Jewish Communities Mifgash 2015!

Fellows from Cohort 6 reflect on their own memorable experiences from the Jewish Communities Mifgash. For 9 days, 20 Haifa Diller Teen Fellows came to Boston for an enriching educational seminar in which they explored the Boston community. The overall narrative was the Jewish value of Inclusion/Hachala. Daily themes focused on getting to know Boston, getting to know the Jewish community, social justice, Israel, and innovation.

Noah Weisskopf:  As the Americans lay in bed anxiously waiting to see what their Israeli looks like inperson as opposed to on her Facebook, the Israelis tossed and turned on a twelve hour flight anxiously waiting to see what their American looks like in person as opposed to on his Facebook; excitement, fear, and unparalleled anticipation were the themes of the day. One by one the Americans filed into the JCC where eventually they were led on a blind trust walk onto the basketball court where they were then ambushed by the Israelis. Hugs and introductions were exchanged as the staff prompted everyone to sit down in two big circlesand a speed dating game was initiated. In this game each American was paired with an Israeli, and each Israeli with an American, and they were asked a question about their life which they were meant to discuss. As fun as this activity was, for many this was their first encounter with the language barrier. After the speed dating game, all of the American fellows found their families and, after a couple minutes of obligatory mingling, sat down at their assigned table with their Israeli. Formal introductions were made, food was eaten, and Israelis were forced to speak in English for an extended period of time. After the opening ceremony concluded, the families went back to their homes to officially welcome the Israelis. The twelve hour flight and the extended periods of English led to some unfortunate shower mishaps at some peoples’ homes and to, of course, some incredibly tired Israelis who fell asleep as soon as they were shown their bed. This day was the first day where the Boston Haifa connection was actually tangible and where the first traces of life changing experiences could be seen coming in the not-so-distant future.
Yuval Marcus:

    During my experience in the JCM, I hosted Shmuel, who was born in Ethiopia and immigrated to Israel when he was 7. I have hosted many Israelis before in my home, but this is the first time I hosted someone my age who was not born in Israel. It was interesting to learn from Shmuel about Ethiopian culture. He told us about the special bread that his mother makes, and he taught us some simple words in Amharic. I was very moved when he told me that he had to learn Hebrew from scratch when he arrived in Israel. I have studied Hebrew for many years, but still find it difficult to speak. My Israeli-born father helped translate for me. Shmuel definitely gave me hope that anyone can learn Hebrew at any age.
    I also enjoyed hearing about Shmuel’s experiences at his boarding school. He told me that all the kids sit at meals with kids who came from their own countries. They speak Hebrew in the classroom, but they can speak their native languages at meals. During Shmuel’s visit with me, he learned his brother got engaged. His brother sent a video of the engagement, and we got to see pictures of his family and his friends.
    Even though Shmuel is an Ethiopian Israeli Jew and I am an American Jew, we are united by love for Israel and a feeling that Israel is a home for all Jews. What I liked most about hosting Shmuel is that we got to share a home in Boston too.

Shachar Berkowitz Regosin:

After a day filled with getting to know the city of Boston, the Haifa fellows spent the next day exploring and learning about the different Jewish communities and organizations in Boston. They kicked off the Jewish Community Tour Day with a tour of the JCC with Mark Sokoll, and then went on to visit organizations such as Gateways, Maayim Hayim Mikveh, and CJP. Each organization focused on different aspects of Jewish life in Boston. In the later afternoon the Boston fellows met up with the Haifa fellows at Temple Emanuel. After a tour of the synagogue, everyone sat down for a rabbi’s panel with four amazing rabbis. Coming from diverse backgrounds, each rabbi represented a different Jewish denomination. After an introduction from Jonathan Sarna, each rabbi went on to describe his or her Jewish background. It was amazing for the Haifa teens to see four very different rabbis with many different theologies, points of view, and understandings of what it means to be Jewish, in one room agreeing to openly talk about their differences. We then went on to asking the rabbis questions and delved deeper into the intricacies of each denomination. My group covered topics ranging from women’s rights in Judaism, and how the denominations are changing, to the experience of being a rabbi in the south and educating the people there about Judaism. After the program, as the Israeli I was hosting and I were reflecting on the rabbis panel, one of the first things she said was that though she didn’t agree with all that the rabbis had to say, it was so interesting to her to hear the different viewpoints. The denominations in America are so different than the way Judaism is practiced in Israel. 

Aleeza Shoenberg:

Thursday was the day we left for our Haifa-Boston shabbaton. But the day was no less packed than usual. The day's theme was social justice. I met the Israelis at Home for Families, an organization that tries to solve the problem of homelessness in Boston. They told us about the troubles people face and how the state is required to provide people with shelter, but that those people's lives are still very difficult. We heard from one woman who was previously homeless and she explained that after living in a shelter, it was a great relief to, with some help, get her own apartment. She explained that just the feeling of homelessness is terrible and it's great seeing that there are entire organizations devoted to ridding people of that awful feeling. Still, the job is continuous and not at all easy.Writing post cards in which we asked people in the state house for the money needed, I realized that the issue of, as well as the solution to, homelessness is nowhere near simple. It takes many steps.

