Diller International Congress!

Written by Kineret Grant-Sasson Congress: The Exploration of Jewish Peoplehood After a brief intermission of exclusively American (and Canadian) programming, 160 Israelis from across descended upon us to kick of what would be the intense five day experience of Congress. This week brings together every single Diller fellow from America, Canada and Israel to represent his or her respective community in discussions of Jewish identity, leadership, Tikun Olam (reparation of the world) and her or his relationship to Israel. All 400 teens were split into thirteen tribes which would serve as their "homeroom" for the week. Throughout the week, the tribes met two to three times every day for a couple of hours, each time with breaks in between the sessions. Each session focused on one of the Five Legs of Avram Infeld's lecture: Family, memory, Brit (covenant), language and State of Israel- Land of Israel. We participated in programing to develop and explore our relationship to each of these topics. One of the goals of Congress Week is to force the fellows out of their comfort zones. I saw this play out in numerous ways. The first, is that living with 400 teens from all over North America and Israel who all speak different combinations of English, Hebrew and even French is not easy. However, this was one of the most fruitful aspects of Congress for me because I learned to "put myself out there" in ways I have never had the opportunity to do before as well as learn to connect to teens all over the world over the simple fact that we are Jewish teenagers. The second challenge of Congress week was the daunting task of confronting my innermost thoughts, values and internal ways of life with teens from all over the world that I have never met before. What did we have in common? We are all Jewish. From this commonality stems the idea of Jewish peoplehood. Although we all have different ways of approaching our Jewish identities, if each Jewish person in the world would chose three legs to relate too, every Jew would share one aspect of Judaism in common. In this way we will ensure the continuation of Jewish peoplehood. - Kineret Grant-Sasson/ KMONEY ps. Hi Mommy hi Daddy hi Ari hi Asher hi Frodo! Love you guyz. Peace Love Israel.