This
Sunday was the first program for Chicago’s Cohort 2. We started in a room with
our parents, meeting the other Fellows in our program and writing different
words and phrases on the pillars of Diller: Israel, Judaism/ Jewish Identity,
Tikkun Olam, and Leadership. After we met most of the other Fellows, we sat
with other families and read a midrash and had a discussion on names and the
types we have. After a presentation about Diller and what it would be about, we
said shehecheyanu to toast to a great year.
We then
broke up and all of the Fellows went into a separate room for icebreakers. We
all sat in a circle and went around and said our names and s hared something from
our phone or wallet that represented us. After that we played a game where we
had to answer a question from the person on our left and asked a question to
the person on our right, and say our name. We played a game where we had to
throw a ball around the circle saying the name of the person we were throwing
it to. If we messed up we had to start again, in the exact same pattern as
before. After a few tries, we got it with three balls! Next, we made bricks for
our Western Wall, a symbol of the strength of each individual and the strength
of our group. We wrote our names on it and then things we wanted to get out of
Diller, and words to describe ourselves and what we bring to the group. We then
taped them to the paper and then wrote our group values as the “cement” between
the stones. We ended the day by playing a fun game of Wax Museum with tons of
laughs. By: Melinda Berman
