Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Diller 5 Does Chanukah!

Last Wednesday, Diller 5 had yet another excuse to leave the house, (aka the mounds of homework sitting on my desk that I probably should’ve attended to earlier...) and hang out with each other. How much better could a Wednesday night get?

But then again, us Dillers always have something up our sleeves, don’t we?

The evening began with Yossi Katz, a teacher from the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, and in addition, truly a brilliant speaker. Yossi spoke about heroines; specifically, Jewish heroines. He discussed the idea that there weren’t enough women recognized for the work they’d done for Judaism and with that, he began his story. Yossi spoke about Hannah Senesh, a girl who grew up during the Holocaust. Hannah transformed from a care-free fourteen year old girl living in Budapest, Hungary, to a nineteen year old Zionist who felt it was her duty to make Aliyah (move to Israel). Coming from a city, you’d expect Hannah to maybe move to Tel Aviv, yet instead she learns to be a farmer and decides to work in a Kibbutz. While in Israel she writes countless poems and prayers in her diary about what she was going through. In turn, those poems prayers are known and taught throughout Israel and North America.
Here is one of her most famous poems, entitled Eli, Eli:

Oh Lord, My G-d,
I pray that these things never end,
The sand and the sea,
The rush of the waters,
The crash of the heavens,
The prayer of the heart.

Hannah was a true Jewish heroine and exemplifies the leadership that Diller is all about. While on the Kibbutz, Hannah wanted to defend Israel and become a paratrooper. And despite the fact that she was met with uneasiness from those around her, Hannah persisted, and through this persistence, Hannah would land a spot among thirty two other paratroopers. (One hundred applied, and only thirty two were selected. Of the thirty two, only three women, including Hannah, were chosen.)

Hannah and her team parachuted into Europe and would save over a thousand pilots. One night, Hannah wrote one last poem that she would give to a fellow paratrooper. He read the poem called Blessed is the Match. He begged Hannah to be more hopeful and with that, he tossed the note into the bushes. But something, who knows what, made him go back to the bushes later that night. He found the poem, flattened it out, and put it in his pocket. That paratrooper would go on to survive the war, bring the poem back to Israel, and allow the poem to become a prayer instilled into Israeli school children’s minds to this day.
The following is the poem Hannah wrote that night:

Blessed is the Match
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.

In Judaism, most consider the flame to be blessed, the candles to be blessed, or things like the challah to be blessed, but Hannah, considered the match to be blessed. In giving off the light we use in so many ways, it gave its own life, by be being consumed in the flame. She compared this to her own life, and came to the conclusion that to save others, she must be consumed in the flame, just as the match, by giving up her own life.

If you’d like to learn more about Hannah’s life, the documentary film Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, can be found and watched for free at: http://www.hulu.com/watch/191667/blessed-is-the-match-the-life-and-death-of-hannah-senesh
As for the rest of the evening, it was filled with fun and games, along with pressing questions such as how we deal with stress, how we celebrate the holiday, and by far the most pressing question, how do you spell [C](h)an[n]*ukk?a(h)?

We met with Diller alumni from Diller 2, 3, and 4, and it was truly an amazing evening. We even got a special video from Dillers from from Rishon Le'Zion from all 5 cohorts (see video below)! The main activity of the night was splitting the entire group into two circles; one circle on one side of the room, and the other on the opposite side. While one group passed around questions to be answered by group members, the other passed around a present, whilst singing their favorite holiday tunes, to be slowly unwrapped to reveal questions and chocolate gelt (coins).

At the end of the night, when only one more layer of wrapping paper was left on the present, the two groups came together, were asked once more to sing a holiday tune, and whomever the present landed on, was asked to finally open the present. Our own Diller 5 fellow Nitay was the lucky Diller to open the present, which revealed personalized Diller Dreidels for each of us!

It was an amazing night to which we will all look back on fondly. With that being said, a big thank you goes out to the Hanukkah Committee for putting together a wonderful night filled with joy, and the true spirit of Hanukkah.


