Congress 2019!

Reflections from Congress 2019 
By: Sam, Molly, Ethan and Jeremy

July 14, 2019
By: Sam Sidle 

“Today” we traveled from Ashkelon to congress with our Israeli matches. It was a very fun bus ride (except for the pee related close calls) and we became much closer as a group. Arriving at congress was overwhelming for many but it was still a great time because of the opportunity to see our friends from the international Shabbaton and meet new people. 

July 15, 2019
By: Molly Silverman

Today was our first full day of Congress! When we arrived at the Tel Hai Campus, we were given a tour of the college. Then, with all of the different cohorts, we attended a morning ceremony where different Diller directors spoke about being one big family! After the morning ceremony, we broke into our learning groups. These groups consist of 25 kids from different cohorts. This was very difficult on our Baltimore cohort because we didn’t want to be separated, but after a few hugs and high fives, we dispersed into the diverse group of Diller fellows. We got to know our learning group through a lesson discussing our family tree and recognizing the similarity and differences between us! We also had a lesson furthering our understanding of peoplehood, one of Diller's core values! Here we shared our Jewish identity and related our Jewish experiences with each other! At lunch, we were able to reconnect with our Baltimore siblings and also meet other people from all over the world. Our last lesson of the day was about pluralism. We discussed how we would approach different scenarios in the world as a teen and a Jew! Before we left Tel Hai, we met with our group for the Leadership Challenge to create a team name and chant for the following day! After this, we headed to our accommodation sites where we had activities with the cohorts that we are living with for the week! At the end of the day, we had Maagal Laila (a night circle) expressing our feelings about comfortable and uncomfortable situations, creating a closer bond between each other! Before bed, we had a mix and meet with the other cohorts living with us where we created new friendships!

July 16, 2019
By: Ethan Silverstein

Today is Tuesday, July 16. We woke up and made our way to the Tel Hai Campus where we had our morning ceremony led by the JC’s. We then went off into our learning groups to learn more about Israel with fellows all over the world. We ate lunch and then began one of the best activities at congress which was the Diller Leadership Challenge. We were split into 60 teams and had to work together to complete each challenge like the Amazing Race. Some challenges were getting out of an escape room, learning how to play rugby, answering riddles, and much more that taught us a lot about teamwork and leadership. It was a tiring day but definitely one to remember!

July 17, 2019:
By: Jeremy Stein

July 17 was our final full day of Congress :(. We started the day off with a morning ceremony to get everyone excited for the action-packed day. We then went to separate speakers with very interesting stories. The speaker I went to spoke about his business that is striving to create a more positive image of Israel by removing false anti-Semitic and anti-Israel posts on social media. We then learned about the different opportunities available to us once we become Diller alumni. After the closing ceremony, we participated in the global Diller fair where each partnership had a different table with activities that pertained to their cities. The Ashkelon-Baltimore table featured Old Bay chips which were a big hit throughout the night. Then, we sadly had to say goodbye to all of our best friends around the world. We will for sure never forget the bonds we made with our fellow Fellows.