Cohort 2: Workshop 5: Diller Phase Two--The Partnership and Self-Management

Last Sunday, January 11^th, Cohort 2 met back up again for our fifth workshop. Our meeting started on a low note when we found out Jessica was sick and would not be able to attend. However, our spirits quickly rose when Amanda and Robby, our great JCs, expertly took the reins.

We kicked off the meeting by discussing all of our fun experiences over winter break. Many of us traveled around the United States to warmer locals like Arizona, California, or Florida and other Fellows even traveled abroad. Others, myself included, stayed in the Chicagoland area, where we got the chance to relax with friends and family, study for midterms, or check out some of the latest blockbusters.

After our icebreaker and warm up event, we received anonymous partners who we passed notes with to simulate the pen pal experience. I got the chance to learn some interesting facts about my partner, like her favorite foods and colors! However, I think because of how well we have gotten to know each other over the last few months most of us were able to guess partners easily and they did not remain anonymous for long.

To further introduce the pen pal program our cohort is creating in conjunction with our Israeli counterparts, Robby and Amanda shared with us some of their experiences with their pen pals. They each showed off some fun snippets of their first conversations with their partners and pictures of them together in Israel. It was interesting to see them develop from awkward small talk to true friends. I'm definitely excited to receive my pen pal!

Finally we got to our main event, planning our second Shabbaton. Before we were able to get to work though, we learned about self-management and the Diller approach to it through an informative Prezi entitled “The Journey of Milk and Cookies.” We discovered that the four sets of questions that are key to self management are Mission, Vision, Goals, and Objectives. We learned that Mission is the big “why,” the overall purpose of a project. Vision's question is “where to?” It is the ultimate dream, the ideal realization of the Mission that the creators of the project strive for. Goals, we learned, are the “how” questions and through them, one determines the broad steps necessary to achieve the Vision. Objectives practically and concretely answer the questions “who, what, where, and when?” We learned that Objectives must be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, rewarding, and timed. Through Objectives a project's Goals can be broken down from broad steps to smaller, more manageable tasks. Throughout the presentation, we explored real life examples of Missions, Visions, Goals, and Objectives in various companies and organizations like the JUF or LA Fitness. As a reward for completing our “Journey of Milk and Cookies,” we got the chance to take a short snack break with some Oreo cookies!

In the next step of planning process, our cohort collaborated to create a Mission, Visions, Goals, and Objectives for the upcoming Shabbaton. We decided that we wanted to be sure the Shabbaton encouraged an open, accepting environment with a Shabbat atmosphere where we could all learn from each other. Our logistics managers, Fellows Josh and Colman, helped organize us into four different committees to plan four different aspects of the weekend. I joined the games and bonding committee while others joined the leadership or rituals committees. In our committees we once again applied the Mission, Vision, Goals, and Objectives outline to plan out our Shabbaton. I can't tell you what my group planned, but you can be sure it's going to a ton of fun, especially because of the valuable self-management skills gained in this workshop!

By: Matan Cutler

Cohort 2: Workshop 4: Our Values, Our Community

The fourth session of Chicago Diller Cohort 2 was held at Temple Beth Israel. We began by discussing time management strategies and how we can improve how well we manage time in our daily lives. We identified what we do to manage our time already and discussed how to prioritize each task we have to complete.

Next, we took a short break to eat a little snack and socialized with each other while waited for three
very special visitors to join us. Hannah is the Associate Director of Organizing at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. She briefly explained to us what they did to support people experiencing homelessness. She then introduced two formerly homeless women, one was an adult, Leeanna, and the other was a high school student, Keleyah. They both told us their stories and what it was like being homeless. Leeanna spoke to us first. She spoke about her childhood, how she was in good shape when it all got turned upside down. She said the next handful of years were spent on the streets, where she got involved in harmful and dangerous activities. She spent a really long time in a penitentiary. She eventually realized what she was doing because she found out that to get a job, most employers do background checks, so she went to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to get back on her feet and help her find a job. Keleyah spoke next. At first, she seemed like a normal high school student, just like the rest of us, but when she told us about the struggles she endured earlier in her
life, we realized how much she has gone through just to go to school. She also got help from the
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless with her family. These stories were very inspiring.

