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

Sports day and Culture day by Noah and Steven

Sports day by Noah Margolese

On Saturday December 27th we spent Shabbat in Be'er Sheva with our host families and then continued Community Week with Sports day.

The Diller Teen Fellows program is all about new experiences. Still, I did not expect one when I went to shul with my host, Yohai Tevel. While I have prayed with sfardi Jews before, there were some friday night customs I did not expect. One of these customs which was new to me was the custom of smelling spices at the onset of Shabbat. This is done in order to cause the congregants to recite an extra blessing. It was great to experience Shabbat in a new way while in Israel. 

Our evening activity, was an incredible soccer game. The fans of Hapoel Beer Sheva brought an impressive energy to the stadium. That energy is what really made the game so exciting. Fortunately, the crowd was not disappointed, as Hapoel Beer Sheva defeated Petach Tikva 2-1. All decked out red and white, we felt like we were locals. 

After the game, Diller visited the Grand Kenyon, which has one of the greatest variety of shops of any mall in the middle east. This outing was a great way to cap off the evening.

Culture day by Steven Wise

Our cultural expeditions most definitely exceeded all expectations.

On Sunday December 28th, our day started off in an Ethiopian Absorption Centre in Be'er Sheva. Sadly, the kids weren't in on-site kindergarten that day, so we exchanged working with the young Ethiopian kids for gardening in one of the Ethiopian-cultural-public-gardens, which turned out to be one of the greatest experiences yet.

We had an opportunity to work the land of Israel. And, within an hour, a third of us had cleaned up a small pond, a third had weeded much of a field, and the other third had begun de-vining and repairing a fence. 

We then boarded our bus, and arrived in a Bedouin farmer (Fallach) village which housed 1000 people in the Negev. We went to our tour guide's father's old house, which turned out to be a cave. He lived (in the cave) with camels, goats, sheep, and cows. We drank some traditional Bedouin coffee (very strong), and learned about many Bedouin traditions. They really weren't so different than our Jewish culture.

Then we went to a big tent, and feasted on Bedouin rice, stuffed grape leaves, with chicken, oil with some potato inside... Truly some amazing food. (or how they say in arabic: "لاذىذ - laziz - delicious").

Then we drove to a camel encampment, and proceeded to ride camels. (I was bucked by my camel, and also pushed off by the camel behind me. Wow, I hate camels).

Then we came back to be'er sheva, to the "Israeli Y" and had a both hilarious, and educational course on fringe improvisational acting.

Today we touched all sorts of Israeli culture, and had such an incredible time together. 

IWS Days 3-4-5 by Eden, Noah and Sheraze

24.12.2014

Merry Christmas! Today we visited Tel Aviv and had a scavenger hunt around the city created by our tour guide, Avia.  And even though most of us decided to just explore and enjoy the city instead of being competitive it was still really fun! We saw National poet Bialik's house, and the cemetery with the graves of After lunch we went to the Yitzhak Rabin Museum and learnt about Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli culture and history a different stages of his life. Later that night, we had some free time and went to Jaffo-Tel Aviv where most of us watched the sunset on the beautiful shore. All in all, this was by far one of the best days!

25.12.2014

As we finished breakfast and the 4th day of our adventures in Israel began, we looked forward to a variety of amazing activities. We began with a discussion program about Guests and Hosts, on the roof of the hostel. We read a text concerning a Rabbi and a guest he picked up from the street. At the end of the discussion we were asked whether we feel like a guest or a host in Judaism. We boarded the bus en route to Holon where we visited the Children's Museum, and experienced how life is while being deaf. We were handed sound blocking headphones and we got the chance to communicate with hand motions and facial expressions. With the help of our guide, a deaf woman, we all had a great time. We then had lunch consisting of pizza and salad. We all sat outside under the blue sky and blazing sun. Once we were all satisfied, we formed a circle and said farewell to our amazing tour guide, Avia, who was with us for the beginning of our trip. We then boarded the bus once again and headed out towards Be’er Sheva.

We arrived at a kibbutz called Dvir located about 20 minutes outside of Be’er Sheva and began Community Week with Partnership Day! A scavenger hunt to show us around the kibbutz was planned by fellows themselves. Once in Be’er Sheva we drove around in the bus while getting a brief tour of the city, including a stop at Ben Gurion University, where the father of one of Bash Banash fellows showed us the Helen Diller building! We finally got off the bus for the last time, and we got together and discussed the events of the day and added how we felt. The last part of the day was about the symbol of beer sheva. We learnt about all 4 components of the symbol and discussed their importance, their historical value, etc. As the day concluded, we said goodbye to one another and drove home with our pen-pals, thus commencing the first night of the home hospitality program. 

26.12.2014

Today was Judaism day. It was the first morning spent at our hosts's houses. We met at a park near and had a short maagal talking about our nights, and played a game of tag to get warmed up. After that, we headed to Abrahams Well (the Be'er Avraham museum). It was very interesting to learn about Be'er Avraham because it also taught us why Be'er Sheva is called what it is, and how the ci y was founded by Avraham. Once the tour of the museum was over, we had a scavenger hunt around the city of Be'er Sheva. We had about 15 tasks to accomplish and then bring proof that we did it. Some of the were funny, for example, we had to take a selfie with an animal, or recreate the famous Beatles picture...(and my group/group 5 won!!!:)) then we met at the altshul where we had falafels for lunch then played some games, had a maagal, and talked about Judaism and what we had learned that day. Then, we headed to our host's houses for Shabbat! Overall, it was another amazing day in Israel! 

Written by Eden Harell, Noah Matarasso, and Sheraze Shlomo, with contributions from Noah Adessky

IWS Day 3 by Michaela and Ben

23.12.14. What a memorable day! It started as we all gathered around the Rabin Hostel's dining room table for a delightful traditional Israeli breakfast after a long night touring Jerusalem. Eager to start our journey of the day, we all hopped on the bus heading towards Yad Vashem, one of the most renowned and visited holocaust museums in the world.

As the leaders of the day, Ben and myself animated our planned activity during the bus ride. We explored the theme of the Holocaust on a more personal and meaningful level. In fact, since most of the teens were already very familiar with the subject, we thought it would be interesting to listen and share personal experiences, stories and our connection towards the unforgettable genocide of the early 1940's. This brought the group to develop a more serious and suitable mindset for the museum.

As we arrived and walked through the doors of the beautiful, yet somber, complex, we were all immediately fascinated, yet heartbroken by the six million lost souls, Jewish individuals who perished during the war. What amazed us most was the symbolic and meaningful architecture of the museum, as you walk through the entrance of the center, you can look ahead and see the exit which is a lookout jutting out over a cliff and allowing us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, you are unable to cross the hall and must walk through all the exhibits. You must witness the history and atrocities before emerging through the other side.

Following our visit, our lunch break was surprisingly quiet which allowed us to reflect as well as share our thoughts on what we had previously seen and experienced. 

Diller organized our day in such a way that our morning sadness only amplified our joyous afternoon which made the mini mega evening seminar so much more meaningful and memorable. 

All the North American and Israeli cohorts were gathered for group discussions, dinner, laughter as well as a typical Israeli concert. Taking us out of our comfort zone, all the cohorts were divided into smaller groups which were filled with fellow teens coming from all over the world. Being leaders of the day was a great experience for us and we hope to have many more.

Written by Michaela Shulman and Ben Rehany