Has Diller Changed Me? by Matthew Steinberg

When my mom first told me about the Diller Teen Fellows program about 2 years ago, I didn't really think much of it at first. It sounded like such a huge commitment for a three-week trip to Israel that I could do with any other program. And I must admit, when the workshops first started, I wasn't very happy to be there either. It was a lot of discussions about topics that didn't really appeal to me, and A LOT of seemingly pointless icebreakers. I really was not sure that I had made the right decision by joining the program at that point, and I know some other fellows were having similar thoughts as well. However, we were told that everything would all come together in Israel, and everything we were doing would 'all make sense then'. So I decided to give Diller a little more time, and looking back on that decision now, it was definitely the right one.

I started to realize this on the first Shabbaton last October. Yamit was still our coordinator and for me, it was the first time I really got to know some of the other fellows a little better. I remember actually enjoying myself that Shabbaton both during the sessions and while talking to some of the other fellows, which definitely made me more excited about Israel and continuing with the program itself. Then, a few weeks later, we were told that Yamit would no longer be our coordinator and that they were in the process of looking for a new one. This news obviously came along with a lot of uncertainty about the remainder of the program, but once again, we all stuck with it and hoped for the best. And the best is exactly what we got when we all met Sarah and went on our 2nd Shabbaton with her a few weeks later.

From that point on, time seemed to fly by and before we knew it, the Israelis were in town for the North American Seminar and a week of home hospitality. For me, meeting the Israelis and spending time with them was definitely the most interesting and exciting part of Diller. It was amazing to see how similar these kids really were to us, despite living half way across the world and leading very different lives from ours. Looking back, I think this is what really makes Diller such a special program; they unite Jewish teens from different corners of the world over a strong set of common values and beliefs. Hosting the Israelis in our homes and spending that week with them was such an amazing experience and a lot of fun for all of us. After that, we were all so excited to come to Israel in the summer and spend an even longer period of time with them.

And then, days before we were supposed to leave in July, the bad news came. We would not be going to Israel this summer and the trip was delayed indefinitely. After all the excitement leading up to the trip, this was a pretty big let-down. Although we all for the most part understood and agreed with the decision to cancel, I think it's safe to say that we were still pretty disappointed, and understandably so. And for a 3rd time, we all had to stay positive and hope for the best in terms of getting all we had hoped to get out of Diller.

Before we knew it, December had come and we were finally on a plane to Israel, where the best is once again exactly what we got. Whoever it was that told us that everything would eventually come together in Israel at the beginning of Diller was so right. I think we realized that all the planning, all the discussions, and all the excitement that we had built up in the year and a half leading up to Israel had paid off the minute we stepped out of the Arrivals area at Ben Gurion airport, where we were greeted by the Israelis who were cheering and who were as excited to see us as we were to see them.

The first three days in Israel were a great way to start off the trip, and consisted of a good balance of fun activities and more serious discussions about different values in Judaism that were relevant to Diller and to being in Israel. We also visited Yad Vashem, which I found to be a very powerful experience, having done the March Of The Living earlier this year. On the fourth day of the trip, we travelled down to Be'er Sheva, the home of our Israeli counterparts and the place where we would be spending the next 5 nights with our host families. Once again, this for me is simply the best part of Diller, and that was definitely re-affirmed during these amazing 5 days. It was so interesting to see the similarities and the differences in an Israeli family's day-to-day life to ours, and it was really cool to experience life through their eyes with them. And of course, we all had so much fun during that week. Last but not least, after saying a sad goodbye to the Israelis, we travelled to Sde Boker for the last two days of the trip for 'Kennes' with all the other North American Dillers from around Canada and the US. Here, we had the opportunity to once again meet some new people and engage in some pretty interesting conversations with them, while also getting to hear an excellent guest speaker in Avraham Infeld, who talked a little bit about Peoplehood, and what it means to be Jewish. All in all, it turned out to be an amazing trip, and experience as a whole. It was all we had hoped for and more.

