Is Japan not diverse enough?
Mica Loewy has traveled throughout the United States and around the world, visiting states as close as Mississippi and going as far as Europe.
She has walked on behalf of AIDS patients, raised money for Tay Sachs research and written letters to Congress to encourage intervention in Darfur. And she has worked with special needs children and is a volunteer with Big Sisters.
“All of these things have helped me to have a better understanding of others,” Mica said.
Yet it is Mica’s most recent trip to Japan that has her talking and thinking about how many more ways she can help make a difference in this world.
“It was a culturally eye-opening experience,” said Mica, a junior at Isidore Newman School.
Mica was one of only five high school students in the United States — and the only one from Louisiana — selected for a one-week trip to Japan as part of the Anti-Defamation League’s Sugihara Fellowship Program. She and the other four students traveled to Osaka and Nara from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2. They visited high schools and talked to students about the importance of diversity, courage and tolerance.
“I think a lot of people feel that teenagers are not as aware of political and social issues,” Mica said. “But many young people around my age are aware of these issues. And these are kids here in this community and as far away as those who live in Japan.
The daughter of Rabbi Robert and Lynn Loewy, Mica and the other fellows lived with a host family while in Japan: Haruko Tomioka and her 10-year-old daughter, Risa. In addition to visiting schools and talking with young Japanese students their age, the fellows visited several shrines, temples and museums. In Nara, they toured a museum that honors the work of Sugihara.
“It was really great to read more about the role he played in history,” Mica said. “And there are a lot of pictures of Sugihara on display, which show many of the people he saved in the Holocaust.
“I was proud to have been selected to go to Japan. Going there gave me a new perspective on just how important diversity is and how people of different religions and cultures can get along.”
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Eva Jacob Barkoff can be reached at
or (504) 883-7061.