Diller Teen Fellows Summer Seminar in Israel

July 31st, 2007

Dear Diller Teen Fellows’ Family and Friends,

This past week (Sunday July 22 – Saturday July 28) has been an exciting and busy week for the Diller Teen fellows!

After concluding our journey in the desert, we arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday. Each group opened the Jerusalem unit with a program at the beautiful Haas Promenade overlooking Jerusalem. That evening, the teens visited with friends and family or spent time on Emek Refaim, the popular Jerusalem street lined with cafes and shops.

Monday morning, the groups visited the Kotel (Western Wall). As the Kotel is arguably the most famous landmark in Jewish history, I imagine many of you may have already visited there. But it was a poignant first for a number of participants and, through their experience, the rest of the group could vicariously feel the emotional history of the place.

The Kotel visit served as a backdrop for a workshop and guided exploration of what constitutes a holy place, and who determines its being so. The search for ‘sacred space’ unfolded throughout the day as the groups explored the Jewish Quarter of the Old City (with ample time allotted for shopping and eating out) and the Second Temple Excavations.

That evening, the Diller Teen Fellows prepared for a quiet and serious commemoration of Tisha b'Av, the day memorializing the destruction of the first and second Temples. All of the groups gathered together at the Haas Promenade to read aloud the Book of Eicha ("Lamentations") detailing the story of Tisha B'Av and the destruction of the Temple. Participants and staff members took turns reading from the book, as the entire community looked out over the Temple Mount and the old city of Jerusalem.

Tuesday, the groups visited Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum), and Har Herzl (Israel's National Cemetery), where they addressed questions of memory and renewal, and reflected upon the possible reasons behind placing these two sites adjacent to each other. These questions of memory and renewal were particularly relevant on Tisha B’Av, and the teens explored the connections between the day and the sites they were visiting. That evening, the teens participated in various creative options further exploring the themes of Tisha B’Av, including creative writing, a movie, and a discussion of Jewish identity.

The next day, your children participated in an engaging and thought-provoking seminar on politics called "Mapping Out the Arab-Israeli Conflict." The entire Diller community heard speakers expressing diverse perspectives on the political situation, and the participants were all given the opportunity to process their responses to the speakers.

First, they heard an overview to the conflict from Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum received his B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from UCLA and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Tel Aviv University. He is the author of two acclaimed books: Holier Than Thou: Saudi Arabia's Islamic Opposition (Washington Institute for Near East Policy), and The Rise and Fall of the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia (New York University Press), a study of the early modern history of Saudi Arabia. He has published numerous scholarly articles on the modern Middle East and his work has also appeared in The New Republic and The Jerusalem Report. Dr. Teitelbaum is a Senior Research Fellow at Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, where he studies the politics and history of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries, as well as Palestinian issues. He was CDDRL Schusterman Visiting Associate Professor at Stanford for the Spring quarter of 2007.

Next, Ofer Dekel spoke to the group about the security situation, focusing on terrorism and counter-terrorism. Ofer Dekel is the former deputy head of the Shin Bet security service. He retired in 2005 after 30 years of service in the Shin Bet, and was appointed by Olmert in September 2006 as the prime minister's representative for conducting the negotiations for the release of the three kidnapped Israeli soldiers: Eldad Regev, Ehud Goldwasser and Gilad Shalit.

That afternoon, the groups split up and took various walking tours around Jerusalem. In each of these walking tours, groups explored the history and political development of the conflict through unraveling the story of Jerusalem, its peoples, borders, battles and struggles.

When they returned to the hostel, Rami Elchanan spoke to the teens. In 1997, Rami’s daughter, Smadar, was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber while she was walking down the street with her friends. In spite of the unbearable tragedy, Rami and his family made a decision to continue with their lives and to work towards peace. They are active members in The Parents Circle - Families Forum for Peace, where they meet with other Palestinian and Israeli families who lost family members to terror or war. Rami spoke about the Arab-Israeli conflict and his efforts to create dialogue with Palestinians.

At the end of the day, each group participated in a closing activity, giving them the opportunity to process the various speakers and think about where they stand on these difficult issues. Your children were thoughtful, sensitive, and articulate as they struggled with these issues.

The next day, the Diller Teen Fellows traveled to Tel Aviv, where they reached the moment that they'd been waiting for: a reunion with their Israeli peers! The groups participated in warm-up activities in order to learn (or relearn) and acquaint themselves with the new Israeli members of their journey.

Then the American and Israeli Diller Teen Fellows set off together to explore Tel Aviv, focusing on modern Jewish identity in Israel's first "Hebrew City." The teens took walking tours of Yaffo and Tel Aviv, looking at both the history of the city and the issues of social justice facing the city today. Fellows then enjoyed free time to walk around, shop and eat lunch on Tel Aviv's "Shenkin Street," considered by many to be a young, dynamic and authentic cross-section of modern Tel Aviv city life.

Thursday and Friday morning, each of the four American communities and their Israeli counterparts participated in different programming. Then the Diller Teen Fellows returned to Jerusalem for an exciting Shabbat weekend with all of the Israeli and American teens together. The groups arrived at their Jerusalem base (Beit Shmuel) to prepare for Shabbat. The teens planned various aspects of Shabbat, from Friday night dinner to Havdalah.

Friday evening and Saturday morning they had the opportunity to attend prayer services at the wide variety of synagogues Jerusalem has to offer. Their choices included the Kotel (Western Wall); the Open House, Jerusalem’s gay and lesbian community; Maayanot, an energetic Chabad synagogue, or Yakar, a popular spiritual modern Orthodox minyan. Some teens chose to participate in a lively singing session with Israeli, Jewish, and American music back at the base. Then everyone joined together for a joyous and spirited Friday night dinner.

Shabbat morning, each group participated in a creative text study using the biblical text of the two and a half tribes who decided to stay on the other side of the Jordan rather than enter the land of Israel. The text was used as a jumping off point to discuss the relationship between Diaspora and Israeli Jewry and their obligations to one another. The American teens had the opportunity to share with the Israelis and to be challenged by them as they struggle to define their own relationships to Israel and the Jewish people.

That afternoon, the Fellows were divided into small groups, given maps, and asked to explore various Jerusalem neighborhoods and landmarks, together with staff. Small groups toured a number of neighborhoods, including the ultra-orthodox Meah Shearim, “hippy” Nachlaot, and Yemin Moshe, the first modern Jewish neighborhood built outside the old city walls. In each neighborhood, they spoke to people to get a sense of what it is like to live there. This exploration gave the students a taste of the diversity of Jerusalem and its people.

After Shabbat there was a change of pace as the groups attended a private concert of local Jerusalem band, "Cham, Cham, U-Me'chamem Boom!" ("Hot, hot, heat it up, boom!"). Fellows got a taste of modern Israeli music infused with a local, Jerusalem flavor, and many of them enjoyed dancing and singing along with the performers in an intimate setting.

The groups are all doing well and are very excited as they begin the week in which each community will be visiting and engaging with their Israeli host communities. I look forward to being in touch soon with more updates.

B’Shalom,
Rachael Gelfman

Senior Educator
Diller Summer Seminar in Israel