I'll end on this note: At the beginning of our very first workshop we had almost two years ago, one of our JCs told us all that Diller was going to 'change us' and that it was going to be one of the best experiences we had ever had. I also remember the exact thought that was going through my mind at that moment: it might have changed them, but it certainly won't change me. Now, I have about 20 new best friends in Israel that I will stay in touch with and try to see whenever I am back there, 18 more people that I have become very close with here in Montreal, and I can definitely say that because of Diller, I think about certain things slightly differently. I often find myself referring to the topic of a conversation I had in Diller while in the classroom, during homework, and even in everyday life, and the leadership skills and values such as Tikun Olam and the love of Israel will stay with me for the rest of my life. So, does this mean Diller has actually changed me? To what would greatly surprise my younger self, I believe so.

Written by Matthew Steinberg, Cohort 6

North American Kennes by Noah Adessky

Kennes Day 2- December 31st, 2014

Obviously with 200 North American Jews all staying at the same kibbutz, things were bound to get interesting. The second day of Kennes was no exception. We started the day with designing our own communities in our colour tribes, which consisted of a mix of Fellows from the nine North American cities represented at Kennes. There were many important factors to think of in this task, such as the layout of the town, whether it would be pluralistic or secular or religious and above all what was important for each group member. Groups were asked to choose five guiding principles to decide on what institutions would be apparent in our town centre. The great part about this activity was that every single town was completely different. The important qualities in each North American community were apparent in our ideal towns and thus they were all different as North American Jewry is different everywhere.

The next activity focused on the leadership of David Ben Gurion and everything he accomplished during his lifetime. This activity was very relevant as Sde Boker, where Kennes was held, is the burial place of the former Prime Minister.

The third activity of the day was a direct continuation of the Liat Cohen Raviv's lecture from the night before. We focused on the development and the differences of North American Jews. We looked at the biggest communities, how Jews first immigrated to America and the importance of having so many different communities in North America.

Avraham Infeld was the guest speaker of the North American Kennes. All cohorts had spent time learning about his theory of the five-legged table of Judaism. He concluded that if each Jew chooses the three legs that are most important to him/her then every Jew will be able to connect on some level as they will always have at least one thing in common. These five legs are Memory, Israel, Covenant (Brit), the Hebrew Language, and Family. He also spoke about Judaism in general. He stressed that Judaism was not a religion, but rather a peoplehood. He explained how one does not need to be religious to feel Jewish and one does not need to be Jewish to feel religious. This stresses the point that Judaism is not a religion but instead a peoplehood.

The last programming of Kennes was called Looking Kadima. We started the program with discussing what we would have to remind us if we forgot everything. We then discussed in smaller groups what the five main characteristics of North American Jewry are today. Each group chose the values and shared them with the entire group. From these 15 qualities, we had to narrow it down into five. My group actually had a lot of trouble narrowing down our values. This is because Jewry is different in each community. The conversation ranged from how each community engages with Israel, the importance of tikkun olam, the different levels of religion in North America. For example, San Francisco is more of a reform community while Miami is a very modern orthodox community. We also discussed the development of the "Judaism" movement, where people do not choose a sect of Judaism to be devoted to and rather would just be "Jewish" instead being labeled as "conservative" or "reform." In the end, I realized that while Judaism is based on the same books, the way that Judaism acts itself out in different communities is completely different.

Our last Maagal Laila focused on the end of diller. We sat outside in the dark overlooking the cliff in Sde Boker. Two questions were asked and in order to answer the question, you had to break a glow stick and hold it up. The two questions were "what would you tell your pre-diller self?" and "how do you feel about the whole diller journey?" Everyone answered each question and what was amazing to me is that everyone's answer was different. We all connected differently with Diller but everyone thought that it was an amazing journey. By the end of the answers, everyone was sitting surrounded by glow stick light. The next part of the maagal was something called "Last Will and Testaments." Before the trip, our JCs, Maxwell and Alizée, left each fellow with a gift based on a memory. These memories came from different experiences from the Diller journey. We also created a list of gifts based on Israel jokes and memories. It was a very nice way to end both our Israel and Diller journey, with laughs and revisited memories.

We ended the night with a New Year's Eve countdown overlooking the Sde Boker cliff with the other North American Diller communities. What a way to say goodbye to 2014!

Army Day and End of Community Week by Jamie Wajcman

As we woke up on our last morning with our host families (tear tear) we arrived at Beit Halochem and we started off our day with a wonderful presentation with Gili, a Diller Bash-Banash fellow’s dad and the director of Beit Halochem Beer Sheva, explaining to us about the centre and what the organization does. The centre is for veterans who were wounded in battle, either physically or mentally. The workers at the centre design a personalized rehabilitation plan to help each soldier get reintegrated into Israeli society and feel comfortable.

