Jerusalem Calling

Greetings from the Holy Land and the Diller Teen Fellows. Stacey Palevsky here, roving reporter for J. (www.jweekly.com) who joined the fellows Aug. 6. I’ve been with them day and night for about five days now, and though I lack the rechargable batteries they all seem to have brought with them — hence the lack of blogging, my sincere apologies — I’m having a fantastic time. I first visited Israel exactly 10 years ago, on a 5-week teen tour with the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. I arrived here with that as my frame of reference, by which I mean lots of sight-seeing and touristy stops, laminated with an abundance of laughter. Diller is definitely all that, but it’s also much more, making it quite unlike any other program I’ve heard or read about. The bicultural and educational elements of the program infuse every activity with learning and community-building. I don’t have my 1998 journal with me as a reference, but I’m pretty sure anything I internalized or analyzed was done so in an informal bus conversation, with a bunch of other Americans. Diller, in contrast, hinges on daily (sometimes more than that) Israel-American interaction and guided group reflection, led by teens, not adults. For anyone who’s not familiar with Diller, here’s a synopsis: Seventeen Bay Area teens and 17 Israeli teens from the Upper Galilee began meeting in January. (This year, similar partnerships happened in Baltimore/Ashkelon, Cleveland/Beit She’an, northern Jersey/Rishon L’tzion and Los Angeles/Tel Aviv.) During twice-monhtly workshops and periodic retreats, they talk about leadership, Judaism, tikkun olam and Israel. They correspond on Facebook.The Upper Galilee kids come to San Francisco in April, stay in their American counterparts’ homes and visit their schools; the Bay Area teens come to Israel for 3 weeks in July/August. The goal is to cultivate a new crop of leaders who love Israel — not just the land, but the people, too. Judging from the way American and Israeli teens hug, laugh, hold hands, joke and capture every moment with digital and cell phone cameras, I’d say it’s working. As a young girl from Los Angeles told me, “I’ve been to Israel before. But this time, I’m connecting to people, not just rocks and stones.” Before I arrived, the kids spent a Shabbat in the homes of the Upper Galilee participants, trekked through the Negev, hiked Anne Gedde and floated in the Dead Sea. I caught up with them when they arrived in Jerusalem, at which point they met up with the Diller teens from other cities for a week of learning and touring. Each group boasts their own collective attitude, and I have to admit, there’s something special between the San Francisco-Etzba Hagalil teens. They’re no less funny and light-hearted than the other groups, but they approach the activities, tours and reflections with a maturity I’ve never seen among a group of 34 teenagers. The trip’s staff — Erica and Jeremy from the Bay, Liat from Kiryat Shmona — are fantastic, and certainly set the tone. They command the kids’ respect, but they also always step back and let the teens take the wheel, allowing the Leaders of the Day to create programs, lead group discussions and get the attention of the group. They expect a lot, and the Dillers aspire to those high standards. Every experience shephards in reflection, or “debriefing,” as its referred to by the teens. This usually happens every night in two rooms, one for the Israelis (so they can speak b’ivrit) and one for the Americans. They are open, honest and respectfully challenge each other’s ideas. What frusrated you? What made you proud? What made you smile? What gave you hope? They are protective of their debriefs; several times they voted about my presence. Lucky for me, no one objected. Anyway, you probably want to know what they’ve been up to. At times the SF-Galilee kids have been only with each other, and at times they’ve attended things with the other 150 teens. They seem happy to be in the big group, but reluctant to make friends beyond their circle ... One participant, Shoshana from Marin, explained why this is. She said that while she likes the other teens, she loves the Bay Area and Upper Galilee friends she’s made, so much so that she’d rather spend the remainder of her time in Israel building upon already strong friendships, rather than creating new ones. On their itinerary: The Old City and the Kotel. Ben Yehudah Street. An afternoon of workshops about Israeli and Middle East politics, and another set of workshops about current issues in Israeli society (the environment, immigration, coexistance, disengagement, the IDF). A day of arts workshops ranging from theater to dance to painting to photography. I must admit that for the first time, I felt unmoved by my visit to the Kotel. But many of the teens felt the opposite. The leaders of the day (chanichim toranim) noticed some of their peers moved to tears, and so decided to have a debrief session right there, in a shady corner of the Old City. They sat in two circles, collectively analyzing why the Kotel is or is not spiritual, imprompu conversations that were relaxed yet impassioned, in Hebrew and English. Since most of the SF-Galilee kids chose to attend a workshop on disengagement, I did as well. An amazing experience. We first watched a movie, “Unsettled,” about the pullout from Gaza. Add this to your Netflix queue immediately. There was a lot of crying — I handed out all the tissues I didn’t need for myself. After, we met with a Gaza evacuee, an intelligent, interesting and angry woman. I think we were all happy to hear her opinion, but several of the Israeli teens felt frustrated by her tone (somewhat patronizing), and spoke up. Lots of brash Hebrew was exchanged, and one teen left the room. Later, Oren Massey, Diller’s national education director, seemed thrilled about this. “We want them to have their assumptions and opinions challenged,” he said. He was so proud they raised their hands and their voices to confront the speaker. Today was dedicated to a series of arts workshops. I went with those to kibbutz Nativ Halamed Hey, where an eco-arts village made their home one year ago. They created mosaics, canvas paintings, a bench out of mud bricks, and a modern dance routine. The Bay Area kids seemed especially comfortable in the eco-arts village, with its composting toilet and reusable everything. They also seemed proud of their creations. Tonight, they’re at a concert for a band called, in English, Strong Black Coffee, while I sit typing in my hotel room, looking at the twinkling lights of Jerusalem, drained but oh-so-lucky to spend a week in the life of these teenagers. Tomorrow, the Dillers hold their first Youth Congress, during which they’ll collectively determine a new agenda for the North American and Israeli Jewish communities. Seriously. I’ve got 10 years on these teens and sometimes I feel as though I’m the one who has some growing up to do.