Contributed by Gabi Finestone:

For our second workshop, we were joined by Cohort 18! We began by introducing ourselves and sharing the oys and joys of our weeks. We were each paired with a buddy from Cohort 18, and the ice was quickly broken as we shared in oys concerning homework and tests, and joys about our weekend plans. We also met our senior counselor/alumni intern Micah for the first time, and were greeted by the familiar faces of our junior counselors, Aidan and Laurel.

Rock Paper Scissors Duel!

Partnership group discusses what it is like to work with our Israeli Fellows

After, we all participated in fun icebreakers such as a big rock paper scissors tournament and a fun team game to learn each other’s names. Then we broke up into our committee groups, but we (Cohort 19) met with our corresponding committees from Cohort 18. This was extremely helpful to us, as we were able to learn about ideas that worked and didn’t work from an experienced committee. It was also exciting to hear about all of the Diller experiences that we will be embarking on this year from Cohort 19. 

After we all had some time to socialize and snack during our break on the roof (with views of the Blue Angels,) we all convened to begin a program planned by Micah, where we explored our passions, and how they impact our identity and connect us to others. We did this in a number of ways: brainstorming in pairs, small groups and large groups and reflecting all together. We then explored how gratitude informed these passions, and where our Jewish identity might be linked to the passions in ways that we might not have thought about before.

We split up for the last part of our workshop. Cohort 18 worked on their impact projects, while Cohort 19 reflected on the workshop with Lara.