Diller Teen Fellows Summer Seminar - Cleveland

July 30th, 2007

Wednesday July 25, 2007

On Wednesday we explored each other’s opinions with a day focusing on politics. First, Joshua Titlebaum spoke about the general situation in the Middle East. Then, Ofer Dekel, negotiator for the captured soldiers, spoke to us about the world on terror. We then took a tour of the security wall that surrounds Judea and explored the battlegrounds of the six-day war. We returned to the Yitzhak Rabin Hostel where another speaker spoke to us about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After concluding the day of learning, we went to Ben Yehuda Street to have fun and eat Falafel. The next day we drove to Tel Aviv and took a tour of the old city of Jaffa. We spent time on Shenkin Street and saw the differences between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. We met our Israeli peers and went to the beach to swim in the beautiful Mediterranean. We returned to the hostel in Tel Aviv to relax.

- Steven and Eyal
 

Friday July 27, 2007

After an awesome morning of the beach with our Beit She’an counterparts, sadly, we had to leave. Believe me when I say some of us found sand in places we never knew we had (partially due to the fact that when you get into a fight with wet sand, it’s hard to get rid of). So after a falafel lunch in which the San Francisco Diller’s joined, we returned to Jerusalem on our respective buses to the Beit Shmuel Hostel. We met for about an hour to explain all the Shabbat committees and to sign up for them. There were many options for Friday night services. I went to an open house service being held by a gay-lesbian group whose singing service was led by one of the director’s friends. I found it rather enjoyable and I’m sure the other 30 kids that were there had no cause to complain either.

We all returned to a good dinner and time to hang out.

- Ma’ayan
 

Saturday, July 28
 

Some kids got up to walk to services at one of the neighborhood synagogues. The more sane or lazy of us got up in time for sha’ar at 10:30. Following a fun game of charades we joined the other groups in the big room for Kiddush. After Kiddush we had an opinion activity led by Charles Herman in which some people definitely had their blood boiling. After the controversial 2 hours we had free time until 4:00. At 4:00 there were walking tours of Jerusalem in which you could pick a place out of a few options to go to. Hot and sweaty kids returned for seudah shlishit and a little later, we had a very nice havdallah. We were then given time to go shower and primp for a concert by “Cham Cham Me’chamem Boom!” Of course since we were all so hyped up from the music, we were slightly difficult to get to bed.

- Ma’ayan
 

Sunday, July 29

With a wake-up of 7:30, we went to breakfast and proceeded to load our various bags on the bus. But of course we just absolutely could not leave until we said all our sappy goodbyes to the other cities, who we won’t see again until this coming Sunday. When we finally got going we went for a small hike then back to the bus and started towards Beit Sh’ean. We stopped for lunch at picnic tables near an old monastery. We got to Beit She’an at about 3:00 (an hour early) and did an activity about the components that make up our personal identity and then group identity. Thankfully we were inside because Beit She’an is hot!!! We all joined our own host families for dinner and later almost everyone came and hung out together for the rest of the night.

- Ma’ayan