Jewish and Muslim youth work together in a day of service

On March 3, teenagers from Eleven Points participated in Global Youth Service Day by joining The Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County at J-Serve, a global initiative to engage over 10,000 Jewish teens in community service. These young people prepared care packages for US soldiers who are being deployed overseas from New Jersey this spring, decorated placemats for the Ronald McDonald House, wrapped silverware for Elijah’s Promise, prepared toiletry kits for the homeless and wrote letters to students at James Monroe Elementary School in Edison which was recently affected by a fire. Amani Ahmed, a resident of Princeton and a junior at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart conceived the idea for Eleven Points in the fall of 2012. Together with Dean Alamleh, a sophomore at Robbinsville High School and Zain Bhayat , a freshman at South Brunswick High School, co-founded the organization to bring together young Muslim and Jewish people to make a difference in this world. Eleven Points is the sum of the six points on the Star of David and the five points often found on stars in Islamic iconography. Since its inception, Eleven Points has carried out several successful projects with youth from the Anshe Emeth Temple in New Brunswick which benefited the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and Homefront.