This first complete day of Congress all together began with a sense of excitement and the taste of mediocre French toast. After an early breakfast of 8 am, we moved to our first workshop of the day which dealt with the memory leg of the table. We discussed a few types of memory pertaining to us as Jews, including personal memory, and our collective memory/presence at Mt. Sinai. We then split into North Americans and Israelis to think of events that marked our own countries national memory. We discovered that Israel's national memory was a lot more amorphous and intertwined with Jewish history, reminding us that Israel is before all, the Jewish homeland. This helped us transition to our next leg of the table, the one I personally feel the most connected to, Israel. As someone who sometimes struggles with their identity as a Jew, an activity in which I got to explore the many facets of israel was especially meaningful. Having the discussion of what zionism truly is with jews both from the diaspora and from Israel was probably a once in a lifetime experience.The knowledge that half of the people in the room would be receiving their initial draft orders within weeks made me feel a personal sense of responsibility to the state of Israel. This activity only continued to cement my dream of making Aliya, of coming home to where I belong. After a delicious lunch, we went on to our final workshop of the day, choosing a sixth leg of the table, or your own way of connecting to Judaism. It was interesting to see how different each leg was despite the fact we were all Jewish. Most people had others in common with them, but as my mother says "she marches to her own beat" so I ended up defending my leg 'community' by myself. Having a Jewish community and network is something I highly cherish in my life, and despite being alone, I was proud to speak about my feelings to the rest of the group. The diversity in Jewish beliefs witnessed in the tribes was only amplified by the arrival of the shabbat. We had SIX options of prayer that evening, where I had only been aware of three at most. I attended the meditation service, which was led by a delightfully pleasant girl named Hannah. Interestingly enough, I felt a Jewish experience from just breathing deeply, but I guess being here does that to you. Sorry to go out of order, but to balance the diversity, and to be my favorite moment of the day, we had what was called the White Parade. Every 2013 Diller in the world, dressed in white, walking together towards an open field. It is the balance of diversity and unity that makes Diller, and the jewish people, so extraordinary.
Rebecca Cooper
PS Shout out to my family and friends in America, you are the only reason I wouldnt run away and stay here.
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