Rafa! Rafa! - March 9, 2014

During the first half of our day we heard music from me, Daniel Gerstein who played piano for the group and a beautiful heartwarming speech from Ariel Dror. Listening to people’s stories help paint a perfect personal picture of who they are. Avodat ha lev, the sharing portion of out diller meetings, really is a safe time to delve into the inner workings of each person. For me diller is like a giant chapter book every week two more people share, two more chapters are written. Getting to talk to the people in my cohort one on one is great but seeing them actively listen and take in information and put it in a special place in their hearts is an amazing thing. Getting to talk about my music and play it for special group was amazing. I really felt like my music and words did not fall on deaf ears, instead it was internalized and appreciated.

After lunch, we finished up work in our committees. When we all gathered and shared our plans for the NAS, which are very exciting. Next, we segued into a hilarious activity on cultural differences. The group was split into Alpha culture and Beta culture. We then had to come up with a completely new culture- from our language, to our currency! Hilarity ensued and this will certainly be an activity us Dillers will not forget. This helped us understand a little more about when the Israelis would be joining us and the challenges and advantages of sharing in new cultures. Finally, we had a Ma'agal where we reflected on our Diller experience thus far. When we were told that we are about halfway through with our program, we all were very sad, but also really happy because it is apparent that we have grown so much since we all met in September. When this was finally over, we joined our parents for NAS orientation, which was cool because we got to see what our Israeli buddies will be doing when they come. By our next workshop, we will have found out who we are hosting and every single Diller is anxiously awaiting this news!" I'm sorry that it is nearly midnight!

- Arielle Dror & Daniel Gerstein

And...We're Back! - February 23, 2014

Finally the day came, where the Dillers were reunited with their amazing coordinator Leah!! The workshop started off with an Avodat Ha’lev presentation by Greg Artman, about his Maccabi games experience. Then we moved onto presenting the Israeli cohort, each teen was assigned an Israeli to introduce to the group, and this activity successfully allowed us to get a small grasp of the Israeli group as a whole. During the duration of the weeks prior to the Workshop the Israelis were given our facebooks, this resulted in an incredible amount of facebook chats and posts. The group then discussed the initial engagements with the Israelis, and we were given advice on how to handle them (some helpful Hebrew slang was taught). We then learned some very useful time management skills; these skills will definitely help us out during NAS. After this Leah told us mysteriously to just play for 7 minutes, while she just watched from aside. After these 7 minutes of playing we learned that this lead into something called The Journey of Milk and Cookies. Which is all about how companies/groups create their mission statements and how they carry them out. We were taught this as directly after we were separated into our new NAS committees, and were required to apply the journey of milk and cookies to our groups. Overall definitely a very fun day, and can’t wait until next time!

Greg Artman

The Great Egg Drop: February 9, 2014

The meeting started off with Avodat HaLev from Ross and Alexa.  Alexa shared a scrapbook from her experience with the Ethiopian preschoolers in Rishon Lezion and Ross shared a story that touched our hearts and taught us to think peace. 

After Avodat Halev, our Junior Counselors split us into groups with a seemingly easy task. We were given fifty plastic straws, some tape, and an egg and were told to construct a contraption to keep the egg safe from being dropped from about five feet in the air. Two of the groups managed to keep their egg safe. Immediately after, our next team building exercise involved a pole that had string along the length of it, and a small maze. Our task was for each string to be held onto by someone who could not speak, while the others directed the movements of the pole through the maze. We completed this task quickly and ef

ficiently; our communication skills have come a long way since our first workshop.

