Who is an activist?

Contributed by India Jeremy

Today's theme was Activism, which was a perfect way to end our community week. This morning our MOSHE, Yonim, opened with a question relating to our theme of the day: "What does it mean to be an activist?" This past week, many people in our cohort voiced the fact that we are ready for the next step- to act- but we don't know how yet.

We met this morning in, "Park HaZahav", which is named after San Francisco, because without the financial help of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the park wouldn't exist.

 At the park, we met with an activist who has fought with her group for the rights of the environment in general, but specifically the park. The municipality of Kiryat Shmona wanted to destroy the park to make houses instead, but thanks to her group, that never happened. Her group was also responsible for getting water back into the dried up stream, using petitions. She taught us any form of activism can help, and it's not only about the big things. 

We were then physically active and spent some time cleaning up the park ourselves. We got down and dirty, picked up some shovels, sang some songs, and worked.

After the park, we drove over to Beit Vancover to listen to three different groups of speakers- the first group were soldiers who spoke about being in the army and what it's like to fight for your country and be an activist for your country. The second group were people who are taking a gap year before the army with a group where they travel Israel and volunteer. They all said they wanted to continue to be activists for the rest of their lives. The third group were teenagers (one of them being in the Upper Galilee cohort- go May!!) who are active in their youth groups. Two of the girls are in a youth group with kids who have disabilities, while May talked about being a counselor for her youth group that she has been in since seventh grade. This gave a new perspective on activism, showing us that it doesn't matter what age you are, anyone can make a difference. 

For lunch, we had something new- Chinese food! It wasn't as good as the Chinese food from SF, but it definitely was a change from what we had been eating. We went to a theatre in Kiryat Shmona where we met with Ofek's (from Diller UG) father, who is an activist himself. He told us that we need passion to make a difference, and told us about how he and his wife fight for what they believe in. We split into groups and were each presented with a form of activism- Political activism, economical activism, etc. and since we were in a theatre, we came up with skits to represent what these types of activism looks like. We then watched videos of different groups advocating for what they believe in in the form of protests from all around the world- specifically Israel. It was really interesting to watch and great to see people making a difference. Being an activist, especially as a young adult, can be intimidating and hard, but if I've learned anything today, it's that any form of speaking out for what I believe in is activism. 

We then went to a pool in Kiryat Shmona for some relaxing time to enjoy the sun before closing ceremonies. Closing ceremonies was a bittersweet ending to our week, as we watched a slideshow reminding us of all the amazing things we have accomplished this week. We sat with our host families, who are like second families now, and were sad that it was over, but excited for what is coming next- congress. We finished the night with our SFUG cheer, which we haven't sang since we were at the closing ceremonies in San Francisco in April. Of course we all knew the words, because it was like we never left each other. 

So what does activism mean? Who is an activist? After all of the discussions our cohort has had this week, and after visiting all of the different places, and learning so much, I can confidently say everyone in 'SFUG' are activists. But it's not only about knowing what is going on- it is acting upon it as well. With this information, we are going to go into Congress, ready to talk to the other cohorts and both share and gain knowledge.