Workshop #6 By Ben and Steven

Diller Montreal, pretty excited to hear all about the great things that Auberge Shalom does for women

On Sunday March 9th at our Diller workshop, we started off watching all the Cribs videos of all our fellows, which was really fun. These were the videos that we sent to our Israeli partners to introduce them to our homes and tell them more about us.

Next we got into a program where we passed around controversial statements regarding Israel, and we had to put a green sticker on it if we agreed, or a red sticker if we disagreed. For example: You cannot be a Zionist unless you live in Israel or make aliyah. Anti-semitism sustains the Jewish people; without it, Jews assimilate. A Jew who visits Israel is just like any other tourist. And so on. We had a great dialogue afterwards where all the fellows shared their personnel ideas and debated whether they agreed or disagreed with each statement.

We also had a special guest who joined us on behalf of a women’s abuse and violence protection program, called Auberge Shalom. She told us about the services available to women and families in need, and shared some of her experiences there. We donated to her a box of melons in honour of International Women's Day, and Nutrition Month at the YM-YWHA. We posted this to Facebook as our #feedthedeed!

Finally, we deeply discussed the North American Seminar that is coming up from April 3rd-13th 2014. We received a booklet of all the rules and advice that were quite funny. This Saturday is White Night, a very cool evening where we sleep overnight at the Y. The social committee has organized a cool program for Pourim, first we put everyone’s name into a hat then the person’s name you pull out, you have to make them a Mishloach Manot! We'll be exchanging them this weekend.

All the committees and thoughts of each and every Diller member truly make Diller one big family!

Written by Ben and Steven

Baking Hamantashen for Save a Child's Heart

            

Joseph, Rebecca and Matthew rolling and cutting the dough

            As I am sure you must know, an important Jewish holiday, Purim, is coming up this Saturday/Sunday. Purim is the story of Ester and her uncle, Mordecai, saving many Jews from Haman, a royal advisor who sought to eliminate all the Jews in Persia. This is one of the happier holidays that we celebrate because a great tragedy was stopped before it actually happened and we celebrate by making noise with graggers, or noisemakers, when we hear Haman’s name read in synagogue. We also eat hamantashen! Hamantashen are triangle shaped pastries filled with poppy seeds, prunes, chocolate, apricots, etc. and are shaped to resemble the three-cornered hat that Haman wore.

            So, in light of the upcoming holiday, the Montréal Diller Teen Fellows Cohort decided to go to the Shaar Hashomayim to make some hamantashen with Eve Rochman, which she sold to raise money for Save a Child’s Heart , a charity based in Israel that helps children with cardiac imperfections in developing countries get the heart surgery they need to survive. The charity performs over 200 surgeries a year and is truly a worthwhile charity to support. Save a Child’s Heart is motivated by the age-old Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam – repairing the world – which is also one of the five pillars of Diller, and they are dedicated to the idea that every child deserves the best medical treatment available, regardless of the child's nationality, religion, colour, gender or financial situation.

Being somebody who has issues cutting straight lines, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to fare in the crafting of delicate pastries. At first we were asked to construct boxes for the hamantashen, which was easy enough; however, the real challenge was what came next: making the hamantashen. While the dough and fillings (poppy, cinnamon, chocolate and prune) were made before we had arrived, we still had to cut circles of dough, fill them and transform them into triangles before they went into the oven. While my first few turned out lopsided and flimsy, by the end I was actually making decent pastries. I can honestly say I enjoyed the experience and so did all the other fellows who were there with me, and I am happy I got to support Save a Child’s Heart because they do such great things.

Written by Joseph Wiltzer

Joseph admiring his handiwork

Shabbaton #2: Saturday and Sunday

The 2nd shabbaton continues...

Decorating cookies on Saturday night!

Saturday morning everyone met up in the staff’s cabin for breakfast, which included bagel-cream cheese-and a lot of lox . We then spoke about prayers and what they mean to everyone. I found it interesting because everyone had a different meaning as to what prayer is. 

Then, we spoke about the timeline that we had to put in order on Friday. There were some very interesting things that we learned about Israel. We then did a leadership activity. Now this was extremely complicated. Six people were in the middle of the room and blindfolded, then the circle around them had to tell them what to do, but they had their backs to the people with blindfolds and they had to communicate with the people in front of them who weren’t allowed to talk. Complicated right? They had to get the blindfolded people to make a star of David. So that didn’t work out very well but it was still fun and we learned about ourselves as leaders.

