Follow the Diller leaders

The various Federation teen programs have picked up a lot of press this summer. The most recent would be the j. COVER STORY and EDITORIAL about the Diller Teen Fellows' journey to Israel:

• Follow the leaders: Diller teens build confidence, friendship in Israel This was no ordinary Israel trip. For three weeks this summer, 17 Bay Area teens hit the Holy Land -- but sightseeing wasn't their No. 1 priority. For these teens, going to Israel was about meeting their Israeli counterparts in the Diller Teen Fellows program in Kiryat Shmona, and learning together about leadership. Stacey Palevsky accompanied the teens for one week of their amazing journey and reports back on how these teens are helping shape the future of Judaism.  More...
• Building friendships builds ties to Israel Every year tens of thousands of Jewish teenagers fly into Ben Gurion International Airport to visit and photograph Israel’s historic sites.  Yet the Holy Land is more than its land. And unless these visitors stay a while, many never talk to an Israeli citizen other than the one herding them onto their tour bus or selling Jerusalem bagels from a pushcart in the Old City. J. reporter Stacey Palevsky recently spent a week on an Israel trip with the Diller Teen Fellows, a program that introduces American teenagers more to Israeli life than to the country’s holy sites.  But the cultural exchange and friendship begin long before the Americans land in Israel, making this mifgash, or encounter, one of a kind.  More...