No one directly related to me died in the Holocaust, so when I went to Poland in April 2007 in order to experience Nazi concentration camps and Jewish shtetl life, I didn’t expect to feel personally attacked. But when I was walking through Majdonek, a camp eerily close to a major city, I was confronted in real time by what struck me as indifference, ignorance, and callousness. A woman pushed her baby through the camp as if it were a...

When I wrote an editorial for my middle school newspaper, I learned the profound effect my words could have on my world. Written by a straight eighth-grader questioning the use of “gay” and “fag” as synonyms for “annoying,” my article surprised some readers. Yet, amazingly, people listened. Administrators, teachers, and students started conversations about the issue, and kids began using more thoughtful language. I loved having the agency to open up difficult topics in my community. Wanting to continue witnessing...