Diller Chicago Cohort 2 ISS, July 22

               When both the Chicago and Israeli fellows arrived, most of us were all exhausted from the previous night because of all the excitement of finally seeing each other again so most of us were up late and had to get up early in the morning for a full day of activities. To start the day, we Lachish to hike up Tel Lachish, a short mountain, the location of the second largest stronghold, only behind Jerusalem, where Guy acted as a tour guide for informing us about the history and pointing out significant rooms that were dug up by archaeologists. After that, we all went back down where Brian, Igal, Noah, Oriyah, and Shahar led the rest of the cohort in simulated IDF training activities, such as army crawling, eye tests, running, push-ups, and mental tests. At the end of this, everyone received fake dog tags representing that everyone passed.

               Following this, we all returned to Kiryat Gat for lunch. Once we finished lunch, Aaron Gertz, a Jewish history teacher who served in the IDF as a combat engineer. He told us his story about how he ended up making Aliyah to Israel, since he graduated college in the United States before making Aliyah to Israel, where he was a lone soldier, meaning he had family there so he received special benefits. He explained that he felt that since he thinks there is need for a Jewish country to exist and he felt it was his obligation to serve the country of Israel.

               After a short break, we had two more officers from the IDF, one of whom had just finished her 2 years of required service that day, come to speak to us, as well as put us through a few more minor physical exercises. They introduced themselves and explained what they did, one of them was involved in secret operations so he couldn’t tell us much because these were secret operations that he was involved in which were not allowed to be spoken about. The second one was involved in the education unit of the IDF, the only military that has an education unit. After this, they also did a simulation of some of the training that is done in the IDF, and had us run, do sit-ups, push-ups, as well as teaching us the proper way to stand, in the Hebrew letter het, with our feet forming a “v” and our hands behind our backs in the shape of a diamond.

               After they left, we had a Maagal Layla, which was led by Shahar, where we discussed dilemmas within the IDF, such as how many people don’t serve in the IDF, the conflicts within certain brigades and how we would feel in different situations, primarily what we would do if we had  to serve in the army according to a law.

               Following the conclusion of this discussion, everybody had family night. This was very exciting because of how fun the families were and all the things there were to do. Some of us went to different cities nearby to do some shopping, while others went out for dinner. Another group of us hung out together and just hung out at houses together. Overall, everyone enjoyed family night because of being able to spend quality time with our Israeli host and their families. What an exciting first full day with the Israelis and all of us can’t wait for what else is to come during Community Week.

----Adam Gurin