FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)After 11 months of seminars, teen organized community service projects, and submersion in various aspects of the Baltimore Jewish community, the Diller Baltimore Teen Fellows program culminated this summer as we and 18 other Fellows stood waiting for our bus to Newark Airport.
Anxiously awaited by all, our travels in the “Holy Land” promised to foster Jewish growth and a greater appreciation of Israel and its inhabitants through community service, bonding with other Jewish teen leaders, and immersion in Israeli culture.
The uniqueness of the Diller program, truly evident when the three main components of the trip are considered, is unsurpassable. Carefully planned to allow teens exposure to every aspect of Israel, community service, and leadership, the program consisted of three incredible weeks divided into nine days of touring, five days of seminars at the International Diller Youth Congress, and a week of home hospitality in Baltimore’s sister city, Ashkelon.
The first component of the trip—experiencing every aspect of Israel—was the idea of the first five days of the trip. We toured most of the country, visiting monuments like the Wailing Wall, where we could experience Israel and Judaism in a way many of us hadn’t. Religiously and emotionally, Jerusalem and the other holy sites we visited over the course of our touring established a connection with the land of Israel, and, for many of us, Judaism. Museums like Yad Vashem provided an equal immersion in the essence of Israel, as we learned to appreciate the sacrifices of so many for the sake of Israel’s very existence.
After having experienced tourist Israel in its entirety, the goal of our trip shifted focus to developing our leadership skills and addressing Jewish issues at the Diller Youth Congress.
Comprised of more than 200 teens like ourselves from North American Jewish communities and their sister cities from Israel, the Congress provided a forum for the exchange of countless opinions and positions on a variety of issues that engulf the Jewish world today. Broken into 10 different groups to intermix the different “cohorts,” so to speak, we tackled issues like pinpointing our Jewish identity and determining the importance of Israel in our lives.
Speakers such as former Baltimore community shaliach Avraham Infeld explained his theory of five pillars of Judaism, emphasizing Judaism as a cultural and communal phenomenon. The Congress, anticipated to be a tedious six days, ended up being the highlight of the trip for many.
Arguably the most crucial of our weeks spent in Israel, our final six days there, were spent to community service in our sister city, Ashkelon. Volunteering in local organizations such as Beit Canada, a community inhabited by new Ethiopian immigrants to Israel, the Moriyya School for special needs, and the Ashkelon teen center, where we painted tables and chairs to beautify Ashkelon, we were exposed to the unparalleled strength of the Baltimore-Ashkelon partnership, which we in Diller fondly call “Ashkemore”, a partnership that extends far beyond Diller.
As we participated in our week of service in Ashkelon, all 20 of us were privileged to stay in the homes of our individual Israeli matches, who stayed with us during their trip to Baltimore this past spring. A once in a lifetime opportunity to experience Israeli culture in its entirety, the “home hospitality week” forged a bond between the Baltimore Diller teens and the Ashkelon Diller teens that will undoubtedly last for years to come.
Having experienced all that Israel, and, namely Ashkelon, has to offer, the current turmoil in the Gaza area and all of the “Eretz” only seems more urgent and real to us. Before our visit to Ashkelon, the situation in Israel seemed almost unreal, impossible. But, after having visited the city, after having lived in the city, after having made lifelong friends who make their home in the city, the unrest in the Gaza area is all too real.
The Diller Ashkemore 2011 bond has withstood even the distance of thousands of miles, and continues to strengthen as us Baltimoreans have our Ashkelonian friends and their loved ones in our hearts and minds every day. And more than that, something special that we personally took away from the trip was a newfound pride in our “homeland”. After learning how much history Israel has, how meaningful it is to our religion, and experiencing the spirituality first handedly was truly surreal, and the reason why we wear a Jewish star around our necks.
Alex Kadish and Michael Ginsburg were particpants in the 2011 Baltimore Diller Teen Fellows program. A blog on their summer experiences is at http://baltimoredillerteenfellows.blogspot.com/ . For more information, visit http://jvcbaltimore.org/jvc-programs/teens/diller-csi/ .