North American Kennes

Written by: Elise Shanholtz

This morning was a sad one for the Baltimore kids. As many of you know, today we left Ashkelon to embark on our short journey to Givat Haviva for the North American Kennes. I know for many of the Baltimore kids, the morning was filled with sad goodbyes to many of the parents as we packed our bags and checked our rooms one last time for our belongings. We then headed over to the volunteer center for one last Community Week program led by Megan, which discussed the difficulties of translating ancient Jewish text to English, and how many important concepts can be lost in translation. After, we loaded the bus and said our goodbyes to our Israelis, though we would only be without them for a couple days. 

Halfway to Givat Haviva we picked up the Los Angeles cohort which kicked off the amazing experience of meeting other Diller teens. When we arrived at the campus, we had a short tour of the beautiful grounds and received our room assignments. Later in the afternoon, we had our Kennes opening ceremonies, in which each cohort had the opportunity to make a 90 second presentation. I may be biased, but our cohort's presentation was stellar. 

The Baltimore teens were then split up into 13 different groups, or tribes, consisting of teens from several other cohorts. These tribes are the groups of people that we will be spending most of our time with in seminars and discussions over the next 7 days. 

At night, the teens have the option to either go to rooms and relax, or go to the "White Tent", which holds activities, food, and of course, other teens! White Tent gives us the chance to talk to the other Diller Fellows in a more relaxed and casual environment. Overall, today's experience was overwhelming, yet extremely fun and spirited.