Later, we went outside for the “outdoor training” run by our JC's. We had to work in teams. It was like a scavenger hunt in the woods. Then we tied a rope (made of plastic bags) to two trees. We had to get everyone to the other side of the rope by going over it. Speaking as the first person to get thrown over the rope, it wasn’t easy. This was a tough activity, but we worked together and we did just fine. Once we got changed from the “outdoor clothes”, we had some free time. I used this time to get to know better some of the Diller Teen Fellows.

After the free time, we did the prayer for the Shabbat lunch and ate. And now came some more leadership activities. There were pictures of some important and inspiring leaders spread on the floor. We had to choose a picture and explain why we choose those people and say one trait they have as a leader. We discussed those traits and explained why it s important for a leader to have those traits. Then, we were separated into three teams and each team got the name of a leader from the bible: Abraham, Moses, and Joshua. We had to read a passage about them and then make a little campaign for them.

After all these activities, we did seudah shlishit-שעודה שלישית and had a snack. We had an interesting conversation with our well-informed JC, Maxwell, about politics in Israel and in Canada. Then came the havdallah that was done, very well, by Steven, Levana, Rebecca and myself. I liked it because it’s very different than how we do it at my house. We were all together singing around the table, it was a pleasant moment.

Now this is one of my favorite moments, the group who was in charge of the games (Matthew, Phil and Noah A) decided that we were going to play “Baby, I Love You!”. In this game, there is one person in the middle and they have to go tell someone in the circle “Baby, I love you! Can you please smile for me?” and the person would have to answer back “Baby, I love you too but I just can’t smile for you!”. If the person smiled, then they had to go to the middle. So here is why I enjoyed it: I was the “target”, everyone tried to break me and it was fun to watch. The things that they tried were funny and unexpected but we all had a good laugh.

Then we did some T-shirt decorating. We came to the decision that we would use Michaela’s beautiful drawing for the front and Levana and Phil’s (also very nice) design for the back.

Shortly after dinner, unfortunately a few people had to leave so the group was a little smaller. With the cookie dough, we shaped our cookies and put them in the oven. Meanwhile, we had our maagal laila. It was just us and our wonderful JCs. I really appreciated this moment because it was all about us. We got to share our stories and learned about more about the others. After that, most of us went back to the staff’s cabin to decorate the cookies.

Then came Sunday morning. Everyone was tired from a long and delightful week-end. First we had breakfast, and then a short maagal. We had to pick a card with the word that explains our hopes for the continuation of the Diller experience. Before loading the bus, we had feedback. The next thing I knew, we were at the Y.

I know I wrote a lot, but this shabbaton can’t be explained with only a few words. If I had to sum it up, I would say it was just the beginning of a wonderful experience. Merci! Et a bientot! Alexia (AKA The Girl Who Doesn’t Smile:)

Baby I love you, but I just can't smile for you!

Since it’s me, I had to put in at least a few words in french! So again: A Bientot!

Written by: Alexia Brami

Shabbaton #2: Friday!

Friday started off like any other week: wake up; eat breakfast; go to school. It was, however, different than the rest.

At one, all the fun truly began. Meeting at the Y with luggage and tons of food meant that this weekend would surely be one to remember. After a journey on the bus, a little lesson on the rules of the bus, and a threat to get ditched on the side of the road, we successfully made it to Camp Papillon. By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHICAGO! After a quick unloading, we were assigned to our rooms and the “preparations” for Shabbat began. By preparations, I actually mean The Ellen Show. Once the episode finished, we put on our Shabbat clothes and headed back to the main room for the traditional services.

The religious part of the Shabbat service was organized by us, the teens, which allowed us to do it in the way that we felt was most appropriate for our group. From the candle lighting, in which every female from our cohort lit a candle and said the prayers, to the Erev Shabbat service, done in the Orthodox style, to Kiddush and Hamotzi, the service revolved around one of the themes for our weekend: Leadership.

After supper, we had some free time to change into more comfortable clothes to compete head to head and test our Israeli knowledge. Our cohort was divided into two teams in order to battle each other and fulfill the other theme for our Shabbaton: Israeli Connection. We were tested on different trivia questions that were about both past and present Israel. After that activity, it was a competition to place different cities on a map of Israel, obviously before the other team. Another Israeli Connection activity was only about past Israel. We had to place different historical event in chronological order. We got to learn about each of these events the next day. We also played Jewish Heads Up. We all got a name of a famous, or not so famous, Jewish person put on our foreheads and asked yes-no questions to guess who the person was.

