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
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