 At MassChallenge, we met up with the rest of the cohort. Dividing into three groups, we heard from representatives from three organizations that provide social justice to different parts of the community. By hearing about them and helping to put together packages, we were able to participate in providing to the causes that these organizations stood for. Not only was social justice a concept, but it was also put into action. At MassChallenge, startups compete to get money to support their cause. A passionate cause is key to creating a successful nonprofit. Social Justice day was integral to our growth as leaders because it opened the Bostonians and the Israelis up to real problems that face Boston on a daily basis and  to their continual forward-minded directions towards solutions. 

Isy Mekler: 

Tuesday, March 31^st, the 9^th and last day that the Haifa cohort was in Boston was definitely my favorite day with them.  The theme of the day was innovation.  This was the day that I along with many other Boston Diller fellows joined programming all day and we definitely chose the right day to go. 

            The day started with a Maagal Boker (morning circle) for the Israelis as every day did.  The first place we had the pleasure of visiting was District hall.  I missed this part, but from what I heard about it from other fellows and a quick internet search I can say that it is a non-profit space “where the innovation community can gather and exchange ideas” (according to their website), dedicated to the spreading of new ideas.  I heard that the space was really cool and most walls were dry-erase boards that were all covered in ideas and sketches left by other innovators.  Even the architecture of the building is striking and beautiful with a high slanted roof extending over an almost entirely glass entrance.  Then I got to join the group at our next location, the Cambridge Innovation Center (aka CIC), where we had lunch and then got a tour.  For me, every aspect of this place was incredible and every corner we rounded made me want to work there more and more.  The company is dedicated to helping startups make the necessary connections to be successful and they rent those startup companies cheap workspace. We met with Liana's friend, Stas Gayshan who is the director and he has inspiring words for us. After our tour of the CIC we spent some time at Harvard Square because the Israelis decided they hadn’t gotten enough shopping in yet.  This is when we got a tour of MIT from an Israeli student which was really special and eye opening because we learned about so many of the differences that there are between college in Israel and in America.  Once the tour came to an end we met the rest of the Americans to meet with MEET (Middle Eastern Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow) and heard about the program they run that teaches teens connected to the middle eastern conflict about programing and had dialogues about the conflict as well.  Then we learned a bit about MIT Hillel, which helps Jewish college students stay in touch with their Judaism.  At this point we took a bus back to the JCC and had our closing dinner ,which was followed by many hugs and tears as the Israelis boarded their bus and said goodbye, until we see them again in Israel.

Cohort 6 Self-Management Shabbaton

Cohort 6 Self-Management Shabbaton
February 6th-8th
Cohort 6 spent their second Shabbaton at Camp Ramah and the weekend was completeley run by the Fellows with some support from the staff. Rina Dale and Sam Epstein served as the "Leaders of the Shabbaton" which meant that they were in charge of planning the whole schedule, managing logistics, running their own programs, and supporting the other groups. We had sub committees of Rituals, Program, Maagal Lila, and Games and Bonding. We explored leadership multiple ways, and explored the question of whether leadership should be self-proclaimed or externally proclaimed. We also explored the concept of "followship" and used our Myers-Briggs tests and Leadership Compass results to help guide us!

Following are reflections by Fellows who served in different groups:

Sam Epstein (Co-Leader of the Shabbaton):

Last weekend I had the incredible opportunity to be one of our two Shabbaton leaders, along with my wonderful co-leader Rina Dale. With leadership being the main focus for our self management Shabbaton this was especially exciting. Our duties ranged from planning the daily schedule to checking in with other groups and making sure they had everything they needed to make the shabbat the most it could be. A safe, fun environment where we could learn about each other as leaders. Every moment after we stepped off the bus into the sharp winter air amazed me, seeing all of the planning we put in over the past two months come together into the exploration and learning opportunity it was. Our cohort is full of leaders, making every activity a learning opportunity about how people with different personalities can lead in different ways. This was the main focus of my program with Rina, where we explored our Myers Briggs personality test results using art therapy to discover more about our group dynamic and how we all can be leaders. In other programs where I was not in a leadership position and was being lead by other leaders, I discovered that in order to truly be able to lead, you first must learn how to follow. 

Channah Powell (Rituals Committee):

When Cohort 6 began the planning process of our second Shabbaton, I decided that I wanted to be part of the Ritual committee. I had written services before for my youth group, so I was really enthusiastic about exposing the cohort to the creative services that I often participate in through NFTY and my temple. As a group, the Ritual Committee decided that the theme of Mindfulness would link together the religious aspects of the Shabbaton. From there, the seven of us split into smaller groups in order to tackle each service. Rose and Aviva took on the task of writing a Kabbalat Shabbat service that would focus on multicultural mindfulness, Ben, Noah, and Daniel organized an Oneg about mindful eating, and Shachar and I wrote a Shabbat morning service about mindfulness and leadership. Although Shachar was completely enthusiastic about doing an alternative service, she had never been to one before. As I explained to her my experiences with creative ritual experiences, we bounced ideas off one another and developed a service that incorporated our individual ideas and skills. One particularly awesome thing we added to our service was a short discussion program in which we evaluated Moses as a leader. In leading this discussion, both Shachar and I had the opportunity to develop confidence and leadership skills. Being part of the Ritual Committee allowed me to explore my identity as a leader in a religious setting.        

