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B’nai B’rith International is pleased to announce the winners of its 2023 None Shall Be Afraid Essay Contest, held to motivate young people to propose effective strategies in combating the spread of anti-Semitism online. The three winners are Amit Sapir, Ella Eason and Sophia Chertog.

In response to a rise in online ant-Semitism, B’nai B’rith International invited college students for the second consecutive year to share ideas to counteract this trend in the None Shall Be Afraid Essay Contest.**

First place: Amit Sapir, 21, University of Florida, class of 2024. In his essay, Sapir draws from personal experiences to remain optimistic about the horrors of anti-Semitism.

Second place: Ella Eason, 18, University of California—Santa Cruz, Class of 2025. Eason’s essay delves into the transformation of anti-Zionism into anti-Semitism. She emphasizes the significance of integrating Jewish history into education to counteract online anti-Semitism.

Third place: Sophia Chertog, 18, Nova Southeastern University, Class of 2027. Chertog, inspired by her internship for a state senator, created an online site promoting the inclusion of all religions and backgrounds, with the goal of amplifying unheard voices online.

A panel of judges from B’nai B’rith International evaluated the essays and assessed the writers’ proposed strategies to tackle the rise of anti-Semitism on the internet. The top three winners were awarded scholarships of $2,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively. The first-place essay was also published in the 2023 edition of B’nai B’rith Magazine.

B’nai B’rith created the contest to keep a focus on the pervasive issues of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in our society today. None Shall Be Afraid was inspired by the 1790 letter from George Washington to the congregants of Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island, where he quoted Micah 4:4, “Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Read about the initiative behind the contest here: https://www.bnaibrith.org/none-shall-be-afraid/

**Important note from B’nai B’rith: The contest was launched, essays were submitted, and winners were chosen well before the Hamas terror attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, which also unleashed an explosion of anti-Semitism globally by hundreds-fold.