Getting "Jewced" for Israel- Cohort 17 workshop 13!

At our last workshop, Cohort 17 and our parents met to talk about our upcoming trip to Israel. First Gabi led us all in a chalk talk relating the teen’s journey to Israel with the parsha that week. We then continued to talk about the logistics of our trip; flight schedules, clothes, and of course, safety. 

After the parents’ portion of the day was finished, the Swag committee led us in a great workshop. The day was centered on mentally preparing us for our departure in just two weeks. The committee led us in a “pre-Israel maagl” were we communicated our concerns with what is next to come as we embark on the Israel Winter Experience. Ophir taught us about Hebrew slang we should know while we are there, and Claire helped us get excited by showing us how to make a calendar countdown and a luggage tag to take with us. 

Gabi reconnected us as a group and gave us a safe space to express our emotions when we had a more formal maagal. Lastly our committee leaders challenged us to answer some complex questions surrounding the different minority groups in Israel. The day was packed with a lot of information and was a great way for us to get ready for Israel.

-Izzy Nickel, Cohort 17

Synagogues and Jewish journeys galore! Workshop 3, Cohort 18

Today’s workshop was all about different sects of Judaism and how they are represented in San Francisco. We began our afternoon at Congregation Emanu-El, the largest reform synagogue in San Francisco.  We received a tour of the temple from Ariana Estoque. I have been going to Emanu- El for over ten years and never knew the fascinating facts Ariana shared with us. It gave me a new appreciation for the temple and all the time the builders and founders spent constructing the temple. 

We then walked to Beth Shalom a conservative temple and received a tour from Angel Alvarez-Mapp. It was interesting seeing Emanu-El, a traditionally build, but reform temple compared to Beth Shalom, a very modern building, but a conservative temple.

Lastly we heard from Rabbi David Lazar, a conservative rabbi who lives in Israel. Rabbi Lazar’s story is a very unique one and it was an honor listening to him. He was not only engaging, funny and insightful, he was relatable, a characteristic sometimes hard for teenagers to find in rabbis.

Overall it was a great afternoon and I’m looking forward to more worships in  the future.

–Aidan Lisker cohort 18 

You do you, Jew- Cohort 18 First Shabbaton!

Our Shabbaton started with a Shabbat activity in which we read and thought about eleven different questions based on the Birkot Hashachar. This led into the Shabbat prayers over the candles, wine, washing your hands, and challah. We learned about each prayer and what they meant. After a lovely Mexican dinner, we learned a Shabbat tradition in pairs and then shared out tradition with every other pair of fellows. A few traditions we learned about were the hamotzi, the Torah service, and the birkat hamazon. 

Our Friday night ended with different group bonding activities. The first one we did was to find a partner and stare into their eyes for a given amount of time. It was really funny and everybody had a hard time not laughing. The second one we did was throwing socks at each other. Everybody got into pairs and one partner was blind folded while the other was trying to direct them to hit the farthest person away from them. That too was a lot of fun. After the giggling and loud activities, we transition into a more serious activity: Maagal Layla (night circle). We did this activity in the dark with only candles as our light. The staff asked different questions such as “What is a song that best describes you when you wake up in the morning?” We were also asked more serious questions such as “What is something you would change about yourself?” It was amazing to see people let themselves be so vulnerable to a new group of people.

Our Shabbat morning started with a yoga service or Shabasanna led by Gabi. As we did yoga, we thought about five morning prayers rather than doing a traditional morning service. Continuing with the theme of a non-traditional Shabbat service, we went to the beach and focus on the Amidah. Sam led us in a meditation and then we had some time for self-reflection. After the Amidah, Ariel read us a summary of this week’s torah portion. We then talked about a time when we had to take on two different roles in the same situation. We then had some free time before lunch to hang out with other fellows. 

After lunch we had more free time and one-on-ones with the staff. We all went to the beach and played Frisbee and mafia and talked as a cohort. We transition back inside for a Jewish identity buffet in which we picked slips of paper that talked about different aspects of Judaism and pertained to each individual. We then got into smaller groups to discuss our choices of ideas or practices further. It turned out that each action or idea pertained to a certain sect of Judaism, which was a nice plot twist. Subsequently, we were given a piece of paper with a person surrounded by aspects of Jewish life. We connected pieces of string from our body to different words that we felt connected to. We learned more about our Jewish identities in multiple different ways. Before dinner, we had outdoor training. We were given a blue piece of fabric and told to flip it over without touching the ground. Our entire cohort thought that this meant we had to be standing on the fabric and turn it over but in reality, we just had to flip it over without touching our hands to the ground. We could have listened to the instructions more closely but we got a lot closer as a cohort.

