Tuesday, August 4, 2015

A belated post from a few days ago

By Sophia

Today, the cohort transitioned from Community Week to Congress. We spent the morning kissing our host families goodbye and thanking them endlessly. The first half of the day was spent on the bus, traveling from the Upper Galilee to Givat Haviva. We arrived at a nearby kibbutz for the opening ceremonies where the JCs introduced the theme of Congress: Sarah and Abraham. The SF cohort was split into tribes mixed with fellows from cohorts all over the world. In our tribes, we broke the ice. After a scrumptious dinner of cucumbers, the tribe groups reconvened for a unit about family, what constitutes a family, and what the global Jewish family means to us. Our maagal laila consisted of funky yoga poses led by Lara. We wrapped up the day by mingling with the global Diller community at the White Tent.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Leaving Congress for the woods

Today I led as the Moshe.  We woke up early in the morning after the incredible closing ceremony. After giving away their keys and carrying the luggage to the meeting point, the fellows traveled over to eat breakfast in the cafeteria. After that the fellows traveled over to their tribe rooms for their last activities with their temporary family. In this last session the fellows gave their junior counselors and programs feedback as well as tried to create a sixth leg for Judaism. from there was a short closing ceremony on the main lawn, where fellows said goodbye to each other and danced their last dance together. Then the bus took the fellows to nave shalom. This is a Community specifically created to foster the relations between Arabs and the Jewish population in Israel. The content that was presented in this lecture/hike was very interesting, however many of the fellows felt extremely tired and had difficulty focusing. Additionally, today was immensely hot so we had to cut short the tour of the campus. The next stop was the Lahav forest In the Negev desert. On the way however we stopped at a large mall in ber sheva to get some much needed free time and relaxation. Once we arrived at the forest we were put to work making the food for our night dinner/barbecue. Others made The meat and salad, but I made the fries. After that we had a nice nice circle. Upon the conclusion of that, we had Smore's and then settled in for bed.there was a pack of dogs in the area so it was a special experience hear from the local animals at night. 
Daniel moll


Shabbat at congress

We started Shabbat morning either sleeping in or going to a unconventional morning service (nature walk, yoga or orthodox). By 9:30 AM though everyone was in the dinning hall waiting to eat the usual breakfast of cucumbers and tomatoes. We then played a variety of improvisation games and "mafia" in our cohorts and proceeded to programming where we participated in a text study activity. After another much needed break we returned to our tribe rooms to discuss one of Avraham Infeld's five legs of Judaism, Israel. It was a fascinating conversation especially hearing different perspectives from America, South Africa, Canada and Israel. We debated whether or not Israel should be located where it is today and why we as individuals and a peoplehood should or should not have a commitment to Israel. After a short break each tribe planned a one minute presentation their congress experience. Then following dinner all 500 fellows, JC's and coordinators came together to celebrate Havdallah and the concluding of our time together. It was amazing being in a circle of 500 people knowing you have all had similar experiences and can come together from around the world to share in a uniting moment. The excitement continued as we presented our skits and had a bitter sweet closing ceremonies. Then... The party started! We all rushed the basketball court outside and sang and danced for a hour which became extremely hot and sweaty. But nevertheless it was a fantastic way to close this meaningful coming together of Jewish teens from across the globe. At 12am we had a very short and logistical maagal laila (night circle) and shortly after we showered changed, and fell asleep concluding a fantastic day!

By Aidan