After watching a few videos about the centre and some of the soldiers it had helped, one soldier, Amit, came to speak to us. We had previously watched his video about his injury and his time at Beit Halochem. After our talk and learning so much about beit halochem we were able to experience what it is like if we did or didn't have working legs. How? We played wheel chair basketball and it was interesting to learn the functions of the wheel chair and how to make it stop, go etc... It definitely is much harder than it looks!!!

After Beit Halochem, we went to the Sde Boker army base where we were able to experience and get a taste of what it is like to be in the army as we participated in a short version of Gadna! We did some activities, which were lots of fun. We learnt about army stances, camouflage, the army crawl, how to hold guns based on where the target is and even got to try on real army uniforms!

The commander didn't warn us whether we needed to run or walk, she did what she did and we followed. After that, we had to hold plank for 4 minutes and the rule was that 3 people can take a breath at a time and if more than 3 people were on a break, then we all have to restart. We needed to work together as group to make sure that we completed the task and that everyone could take a break when needed. It was a chance to test both our leadership and team work qualities! Let's just conclude that activity showed us fellows that we are 100% out of shape! Following plank, we had a small talk session with a head commander and then our favourite picture time came, trying on outfits and pretending we are in the army! If I have to make a comment on how we looked, I'd say Diller BashBanash Montreal should deffs be a part of the army! We all looked fantastic.

By the end of the day, we arrived at Kennes and concluded our community week with a final magaal with our Israeli friends. We all sat in a circle next to David Ben Gurion’s grave. It was very meaningful as he is such an important Israeli leader and a role model to us fellows in perseverance and leadership! In our maagal, we were asked to either choose what we take away from the trip, what our favourite memory is, someone who we feel we connected to or something that we learnt from our Israel Winter Semiar. Then we had the chance to thank anyone who we wanted in a public setting. Then it was time for Diller Bash-Banash to leave ☹ Our goodbyes led to crying, but i kept saying see you later instead of goodbye because it's not an official goodbye, it's more of a see you later because some of us will be back in israel soon and will definitely not miss an opportunity to see our new Israeli family!!

Later that night, we reunited with our colour groups from the mega-evening to begin the North American Kennes. Liat, the senior director of Diller Teen Fellows International, led a workshop of the history of the Jewish people and how we went from being one nation at Mount Sinai to being scattered into tons of different communities across the world. We then had dinner and some free time before a truly meaningful maagal laila. Sarah handed each fellow a container of Play-Doh and asked us to mould what we thought our parents would be thinking about us right now. How they would have felt if they saw us over the course of the trip, etc. We all shared how we thought they would have felt and then Sarah turned the maagal laila 360 degrees and handed each of us a letter from our parents. Overall, it was a very meaningful maagal that I will never forget.

Written by Jamie Wajcman with contributions from Noah Adessky 

Negev Day and Closing Ceremony by Phil Dubrofsky

As we explored the ruins of Masada overlooking the Negev and the Dead Sea, it dawned on me how my experience in Diller has truly come full circle. As we were told the story of Masada by our peers, I wondered what the Jews at the times of the Romans would think about us visiting this beautiful, yet also tragic place, as well as what type of leaders we are.

While I was reflecting on the day, I realized that, in many ways, this day parallels my whole Diller experience. As we were on Masada and were asked questions about honour, dignity and religion, I found myself back during the first few weeks where I was unsure about the whole Diller experience. However, once again, the Israelis saved us and taught us how dying for what you believe in is the most honourable death and is partially why they believe so strongly in the state of Israel.

While the rest of the day was filled with laughs, mud, salt, floating, singing, sun and fun at the Dead Sea, the evening truly was my favourite part of an amazing day. When I was asked to give a speech at the closing ceremony/Israeli graduation from Diller, I was really humbled and honoured. I spoke a little bit about my personal experience in Diller, and I realized how proud I am to be part of this program and how fortunate I am to have spent a week with these wonderful people. Here is a clip of my speech that I think really shows what this trip means to me and what I took away from the past week.

http://youtu.be/GIcW0j-SVZo