Lastly, I’d like to thank all the Dillers who came. Without all of you, it wouldn’t have been as amazing, as fun, as... well, I’m running out of adjectives to describe how great the night was, but you all are so awesome and I’m so happy that this program and all of you are a part of my life! Oh... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH!!


The Chanukah Video all the way from Rishon!





Thursday, December 15, 2011

Super Sunday - Super Diller

Have you ever wondered how you could take one thing and apply it to another? Like adding new rules to a game? Or making something work for a group of people who really need it? Well, us Dillers used our creative minds this past Sunday, and did just that. During the course of our Diller year, we will be creating our very own Tikun Olam (community service) projects, and after speaking with Diller 4, we gained some insight as to what we could possibly do to benefit our community. But, we were going to need help getting started, and our workshop last Sunday proved to be extremely beneficial.
First, we started out with two dice. One die had various games, such as Jungle Speed, Red Light Green Light, Charades and so forth, while the other had things like “Add Candy”, “Add a Ball”, and “Add a Hula-hoop”. Both dice were rolled, and with the results, we’d come up with a way to combine the two things to make a better game. For example, we tried using a Hula-hoop to play charades, and candy during the game “red light, green light”. We were even allowed to change the rules of the game completely!
After this warm up, Leah changed our dice. In front of us were two completely different cubes. On one cube were things like “Children”, “Special Needs” and “The Environment”. On the other die, we now had things like “Giving Time”, “Creating Awareness”, and “Building Bridges. As the dice were thrown, ideas were shared about how to incorporate the two words that were rolled – “Awareness” with “Special Needs”, “Give Time” with “Children”, and “Donation Drive” with “Elderly”. And as more and more ideas were shared, we truly started to understand the meaning of these Tikun Olam projects. After leaving the workshop, we found ourselves excited to begin a project that would suit our own ideas and interests, and in addition, most importantly, make a difference.
We all then marched down the hallway showing off our new Diller t-shirts (#swag), on our way to what turned out to be a gathering of many teens in addition to us, all waiting to hear Yossi Katz, an educator from Alexander Muss High School in Israel. Yossi told us a funny and touching story about how a man is rewarded by G-d granting for his good deeds. The main character learns an important lesson about not being quick to judge others.
After being pumped up by Yossi Katz, it was time for us start the talk for Super Sunday, in hopes of raising money for MetroWest’s annual United Jewish Appeal (UJA) campaign by soliciting donations from members of the MetroWest Jewish community. Many of us had never volunteered at Super Sunday before and did not know exactly what to expect. We arrived at the room and were struck by the frenetic activity and loud buzz of people talking on a huge array of phones. I have to admit that I, and I think many of us, were a bit nervous at first. We didn’t want to flub our lines, say something embarrassing, or not know how to answer a question. After making our first few calls, we all relaxed and had fun together while we pursued our common goal. The money that we were trying to raise was in an effort to help the UJA assist people who are in need, such as those experiencing economic or personal struggles, those with special needs, and the elderly, both here and in Israel. Some of the people we called make pledges yearly, some donate inconsistently, and for some of the people we called, our goal was to convince them to make their very first donation. Whenever our phone calls resulted in pledges we would proudly wave our mini Israeli flags in the air in order to be credited with a raffle ticket. At the end of Super Sunday, some great prizes were raffled off to the volunteers, such as a watch, a signed New York Giants poster, and the grand prize of a new Dell laptop.
After hours of dialing and feeling the excitement of successfully recording some pledges, Super Sunday was coming to a close. To the delight of everybody, the raffle was about to take place. Participants dug through their pockets to collect all of the tickets they earned, hoping they would have the winning ticket and be able to claim one of the coveted prizes. As it turned out, Noga, the young emissary, drew a winning ticket that belonged to a Diller fellow: Congratulations to Rachel Scheckmen- she won a brand new watch!This happy result marked the close to another great afternoon of bonding with our Diller family! We came away from Super Sunday feeling proud and elated that we had participated in raising funds to help our Jewish community both locally, and globally.