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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