Eighth Workshop: Social Action!

Our last workshop was, by far, one of the most inspirational to date. This workshop would be the one during which we would begin to plan our Tikun Olam or Social Action Projects. It started off with us waiting outside in the park, enjoying some icebreakers as we waited for our first speakers to arrive.

When Janice and Eva from Ometz, a charity aimed at helping the Jewish community, finally reached the park, we all gathered around in a circle in order to hear learn about what they do. They discussed the different aspects of their charity and after finishing with their presentation, even gave us ideas for what we could do to help the community. They taught us that, in order to have a successful charity or help anyone, you must be passionate about what your are doing - otherwise the project will become boring almost instantaneously.

Our next speakers came from an organization called Dolphin Aid, which helps families with autistic children go down to the Caribbean and take part in dolphin therapy. This was extremely interesting, because their charity was new to us. 

We had all come to realize how many different ways there are of helping people, from raising money to something cool like dolphin therapy. When we went inside, Yamit and the JCs handed us outlines to help us plan our own projects. They were of huge help! But going about and creating such a project is no easy task. For the last hour of the workshop, everyone sat in their groups and spent time brainstorming. On the outlines that were handed out, we were asked to make a list of our passions and mix them with one another's in order to create a project that we would be motivated to carry out.

I never really know how exciting helping others could be, if you are passionate about the way in which you were helping! My group, for instance, is planning to help run a youth center, something that we are all eager to start on because it involves helping children, which we are all keen on doing. 

As the workshop came to a close, we were all very excited to begin our projects and left inspired as well as eager to make a change! Thank you again to Yamit and the wonderful JCs for organizing yet another spectacular workshop! 

By: Maxwell Wiltzer 
Photo Credit to Jonathan Zlotnik

Seventh Workshop: Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut!

This workshop was the first time the Montrealers were all together as a group since the North American seminar. It felt empty, sitting together and not having our Israeli friends by our side. So to start off the morning, we had a feedback session about the NAS. 

We then moved on to the subject of Yom HaZikaron, watching to videos about the families of soldiers who gave their lives toward the state. This was my favorite part of the workshop. I didn't know much about these tragedies, and it really put into perspective how much soldiers risk not only because they have to, but because they want to.

Getting into the spirit of Yom HaAtzmaut, we then went into talking about what Israel means to us. This activity was truly exciting, not only because we got to talk about Israel but because it made us realize how we will be there in such a short period of time!

To finish off our workshop, we learned about the 'Traffic Circle' - a series of steps you can take to deal with dilemmas and make good decisions. As a group, we worked together to try and solve a real life situation.

By: Leanne Lemish