Zoe Goldstein (Programs Committee)

Three months ago, when we began planning for the Shabbaton, it seemed crazy that I would actually be leading a program. I knew that as a member of the ‘programs’ group, I would be helping write and lead two programs, but after experiencing how amazing the first Shabbaton was, I was afraid I would not measure up. My group, to some degree, felt the same way. We thought of countless ideas but could never think of the perfect one. The plans for our programs—one about Jewish leadership, one about leadership in general—changed every time we met. This caused us to pour hours into the creation of our programs that in the end did not matter at all. However, going into the Shabbaton, my group felt that we had created the most interesting, exciting, and informative programs that we could, and this justified our drawn out creation process. Unfortunately, implementing the programs was a bit harder than we had anticipated, due to unavoidable changes in weather, timing, and people present. Additionally, my group found out (as we were running our programs) that we had put so much work into making the activities fun that we had neglected the discussion questions, which are arguably the most important part, as they explain the connection between the fun activity and the important lesson we are trying to teach the fellows. These two major problems taught us to be flexible and creative in both the creation and the implementation of our programs. Even without the problems, the programs gave us a new leadership experience—teaching a group of leaders how to lead with the assistance of other leaders. The number of times I used the word ‘lead’ in the previous sentence visually portrays how it felt to write and lead the programs. Everyone in my group had a different takeaway from this experience, but mine was that I learned that it is possible to be a follower and a leader at the same time. Before the Shabbaton, I had thought that it was only possible to either lead everything or lead nothing. Working with other leaders taught me that I cannot lead everything, but that I should never lead nothing.  

 Erica Morrissey (Maagal Lila Committee):

Shabbaton II, the time to prove ourselves as leaders. The second Shabbaton was planned and led 80% by the Fellows, and 20% by staff. This meant that the Fellows planned almost every aspect of the Shabbaton. We broke into groups and planned everything, from the schedule, to services, to bonding. My group took on the challenge of the Maagal Lilah on Friday night.

            The two of us spent a portion of each meeting to come up with a program that would allow Fellows to get to know each other on a personal level through guided questions. We wanted to build an interesting program that would allow everyone to speak without feeling pressured, and to reach outside of peoples’ comfort zones. Each planning meeting was a chance to bounce question ideas off of each other, and off other groups, talk to other Fellows to ask about any subjects they didn’t want to approach, etc. On days without meetings, there was always a text waiting with a new question to add, or idea of how to present them.

            Friday night, the night where my group’s hard work paid off couldn’t come soon enough. Leaving the previous program a few minutes early to set up, we were mentally ready. Pushing the sofas into a circle, shuffling papers into order, and deciding on last minute changes to the questions, we were physically ready. Excited Fellows burst into the room and leapt onto the cushions. It was time to begin.

            My group stood up and began our program with some common Step-Forward-Step-Back style questions. These soon transitioned into Boundary-Breakers, questions that are answered and interpreted individually, with no commentary from the others. These concluded with some synthesis questions in the same style, and closing remarks that reminded everyone that the room was a safe place, answers were not to be discussed outside, and that we hoped everyone was able to learn something about each other.

             Planning and leading such a pivotal program of the Shabbaton was such an experience. From this experience of an 80%-20% Shabbaton, I feel much more confident in my leading abilities. I realized during this Shabbaton, that sometimes the most important part of leadership is listening to those around you. Within a discussion, listening to someone without commenting can form a deeper connected as they feel more needed and wanted. It can help someone who is struggling to fit in, find his or her spot within a group. A leader doesn’t just give instructions, they listen, get feedback, and help everyone to feel comfortable.

Eitan Galper: (Games Committee):

Prior to this week’s Shabbaton, two other fellows and I worked very hard to plan two activities relating to games and bonding. From these two programs, we wanted everyone to have opportunities to step out of their comfort zone and have a chance to lead the rest of their group. We hoped that our fellow fellows would have fun and bond together through our activities. For our first program, we ran an “Iron Chef” simulation where each group of 3-4 people needed to create an appetizer and an entree entirely out of candy. The other program, titled “Alien Invasion” was a leadership game where every group has to build a capsule to protect an egg when it is dropped from a high height. In each group, one person is blindfolded, one person can’t speak, and one person can’t touch the materials. Everyone has to participate in their own way.

            It was a great experience for us to put all of our hard work into action. Everyone had a lot of fun! We definitely learned a lot while leading the activities and how we can improve for future programs. For example, we noticed that, in the egg drop activity, the person who was blindfolded ended up not participating as much as we thought they would. This taught all of us an important lesson. One of the most important parts of leadership is making everyone feel that they are included and that they have an important role in accomplishing the goal of the group. I can’t wait to apply what I learned to planning activities for future Shabbatons!