That led into our next activities. After the three of them left, Brian and Colman volunteered to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but with a twist. Colman was blindfolded while Brian had to tell him what to do, and Colman couldn't do anything else. After 10 or 15 minutes of the rest of us laughing at their expense, the sandwich was finished. The point of this exercise was to show how complicated communication can be and the importance of using clear instructions when asking someone to do something.

To finish off the session, we packed paper bag lunches for Inspiration Corporation, an organization in Chicago that offers programs for the homeless, to hand out to their clients. We split into groups, one group making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (this time we could all see what we were doing) and others preparing bags of food and finally putting them all together to be distributed.

By: Adam Gurin

Cohort 1: Day 12 in Israel: Shabbat and Closing Ceremony

We all spent our last Shabbat in Israel with our host families, catching up on sleep, hanging out, and shopping. Each person brought back silly stories and interesting pictures to our final gathering as an Israeli-American Kashlash group. We met at Nur’s house for the Closing Ceremony with all of the parents, kids, and coordinators. After mingling and eating delicious desserts, we finally sat down to begin the ceremony. We started by watching a slideshow about our fantastic week together. There were both funny and serious pictures that perfectly summarized our week. Next, Tal and Michal Nativ talked about their experiences and feelings after the week followed by Leah and Daniel, who shared the American perspective. Jessica and Rinat concluded the ceremony with lots of thank yous and laughter. That was it for the official closing ceremony! 

The time came to say goodbye to all of our host families--without them our trip would not have been nearly the same. Once they left we started to play Just Dance. We learned that our dancing skills are not up to par. Then we organized ourselves for an activity led by Nur and Ittai, where we shared new things we tried and a lot of funny stories. Jessica and Rinat then led a program where we said what we were grateful for throughout this entire experience. It was a good chance to reflect back and really see how this program has affected us all. 

After that we all just hung out, played jungle speed, and slept for a couple (maybe 3) hours. This morning none of us were ready to get up and say goodbye to our Kashlash family. We packed our 10 o’clock sandwiches and ended the usual way in a circle. We did our Kashlash cheers and tried to hold back all of the tears (unsuccessfully). We were given a few minutes to give our final hugs and say our final goodbyes…for now. We all know that it is only a “see you later,” though it is hard for us to imagine that our entire Diller experience is coming to an end. With tears in our eyes, the Chicago group boarded their bus for the airport while the Israeli group boarded their bus to Kiryat Gat to start their school week again. 

We slept on the way to Tel Aviv though the trip was less than an hour. Once we arrived at the airport, we checked in our bags and passed security without any problems. With time to spare, we stopped at the essential Israeli coffee shop “Aroma” for some iced coffee (that is much better than Starbucks….in our opinion). For the remainder of our free time, we bought some souvenirs for our families and friends. In our last half hour at the airport, we cherished the amazing memories we had together as a group and continue to laugh about the past two weeks and the 15-month journey we have finished. Now it’s off to Chicago to start school, sports, and daily life again! 

By: Shira Brandhandler and Leah Umanskiy

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Cohort 1: Day 11 in Israel: War and Peace

Bright and early, we began the day by driving to Gan Habanim, a beautiful park in the middle of Kiryat Gat. There two former IDF soldiers who now specialize in preparing youth for the Israeli army. The day was Army Day,and the Americans and Israelis were in for a physically challenging “training” day. For a warmup, we began with some sprints and pushups, then proceeded to fill up sacks with dirt. This wasn’t a workout – the sacks were loaded onto stretchers and for the next 45 minutes or so we practiced working as a unit to transport the 90 pound “injured soldiers” around the park. This activity seemed like a simple test of physical and mental strength, much like the basic training we hear about in American boot camps. However, we soon learned that there was another layer of meaning to the exercises. Often, the four people who shared the weight of the stretcher would need to stop or speed up very quickly, and the incline of the land would often change unexpectedly. These challenges, combined with the weight of the stretcher, made the activity extremely arduous for the people carrying the stretcher. So when we would stop our march, at first no one would help to support the stretcher. Our instructor eventually pointed this fact out to us and reminded us that as a unit, it is our responsibility to take care of each other. From then on, there was a surplus of people who helped to support the stretcher, to help the carriers up hills, and to take over when someone got too tired. As a result, the first part of Army Day was a great uniting activity for the group.

