HDS Students Awarded Building Bridges Grant for Black-Jewish Pluralism Project

In its second year, the Building Bridges Fund, a Harvard presidential initiative administered by Community and Campus Life, awarded grants to eight student-led projects across the University focused on building a culture of pluralism and community across difference at Harvard. Michelle Millben, MTS ’26, and Sarah Zemelman, MTS ’26, received one of these grants for their HDS-centered Black-Jewish Pluralism Project, a new dialogue series designed to foster connection, healing, and historical understanding across Black and Jewish communities. 

Millben and Zemelman’s prior research on Black and Jewish identity shaped their vision for a program that could bring these conversations into the HDS community.  

The project, Millben said, is grounded in an academic venture incorporating reading, discussion, and film that will encourage critical inquiry and constructive arguments around the histories of Black-Jewish solidarity. The project advances pluralism as a lived, relational practice and amplifies Harvard’s commitment to dialogue, restorative justice, and moral leadership. It will be facilitated in cross-school sessions around Harvard with students, faculty, and staff engaging in sessions.  

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