Brooklyn Ethical Partners with Safed House for Special Contest

Brooklyn Ethical Partners with Safed House for Special Contest

 A special Contest

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Safed House strives to shift the narrative around refugees in America from one dominated by statistics and fear to one rooted in compassion and admiration.

Brooklyn Ethical Partners with Safed house for a special Contest

Since 2017, Safed House has proudly hosted its Annual Essay Contest—our flagship youth program designed to amplify the voices of high school students who have personally migrated to the United States. This legacy initiative reflects our deep commitment to honoring the human-interest stories of refugees and recent immigrants, offering a secure and empathetic platform for self-expression. This year, Safed House is launching the New York City Essay Contest, and we are partnering with them to help young people find belonging, celebrate their resilience, and support their educational journey.

Each year, they invite high school students to share their lived experiences in a 500-word essay that speaks to identity, transition, and hope. Safed House invites them to share their story while protecting their privacy and identity.  At a time when misinformation and discrimination are so visible in our society, it is particularly important for the stories of young people to be heard. 

 

 

Get Involved

The contest is open to students who were born outside the United States and migrated here within the past ten years or have been displaced from their homelands. While we especially encourage Palestinian students to apply, reflecting our organization’s commitment to uplifting voices from Palestine, we welcome all refugee and recently arrived immigrant youth who meet the eligibility criteria.

Click Here to Learn More and Apply

All Ages Science Day (with pictures)

All Ages Science Day (with pictures)

Last Sunday, we had our first All-Ages Science Day, with a full house across both our spaces at 265 and 269 4th Avenue.

The day started with a flood in the 269 space, which was a challenge because one of the highlights of our day was an hour-long movie by Homegrown National Park, and we had close to 50 people in attendance. Thanks to a determined group of volunteers and two hours of brushing, mopping, wiping, and running several fans, the space was ready for the screening before the event began (a little damp, but smelling and looking clean and neat).

The event kicked off with several activity tables featuring insect-themed crafts, a collection of 25 live critters viewed under magnifying glasses (ranging from designer blue isopods to giant cicada killer wasps), rare insects preserved in amber to classify, and even an edible insect buffet. The tasting table sparked some very amusing reactions and was so popular that lines formed to sample everything from Mexican-spiced waxworms to salted caterpillars and crickets.

After the movie, we held an all-ages trivia match (the kids beat the adults effortlessly), and then we all headed outside to release 2,000 live ladybugs. Some of us ended up covered in the little critters, and even those who weren’t sure if they wanted to hold live insects quickly warmed up to the idea, proudly walking around with ladybugs crawling across their hands and arms.

It was a super fun event that focused on educating people of all ages about the importance of the smallest of creatures to our biodiversity, and fostering love and a desire to protect them and the habitats they need to survive.

I am so grateful to everyone who volunteered to help make this happen:

  • Damon, Jens (Sarah Jensen’s husband), Bill, Vincent, and Saeed: The amazing cleanup crew that tackled the water in 269 in record time.

  • Maria (EfC Parent), Sarah J., Janna, and Michele Sharon (our member from Texas who was visiting): Thank you for helping organize the rooms at 265, making signs, and staffing the activity tables with warm smiles and unwavering willingness to help. Maria even brought a few critters to add to the display!

  • Our youth team—Bea, Nadine, Niyah, and Tahra: You worked hard carrying furniture, cleaning, making signs, staffing tables with enthusiasm and care, and sharing your knowledge to make the day a complete success.

  • The Park Slope Homeschoolers’ Playgroup: A shoutout for helping catch the giant cicada killer wasp and several other local insects for our display (all were carefully fed and released back into Prospect Park later that Sunday).

I can’t wait to do it again!

Taty

Below are pictures from the day, including some brave bug-eaters, new ladybug lovers, and a lot of happy smiles.

 
 

CLICK ON THE PICTURES BELOW FOR SLIDES.

All Ages Talent Show (with pictures)

All Ages Talent Show (with pictures)

This year’s Annual All-Ages Talent Show was a huge success and showed us that talent really comes in all ages! We had children as young as 3yo doing magic tricks, singing, showing us somersaults, doing an awesome stand-up routine, and even quizzing us on a science space trivia that had us hopelessly guessing. We had teens reading moving and personal poems, playing Chinese music on the violin, drawing portraits of attendees, and hosting the event! We also had adults of all ages sharing their painting skills, doing comedy sketches, and doing a theatrical juggling routine that had us all laughing. We can’t wait for next year to check out what new talents we will learn about!

 
 

CLICK ON THE PICTURES BELOW FOR SLIDES.

Brooklyn Ethical Celebrate Pride (with pictures)

Brooklyn Ethical Celebrate Pride (with pictures)

Last weekend, we joined the Brooklyn Pride Celebration in two major ways. We had a booth at the Pride Fair in Brooklyn where some of our members helped spread the word about our programs and what we do, and we hosted an “All Ages Decorate for Pride” event. Members and visitors of all ages (truly, our youngest attendee was 2 months old!) created fun decorations for the parade, including giant necklaces, bracelets, decorated bricks in honor of Stonewall, pride fans, and more. A group of members then went to watch the pride parade together, branding our newly made decorations! Thank you to all who attended, who helped us with our booth, and to Angel for her creative ideas for projects.

 
 

CLICK ON THE PICTURES BELOW FOR SLIDES.

Brooklyn Ethical at the 5th Avenue Fair in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Ethical at the 5th Avenue Fair in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Last Sunday, May 17, 2026, we had an exciting day at the 5th Avenue Fair, made possible by the many people who volunteered to help. We had so much support, helping hand out information, welcoming people, printing sign-in sheets and signs, decorating and making our events more visible, and carrying the very many pieces to help set up and break down our booth.
A deep thank you to Damon, Angel, Micheleen, Nancy,  Anne Klaeysen, Andrew and his friend Adam, DuPree, Carl, Valerie, and all who came to help spread the word about Brooklyn Ethical to those who were attending the fair.
Next month, on Saturday, June 13th, we get to do it again! This time at the fair before the Brooklyn Pride Parade.  Come check out our booth, learn more about our programs, and learn more about Ethical Culture.
We hope to see you there!