"You're late. Get off the bus n----rs," barked the tour guide at the Slavery and Civil War Museum in Selma, Alabama. "Put your hands on the wall and spread your legs," she screamed. The surprise reenactment of a slave auction shocked Max Moline and the other high school students in his group. "I will never know the pain of being an African-American slave," says Max, a 17-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia, "but this experience was so wrenching that I felt nauseous and cried."

The realistic reenactment was part of a three-week visit to the Deep South coordinated by Operation Understanding DC (OUDC), a program that builds respect between African-American and Jewish students in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The students meet biweekly throughout the spring of their junior year to learn about each others' cultures before heading on the summer trip.

On that emotional day in Selma, the students also walked silently, two-by-two-African-Americans paired with Jews-over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where state troopers, in 1965, brutally attacked African-Americans marching for the right to vote. "I cried again as I crossed the bridge," Max recounts. "I couldn't believe that people could be beaten by the police for wanting the right to vote"

But Selma taught Max more than the history of African-Amarican persecution; he also confronted his own subtle prejudices and stereotypes. "Before OUDC, I didn't know many African-Americans," he says, "so I foolishly thought they all wear baggy jeans and speak slang."

The program's orientation retreat was designed to chip away at such stereotypes. For example, two African- Americans and two Jews occupied each hotel room. According to Max, roommates rarely interacted in the beginning, but after a day of icebreaker activities, most participants opened up to each other.

"I realized that we had more commonalities than differences," says Max, describing his relationship with his African-American roommate Donnell. "After all, we are all made b'tzelem Elokim, in God's image." Before long, the two had bonded over their loyalty to the Washington Redskins, their love of comedy films, and their similar political views.

Donnell experienced a similar change in his perspective about Jews, all of whom he thought were privileged. As part of Operation Understanding, he and his family had participated in a Pesach Seder. With his first bite of matzah, Donnell learned about the Jews' enslavement in ancient Egypt, and by the time he ate the afikoman, he had learned about Jewish redemption. "Jews and African-Americans have both been oppressed," he now realizes, and that common experience unites the two minorities.

Mutual respect is the key to a good friendship, says Max, who now facilitates diversity workshops throughout the community. "I want to pass on what I have learned," he says, "so others can see that despite our differences, no person is any better or worse than any other."