Cohort 1 Tikkun Olam Overnight

 

 

Our overnight in Chicago was just a week after of the one year anniversary of Cohort One’s first Shabbaton in the same youth hostel in Chicago. When we arrived in the city, we went on a surprise trip to Jessica’s house, where we made our own mini-pizzas and celebrated Lizzy’s birthday. Once the celebrations were over, we delved into the topic of the ten commandments and bringing them into the modern light. First we read over the original ten commandments before we decided on the five commandments we felt were most important to us as a group. This resulted in an interesting debate over which commandments we felt were most in important and in the end we decided on the second (worship no other gods), fourth (remember Shabbat), fifth (honor your parents), and ninth (do not bear false witness), but we struggled between the sixth (do not murder) and tenth (do not covet).

To end our night we went back to the hostel and congregated in one of the rooms. Sitting in the dark, we all went around the room, lighting small candles, each of us recalling one of our favorite memories (so far) from our Diller experience. It was a great way to end the night and truly felt like we were bringing our journey full circle.

The following morning, after waking up and eating, we started on the activities we had planned before the overnight. We had previously split into groups, with each group planning an activity about the issue we had decided to discuss - hunger. The education group went first, teaching us about food insecurity in the United States and in Chicago. Then the advocacy group went, giving us all a worksheet about different organizations that work to fight hunger both locally and internationally and we had to do research about their work.

After delicious lunch of kosher sushi and a break, we finished off the day by working on our Diller Alumni Impact Projects with our mentors. We were working on grants and learning how to propose an idea for a grant to be presented in order to get money for our projects. We all split off into our groups and prepared for the project that we would carry on after our Diller experience was over. Despite the cold weather, the overnight was a great culmination of all of our work so far and a precursor of all the experiences to come.

By: Leta Berkowitz

Cohort 2 Workshop 3

 

The third session of Chicago Diller Cohort 2 was held at the Amram’s house. We started by discussing a Chasidic teaching about identifying when we need a boost and when we need a reminder of our humility. We answered three major questions about the teaching to apply the ideas to ourselves.

 

 

Next we looked at the “Leadership Compass” which was divided into: North- The “Get It Done” Person; South- The Nurturer; East- The Visionary; West- The Analyst. Each Diller Fellow had to put him or herself into one of the categories. Then, each direction got into their groups. In our groups,we got posters and markers. Each group had to write down the major characteristics about that group and how other people would be able to work with us. We were also assigned to design the perfect vacation. After each group finished designing their vacation and writing their characteristics in marker on the poster board, we regrouped back into the sunroom where we shared. Although some of these vacations were not too realistic we learned a lot. This task let us learn about how to work with others that may not have the same personality as us. Some people are more aggressive when working with others and some can be quiet and not say a word, so its important for us to be able to learn with others. We were able to learn how to be better leaders through this activity.

 

Then we took a nice break and had carrots, hummus and other snacks. After we ate, we came together again and had a guest educator join us--Logan Zinman from NFTY. She had us draw a graph and put events that happened in our Jewish lives that affected us negatively or positively. With this activity we were able to reflect on our Jewish pasts and think about how we got to where we are in our lives now. We shared our very diverse and personal Jewish stories. The next activity we discussed was the Shabbat and what Shabbat means to us. After sharing our thoughts on how Shabbat is special to us we made the Shabbat Manifesto for our first Shabbaton. In this manifesto we wrote down key rules and agreements our cohort came up with. For example, we are all dressing up on Shabbat to help us create a Shabbat atmosphere. After we put down about eight rules, we decided on four committees to make our own mark on the weekend: Morning activity, Learning, Music/Singing, and Bonding. Everyone chose which group they wanted to be in and each group will plan an hour of activity or lesson to present at the Shabbaton. We broke into our separate groups to plan our activity until it was time to leave. See you at the Shabbaton!

By: Ben Amram