Anais planned a great program that taught us about the Ethiopians in Israel.  We listened to a song about the long, hard journey the Ethiopians faced before they finally made it to Israel.  Queen Sheba of Ethiopia gave birth to King Solomon’s children.  This is the reason there are Jews in Ethiopia.  These Ethiopian Jews thought they were the only Jews in the world.  They had to prove that they were Jewish by memorizing all of the names of their ancestors.  After learning all of this historic information, Anais told us to act as if we were Ethiopians in Israel and handed us two pieces of paper with different amenities.  We had to try and trade our amenities with each other to get the ones we felt were most important for our survival.  We learned that many of these basic pleasures were difficult for the Ethiopians to maintain.  Then, Alexa stood up and shared her experiences with the Ethiopians in Israel and her knowledge of the struggles that they faced.  She explained that her mitzvah project was to raise money for Ethiopian children to attend preschool so that they could have the same level of education as the rest of the Israelis in their class.  Once the Ethiopian families moved to Israel, the fathers, who were dominantly the leaders of the household, lost their superior role to their children who learned how to speak Hebrew, thus created conflicts with in the household. Alexa explained that the Ramat Eliyahu Community Center in Rishon Lezion has programs for Ethiopian Jews so that they stay off the streets and can enjoy themselves. Next, we moved on to a discussion about what elements a leader makes. With Juliet being our scribe, we each named off different elements that we thought were important for a leader. Each element was put either on the right or left side of the sheet of paper; we learned later in the discussion that these sides represented internal and external qualities of a leader, and brought a very important question to each of us: Can a single type of quality, be it external or internal, make a leader?  Congratulations to the JC’s, Nitay and Juliet, and Anais for running a successful program.  However, It wasn’t the same without Leah. She was missed!  We can’t wait for our next meeting.

A Sleep Over...With Little Sleep: Diller 7 Overnight at the JCC - January 25-26, 2014

On Saturday evening, all of the Dillers reunited at the West Orange JCC. Once everyone arrived, the chatter died down and we began our fun filled evening! The first thing we did was a quiz game. We were split into three teams and for each round, a representative went up to the front. Before they answered the question, which was a fun fact about each Diller, they had to complete a wacky task, like drinking a disgusting concoction of water, cheese balls, jelly beans, and veggie straws. In the end, we learned some amazing facts about each other. For example, Max B. has tried fish eyes and Steve saved someone’s life at the beach! Afterwards, we began another trust activity. Using some rope and pure strength, we created a circular tightrope. Volunteers had to make their way around the suspended rope, which was a lot harder than it looked. Afterwards, we began the most challenging activity of the night. Each Diller was blindfolded and a rope was strewn about the room. Our task was to find the rope and make a given shape out of it. Our first attempt was not successful because we all struggled to properly communicate. After some handy-dandy feedback from our observers, we began our second attempt. Once again, we were not successful. However, on our third and final attempt, we triumphed and completed the task!

Our next activity was something called Didactic Encounters. All of the Dillers were split into pairs and given discussion question. Our task was to get to know our partner on a deeper level. It was a lot of fun and at the end, each pair had formed a stronger bond. When this was over, we all gathered to munch on some food!  As everyone gathered around the donuts, someone saw a peculiar color…blue. A few moments we realized that there was mold! Luckily, no one got sick and we all had a great laugh about it. Finally, we started our final formal program of the evening- our ma’agal lilah. Each of us was given the opportunity to anonymously complement each other. Finally, we were allowed to hang out, which was tons of fun. At 1:00 AM, we headed off to bed. Although Leah had told us that we would wake up at 9:00 AM, we were in for an unexpected surprise…

After an amazing and laughter filled night of growing together as a group, we awoke in the morning with a startle. At 6:58, a blaring fire alarm rang through the building. After standing outside (some of us without shoes), we were allowed back in the building. We made a group decision to stay awake and continue on with our workshop. Although we had a beautiful breakfast planned, we declined the challenge of cooking it in favor of bagels and coffee.

 After finishing up our meal, we had a beautiful, cohesive presentation compiled by our Israel committee. Greg, Jacob, Seth, and Ethan played fun trivia games with us about Israel, and spoke about the death of Ariel Sharon.

 We then transitioned into a light task of tasting different candies and describing them. Marshmallows, Chocolate, Tootsie Pops, and Jaw Breakers were depicted. We related these candies to four types of leadership: warrior, healer, teacher, and visionary. These were connected to the leadership compass represented by north, south, west, and east, respectively. We took time as individuals to fill out a survey to place ourselves on the now physical leadership compass on the floor. While looking over everyone’s positions, we appreciated the diverse work styles represented in our group. It was a great introspective exercise for both individuals and the group as a whole.

