The Diller Teen Fellows J-Serve-ing the Community

Last weekend, the San Francisco Diller Teen Fellows took part in J-Serve, a Jewish national day of service.  Here is what EJ Weiss had to say about the experience:

One of the main pillars of Diller is tikkun olam, or repairing the world.  On Sunday, April 22, we got an opportunity to fulfill this by going out in to the community and taking part in something significant.  J-Serve, the day of Jewish service, was an amazing opportunity to partake in something important to all of us.

As it was earth day, it was only fitting that we get our hands a bit dirty and become one with nature.  We went to the Shelter Network in Daly City where we got to plant a garden for the homeless residents enabling them to have not only a beautiful view but also providing them with vegetables and herbs to eat.  My personal favorite part of the day was getting to play with two residents of the Shelter Network.  Little Alexis and Junior brought great warmth to my heart.  Blowing bubbles and making chalk designs on the sidewalks with the kids gave me great perspective on what it means to be a leader.  These children face a lot of adversity in their lives.  Even as I played with them, Junior’s cousin, who was about my age, hit him on the head.  The cruel reality of our world is upsetting but seeing innocent children without loving support further convinced me of how important it is to stand up for what I believe in, become a leader in the community, and use my resources to help educate and better the lives of others.

Following our active service we got to reflect with our cohort as well as other groups of teens at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.  We led a program helping the teens reflect by creating art to express the impact of J-Serve and how each person can bring the experience back to their own community and instill the desire to change the world in more people.

J-Serve was an amazing experience that allowed us all to take a day away from our regular lives and accomplish something unique and important.  With SATs in a few weeks, AP exams coming up, finals around the corner, and the entire college process looming over our heads, this experience brought everything into perspective, showing us that there is a larger world out there which we have a responsibility to, and that we can have an impact on the future.

Yours Truly,

EJ Weiss

And here comes another reflection on J-Serve, this time written by Gabriel Kaufman, who helped create the program the Diller Teens ran at the Contemporary Jewish Museum:

J-serve provided me with a perspective on all of the opportunity for service in my life. While I felt that we didn't get enough time to work at with the shelter network, spending time with such a wonderful organization helped remind me how many opportunities there are for service in my life. The service itself consisted of work in the planter boxes outside of the apartment complex run by the shelter network. As someone who doesn't spend too much time working in the gardening, I had so much fun getting my hands dirty and planting some beautiful flowers. After we had finished, the front of the building looked much more colorful and more inviting. In terms of the time we spent at the CJM, I loved getting to see the art projects the other participants came up with. While some people went for the more abstract, others went more literal and came up with some really interesting stuff. The conversation/discussion we had was also very meaningful to me. We discussed the sacrifices one has to make in order to serve the community and the merits of such service. All in all, I felt great coming out of the program and look forward to my next visit to the CJM.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Kaufman