First official Day In Israel- Winter Israel Experience 2014

After finally getting to sleep in a real bed, we all had to get up and eat breakfast. We were greeted by two of our Israeli partners who had come down a little early. After we ate the traditional Israeli breakfast, we did a quick round of wishes and thoughts on our trip. Everyone was super excited for the trip, and falafel.

            

We then met up with our partners. There was lots of hugging and screaming. Soon we were on the bus and headed to Bina, a secular yeshiva in South Tel Aviv. It is a place where non-religious Jews can go and study Jewish texts like the Torah and Talmud, as well as more modern writings such Israeli poetry and newspapers.  The guide for my group was a grad student at Tel Aviv University, who was from London. The location in South Tel Aviv is intentional. South Tel Aviv, which we toured with guides from Bina, is a very poor neighborhood, and is home to asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, foreign workers, and poorer Israelis. We walked to a park, which only a few years early had been filled with asylum-seekers sleeping and living. It was now empty, as Israel has built a wall on the Southern border, so refugees are no longer allowed to cross. Bina, which emphasizes social action, is very involved in the community. Back at Bina, we talked about the complex problem of asylum seekers, and what Israel should do about them. In our discussion, it was framed as a tension between being a Jewish state and democratic state. Is it more important the Israel remains a haven for Jews or should it accept everyone? We also compared the problem, with the American problem of undocumented immigration.

            

After a lunch of falafel, we headed to the Diller Mega Event. Every group in the big auditorium was shouting their cheer loudly. We start with a brief opening ceremony were some upper level Diller people talked. We then broke into “color groups” for activities. After a few icebreakers, we talked about family. What is a family? Who is a family? We then put stickers on a map to represent where our families and we came from. Though in the first round only one person was from outside Israel or North America (she was from Ethiopia), within three rounds we had stickers all over the map.

Then came dinner, which was a mad house. There was only one falafel station for almost 400 people. There was so much pushing and shoving that some Dillers, myself including, just decided to not get any food at all.

Back in the color groups, some Israeli alumni led programs about “What it means to be a Jew?” They used the analog of it being a playlist. Every Jew gets to choose what songs, or ideas, are on their personal playlist. At this point jet lag was hitting most of us hard, and it didn’t help that the next activity was a concert from an Israeli folk music band. Most of us were to tired to enjoy it.

At the very end, each person wrote a six-word story about their Jewish identity. By the end, all of us were very anxious to get back to the hotel to sleep, and to be prepared for our upcoming day in Jerusalem.

Katie Wysong cohort 17 

Winter Israel Seminar- were off! Cohort 17

The San Francisco Diller Teen Fellows embarked on their Israel trip Sunday the 21st. The Fellows started the journey by learning about covenant while waiting at the gate. In this program, Fellows shared times in Jewish history that they felt important to remember. The Fellows then "lit" a 

Chanukia for the sixth night of Chanukah (by symbolically moving an unlit Shamesh over the other candles). The ten hour flight to London was filled with movies, sleeping, and eleven (mostly) quiet babies.

During their layover in London, the Fellows stocked up on snacks and learned the important difference between boarding time and departure time. The Fellows finally landed in Tel Aviv around 1 AM and drove to their hotel (which is right next to the beach!). 

Claire Murphy cohort 17 

Partners and Rabbis Oh my! Cohort 18 Workshop 4

We started our fourth workshop by introducing our Israeli partners. Raps, limericks, posters, songs, photos, and games reveals new fascinating information about our corresponding  fellows in the Upper Galilee. Because Cohort 17 will soon embark on their journey to Israel, we made card to wish them pleasant travels and a fruitful trip to Israel. Being that this is Diller, we held a feedback session to discuss the activities that have been beneficial or those which need improvement. We reflected on how the four pillars (Jewish identity, leadership, Israel, and Tikkun Olam) have been incorporated throughout the past workshops and the Shabbaton.

Finally, Rabbi Glazer and Rabbi Zarchi arrived to tell us about their backgrounds and perspectives as rabbis in the Bay Area. They each discussed their individual views of human relationships to God, Kabbalah, the importance of Jewish mysticism, and the state of the Jewish community after HaShoah. We closed the workshop with a Whoosh and some time to reflect on our journals. We left with the assignment to Skype call our Israeli partners before Workshop 5!

I look forward to the next workshop!

- Sophia  Landress, Cohort 18

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.