Membership Spotlight – Drew Kolber
Drew Kolber is a Junior at the Herberger Young Scholars Academy. She was raised in Arizona with her parents Elissa Katz and Jason Kolber, and their cats, Coco and Mocha. Drew loves interfaith connections and started a teen chapter of the Sisterhood of Salam Shalom where Muslim and Jewish teen girls connect and foster friendships to build community. “This is the coolest thing!”
Drew is also co-president of TSTY (Temple Solel Temple Youth) and is a Madricha. “I really love the Temple Solel community and think it’s very warm,” she says. She has been a Temple Solel member since she was in kindergarten. Her family became members in 2010. “It was so worth it to join and it still is,” Drew explains, “The family aspect along with community through song, specifically with Todd. I love to sing and have sung in the choir.”
Temple Solel membership to Drew “means community, it means family, it means mentorship.” She had the opportunity to talk to and build friendships with the clergy. The Temple Solel Clergy are an inspiration to Drew. “There’s something about rabbinic teaching that it takes daily things and makes them meaningful in an older context which I think is super, super cool,” she says. Drew is interested in pursuing The Interfaith Youth Core, running interfaith programming to start dialog on college campuses. “I would love to either attend Minerva for college or ASU for the Barrett Program and continue writing and continue learning about the world.”
Her favorite Temple Solel memory is “having the opportunity to talk with a lot of Holocaust Survivors through Dr. Jay’s Raker Religious School Class. Even though I’ve heard their stories several times, it’s always just really incredible to hear stories of resilience and those are always really meaningful,” she says.
Something Temple Solel members may not know about Drew is that she’s “happy to have a conversation with anyone,” she says, “I’m very grateful for Temple Solel and all the people who have supported me for a long time. Thanks.”