 After dinner, we continued to learn about our Jewish identities by writing poems about a meaningful experience we had in Judaism without saying what the actual experience was. We then were given time to walk around the room and either comment on or guess what people’s poems were about. We learned a lot about each other through individual experiences. To say goodbye to Shabbat, we had Havdallah outside and sang the prayers. We then enjoyed some s’mores and campfire songs, which were a bit out of tune. We ended the night again with Maagal Layla and the lights off. It was a bit different from Friday. We each were given two glow sticks and told not to crack them. Gabi asked us two questions: what was something you were nervous for coming into the Shabbaton and what is something you are proud of? As we answered, we cracked our glow sticks. After everyone had cracked their glow sticks, there was light in the room and we created a circle using the glow sticks. It symbolized us coming to together and how each individual is needed to make a community. Goodnight.

Emily- Cohort 18 

Our last day of the shabbaton started very early…we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to breakfast. After breakfast and a quick packing of bags, we started to brainstorm ideas for our introduction video to the Upper Galilee Cohort 18. We decided to do a flashmob set to the Cha-cha Slide. It took a lot of prep time and three filmed takes, but we finally nailed the moves and ended up making a very enthusiastic and creative clip!

We then were separated into our various committees for our first ever committee meetings. SFUG Partnership, Swag Spirit, Keeping Up With the Dillers, Ceremonies, and Diller Social Life all met to discuss goals, roles, and specific agendas. The meetings led us right up to lunch, and we finished them up in the 10 minutes after getting back to the Raven building. The SWAG Spirit Team then did our first fellow-led activity—The Human Knot. We first attempted to include the whole cohort but ended up splitting up into two different groups to accomplish the task more efficiently and practice our communication and problem-solving skills in a smaller group. 

We then joined back together and tried to do a human knot with all of us. It was a little chaotic and we didn’t end up perfectly undoing the knot, but we were still able to communicate pretty effectively and have a lot of fun and bonding in the process.

We then transitioned into a super helpful time management workshop led by Ariel. We had a mini-competition to complete as many tasks on a list as we could; this helped to reveal how we prioritize certain jobs over others and whether our strategies are effective in the long run. After that, Ariel had us answer questions about our personal time-management habits and strategies. We then had to schedule out a week in the fictional life of a junior called Naomi. We were given a list of voicemails and had to use them to prioritize certain assignments and write them in a day-by-day calendar. We then debriefed and Ariel showed us the top 10 rules for time management.

The last two assignments before departing were feedback/evaluation and journaling. We learned the ground rules and strategies for giving helpful and honest feedback. Among them were the Kosher Sandwich layout, citing specific examples, and being receptive on both ends of the conversation. We did a feedback session first on the whole shabbaton and then on specific programs, using our newly learned skills. Finally, we each wrote a letter to ourselves in our journal reflecting on the past weekend and setting goals and expectations for future the rest of our time as fellows. Once the letters had been collected, we were free to leave. Although it was only a weekend, we grew so much as a cohort and individuals; I consider it a major success!

 Jessie- Cohort 18 

Israel on our minds-Workshop 11 Cohort 18!

This workshop was the second in a series of workshops planned by the Dillers themselves. We started off this weeks workshop with our usual Oy and Joy. The one difference was that Gabi wasn’t able to join us for the day. In her place was our wonderful Diller intern Ariel. We then transitioned into our Winter Israel Experience committees and had some time to work on the days we have been planning.
After that, we had a guest speaker come and talk to us about a program called Garin Tzabar. This program is intended to give Jews around the world who want to join the Israeli army a group of similar people (also joining the army) who they can get to know before and during their army experience.
Following the presentation, we took a field trip to the lawn bowling courts outside of the ferry building and played a game of candy dodgeball. In addition to the game being a fun and interactive activity, the game also taught us about how Jews throughout time have tried to stop conflicts and help others. Special Dillers also known as the “Jews” were tasked with trying to gather the candy so that others would stop fighting. They were also able to heal their teammates who had been hit by candies thrown from the other team.

Once we got back to the conference room, we had a presentation from our second guest speaker. He started off by asking us what we thought of him. Without knowing anything about him, we were supposed to come up with theories as to who he was, where he came from and why he was with us that day. We deducted a fair amount about him, but after we had guessed as much as we could, he revealed to us that he was was an advisor to the board of the JCF. He gives suggestions as to where the JCF should spend its money in Israel. He then talked to us about some interesting community service opportunities we could partake in during our trip to the upper Galilee.