We continued our day to Moshav Netiv Assarah, which is situated on the border of the Gaza Strip. There, we visited the home of a woman who founded the Path to Peace project. Because of the constant rocket fire experienced near her home, she has dedicated her talents as a ceramics artist to creating a mural on the border wall between Israel and Gaza. We each wrote a wish on a beautifully painted and glazed piece of ceramic and stuck them up on the wall. This is her message – the hope for peace between Israel and the people of the Gaza Strip. 

Afterward, we met back at her house for a truly delicious lunch. As a group, we discussed our experiences as Americans and Israelis alike during the war this summer. We also discussed the similarities and differences between the American and Israeli armies. Just like the army training, Army Day was superficially about the military. On a deeper level, everyone in the group experienced the narrative of war and peace, and how each affects the everyday citizens of Israel.
 

By: Amanda Jackson

Cohort 1: Day 10 in Israel: North American Kennes and Reunion!

Happy New Year! It is finally 2015! As Robby would say, “this is the year we (the seniors in our group) graduate.” As a Chicago community we all stayed up together until midnight at Kibbutz Sde Boker to celebrate the new year on a mountain top. When 12:05 hit, all of us were already asleep since we had to wake up at 4:30 AM to climb Masada. So we got our four hours of sleep and the Chicago group went with the whole Kennes of American Diller teens to Masada. We took the Roman ramp up the mountain and met our tour guide, Eitan. Most of our group has been to Masada before, but Eitan's tour was different. He proposed the question, “Why Masada.” If you don’t know the story of what happened at Masada, it is quite tragic. Herod the Great, who was the ruler of the land, a crazy one. He wanted to be feared, so he killed his wife and most of his kids so that his throne would not be overtaken. He also built six hideouts in the desert of Israel in case riots broke out so that he would have a place to hide that no one would find. Flash forward a little less than a century and the Roman empire is in rule now and all the Jewish people need a place to be safe, so they remembered Herod’s hideouts and went there to save their people. The Greeks found them and surrounded them and were going to take them captive for slaves or prostitution. Instead the Jews hiding out there wanted to die with dignity since the Romans weren’t just going to kill them, so they all tragically killed each other and committed suicide. The interesting thing is this story has happened in five to six other places in Israel, so Eitan kept asking “Why Masada?". At the end of the tour he told us his theory, but he wants people to research and create their own theory, so I won’t let you know what he thought. 

After a great tour we were able to take the cable car down Masada and saw the beautiful views as the trolley car drove us down. We went directly there to a Kibbutz to eat lunch and debrief the Kennes, but everyone was just excited to go to the Dead Sea. We finally made it to the Dead Sea and an amazing thing happened--we all floated! Shocking, I know. It was so nice to just sit down in a sea and naturally float and have relaxing conversation. Even though the salt was refreshing on the skin we wanted a bigger spa experience, so we ran out of the Dead Sea and ran to the Dead Sea mud buckets to drench ourselves into the skin softening mud. It felt pretty gross at first, but after leaving it on and washing it, I understand why people pay hundreds of dollars for the mud. The mud really works wonders--my skin is still soft and glowing. 

After showering it was time to say goodbye to the Americans and finally meet back with our Israeli counterparts in Tel Aviv. We met at a restaurant where they hire deaf employees and ask the customers to try to learn the sign language they teach you to order and communicate with the waiters. It was a very interesting experience and it was fun as the waiters were very funny. After, we went into the theater at the restaurant which is a theater of blind and deaf people who learned a play that took them five years to learn. It was a stunning show as they explained all their dreams in life and it was spoken in Hebrew with Hebrew, Arabic, and English subtitles and a Sign interpreter. This play was very moving and even though it was a long day everyone was invested in watching the play. After the play it was past 10:00 PM so all the Americans had a really long New Year's Day and were tired, but it really was a New Year's Day to remember. The saying for Passover should go for new years too, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”

By: Colin Silverman