyllis Cook, the foundation’s philanthropic consultant. “We are inspired by their leadership and committed to recognizing them as role models for other teens by celebrating how young people can make an impact in communities across the country.”
For Jake, who has been playing tennis since age 7, it seemed obvious that the best way to raise funds for Meals on Wheels was to give local children tennis lessons. But instead of collecting money, he’d ask the kids’ parents to donate to Impactful Tennis through a GoFundMe account.
“It started off with just me and five of my closest friends, but I knew the organization had the potential to grow much bigger,” said Jake, a rising freshman who will attend Yale this fall. The group, which only gives lessons during the summer, now has 20 volunteer instructors and charges $40 per lesson. The concept is so popular that its online sign-up sheets generally fill up within minutes.
Even though COVID largely has receded from public concern, social isolation among the elderly still persists on a massive scale, Jake noted.
For her part, Lily realized that an individual teen donating $25 might feel insignificant, but that such a donation when combined with 100 other contributions could make a real difference.
As part of 100+ Teens Who Care, each member donates $100 per year ($25 at every quarterly meeting), with 100% of the collected funds going to a selected charity. At each meeting, three vetted local charities are randomly selected for consideration. Following brief presentations by those who nominated them, members vote anonymously. The charity with the most votes receives all the funds.
Since its inception, the Tucson chapter of 100+ Teens Who Care has raised more than $30,000 to provide essential supplies to homeless youth, support mental health services for children and fund housing for those transitioning out of the foster care system. Together, the impact of her service-minded peers is far stronger than if each teen helped individually, Lily said.
“I realized I could use the Tucson chapter as a template to create other chapters, so I developed information videos to help other teens start their own chapters,” Lily said. “We’re expanding at the rate of two new chapters every month, and every chapter puts its own spin on it.”
So, for example, the 100+ Teens Who Care chapter in Palm Beach, Florida, does monthly beach cleanups, while the chapter in Portland, Oregon, hosts food drives for that city’s homeless population.
“I feel like there’s real power in getting a group of like-minded teens to come together to make the world a better place and instill the values of philanthropy at such a young age,” Lily said. “I truly hope this will carry with them for the rest of their lives.”
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
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3rd Round of Nuclear Talks Between Iran, US Concludes in Oman
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – The third round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program has concluded on Saturday, US media reported.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the US lifting of sanctions on Iran, with focuses on technical and key topics including uranium enrichment.
On April 12, the US and Iran held indirect talks in Muscat, marking the first official negotiation between the two sides since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The second round of indirect talks took place in Rome, Italy, on April 19.
All parties, including Oman, stated that the first two rounds of talks were friendly and constructive, but Iranian media pointed out that the first two rounds were mainly framework negotiations and had not yet touched upon the core issues of disagreement.
According to media reports, one of the key issues in the expert-level negotiations will be whether Washington will allow Iran to continue uranium enrichment within the framework of its nuclear program. In response, Araghchi made it clear that Iran’s right to uranium enrichment is non-negotiable.
The US, Israel and other Western actors including the United Nation’s nuclear agency reject Iranian claims that its uranium enrichment is strictly civilian in its goals.
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