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2008-2009 Third Place Winner – Ezra Wexler (Montgomery Blair High School) Ezra Wexler is a junior in the Communication Arts Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is part of Blair’s media group, Blair Network Communications, and produces televised morning announcements once a week. Ezra’s family does not own a car and are vegetarians. In his free time, Ezra enjoys movie making and creative writing, although he seldom gets time to write. In the past, he has won awards for his videos in the Montgomery County Schools Media Festival, and has had several of his movies shown at the Takoma Park Film Festival. Ezra is devotedly Jewish, and he prays daily before school. He also periodically reads the Torah in synagogue on Saturday, which he enjoys. As of now, Ezra is still the only student who wears a yarmulke at Blair. Essay Abstract ("Abrahamic Team Up: Save the Planet's Water"): Every religion throughout the world provides rules, guidelines, or thoughts on all different aspects of life. That not only includes how man should act towards his fellow man, how he should better himself, and how he should interact with God, but also how he should act towards his planet, and all other life that teems upon it. Each of the three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Islam, and Christianity — preaches being kind to the planet, and not wasting what nature provides. The guidelines laid down and the reasoning behind them might vary from faith to faith, but the message of not harming the environment is universal. Some people listen to the teachings of these three faiths, but many others do not, which has led to the current crumbling state of the environment and the wastefulness going on today. Each religion provides unique aspects of upholding the environment and not wasting; people only need to listen to save the world. On the value of the 2008-2009 Children of Abraham project: “I am glad that I participated in the Fund for the Future of Our Children Essay Contest, especially because it gave me the opportunity to learn more about Christianity and Islam, and to see these two faiths in a new way. I also enjoyed sharing the knowledge that I had gathered from all three religions with those that read the essay and the audience on the day of the awards’ ceremony. The essay contest also opened my eyes to some new similarities between the religions, which proved meaningful for me.”
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