Next, Diller 7 was given the task of moving a small ball without touching it to a cylinder on the floor on the opposite side of the room. We then used string attached to a metal ring under the ball to navigate it successfully to its desired location. Together as a team, we cohesively came together to complete a small challenge to prepare us for the possible larger ones in the future.

To wrap up our exciting overnight, we met in our committees. Tikun Olam, Social, Birthdays, and the Israel committee each discussed ideas, plans, and improvements. Overall, this was a very successful overnight and Diller 7 should be proud . We look forward to our future endeavors.

-Sarah and Arielle

Becoming a Team: January 12, 2014

On Sunday, 1/12, Diller 7 had their 4th workshop (woah- Workshop 4 already?!). The workshop was

kicked off by having a brief committee meetings (The committees are: Social, Tikun Olam, Israel, and Birthday), followed by stepping into the hallway for a team building activity. The goal of this activity was to pass one of our Dillers- first Jacob, and then Arielle- down the hallway. The catch? The group was lying down on their backs and could only use their hands to move Jacob, then Arielle, down the hall. After a little chaos, we finally got them down the hallway in under 2 minutes, at least most of the time. g to eat for lunch, however, things in Diller are never quite as simple as they first sound (in a good way). In each group, a few member were given “Disabilities” such as not being able to talk, not being able to use both hands, and yes, even being blindfolded yet again (I don’t think even I could have anticipated how much time I truly would spend blindfolded in Diller). Also, no need to worry, none of the blindfolded Dillers were given tasks that involved fire or knives. Lunch proved to be...interesting… but in the end we all had a great time, and did end up with edible (mostly) food. After lunch, we learned about what our names meant and how much thought goes into a name through an interesting learning packet followed by a brief activity. We finally finished off our workshop with Avodat Halev by both of us (Micaela and Ethan), where we both presented special items from our childhood. Anyway, we are so excited to have our overnight on Saturday 1/27- time is always flying in Diller!

After talking about the activity, we went back into the room for more team building. This time, a wooden block set was distributed to our now blindfolded cohort, so as each member got 3 wooden blocks of varying shape and color. Then, having been told the total amount of shapes and colors, we had to figure out which two blocks were missing. At first, it was complete mayhem: people were shouting over each other, everyone was getting out of their seats, and nothing productive was getting done. After a brief intermission where everyone returned to their seats, we had a strategic discussion on what went wrong. Then, we tried the exercise again, but instead of having everyone trying to do their own thing, we devised a procedure with only one person speaking at once, and we were very quickly able to finish it (even though we were given a set of batman blocks which felt deceptively like mustaches). We proceeded with another discussion about our new group triumph, in which everyone received a little constructive criticism that should be able to help us in the future. 

Then, going with the theme of this workshop (and maybe Diller as a whole), the next activity was, believe it or not, another group building activity, however this one was a little different. This time, we truly had something on the line, as we were preparing our lunch with a twist. We were broken into groups each designated to make a traditional Israeli food that we were going to eat for lunch, however, things in Diller are never quite as simple as they first sound (in a good way). In each group, a few member were given “Disabilities” such as not being able to talk, not being able to use both hands, and yes, even being blindfolded yet again (I don’t think even I could have anticipated how much time I truly would spend blindfolded in Diller). Also, no need to worry, none of the blindfolded Dillers were given tasks that involved fire or knives. Lunch proved to be...interesting… but in the end we all had a great time, and did end up with edible (mostly) food. After lunch, we learned about what our names meant and how much thought goes into a name through an interesting learning packet followed by a brief activity. We finally finished off our workshop with Avodat Halev by both of us (Micaela and Ethan), where we both presented special items from our childhood. Anyway, we are so excited to have our overnight on Saturday 1/27- time is always flying in Diller!

            - Micaela and Ethan