For the past 10 months, I have had the opportunity to be
a part of an amazing Jewish leadership program called Diller Teen Fellows. My
cohort of this program started in the fall of 2016 with leadership workshops
and volunteer opportunities that continued throughout the year. In July 2017,
me and 16 other Montreal Jewish fellows boarded the plane to Israel for the
experience of a lifetime: Diller's Israel Summer Seminar. The trip started and
ended with a week of touring and volunteer opportunities while always keeping
in mind our goal of exploring the Many Faces of Israel. From our visits to Save
A Child's Heart, to the Children's Museum’s “Invitation to Silence” interactive
exhibit on deafness, to the Western Wall, I can truly say that we got a good
first hand glimpse of how beautiful this country is. Our week of touring ended
with an International Shabbaton bringing together all of the teens from the
English speaking partnerships (San Francisco, Baltimore, Los Angeles, New
Jersey, Boston, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Miami, Chicago, Johannesburg,
Cape Town, Brooklyn, Buenos Aires and London). After this was our Community Week
where we lived with our Israeli partners and took part in the activities that
we had worked so hard to plan throughout the entire year. Next, was our
International Congress where all of the communities from the Shabbaton joined
their Israeli communities for a week that brought together over 600 Jewish
teens from around the globe.
It still baffles me to think that just two weeks ago, all
of these people that I now consider friends, if not family, were all strangers
to me.
I am so grateful for all of the people that I have had
the chance to have enter my life and hopefully remain there forever. We came
together from almost every continent seeking leadership opportunities, a visit
to our homeland, and a chance to repair the world. Over the past three weeks I
have made memories that I will never forget, and have lived experiences have
helped to shape me, not only as a young person, but as the Young Jewish leader
that I want to be and for that I am forever grateful.
Over the course of this experience, I have learned that
family does not have to be though blood. It is more so, the people who want you
in their life and that you want in yours. Family are the people that accept you
no matter what, and will do anything to see you smile. It is people whose names
you can learn and with whom you can talk about G*d - all in the same
conversation. They will learn to love you unconditionally no matter how many
times you mess up. Diller 2017 has become my extended new family and I could
not be happier. I am grateful for this incredible opportunity and all of the
amazing people that I have met along the way. Honestly, the only down side to
this wonderful adventure is its future impact on my parents’ bank account –
they will now have to help me travel all over the world to visit my new friends
- sorry mom and dad!
I wish to conclude by saying a huge thank you to the
Diller Montreal staff and in particular, Sarah Benmergui for allowing me to
have the opportunity to meet a group of young people that have made saying
goodbye so ridiculously hard.
-Britney Slimovitch, Montreal Cohort 9
