While I'm far from a professional photographer, I do appreciate great photography as both an art form and as a powerful medium for storytelling. That's why I'm intrigued by a project called "Jewish Lens," in which more than 100 Jewish students from the area participated in a photo project designed to document their community.

The semester-long project started in January and has enabled teens to capture the diversity and richness of being Jewish through a curriculum taught by local educators that incorporates the work of Israeli photographer Zion Ozeri.

In its second season in Milwaukee, this year's exhibit is called "You, Me & Community" and will feature about 240 images in a May 10 show at the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay.

After the 7-9 p.m. exhibit and reception, The Jewish Lens exhibit move to the Jewish Museum Milwaukee for public viewing from June 12 through July 12. The Jewish Lens is a non-profit educational organization that uses founder Zion Ozeri's photography as a stimulus for exploring Jewish values, identity and tradition. The program has been taught in more than 100 educational institutions throughout the U.S. and Israel.

The educational initiative was launched in 2004 by Ozeri, whose black and white photographs capture the unity and diversity of the world's Jewish community – reflecting the values and traditions that have defined Jewish existence around the world for centuries.