We then took our break and returned to work on our Moshe of the day plans. We concluded the day with our feedback session and for the first meeting in a very long time, we ended five minutes early.

Flying with Diller- Cohort 18 workshop 2!

Our third workshop of the year began with a brief oys and joys check in. Although we (cohort 18) were all a little nervous to meet cohort 17 for the first time, sitting in a circle and sharing the ups and downs of our week before we met them broke the ice and revealed a (not surprising) bonding trend that most of us had oys involving homework. 

Once our initial warm up was over, the doors were opened and we met cohort 17 for the first time. They were all very warm and welcoming, and lead us in a series of ice breakers like standing in an inner/outer circle formation and talking one-on-one with them in a sort of speed-dating like rotation. They patiently answered any and all of our questions/concerns that we had around Diller, and tried to clear up a little bit what the Diller program would be like in the future (it sounds exciting but at this point is still mysterious). 

Cohort 17 then led us in activities involving their TOSS workshop, in which we had to plan how we would adapt to a program that didn’t work out. After some more bonding with our older counterparts, we said our goodbyes with a woosh of good energy

We then had a presentation by Shachar Gilad, a pilot, who explained to us qualities needed to be the leader of an aircraft, and lead us in an activity simulating emergency scenarios a pilot might face in real life. After wooshing him goodbye, we sat down and (in typical Diller fashion) reflected on the day. 

-Noa, cohort 18

When the two met- Joint workshop Cohort 17 and 18!

Our Sunday began with a language program led by our favorite (and only) Diller coordinator Gabi. We discussed the literal and figurative connection to language. A few fellows volunteered to demonstrate 3 different scenarios; someone getting proposed to, the birds and the bees (father and daughter talk), and 2 brothers in an argument. The twist was that no real [English] words could be exchanged. One group displayed their frustration through gibberish and annoyed body language as another barked and meowed to show miss-communication. Finally, we were treated to a few beautiful hand and body motions by our distressed father-Micah as he taught his daughter-Sophia about the birds and the bees. Although it was a funny program, we were able to recognize and have a meaningful discussion about our home, family, friend, Diller, and, culture “language”.

Subsequently, cohort 17 prepared to meet cohort 18 for the first time. As we started preparing programs for them they slowly started shuffling in. We began our combined workshop with a some icebreakers led by a few cohort 17 fellows. Later, different committees from cohort 17 talked about their experience with Diller and what the purpose of their committee was throughout our cohort. We were able to talk to our cohort 18 dillaroos about  any questions, concerns, excitement they had coming into Diller. As a way to help them ease into the “Diller family flow”, we [cohort 17] will each partner with one them [cohort 18] in our mentor program. This allows us to stay connected and pass on traditions to future cohorts:)

-Caroline Rabinovich          

Workshop 1- Cohort 18

This past Sunday was Cohort 18's first workshop. We focused on getting to know each other, our most important values and leadership. These three topics will continue to be discussed throughout the year. 

Each fellow brought in a picture of themselves; some were cute baby pictures and others were more recent photographs. Each one had some sort of story connected to it, whether that had to do with a hobby or family or friends. After this, each fellow posted their picture on the wall and everyone wrote down facts they remembered about that person from our first meeting. We reconvened and shared interesting facts we learned (hopefully re-learned!) about each other. This was a step in getting to know each other, as the connections we make this year will and need to be strong.

Next, we did a Chamsa Values Program. The chamsa is a hand-like symbol that is seen in different religions and cultures all around the world. Each fellow began with an individual chamsa, writing their five most important values. Then fellows got into groups of four or five and had to create a Diller Cohort 18 group chamsa, writing the most important values for the group this year. Then (yes, there's more), the entire group got together and had to ALL agree on five important values for the group. The beautiful part of this activity is that the values are different for every cohort, which is what makes this program so unique and special.

After a short break on the roof, the fellows came back to the board room and began working on the Ultimate Leader Program. Pictures of famous leaders were laid out on the floor, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Beyonce Knowles and Abraham Lincoln. Each fellow picked a leader and described what made this person a good leader, what specific qualities they admired in this person. Again, this is another unique program, because each person will describe the leader differently, as we all look for different aspects in a leader; we each connect differently to different parts of people.

With these programs under their belts, the fellows gained a better understanding of what Diller is all about and also gained more knowledge of each other and what is important to each person, because in a group of 20, there will be varying results. Next up is the Joint-Workshop with Cohort 17 on October 12.Looking forward to it!
Sam, Cohort 18 Junior Counselor