The most interesting part of the day came next, the Maagal Laila. Friday’s Maagal started with perfecting two ways of Diller feedback: “The Compliments Sandwich” and “The Chocolate Pretzel.” After giving our positive and negative feedback about the day, we proceeded to the activity called “Taps.” Sitting in a circle, with our eyes closed and silent, each member of the cohort was asked to stand up quietly by our wonderful JCs, Maxwell and Alizée, and tap everyone’s head who they believed filled the requirement set forth by the best JCs. We all learnt what we accomplished in the group and what we could work on from this interesting night circle.

 The night ended with free time.

I would like to personally thank Sarah, Maxwell and Alizée for an amazing weekend!

By: Noah Adessky

Our First Shabbaton: Saturday!

Baruch Atah Adonai… may this year's Diller experience be the best yet! AMEN!

After a late but exciting night of talking, story telling and friend making, we all woke up slightly restless for our first Shabbat service together. None of us really knew what to expect with the scheduled, “alternative Shabbat service” that was planned for us. Personally, I was extremely curious how we would be celebrating Shabbat as we all clearly had distinct levels and relationships with the holiday as we discussed the previous night. I thought this experience was the best spiritual one yet and truly summed up what Diller is all about. As every fellow stood up and went through the order of the Shabbat service through personal prayers and aspects of our lives that we were particularly thankful or wishful for, we not only uncovered more about each other, but also in many ways connected differently with Judaism. The service was unique and spiritually educational and while it was far from traditional, I think we all agreed that it accomplished a very similar task to any other Shabbat service that any of us had ever taken part of.

After a number of emotions surfaced in the Shabbat service it was now time to learn about each other’s different views on Judaism and finally begin our long and difficult voyage of uncovering our own Jewish identities. When we were split up into random groups and were told to present on four distinct sectors of Judaism that may or may not actually represent our own views, there was some level of uncertainty in the room. Once again Diller was forcing us to leave our comfort zone. Nevertheless that small instant of hesitation was quickly replaced with debate and teachings from every Diller member. No matter the outcome all of the teens for sure have a much greater respect for all Jews in the world from Orthodox to Reconstructionist. We were all pleasantly surprised to realize the ease that we were able to discuss different issues and understand each other’s opinions. All in all I think the morning of our first Shabbat was the most any of us had truly participated and it was at this time that we really jumped face first into the Diller experience and never looked back.

After an insightful lunch and talk with Rabbi Nu at the Montreal Torah Centre, we all gained a new appreciation for sensitive issues in our society and Judaism’s view on them. After a relaxing afternoon filled with more relationship forming, we did Havdallah in another classic Diller way and finally did our first real leadership activity. As we read through old Amerindian leadership qualities, we all gained new insight on what type of leader we were. The group reached a consensus that a well functioning team needs all types of leaders including creativity, self-reliance, analysis and cooperation. In my opinion, this was the most beneficial activity that we did as a group as we saw how similar yet different all of us are. While we all enjoyed discovering aspects of ourselves, it was finally time for the big and suspenseful surprise. As correctly predicted by a few of the Diller teens, we all went laser tagging and had an amazing time. When we got back to the hotel we were all relieved to have a short organized talk and were excited just to continue our discussions and become better friends. These bonds were truly exemplified when the next day we were asked to describe our group’s relationship with Judaism through only six words. “Leading Israel through traditional family values” could not sum up what our cohort is about any better. The cooperation and teamwork of the entire group reinforced that this would be a fantastic experience for all of us. Like classic Diller style, we could not leave the Quality Inn Hotel without some sort of bang. Luckily, the hotel helped us out a bit when a chandelier fell directly on my head. Don’t worry Quality Inn, I’m all good plus you just gave us another amazing memory so thanks I guess???

Although we all come from different backgrounds, have pluralistic views on Judaism, and are part of the Diller journey for many different reasons, every fellow ultimately understood that the first Shabbat spent together would be a very special one. With that mentality in mind, I think that I can safely speak for everyone who took part that it lived up and in many ways surpassed all of our expectations and was a Shabbaton we would all remember for a long time.

By: Phil Dubrofsky