Just Hold On, We’re Going Home

Welcome to the ISS Blog! Each night through August 8th, there will be a post here discussing our adventures as Diller 7. As you will see below, our travel plans have changed a bit, but the blog will still be updated regularly. Love, the blog committee (Arielle Dror, Max Needle, and Claire Singer)

I was sifting through piles of clothing on the floor in a sorry attempt at packing when my phone started buzzing erratically. Knowing it was the Diller group chat, I slowly reached for it, figuring it would be more speculation and discussion about what was going on in Israel. I started reading through the messages and my heart stopped when I realized what had happened. The trip had been postponed a week. I felt numb. This meant the situation was truly worse than I had chosen to believe. Someone sent an article that said Hamas was targeting Ben Gurion airport and I felt angry at Hamas and sick to my stomach. Everyone was freaking out on the chat and asking each other to send the email that had only been received by the parents. Screenshots surfaced and the terrible news was true.

We thought of our Israeli partners as questions swirled through the chat. Some offered to send strongly worded emails to Hamas explaining the inconvenience and others preferred the brevity of a sincere tweet. The chaos was taken to the American and Israeli group chat where one of our Israeli friends offered to go explain the situation to Hamas in person. The jokes temporarily alleviated our fears but I still had rocks in the pit of my stomach as I worried about our friends and our Jewish state. The chats eventually calmed down as some voices of reason broke through, urging us to be positive and happy that we would still be going and reminding us this postponement was because there was actual danger our friends were facing. We made a stay strong video that is attached to this blog post and vowed to spend the week together.

The two days between the “Postponement Announcement” and the meeting at Max B.’s house were confusing, to say the least. In the immediate hours following the announcement, the Facebook group that contains all 400 Dillers lit up with controversy. “We need to voice our anger at this decision,” some said. “Diller knows best. They’re only watching out for our safety,” said the others. Concerns were voiced amongst Diller 7. What are we going to do for the next week? (Answer: fun stuff!) Should we keep on planning for Community Week? (Answer: utter confusion) What exactly is going to happen on our trip now? (Answer: we will see when we get to Max’s house) Will it really be safe to go to Israel a week from July 16? (Answer: hopefully) These questions and discussions transcended the internet into the real world. When some of the Dillers went to see Beyonce on Friday night, instead of discussions about Bey’s fashion sense and Jay-Z’s raps, we discussed Israel- our friends, our trip, our fears. Eventually, we proposed a “No Israel Discussion” rule because we felt it was infringing on the experience. Yet, we could only keep mum on the subject for so long. Minutes later, we were back to Israel. Israel is all we can think about. We’ve waited for this trip for so long and now the trip might not be happening. Yet, we are all hoping that the trip will happen...it’s just experiencing a bit of an inconvenient delay!

An information session, graciously hosted by the Bruch Family, was held on Sunday night, July 13th, in order to give the Diller fellows and parents an opportunity to learn more about the revised ISS schedule. At this meeting, Leah, Amanda, and Moshe explained all of the changes that have or will be applied to the ISS itinerary. For starters, the trip will be postponed from its original departure date of July 16th to the new departure date, July 24th. Our first week in Israel will now be our Community Week and it will now take place in Arad instead of Rishon Lezion. We hope to be able to keep our plans for Community Week and transfer them to their equivalent in Arad. Our next week will be Congress, but it will be shortened by one day to accommodate our shortened time in Israel. After Congress, we will be touring and sightseeing in northern Israel. We will depart on our original departure date and arrive back home at our original arrival time.

There was a concern voiced at the meeting about the safety of the Diller fellows during any sirens that might occur while we are in Israel. As the group moves to new places, we will be instructed on where to find the nearest shelter and the group will practice several fake “siren scenarios” when we arrive in Israel. In addition, every building in Israel has a safe-room to go to in case of a siren.

        Still, the trip is not concrete because the situation in Israel is still hectic. Therefore, there will be a re-assessment date on Thursday, July 17th. Once again, Diller International will evaluate whether or not it is safe for us to go to Israel.

        Since the trip has been postponed for a week, we will be here in America for another week with nothing to do. In order to still have the experience of the trip without being in Israel, we will still be meeting for activities on the week of July 16th, such as volunteering and fun, recreational events.

After a group meeting of the parents and the fellows, the fellows were sent downstairs to make the gift bags that we plan to give to pre-school students at the Matnas (Ethiopian Community Center) in Rishon. When we first went into the basement, chaos ensued. Most of us seemed more interested in socializing and making jokes than assembling the bags. After many minutes of yelling to try and get the group under control, we began our assembly line of bags, while munching on Twizzlers and the Diller Classic Snack: Fruit-By-The-Foot.

When we were done, we went back upstairs and ate more food, socialized, and played with Max’s adorable dog, Lola. While all the kids went about our normal banter, our parents also mingled. It was awesome to seem them getting along as well as we do. Eventually, the clock struck 10:30, and we all decided to depart home, knowing that we would be together in just a few days.

We are all disappointed by this change but we realize it is for our own safety and we look forward to spending time together this week in America. We are so grateful to our parents for putting up with us one week longer and we greatly appreciate everything Moshe, Leah, and Amanda have done in this last minute and tense situation. Stay tuned to this blog to read about all of our adventures both here in America and across the ocean in Israel, but for now....  

PS. Shoutout to JCs, Nitay and Juliet. We miss you guys so, so, so much and we cannot wait to see ya soon!!